March Eve!!!

Not only was today the last day of February, but it felt to me suspiciously like the first real Springlike day of the year... I don't want to call it too early, but I think I may have psychologically turned my back on Winter.
Jumping in the sea yesterday helped. It's hard not to feel less Wintry when you've plunged, even if you've done it wearing a 5mm thick neoprene wetsuit, head protection, gloves and some boots designed to keep your feet warm. It was a strange experience, a bit like taking a cold bath with a dressing gown on, but I felt better for doing it and I'm pretty sure I'll make it a regular thing. I'm glad we had other people with us (some of Philippa's sporty mates are regular surfers and paddleboarders) because it took some getting used to. You're incredibly buoyant, but your movements are quite restricted, so when a bit of a wave takes you or you get caught up in a current it's unnerving because you're not sure what to do to correct yourself. But there we are - I survived and I felt 0.03% fitter for the exercise. Then I rewarded myself by eating a ridiculous amount of biscuits and malt loaf last night while watching a movie, so I probably gained nothing except mental wellness and a couple of pounds in weight. 

 

On another note - after today I am only six scribblings away from reaching THREE THOUSAND POSTS!!! 

Assuming we don't get nuked, I'll see you tomorrow for No.2995.

RC 28-2-22

I'm changing the subject

I'd just like to say - Putin may well be crazy, but he's not as crazy as Trump, and we survived having him in power while unhinged.
NOW I'll change the subject.

 

Off for a sea dip tomorrow. First try-out for the Winter wetsuit and I'm really looking forward to it, although a little nervous.

 

It's been a beautiful, bright afternoon here in Suffolk, but every so often a cool breeze would rip through the garden just to remind us all that it's still February.

RC 26-2-22

Precipice Psyche

I wonder how long it will be before everyone - and I do mean everyone - relaxes enough to go back to their pre-pandemic, carefree attitudes and outlooks.
Maybe they never existed in the first place. Maybe everyone was rushing around in a state of constant fear without me realising it, but it seems to have reached epidemic proportions now. (Sorry to use the word 'epidemic' but its better than saying 'unprecedented'!)
I remember hearing from someone at the end of 2020, who was a mental health specialist, who said that, although the lockdowns were horrendous for people, the real psychological challenge for most would be the aftermath. When you're in the middle of something, you get on with the job of dealing with it. When it's over, it really hits you. So this guy was expecting mental health and wellbeing to get much, much worse as we went through 2021.
I wonder if we're seeing that a bit now. I'm not saying the situation in Ukraine isn't worrying for everyone everywhere in Europe and even beyond, but the way some of the British public are reacting is almost like we're on the brink of invasion ourselves. I'm not sure the behaviour isn't more a conditioned response based on what we've been through in the last two years, rather than in reaction to Russia's actions. Yes, these are scary times, but no scarier than what we were facing back in March 2020, and we coped with that, and its behind us. But we're all so used to being constantly frightened by the world immediately around us that we're now attaching that residual fear to whatever situation gets thrown at us. The pesky Covid is nowhere near as dangerous as before - we can hug elderly relatives without fear of killing them, we can pick up items of shopping without wearing three layers of protective gloving, and thanks to the vaccines we can even get a positive diagnosis now without thinking we could end up in hospital. But the good old fight-or-flight adrenaline-loving worrywort part of our brains is still in that 'Life Is Threatened - Act Accordingly' mindset and is overreacting to everything. That's why we had the Fuelishness back in September. That's why Christmas shopping was being ordered in Autumn. And that's why people are stocking up on tinned fruit again now.  A horrible foreign war being played out on the News has everyone panicking and getting them to try and act now JUST IN CASE something bad happens here, when they don't even know what words should follow the phrase 'Just in case....'

I refer you again to my posting yesterday - either it won't affect us, or it'll affect us in such a major way that it won't matter how much Nutella and dried pasta you have stashed away in your garage because you won't be around to eat it. 

 

I should point out at this point that I am not a qualified psychologist (in case these last two blogs haven't made it painfully obvious).

RC 25-2-22

Ignorance is Bliss

I'm going to ignore the obvious news story of the day and concentrate on happier things!

