Being Beta

Exercises in the higher banter with One of 26. Elsewhere called 'poet of adland'. By a whipple-squeezer. Find out why being beta is the new alpha: betarish at googlemail dot com

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Blood pressure and directions

Blood pressure diary

Found a few months ago, on a Northern Line train (I think) going southbound, a scrap of paper offers an inriguing insight into a life.

It is A5 in size, rules of normal width, and folded vertically down the middle.

On the left-hand side there is a diary of a day's events; on the right, what appear to be blood pressure measurements:

Wake up, relax and say prayers * 99 1040
Make and eat some breakfast * 79
Around house doing various things 50 [blank]
Eat my lunch and take a bath * 99
Finish up and then leave house * 79
Pass and and visit with Yvonne them 95 [blank]
Underground ride to London Euston * *
collect Sally and take her to Edmonton 60 [blank]
Travelling to a specific location 150 *
Leisure walkabout in the area [blank]
Do whatever comes to mind now 33 *
Miscellaneous activities completed [blank]
The return journey back home 50 [blank]
Check information on the internet [blank]
At home chilling out around there 140 [blank]
Have something for dinner and chill [blank]
Telephone calls to family members [blank]
Getting prepared to go to bed to sleep [blank]


What's intriguing is towards the latter part of the day. What was it about chilling out which meant that the rate went up to 140? How was it that calls to family members, which is often a stressful business, was not worthy of any recording? And what is the difference between 'chilling' and 'relaxing'?

The most enigmatic note is not, as you might assume, the one about Yvonne (who is she? What has been passed? Who is being visited?), but instead, four street names on the reverse of the pressure counts:

(Fire?) Street
(Brettenham?) Road
(Reacter?) Mews
(Lyndhurst About) Road

Are these to do with the visit with Yvonne, or the trip to Edmonton? The latter is more likely: a quick Google Map check suggests that Brettenham Road, at least, exisits in Enfield, N18. And there is a Lyndhurst Road nearby.

I'm not sure what value this piece of paper has. But its existence is oddly comforting - that life is lived, and to live is to be concerned about the small details of life.

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