So, I’ve had Covid, again. I felt utter rubbish a week ago and after a couple of days, before going back to work I decided to use one of my few covid tests. It turned out to be positive, which was a bit of a surprise. There followed five days of isolation. I got better slowly and have reached the point when I hope my viral load is low enough not to infect other people. I would say that I felt like poo for around six days. I slept a lot. Had a headache. Ached. I think I feel fine now, but am worried about some longer lasting effects. I want to have a run but I am actually quite bothered that my lungs aren’t up for it.
To pass the time I’ve been playing computer games and working through some television series. I’ve played Gran Turismo, Minecraft, Fortnite, and Minecraft Dungeons. I’ve also been flying around the world in X-Plane flight simulator. It’s an on-going project and I am flying up the eastern seaboard of the USA. I’ve just landed in Nantucket. Next is probably Boston or maybe Nova Scotia.
The television shows I’ve watched have been The Last Of Us. Which I enjoyed about fifty percent of. I’m not sure it’s as great as I had heard. I think the world gets caught up on memes a lot now. For instance I’ve not watched Tiger King or Squid Games. I’d rather wait and watch this stuff in my own time, I don’t like getting carried away with the hype. I have historically found that hyped shows and films turn out to be not good. I’ve also watched the first season of Altered Carbon, which was good looking although I needed pins and yarn to keep up with whatever the fuck was happening. Oddly in that series the best character is not the lead but a hotel.
I’ve been reading too. I spend around an hour on each activity and then circle around the things I’m doing. Adding stuff on this site is also a good distraction from time. I read Beneath the World, a Sea, by Chris Beckett and I can honestly say it was one of the most disturbing books I’ve read for a while. I will liken it to Heart Of Darkness although I am pretty sure someone else will have made that comparison before me. I really enjoyed the book and will be buying more by the same author. I’m just about to start a book about a scientific look at psychology and what pseudoscience there may be used around the world.
While doing boring house stuff I’ve been listening to podcasts and one of the main ones I’ve been enjoying is The Curious Cases Of Rutherford and Fry. It’s a short podcast covering science stuff and answering listener questions each episode. It’s a delight and the relationship between the presenters and producer is excellent. I was aware of both presenters before the podcast having read books by Rutherford and watched some TV by Fry. In a recent episode Hannah Fry asked people to download an app to their phone to help scientists model a pandemic outbreak. This freaked me the fuck out and I looked at the date of transmission and it was either December 2017 or January 2018. What the actual fuck?!
I know science has spent a lot of time looking at pandemics and how they spread. But this seemed prescient. Although, ask a thousand questions and eventually one will seem important. To think of what we’ve been through since the end of 2017 and the struggles the world has faced. How many people died because of Covid and the people who couldn’t see each other. It’s been horrific. There is a television programme associated with the science study and it’s called Contagion, because of course it is, and was broadcast or streamed on BBC4. It’s not available at the moment on iPlayer but I am definitely going to watch it. To see what happens.