 

I tried ignoring the news completely, if I'm honest, but there are always work colleagues who insist on keeping right up-to-date and insist on sharing the latest information with you. So, consequently, the situation in Eastern Europe was a topic of discussion after lunch today. I was asked my thoughts and replied with a nonchalant " The British media have only been covering it for the past two weeks because Covid numbers are falling and they need something new to scare us with. It's all brinkmanship and dick-waving and it will all blow over soon." At which point I was told "Actually, Russia have invaded!". So that shows you what I know!
I'm still not sure my life is enhanced by knowing about it all though. I can't do anything about it, and hopefully none of it will affect me directly in the near future. I could sit around and worry about oil prices and banking systems and a major European war that I might be called up to fight in. Or I could just accept that Mankind's default setting is Warmongering and this is always happening somewhere and will continue to do so ad infinitum. I don't think we're any closer to a nuclear conflict than we have been at any other point in the last fifty years or so. Around the time that I was born, we still had planes in the air at all times over Britain ready to shoot down incoming ballistic missiles, and other planes carrying atomic bombs that could be readily taken over to whichever country had chosen to attack us. Should I feel in more danger now than I did then?

Either the whole thing will fizzle out, in which case life will go on as normal (in which case, we'll be unaffected), or it'll be a long, drawn-out conflict claiming tens of thousands of lives (in which case it will be just like Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, etc, etc, but will still not affect me directly), or it'll all go tits-up spectacularly and Russia will chuck a nuclear weapon at London (in which case it'll all be over before I really have time to worry about it).
For someone who said 'I'm going to ignore the obvious...' in the first sentence of this blog posting, I haven't half gone on about it!

 

But, really, we've just been through the horrors of a two-year pandemic with all its ups-and-downs and variants and deaths. We've been through a global depression this century that could have crippled the World, we've dealt with terrorism, disasters, plane crashes and genocides. We've lived through a Cold War, IRA bombings and countless unjust invasions in countless global locations. Some in this country can even remember the 6-year nightmare of World War Two. 

We made it through all that, we can make it through whatever happens in and around Ukraine over the next few weeks, I'm sure.

RC 24-2-22

Management - Rory style

I spent two hours this afternoon playing darts with two maintenance guys in the lounge bar at one of our coastal sites in Suffolk.

You may call that lazy and unprofessional, I would call it a vital exercise in team-building and a unique opportunity to experience our facilities from the point of view of one of our customers.

RC 23-2-22

Load of Waffle

I've been really tired today. Don't know why, and don't know why I felt the need to share that with you. Just being honest and transparent in these days of honesty and transparency. I think it's probably an after-effect of getting up at 1.30am on Sunday to watch the women's curling gold medal match in the Olympics. Sometimes I think it's best to get all your sleep in one go, regardless of what time you go to bed, but I threw that out at the weekend and got my nights sleep in two halves. 11pm - 1.30 am, then 4.30 - 10am. I'm not complaining, and I'm glad I did it, but I think that may be why I'm struggling today.

On a not-unrelated theme, I still haven't watched the Super Bowl yet. My plan to be professional and NOT stay up til the early hours watching it live sounded very mature in principal, but I couldn't resist looking at the result as soon as I woke up, and then I couldn't find a four-hour window on the Monday evening to watch it, and now I'm not sure there's any point. The NFL is great, but watching an entire game (with an extended half-time break to fit in the half-time show) when you already know who scores when is less of an attractive proposition than I expected it to be.

So, from next year, I'm going to make it an annual habit to book the Monday off and watch the bloody thing live, as I'd done for so many years before this one.

Live and Learn, I guess.

RC 22-2-22

Welcome to Climate Change

A week off is long enough, I feel, so here's a few things I have noted down in the past 7 days, even though I haven't been posting:

Not gonna revisit my old chestnut about Things Being Given Stupid Names, but I'd like to point out we've had three storms in a week, according to the Met Office, even though it could be argued that it's just been windy constantly.

 

The fear-mongering over the incoming Storm Eunice was far worse than the weather itself was. There may be a time when British people realise that the British media overhypes everything to make sure you live in constant anxiety and feel compelled to keep glued to their output, but I doubt it.

 

Suffolk was hit as bad as anyone (apart from Cornwall, perhaps) and we had some interesting damage to our sites. No-one got blown out to sea, and the trees that fell kindly missed all the caravans, but we've still got plenty of clearing up to do. Not today though, coz it's still really gusty here. 

