Who listens to music cassettes?

Canal at Taraloka, November 2021

There isn't much going on here at the moment, what with being in the midst of cold and only sometimes crisp winter weather. I don't feel much like going out, and have few reasons to do so. I found a vaccination shift lurking online and booked myself onto it, only to have it cancelled almost straight away, as was the previous one, so I sent a message to the head nurse asking if I'm needed any more and she told me that they have hardly any customers and are opening for only 4 hours a day, so the people employed by the clinic don't need any extra help.

Otherwise I venture outside only for shopping, or going to see mum and dad, or badminton, or an occasional walk with a dog-owning friend. Even the Tuesday Buddhists are online at the moment, although I went to a one-off session in person on Saturday in Birmingham and even combined it with meeting an old friend for lunch. This is not good enough - staying indoors all the time is comfortable and enjoyable (I have watched quite a few films and finished the fiendish jigsaw) but not healthy in the long run, so I need to come up with a plan. When it gets warmer I will start running again, and maybe one day there will be a dog? Actually, I am due to be looking after another dog at the end of January, but once more it's only for a weekend.

Health news: I think my hurty arm is getting slightly better with the change in posture at the desk, although I am doing more sitting at the desk catching up with work for Mr MXF. I have embarked on a post-Christmas-and-New-Year dietary regime, which does not include chocolate or snacks, and it is working and not making me too miserable but probably needs to continue until at least the end of February.

LTRP news: I called the roofer who continued to not turn up and asked if he actually wanted the job, and he said he didn't, so that's helpful. I wish they'd just say so rather than promising to come round at some future unspecified date. So now I need to contact my previous roofer, and chase the builder again to give me a date for pointing the front wall. Otherwise Lola Towers is pretty much in order on a structural level and in the spring it may be a good time to consider starting work on the outside acreage. 

I am still occupied with the ongoing weeding out of clutter, and had a go a giving away some cardboard boxes, a stand-alone clothes rail and some old music cassette tapes. I listed all three with the same wording on Freegle, Facebook Marketplace and Nextdoor and received no response from Nextdoor, one request from Freegle, and a large number of enquiries from FBM, of which only one included the word 'please' and one 'thanks'. Two people even asked me to post the cassettes to them, but one is local so I asked him what he wanted them for. "To listen to, of course! What else could I do with them?" he responded. I am even more intrigued to imagine that someone wants to listen to shonky old tapes of LPs from the 80's and 90's. At least I have saved them from landfill, even if only temporarily.

And I have found a willing recipient of the jigsaw, so that's sorted.

The fiendish jigsaw (only one piece got lost)