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I had a haircut first thing. The hairdresser was a young woman in her early 20s. Covid precautions were still in place, but not as ramped up as the last couple of times I've been where the staff looked like they were working in a lab testing nuclear material.
As usual I regretted the fact that I hadn't had the foresight to create an art project where I'd taken a photo of every haircut I'd ever had. Taken from the chair with me and the hairdresser in the mirror. Not only would it be an interesting look at ageing and changing styles and fashions, both in hair and hairdressing, Covid would have provided a cracking surprise to any viewer. Suddenly hairdressers in full PPE and me wearing a mask. Today I had one of my birthday gifts on, which was a Homer Simpson face mask. Imagine that suddenly cropping up amongst the more banal images.
We discussed the easing of restrictions and whether there would be another lockdown. She told me that a lot of people her age were resisting the vaccine as they were worried about the untested long term effects. I can understand why it might be scary in that regard but opined that getting Covid would almost certainly be worse. She said a colleague had said there was nothing that the government could do to make her have the vaccine or stop her going out. Apparently she felt that they wouldn't be able to restrict her access to night clubs because that would be against her human rights.
I am not sure that being allowed to go into nightclubs is on the human rights list. But it might be near the bottom I guess. Amnesty International might have more serious human rights violations to look into first. I said that her friend was probably wrong about that and that nightclubs also had the right to refuse access to people who were wilfully putting other people into danger. My hairdresser more or less agreed.
She wasn't interested in politics and when I argued that the Tories weren't doing the best job on all of this, she admitted that she didn't really know who the Tories are. And I am not saying that she necessarily should know, but it was a slightly depressing conversation revealing quite a lot about how younger people are feeling about all of this. And my sympathies are with them. I don't know how well I would have taken lockdown in my early twenties. I was essentially in lockdown most of the time, but at least I had the vague hope that I might get invited to a social event or to hold another human being in my arms.
This entry is mainly for future historians trying to get a handle on how people were feeling at the start of this ten year pandemic.
I had another bitty day where I couldn't quite settle into my script-writing, but maybe moved half a step forwards. I don't seem to be able to concentrate for long enough to get anywhere with script one (which I hoped to get to a first draft by the end of May, but which I doubt I will finish before the end of July). My wife pointed out that I had cancer this year and should maybe cut myself some slack. I don't know how long I can keep using that as an excuse for laziness/lack of inspiration.
As always I have to get to the point where my failure and the looming deadline makes me feel physically sick before my arse will stick to the seat and my brain will stick to the task in hand.
But I've got my priorities right and managed to get another couple of frames of snooker in, in the stifling heat of my attic. The weather broke halfway through and there was thunder and lightning, very very frightening as Me 2 took on Me10 in a top of the table clash. It was very apt. Two of the most exciting frames ever played between a man and himself. Up as a podcast and on youtube on Wednesday.