 

I have challenged myself to swim in the sea every month of this year. Managed it on my birthday in January, and now I have my Winter wetsuit there really is no excuse not to plunge more regularly. Not today though, coz it's still really gusty here. 

 

I got up to watch the women's curling final yesterday and it was brilliant. But if I had to hear the word 'journey' mentioned one more time I would have bought a curling stone and dropped it onto BBC HQ from a helicopter. We can enjoy the sport, and appreciate the efforts of those involved, without having their entire back story rammed down our throats constantly like we're reading their Facebook timeline.

 

I have used the word 'constantly' too many times in this posting. I shall punish myself by eating a large caramel crumble cake.

RC 21-2-22

Annual Super Bowl thing - 2022

 LA Rams 38 Cincinnatti Bengals 10

A Week of Winter Olympics

A few thoughts:

I don't know why, but Curling is probably the most relaxing sport on Earth to watch. 

There is something incredibly dodgy about the two-man luge.

I'm assuming they don't test the snowboarders for marijuana....

RC 12-2-22

Musings from my lunch break

Man, February is flying by refreshingly quickly. Before we know it, I'll be cycling after tea and putting Mathew to bed while it's still daylight. I CAN'T WAIT!
Strange how long this Winter seems to have been. This time last year, we were all locked down and watching deaths mount up and not even able to consider a fun Spring. At least this year we're all able to be out and about whenever we like, and yet still it has felt like a depressing, restricted Winter. Maybe I'm just feeling this way because of my recent brush with The 'Ronavirus. I was stuck indoors and feeling a bit shit just at the time of year when I like to be walking about and getting sunlight where I can and gearing up for the start of Cycling Season. Or maybe I'm just a moany, negative ninny who always has to find the downside of stuff, even as things are getting lighter and flowers are starting to bud. Yeah, I'll shut up now.

RC 11-2-22

Rant re: relationships

Is it too late for me to dream of becoming a future gold medallist in the luge?
Yes, probably, so let's move on....

I am caught up in YET ANOTHER situation where I know that someone is having an affair, but have been asked to not mention it anywhere, in case the partner who is being cheated on finds out. It still floors me that this seems to be the accepted way of behaviour in our society - "I know that Sarah is cheating on Mike, but we can't tell him because he'd be devastated" (random names chosen for the purpose of that example). Isn't the fact that its happened at all the devastating aspect?

In these circumstances, it seems to me, there is no pressure or expectation on people to control their urges and their behaviour, the pressure is on their friends and family to keep their mouths shut when they find out about it. Affairs are never seen as wrong unless they are brought to light within the context of the relationship that they are threatening by their very existence. And when that happens, the highest level of indignation is aimed at the person who revealed the affair, rather than the participants within it. I have actually seen someone shouting at her brother-in-law in a pub, having a go at him because he told his brother that his wife was cheating on him with someone from work. The woman in question, having conducted six months of regular liaisons with a colleague without a thought of the affect it would have on her husband, actually shouted at her brother-in-law "Why did you tell Adam about me and Martin? You've ruined our marriage!" And there wasn't a hint of any guilt, self-awareness, irony or shame in her voice, and about 80% of the other people in the pub - men and women, married and single, gay and straight, agreed with her!

It all seems completely skewed to me, and adds yet more fuel to my burning belief that almost everyone on Earth is a piece of shit, barely worth considering worthy of the oxygen they use to survive.

RC 10-2-22

The Psychological Let-Down of Technological Advancements

I am seriously considering NOT watching the Super Bowl this weekend. Well - not watching it LIVE anyway. I'm still a bit rankled that the 49ers didn't get there, I'm getting increasingly bad at dealing with my sleep pattern being upset, and the BBC are showing it, which means the whole game will be available on iPlayer on Monday. It's just too tempting to have a good night's sleep on Sunday, avoid the result all day Monday and then settle down and watch the whole thing Monday evening at home. I'll probably change my mind by the weekend and sit up with some cans of Guinness and some Pringles, but as things stand, I'm thinking of letting it all happen without me.

