Laundry Day

Decided to do some laundry this afternoon, figuring that most people would be otherwise occupied, playing cards or Trivia, afternoon tea, etc. And yes, even though the launderette on our deck was closed for some reason (maybe some people are still in isolation), the launderette on Deck 5 was open. So I have been up and down, while catching up on emails while I have Internet.

I did go to the second lecture by the QC, on common law. He’s a bit dry, not as humorous as the blurb in the Daily Programme made him out to be. But I still found it interesting and worth thinking about. Not least, the question of what laws/the law should be for. Protecting people, yes. Providing benchmarks so that people know what they can (or should) rely on. He has been giving very general overviews of the law thus far and I wish I could take a whole class with him (these lectures are making me wish I had paid more attention at university.) It would be interesting to me to hear his views on where he sees modern courts heading. He’s hinted about it a bit when he mentioned a lot of young people want to go into “human rights” law; he wondered aloud whether they understood that the courts don’t “make” the laws, they interpret what is already a law so, really, the key profession is politics. And then he shook his head and said that politicians unfortunately don’t understand HOW to frame good, enforceable, law and so we really are in a muddle. I look forward to his next lecture!

I had wanted to go to the Hogarth lecture but was caught in the “clocks forward” squeeze. The Queen Mary puts its clocks forward one hour every other day, at noon, not in the middle of the night. So that means that noon suddenly become 1:00 pm and instead of having an hour between presentations, there’s only 15 minutes. And I had said I would meet R for lunch at noon. Oh well, the good thing is that they will show the Hogarth presentation on one of the TV stations tonight.

Although the US has changed its masking policy, the QM is still requiring masks. Some passengers are very annoyed about it. I am happy to continue to wear it even though we hardly ever are close to people. I just want to stay healthy! 

I have been reading a ruminative book about what the authors call “third calling.” It centers on the theme that many of we Boomers will have long, healthy retirements and so, unlike our parents (grandparents?) we have the opportunity post “retirement” to pursue dreams we may have had as children or young adults. Interesting although I doubt I could become another Gwen Verdon at this stage, which WAS my dream of dancing when I was a child. 

Still I will leave off this blog ruminating (it’s a ruminative book) on this list of “values” and which five resonate most strongly with me. How do the choices I have made recently, or am about to make, tie in with the values I THINK I hold most dearly? Any readers are welcome to try this too.