Physics

  

I won't lie. When I prepared to home school I was really looking forward to it. It was an opportunity to work the grey matter and even learn a few things along the way. Mostly that has been the case. In fairness to the kids they get on with it on their own for the majority of the time. When they get stuck though I am only too happy to intervene.

It's a problem and I like to problem solve. I always have. When I did computer programming as much as I enjoyed the creative process of bringing something to life just from lines of code I also really enjoyed fault finding. If my program did not run as it should or produced an error I liked finding the problem and resolving it. Not always it has to be said. Modern computer languages make the fault finding process a pleasure. At college writing in COBOL it was more like doing spot the difference between pages of code where even a space could kill it. That was mentally draining. There were a few times when meany pupils and a teacher would surround one person's PC trying to find the tiny mistake that was in hiding. 

Today's problem was physics. My initial reaction was to rub my hands with glee. Something new to do, something new to learn. That joy was soon replaced with despair. I just couldn't get it. I don't know if it's age or an underused brain needing a jump start but I just could not work out these processes in my head. I muddled through eventually but didn't feel I had learned anything after. I was just glad to see the back of it and praying that it was an end of it for a long period of time. Its not as if its entirely new. I got a 'B' at high school in Physics. I started higher physics before leaving. It's in there somewhere but that was a very long time ago. 

I have noted in the past few years that my brain isn't working the way it should. A few years ago I got a voucher from my sister-in-law and decided to by a guide to programming in JAVA language. The idea was that I could then start to write apps for phones and maybe find some way either of making a living from it or by being employed remotely to write small apps. And I did it for a bit but it just was not sticking in my head like it used to and I started to get confused by it. I had better luck with programming in Android with Google's own development kit which is free. But even then I got so far and it started to outsmart me. Maybe I am just rusty. I have always liked programming so maybe I should go back to it and work at a slower pace. It might not get me employment but it will keep the grey matter alive with some much needed activity.

Strength

  

I was watching the show "Would I lie to you?" which is the modern equivalent of "Call my bluff". Straight out of the 80s Mr Motivator was on the show and his statement was something like: Every day I do press ups equal to the number of years of my life. True or false? I reckoned he was in his late 50s but he is looking well at 68. That is a lot of press ups daily.

A good few years back there was a Facebook challenge relating to the armed forces in which people did 20 press ups per day for 7 days and tagged someone else to do it each day. I had many friends doing it with apparent ease and when I was tagged I went to do the same but found I could not do one press up. That was a shock. For many years I did them for karate and football without a problem. Long story short I started a regime and within a few weeks got up to 12 before giving up. That was hard to take. I knew I wasn't as fit as I used to be but I was always stronger than I looked. I never carried any muscle but because of karate in particular I had a good centre and good strength. Struggling to do a single press up was a let down.

Back to the show. Mr Motivator can do it with ease and more. It put me to shame- in a good way. Its reminded me that I need to get fitter. I don't need to be at that level but I do need to increase my fitness and strength. It's something I plan to do like before with an app when the kids return to school. Along with walks I want to start press ups and sit ups again. These apps on phones are good for motivation. I feel confident it's something I will do and benefit from. 

Vaccine

  

My wife got her jab last week bright and early at the start of the queue.  I am glad she has some sort of immunity if not right now then in time. A few weeks ago I thought that the vaccine was enough to stop any worries but apparently  not. Firstly I heard a medical person on the radio saying it could take a week to build up immunity followed by someone later citing 2-3 weeks. Given the speed of no Vaccine to Vaccine with limited time for trials I would think the medical profession are learning something new about the virus and their vaccines every day. And that is without factoring in the strains we have now as well as those still to transpire. It is a real mix of concern and fascination as these boffins work around the clock to bring a peace of mind to the planet but also with risks that cannot be known. Those risks most would argue are trumped by having some sort of protection against this virus. 

Wife is done now as I say and the kids don't need it. That just leaves me. It's something I have been mulling over these past couple of months. When will I be offered it and will I be able to take up that offer? It plays in my mind. An offer is likely not going to come until the summer at its earliest depending on how well things are going with the roll out, Vaccine supplies and any deviations. I'm fine with that. It's the location that is the problem. It's very unlikely I can go to a vaccination centre given agoraphobia is as bad as its ever been. What then? Not a question needing answered today of course but it will arrive at some point. 

Its not a case of whether I want it or not. I do, 100%. Its just a case of logistics. I couldn't ask someone to come out to administer it when the groups vaccinating people are already working their backsides off. I will just have to wait and see how it plays out and hope in the meantime I can avoid contracting the thing. 

Horror

 

" Horror "

I never used to watch much TV but in recent years with so much at our fingertips I have found myself watching more and more. Its to the detriment of reading unfortunately so I do want to change that. At night time though when things quieten enough to concentrate I find watching appeals more than reading.

Like reading and music I don't like to pigeon hole myself. I'll watch a variety of things from real life documentaries to Sci fi shows and all in between. But about the only thing I don't watch is "Horror" and that is probably why I watch alone because its the main thing my wife and the girls watch. I can genuinely say I cannot remember a film of that genre I actually enjoyed and no for certain I've not seen anything scary. My wife always harks back to "Salem's lot" being scary but it's not, it's dated. And the three of them are continually disappointed as everything they watch turns out to be rubbish mostly and/or disappointing. That is the genre in my opinion but still they keep going back.

I don't know why that is. Do we see so much of it in real life that we are desensitised to anything on a screen? I think so. Horror got me into books. When I did not read at all I read "Funland" by Richard Laymon out of boredom. I read more by the author which led me to Anne Rice, Dean R Koontz, Stephen King of course and so many more before leading on to read other genres. I would still have no qualms reading horror but would have to be heavily compensated to watch it. It is easy it has to be said when there are so many quality TV shows being made but with all that I really cannot see the appeal of horror. Then again in my own home I am the minority so what do I know. 