I guess this is a consequence of existing in this modern world of ours, where all shows are available at all times to all people, and you can choose your own viewing schedule as you see fit. The days of having one chance to catch something live, and having to plan your time around it to make sure you were sitting there at the same time as everyone else, are long gone. So, too, the acceptance that you had to WAIT sometimes for the next episode of your favourite show. There used to be something great about watching the end credits of a show roll and knowing it would be a full seven days before you could pick the story up again. That feeling and that experience don't even exist anymore, because everything is just waiting at the end of a click, or a screen swipe. I think that's a shame, but when I try to talk to people about it I get called a technophobe, or a Luddite, or an old twat.

RC 9-2-22

Skifall

Well, I'm back at work and back into The Outside World. I'm still coughing a bit and getting a bit breathless if I walk too far, but otherwise feeling pretty much back to full Roryness.

The Winter Olympics really is a bizarre collection of events. Some are life-threatening plummets downhill at speeds more akin to motor racing; others are weird dance displays. I still don't like any sporting event being settled by judges, because regardless of how well determined the rules for grading are, it ultimately comes down to someone's personal opinion. If you ask me to list my favourite songs today, and then ask me again tomorrow, the songs will probably be in a slightly different order. I have a suspicion that you could show an Olympic Ice Dancing judge exactly the same routines a month after the Games and have them rank them differently. So I'm not sure how you can ever feel truly satisfied with your results because you don't know if the voters simply didn't like your outfit, or maybe got distracted by a wasp just as you performed a perfect triple salchow (or something). 

I can't get my head round the speed skating. There's something odd and unnatural about the way they glide on the straight bits, then scamper sideways round the bends, all the while hunched over at a weird angle that looks like some kind of torture position.

RC 8-2-22

Officially clear; unofficially knackered

I got less than a mile into my bike ride before I found it hard to breathe and had to stop on the side of the road to recover. I know I'm not as fit as I could be, but I'm blaming that shit on Covid.

RC 4-2-22

Officially safe; unofficially banned

I am, legally and scientifically speaking, free from isolation and back into Real Life. But, for some reason that remains elusive to my simple brain, Gavin has asked me not to return to work until Monday, 'just to be sure'.
Suits me fine. Time to give the Velociped a service and take her for her first spin of the year!

RC 3-2-22

Freedom Eve!

Finally, I have reached my last day of locked-in, locked-down, boring isolation!
I can't complain too much - I've watched lots of films, played lots of Madden NFL, been able to sit up late without worrying about being tired at work, and generally had a good time. BUT the point is I couldn't have gone out if I had wanted to, and that was very frustrating. But now all I have to do is get through today, and then tomorrow I can step out into The World again! I'm not sure what to do today to distract myself. There's some bits of work to do, obviously, but that shouldn't take too long. I might give 'The Mandalorian' a go, because people keep telling me it's very good. Although I have just noticed that there is a series on BBC iPlayer called 'Toast of Tinsletown' - a follow-up to the old Matt Berry Channel 4 comedy 'Toast of London'. Then I notice, also on iPlayer, that David Attenborough's latest Nature series 'The Green Planet' is up to Episode 4 and I haven't watched those yet. So with 6 x 30-minute episodes of 'Toast' and 4 x 60-minute episodes of 'Planet' that is 7 hours of viewing, which will take care of Wednesday, which will take care of isolation. Thank you very much indeed, iPlayer...

RC 2-2-22

Luvverly rubbery

10 days on and I still haven't told you what my birthday present was.

Remember when I went through a weird period of contemplation last year, when I wondered whether it was worth buying a Winter wetsuit? Well Philippa took the decision out of my hands and bought me one for my 38th! It was a genuine surprise, I can tell you. Mainly because, like most of my little fads and short-lived fancies, I had completely forgotten that it was ever a thing in the first place. But I'm very glad she did it. Now, I just have to wait until I'm allowed out to play again, and then I can head straight to the beach to try it out! Part of me wishes I'd taken it out on my actual birthday, but the whole point of that challenge was swim in the sea as if it was August, so I'm glad I saw that through, even though I'm not really glad that I did it, if you see what I mean.

Anyway, one of our main caravan sites that I help look after has a footpath down to a secluded beach, so next time I'm there (this week hopefully? maybe next week?) I can take the new toy with me and wander down to the seaside for a frosty afternoon plunge!

RC 1-2-22