New Lockdown: Day 3, Sunday
I gave up counting the number of people I passed on the paseo who were not wearing a mask, and the crowds of people suggest that we are having the usual number of domingueros in spite of governmental recommendations. Castelldefels is in an invidious position: we need people to come to the city to spend to keep the place alive and we also need people not to come so that we can stay alive! Like every place reliant on tourist money, our survival comes with a deadly cost.
Still, what appeared to be an overcast early morning has now settled down into sunny day and with the sun, my “all is well in the world” approach returns. The base line for my happiness is a lack of rain in Castelldefels. I obviously welcome rain in the vicinity of our reservoirs and in all the hilly areas that feed the rivers, but around me all I want is sunshine. Please! I am more than prepared to tolerate, nay, welcome cold weather as long as it is not accompanied by rain: a crisp sunny autumn day is a delight and I can link it to my memory of the summer and I am content.
I can’t help myself. I have ordered another watch. That statement is not, in itself, surprising. Given my predilection for timepieces and for Kickstarter-type blandishments, I am often in a state of pre-order/order/waiting for delivery.
I had hoped that my latest acquisition, the Amazfit X, my lust would have been temporarily assuaged. The “X” is a narrow band-like watch whose USP is that the screen is curved to the wrist. It has no visible buttons and the information is set out on an excellent quality full colour display that is activated by the tilt of the wrist – and therein lies my dissatisfaction.
From the time of my first purchase of a Pebble wristwatch (on Kickstarter) I have been used to an always-on display as well as decent battery life. The Pebble was a brilliant little watch and did virtually everything that I expected from a smart watch, including the essential element of being swim proof. Of course, as with all excellent items of this sort, they stopped making it, and they stopped supporting it with updated software.
My hunt for a Pebble replacement spent its way through a number of watches, none of which truly replaced it. Eventually, however, I ended up with the Amazfit which, in a number of its iterations seemed to be more than satisfactory. Even as I type I am wearing the Amazfit watch that I discarded in favour of the “X”.
The “X” does not have an always-on display. I am sure that if I had realized that before my pre-purchase I would not have gone through with its acquisition. I have made always-on a prerequisite for purchase (and as a way of limiting my spending) because otherwise excellent watches fall down at this step. And, even if smartwatches do have the always-on facility, it means that the battery life becomes something of a joke.
So, the pop-up advert for the new Amazfit GTR
2, hit home. It is a sleeker version of
previous Amazfit watches and it does have the facility to be always-on. It also comes with a variety of features,
many of which I frankly do not understand, but that does not mean that I do not
desire them. Obviously. And I have bought it. Which is not the same thing as saying that I
have it in my hot little hands.
I really do feel that I have to trot out the “I do not smoke, therefore there is spare money to cover such things” justification as the old watch that I am now wearing does actually do everything that I need – but, see above for all those “extra features” and curved watch face cover glass, or something. There is enough stuff that’s new to make its purchase essential.
Earlier this morning I read the paper sent to me by the site Academia.edu (free and excellent) by Louise Marshall entitled, “Getting Out of Jail Free, or, Purgatory and How to Escape it in Spanish Art” an essay that “analyses a number of early Spanish representations of purgatory, focusing on the devotional and intercessory concerns of makers and viewers.” A thoroughly enjoyable and stimulating read that introduced me to two new words, or rather one new word and one new form of a word: psychopomp and salvific. The first means “guide of souls” and the second you can work out, but it really doesn’t look quite right, and my word checking program didn’t even underline it, or indeed the other, which just shows how lacking my general vocabulary is!
But on a serious note Academia.edu is worth checking out. If only for two of my essays which are on file there!
My intention to have a Birthweek rather than Birthday this Covid ravaged year, was justified by a telephone call this afternoon, a week after the event perhaps, but welcome none the less!
I will only end by saying that the phone had to be brought up to me on the third floor because Toni was unable to get me to respond because I was out on the terrace taking the late afternoon sun.
And people still ask me why I moved to Catalonia!
