Roadmap

On Monday the Government publishes its hugely anticipated roadmap. Schools will open on the 8^th March, the outdoor socialising and sport that everybody has been doing regardless becomes legal again from the 29^th March, shops can open and pubs can serve outdoors from 12^th April, and pubs can open indoors from 17^th May. Then there is to be an absolute free for all on 21^st June when all remaining restrictions will be lifted. That last bit seems wildly optimistic to me, so I thoroughly expect that day to slip, maybe by a year or so.

There is no mention of students returning to University and this is probably because around here they seem to have been trying to sneak them all back quietly without anyone really noticing since early January.

On the self checkouts at Sainsburys I am randomly selected for a 14 item rescan and because one of those items I have missed scanning, I have to take the whole £100 shop to a normal checkout put the whole lot on the belt and act nice a normal person. All seemed very draconian to me and so much for self scan being quicker.

But the highlight of Monday is when the Lad vomits up a pair of tights which I assume he devoured at my Mum’s when I wasn’t looking.

By Wednesday, Daughter has her second bus lane violation of the week, her third overall. She says none of them were when she was driving or in this latest case even in the car. I think she needs to have a word with her partner.

A nice surprise arrives on Friday, when I receive a parcel from work with two cans of beer, pork scratchings and crisps as a thank you. Very nice. Then I find out they’ve taken six and half day’s holiday off me that I’d previous been told I could keep. They do pay me for it but I’d rather have had the holiday.

On Saturday L and I go running with Daughter on Forest Rec. L is basically starting the couch to 5k that I inadvertently started a few weeks ago. We are, in theory, breaking the one-to-one meeting rule as there are three of us but Forest Rec is easily the best place to do this as the park is full of illegal football matches and groupings, not to mention that every second person who is smoking seems to be smoking something illegal. I manage a total of 3.5k.

Back at my Mum’s on Sunday, The Lad is clearly unrepentant about my Mum’s tights and tries to eat her socks. When I stop him he pees up the wall instead. For some reason they think it’s sweet and don’t ban him.

When I get home, I run-walk 4.3k across the park, my second run in two days. Only 37.9k to go for my marathon.

(Sunday 28^th February)

The Trial of The Chicago Seven

This year it is going to be even more difficult to watch the award nominees than usual even though the Oscars have been delayed until the end of April and you would have thought more of the films would be available on streaming.

So far I have only managed to track down one nominee, Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of The Chicago Seven, which was offered free on YouTube by Netflix for a limited period so that they were eligible to be nominated.

This courtroom drama covers the seven who were arrested for allegedly organising violence at the anti-Vietnam War protests at 1968 Democratic National Convention where Vietnam apologist Hubert Humphrey was set to be named the Democrats' candidate for President. These were disparate group of characters, who mostly didn’t know each other, who were charged with conspiracy and incitement to riot.

It was widely accepted at the time that the Chicago police had initiated the violence, a view backed up by attorney general, Ramsay Clark. However when Clark was replaced by John Mitchell, Mitchell set out to prove otherwise.

 

All the accused claimed to be peaceful protesters. These included students Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne) and Rennie Davis (Alex Sharp) along with David Dellinger (John Carroll Lynch), who was a member of a pacifist society.

On the other hand, Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen) and Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong) were well up for a bit of violence although still protested their innocence. While the two others occused, Lee Weiner (Noah Robbins) and John Froines (Danny Flaherty), seemed to have absolutely no idea why they were there. 

There was also an eighth man on trial, Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) of the notorious Black Panther party. Seale was denied the right to proper representation and his case was eventually declared a mistrial but not before he was, among other things, shackled and gagged, at the behest of the judge. 

In court, lawyer William Kunstler (Mark Rylance) fought for the men, struggling both in court and behind the scenes to hold them together as a united front in a trial that lasted five and a half months.