Altered realities

 

So much of lockdown reflects my own life over the past decade or so. I feel that people are getting a small taste of what my life has been like. I went from having a job and starting a family to suddenly being housebound virtually out the blue struggling to support them. Most have been stuck indoors too and can see how the novelty of not working soon wears thin when it is countered by the inability to go out and enjoy that freedom. Many know now what it's like to struggle financially and have to swallow their pride many times for a handout to get by through no fault of their own. What looks like a good gig from afar is not when you are living it.

There are many similarities. Today I went for a walk nearby and felt a bit strange because its a route I have not gone for months and as a result it felt a little unreal. Coming back I bumped into my youngest girl who was going to meet her friend do I walked her there through the park. Something I used to do daily for the primary school run. Again it felt unreal. And that unreality is something a lot of people will now be experiencing in their life fir the first time as they start to venture back out to places they have not been for a while. 

Tacos

 

A quiet day today so I set about making some Tacos for the kids to try- and for my dinner. I made the kids Tacos for the first time last week with mixed results. They liked the filling but not so keen on the brittle corn shells. I can understand that. I've never been a fan either. And that has always been my idea of a taco. I've never had one made for me in a restaurant or elsewhere. When my brother was in California he sent pics of taco vans but I don't remember seeing the food. It was only when by chance I came across a video about the 5 best places to get Tacos in San Diego that I discovered it doesn't have to be that way. These Tacos were small tortillas rather than corn shells.

By chance the other night I'd found some of these small tortillas in the shops. As I said this was to be my dinner and as there were 10 tortillas is a packet I thought I'd be fine. I was sort of. I made one for the oldest to try and she enjoyed it so much she ate another 5. The boy enjoyed his too and thankfully as he'd had dinner he did not want any more. The other child slept through it- that is another story. I was left with 3. Thankfully I wasn't that hungry.

They don't look great from the photo but they did go down a treat. The shop does 3 packs for £3 so 30 "Street" tortillas will do a few meals along with mince, chilli seasoning and salad works out quite cheap too along with some chips. The one thing we have been trying to do more recently is get the kids all to eat the same thing as most nights they were all having something different which is more time consuming and costly. In order to make one meal for all we are trying to vary it a bit and try to get more veg in their diet however small. 

Music lesson

  

Today's lesson is... Music. Well it was one of the lessons, the last one. No input from me this time. I was displaced this time from teacher to cameraman. I mean you can't have a music teacher who is tone deaf and has no coordination. I love music of all kinds and I have always had a burning desire to play an instrument. Unfortunately though I wasn't built for it. You have naturals, you have disciplined and you have those who excel by possessing both. When I tried to play guitar I found I had 10 thumbs. When I tried drums I was like a scattergun trying to find a metronomic rhythm. I just don't have the capacity. One year my wife was going to get me piano lessons for my birthday specifically to learn "Moonlight Sonata" because she knew I liked it so much. Not a chance though. I just cannot do it. 

Its been a mixed bag schooling the kids from home. I've helped where I can but mostly they crack on with it themselves. I have also enjoyed learning some things too so its not all been bad and has put some sort of routine into our day in these strange times. 

When it comes to music though thankfully my kids are not the same. For the second time in life as a parent I found myself listening for a moment while one of my children played. The first time was the oldest. She taught herself how to play keyboard and like her grandfather has an ear for music allowing her to hear something and play it by ear. She played Moonlight Sonata. It was wonderful. Today it was her sister's turn.

We have an acoustic guitar in the cupboard and I even bought a cheap harmonica last week but none were viable options for music class. Instead my wife had to take daughter to school yesterday to pick up an instrument. She came back with a glockenspiel. It's been months since she played it she said but today had to get back to playing Katy Perry's "Firework". I left her to it. It took only about 15 minutes to find her stride. Except it was a different song. She had got mixed up. Instead it was "Carnaval de Paris". That was unexpected. That really took me back to Paris 1998. It was everywhere I went. It was nice. Nice because it was familiar from a happy time and all the nicer because it was now a happier time albeit it different. Definitely the best part of the week. 

Wildcat

 

I was reading an article today about a proposal to re-introduce the lynx to Scotland which on the face of it I was for. I like the idea of going back to the way things were before man intervened. I remember reading a book about the history of Scotland and the author lamenting about a particular landscape looking beautiful to most but it saddened him because hundreds of years earlier the barren hills would have been filled with trees. I like the idea that there was a balance before we selfishly came along here and everywhere else on the planet to spoil it with our own needs and greeds.

So I was reading through the article and early on came to a line saying the lynx had been extinct in Britain for 500 years, I think that varies on where you read it. Strange. I thought I had taken a picture of one in captivity. I looked back and found the above photo from 2015 taken at Calderglen zoo in East Kilbride. Not a lynx but a Scottish wildcat. What then, if any, is the difference? 

It turns out they are very different and now a dilemma: save the Scottish wildcat or reintroduce the Lynx? I am all for going back to our roots as I said but not if it means turfing out another species in the process. It's a big debate, too big for here. The bottom line is reintroduced lynx is a random factor. No one seems to know what affect it will have on the wildcats native to Scotland which are apparently on the brink of exctinction as it is with numbers estimated to be less than 300. As well as the ones at the zoo above there are captive cats all over the UK in the likes of the Highland Wildlife Park and Chester zoo among others. For me that is not a risk worth taking but it's a debate. If nothing else it was nice reading about wildlife which is not something I'm prone to do. There are some beautiful nature programs by the BBC but I never see them. Its given me a bit of an appetite for that if nothing else.