Liquid musing

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pool water has returned to its crystalline clarity in our local pool, but one does wonder just what “product” we have been swimming in that has been used to banish yesterday’s murkiness.  But that way madness lies, and life is too short etc etc to worry (overmuch) about such things.

     In a sign of technological spitefulness because of my forced missed swim yesterday, my smartwatch refused to record accurately my latest swim, only giving about half the meters of each length, but my internal length counter guided me to a satisfactory completion where, in spite of the evidence of the resentful watch, I think that I more than exceeded my usual lengths.

     The local pool is one of the only places in Castelldefels that can supply me with a decent cup of tea (a mixture of Earl Grey and English Breakfast) which is my reward for completing my swim.  Today, they had run out! 

     I had been prepared for this awful eventuality and took an orange juice as an alternative, but an orange juice topped up with ice cold Cava.  I have now entered that select grouping of ageing men who have alcohol first thing in the morning!  Well, not really, the orange juice was the major partner in the drink and freshly pressed too, so the Cava was more of jeu d’esprit than anything else.  Though one I could easily get used to!

    

 

I am beginning to understand that the cost of living I going to be a major problem.  Even casual shops are now costing over 100 euros.  I can still recall my parents have a serious discussion about finance after the weekly shop had exceeded five quid for the first time!  That truly was another age.

     It is difficult to think about winter when all available fans are on full strength to make the heat bearable, but with the rising cost of electricity and gas, coupled with the rise in general prices means that our minds are going to be concentrated.  Given the situations in our respective countries, I feel more secure in my adopted home of Catalonia than I would in the Conservative ridden dystopia that Britain has become.  Let us see how the future works out!

Tracking exercise makes it real!

 New Lockdown, Third Week, Sunday

 

 

 

 

Even colder this morning, though still stubbornly bright and sunny.  For the first time this year I could have done with something more substantial than sandals on my feet – but I will persevere.  Last year I wore sandals throughout the year and I will attempt to do the same this year too!

     On the exercise front, tomorrow is the first day for weeks that I will be able to go to the local (indoor) pool to do my customary metric mile.  That means that I will be getting up at 6.15 to be ready for the first swim at 7 am.  In spite of the weeks of enforced lie-ins that I have been able to enjoy, I haven’t.  Enjoyed them that is.  My internal clock is set for an early rise and my staying in bed seems forced and unnatural.  That is not to say that I get up that early with a merry whistle and a song in my heart – but I do feel better for it.  Eventually.

     Getting up that early does mean that I set off on my bike in the dark to get to the pool.  I always think that gives an extra bonus point on the “if it’s more difficult it must be doing you good” principle, and you do feel a certain smugness at wobbling your way along a generally deserted road with only a single beam to light to guide you through the darkness.

     It will be a relief to get back (literally) into the swim of things.  And, I think if my reading of the new regulations is correct, the café of the pool will be open for me to take my cup of tea at the end of my swim and just before my bike ride.  That little part of ‘normality’ is enough to make me somewhat satisfied.

     Talking of normal and new normal, the central government has been setting out their plans for the mass inoculation of the population.  Just talking about plans like this is encouraging, it gives the impression that we are now on some sort of roller coaster of administrative functionality where everything will just slip into place and everything will be hunky-dory by the Spring of next year – or that might be just one of the ‘saving lies’ that I tell myself to keep myself sane.  Hard to tell if it’s working!

 

 

 

 

One of the problems that face the modern technologically aware person is what watch face to have on your smartwatch.  Do you stick with conventionality and get something which looks like a digital rendering of an expensive watch face, sometimes with the logo of an expensive watch worked into the design?  Or do you go with the technology and have some all-colour over-informative face where the mere time is almost an extraneous detail in a wealth of numbers, colours, bar charts and moving bits?

     In early iterations of my present watch, a Fitbit, or possible Amazfit GR2, or something – the choice of faces was severely limited.  Yes, there was an option to customize the different elements that made up the face, but that was for the more advanced users who were not put off at the first signs of defeat.  I settled for a choice of the few designs that were built-in to the watch itself.  All you had to do was select, not create.

     You soon learned that what looked good in the app looked very different when it was portrayed by the limited number of pixels of your watch face.  Vibrant colours faded to insignificant pastels, and everything is so small!  With restrictions you soon found that even though there might be a dozen watch faces to choose, most were inadequate in some way or plain ugly.

     I tried to list what I wanted on a watch face apart from the time (and I had a series of ‘wants’ for the way that the time was displayed) and the essentials I decided that I did not want to do without were indications for: day, date, steps and battery power.  Anything else was extra and probably confusing.

     There is also the problem of the ‘always on’ aspect of the watch face.  Ever since the days of the good old Pebble watch, I have been used to an ‘always on’ face and very good battery life.  The Apple watch for example, always coming out the top or near the top of any list of ‘best’ smartwatches, has a battery life of a day, or more if you take all the power saving measures that make you wonder why you bought a smartwatch in the first place, if your discarded old self-winding watch gives you more!

     My present watch has an option for ‘always on’ but it does use up battery more quickly.  I have also found that not all watch face options are equal in their battery use, so I have set an ‘off’ period for the ‘always-on’ during the hours that I am asleep.  There is also a limited function for the ‘always on’ watch face when you are not using the watch as a smart watch.  At present all it shows is the digital time and an indication of PM.  If I twist my wrist then the screen bursts into full colour and all sorts of information is conveyed – including all of the elements that I consider essential.

     The problem with this watch is that, after the last update, there is now a superabundance of watch faces to choose.  I have meandered my way through them and chosen one or two to see what they look like in reality, but I have had to be stringent in my application of what I need and expect to allow me to reject the colourful blandishments of vulgarly attractive faces.

     My real problem is that, as far as watches are concerned, I am never satisfied.  Or you could say that is my real delight.  There is always the prospect of a new watch fulfilling all my present and future requirements and I will find watch buying peace.

     I hope not!

Same old . . .

 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!