 

The film, of such a politically motivated trial, feels timely with both America and the UK currently struggling with culture wars and the question of just what actually constitutes freedom of speech these days.

Five of the men were eventually found guilty of inciting a riot and all seven, plus their lawyer and Seale, were sentenced to prison on multiple counts of contempt of court. All charges were reversed on appeal.

It’s an interesting and informative film but not one I’d like to see trouble the Oscars too much.

(Saturday 20^th February)

New Artwork

In a bid to keep me ‘relevant’ work send me details of online courses to update my skills.

Our Banksy has disappeared, in fact the whole wall it was painted on has disappeared. The building that it was on the side of has sold the whole thing to the highest bigger. Clearly it couldn’t have stayed where it was because it was under constant threat of vandalism but it would have been nice if it had stayed in Nottingham and perhaps have ended up in Nottingham Contemporary or somewhere.

Instead we do have some other new artwork. The underpass at the roundabout near us has a new mural praising and thanking the NHS, our QMC hospital is nearby. I run past it just as they are painting it but at the time I didn’t know what they were doing and was unsure as to whether to reports the vandals or not.

That run, came after a traumatic ball session with the dogs on the park where I twisted my ankle but then thought I’d recovered enough to run a wheezing and hobbling 4k while stopping frequently to stretch my bad knee. Just another 38.2k to go to make it back up to marathon distance.

(Friday 19^th February)

Sharing The Love

It snows overnight just as Daughter is off to do stinger training (stopping speeding vehicles by throwing spikes at them) in the frozen north of Worksop. That could get interesting. The constabulary seem to agree and cancel it.

I have an online meeting with my bosses at work where they could have handed me my P45 and inched me towards an early retirement. However they decide to keep me on and retrain me, that is if you can teach an exceedingly old dog new tricks.

It’s long time since I’ve had L email me from work, as in actual work and not from upstairs, but it happens on Friday as she makes a rare journey into the office.

I go for another run, cranking up the distance from 2km to an awesome 2.65km. Just another 39.55km to go to make it back up to marathon distance.

The weekend had pretty much set into a pattern. Friday Night is Curry Night from the Savera. Saturday is watching the football at my Dad’s, where L drops me off on the way to see her folks and then picks me up on the way back. While, of late, Sunday night has become Chinese Take Away night. Although we have now both decided that the meals aren't actually much good. So for Valentine's Night we decide to eat 'in'. I even let L cook.

Before that we went for a romantic coffee on the park with the dogs. MD wasn’t really sharing the Valentine’s day love though and randomly attacked another dog, totally forgetting his age. He's not done that in years. The Lad was so stunned he forgot to get involved. 

(Sunday 14^th February)

Parrots And Mammoths

When driving to the supermarket on Monday, I pulled up at Bardills roundabout and a man crossed the road in front of me with a real live parrot on his shoulder. It’s not often you see that. 

One month in Brexit appears to be going swimmingly well with exports to Europe dropping by two thirds across the board but at least we have our vaccines. Happy days.

Derby’s game at Rotherham, already postponed once due to Covid, is cancelled again on Tuesday due to a waterlogged pitch. It is quickly rearranged for Wednesday which you can do these days with no fans to worry about and no policing to book. Derby probably wish it hadn’t been as they lose 3-0.

Then on Saturday it happens again as the game at Barnsley is rained off but this one cannot be quickly rescheduled.

Captain Sir Tom Moore dies and they are already talking of putting a statue up to him. I just hope they do the background checks first. I'd hate to see the next generation lobbing the guy in the river. Perhaps they should just name a hospital after him instead.

Daughter, now only about six weeks from starting the Police, sends us a photo of her modelling her stab vest. Lets hope she doesn't need it.

On Saturday we watch the Children’s Act on L’s insistence as she is Ian McEwan’s biggest fan. She says that’s me but it’s her really.

On Sunday I go out for a run and manage a mammoth 2k.

(Sunday 7^th February)