Digital waves
I refuse to believe, point blank, that I can possibly have a
cold. I neither want one nor, I believe,
am I scheduled for one as I took my anti-flu jab like a good little boy and
that should give me protection until the next one.
I prefer to
believe that I am suffering from hay fever.
This is a fairly recent development in my approach to health and an
obvious reaction to some sort of pollen found only in Castelldefels. A few pills take the pain away. Well, at least the runny eyes and nose and
the fairly cataclysmic sneezes – at least when I buy the pills it might! Tomorrow.
I also put
down to hay fever my forgetfulness at leaving my watch at home as I set out on
my epic bike ride to my equally impressive swim. This was particularly ironic, as I had made a
Herculean effort and remembered to consult the web site of my smart watch app
to find out which of the four buttons I should press and in what order to get
the most out of my swim!
In theory,
each of my swims should be beamed to the web site where it will be ranked and
various statistics (which of course I will ignore, but it’s nice to have them
to ignore) will be automatically produced for my delectation.
All of this
is rather like another app I have called, oddly, ‘misfit’, which tells me how
many steps I have taken and how much sleep I have had. Also, disturbingly, it tells me how much
‘deep’ sleep I had. How the hell does my
watch know that? And why, over the last
two days has it only told me of the sleep that I had, completely ignoring its
depth? I truly am not in control of my
apps. But I live to learn, so it is only
a matter of time before I finally crack them.
Credit and gain
I know that I should be considering the culture that I saw
on Saturday when, with Suzanne I went to the Museu del Disseny de Barcelona in
Pl de les Glóries Catalanes in Barcelona to see Design for life: 99 Projects for the real world and to find out
what was going on at the Open Day for
the Poblenou Urban District. But I’m
not. I’m thinking instead of the rather
wonderful glass that Kate and Steve gave me when I left after an evening of
talk and drink!
My mother’s
training runs deep in me. Her
fascination with glass, crockery and cutlery means that now I find it difficult
to pass by a well-designed piece of any of these when I see them. It is this ingrained attitude which explains
my delight when my wine was served in a very stylish glass and my enthusiasm
must have been very (indeed embarrassingly) obvious. Again, going back to my mother, I shudder to
think of her opinion of my behaviour!
However, it
is a fine glass: a cup-like bowl on a chunky long stem with a circular
foot. The glass bowl has a lop sided,
bubble filled slew of glass which gives it a slightly retro Swedish ‘80s
look. I do hope that Steve remembers
where he bought the others (he originally had eight) because I would be
interested in buying others to make up a set.
My mother is always round about!
Eventually
After a wearingly long period of failure, I have finally
managed to make some sort of poetic sense of some of my past notes in the notebook. I am depressingly aware of how much material
is waiting for me to make something out of it, but I fear that the OU is taking
precedence at the moment. And rightly
so!
The last poem,
the draft of which is available for view and comment at http://smrnewpoems.blogspot.com.es/
the title of the poem is Lessons? And it uses some of the ideas which have
informed a few of my other recent poems.
I wonder if I have given enough information in the poem as it is
written. Something to think about.
Defining purchases!
One of my more inspired purchases was of an illuminated
toilet seat. It was bought from Lidls
and had a seaside theme with real shells and one starfish set in the clear
plastic lid. When the lid was raised
light appeared in the seat! It didn’t
cost that much and it was a thing of wonder.
That ‘it
didn’t cost that much’ should have alerted me to the fleeting life of the thing. First the light failed to work and then it
broke. I repaired it and it broke again.
My latest
purchase replacement is more expensive and is plain white and somewhat sturdier. But boring.
But wait – what happens if you go into the bathroom in the dark? A sensor immediately illuminates two small
blue lights on each side of the seat!
And it works because I have tested it, stumbling into the bathroom to be
greeted by an oddly azure glow! Never a
dull moment.
