'Legging

Week from Monday 2nd December 2024 - Saturday is certainly a nice time to visit the hospital, but it has its pros and cons. On the one hand, appointments at the Day Centre are a lot 'QUIETER', so one gets SEEN TO a lot quicker. In-and-out in no time and no 'PATIENT WAITING'! On the other hand, some of the facilities are a bit more 'DO IT YOURSELF' at weekends. I had to go up to the PHARMACY on Level C to collect my own prescriptions. I was hoping that I could have visited the CHARITY SHOP on the same floor, but it was closed! I also missed some of the familiar faces. (I did however get the opportunity to try out my new tablet on the hospital WI-FI for the first time, and was able to do some Twittering while I was attached to THE DRIP for half-an-hour!)

This week, I'm starting to make decisions about my "PICK O'THE YEAR" list and writing some sort of article to go on this here bloggydiarydoodah. Some folks have ALREADY posted their "end of the year" lists on the soshul meejers and we've only just STARTED December! Slow down guys, it's not a race, the year's not over yet! Anyway... WATCH THIS SPACE!

#OnThisDay #TwentyYearsAgo There are voices in my head. They are exquisitely harmonious, due to having listened to far too much BEACH BOYS' music of late. "BRIAN WILSON presents SMiLE" has had a semi-permanent place on my Walkperson since I bought it; there has also been a documentary about the "SMiLE" phenomenon on BBC2, plus a repeat showing of the "PET SOUNDS" concert on BBC4. As you will see elsewhere, I have nominated "Brian Wilson presents SMiLE" as my unchallenged ALBUM OF THE YEAR - I just wasn't sure in my own mind whether it should be nominated in the 'New Albums' category or the 'Reissues & Back Catalogue' one, given its [apparent] vintage!
Suddenly, on BBC4, it is WOMAD time again! There has been a fresh batch of - ahem! - highlights. This week, there were thirty minutes of the LUCIANO set (ie, the second half of the set, when Luciano himself was actually on stage) and the uplifting NIGEL KENNEDY & KROKE gig (I was right - it WAS music more suitable for listening to at home, rather than in a heaving Siam Tent!). Previous weekends have seen the TINARIWEN set receive an airing, as well as half-an-hour of the tedious DAARA J shout-a-thon. Next weekend brings footage of AMPARANOIA, a patchy but commercial blend of Hispanic styles (with occasional ill-advised broken-English singing), and a welcome repeat of the flamenco-bop-tastic OJOS DE BRUJO set from 2003...

On Tuesday, I took advantage of a break in the weather to go hobbling around the charity shops of central SOUTHAMPTON. I picked up a couple of ECMs (JOHN SURMAN, CRAIG TABORN), another addition to my collection of "Rough Guides" CDs (Tango!?!), "The Fast Show Book" and, best of all, the double-seedy expanded/remastered version of THE BAND's "Rock Of Ages". I also visited HMV (As Yer Do), but as I should have realised by now, the one in Southampton is crap for actual music and I didn't find what I was after.

This week's MUSIC PROJECT has been to finish 'processing' the FERGUS McCREADIE concert that was on the radio a while back. Not only was there another fine improvisational forty-odd minutes by his Trio, he also performed a new piece called "LIFE CYCLE" with the Chaos String Quartet. Chambertastic! I'll also be tackling the latest CAN 'official bootleg' at some point, downloaded from the Bandcamp concern...

Week from Monday 9th December 2024 - ...and having 'NEW MUSIC PROJECTS' usually means a visit to the PRINT SHOP to generate the CD covers! I no longer have a WINDOZE PEECEE of my own at home, but I do still have access to one in Gosport, connected to a decent COLOUR LASER copier/printer. Therefore I'm waiting for a(nother) break in the weather so that I can go out and pretend to be a graphic designer again! I've also got a telephone chat to 'THE KIDNEY PEOPLE' coming up next week, so it would be a good idea if I went for a(nother) BLOOD TEST ahead of that. So that's my plans for THIS week, howboutchu? But first, it's Monday, so I have to do my usual MONDAY STUFF...

The QUEEN ALEXANDRA HOSPITAL really is a fascinating piece of architecture. It's one enormous TARDIS as envisioned by MC Escher. When you're INSIDE it, you occupy a completely DIFFERENT space-time continuum to anything you can see from the OUTSIDE. You enter the Main Reception on 'LEVEL A' and take a lift UP to 'LEVEL B'... but somehow you're still on the GROUND floor... simultaneously UNDERNEATH the road that goes past the window! What is more, the lift that you originally stepped into seems to arrive at a place which is on the opposite side of the building. When I 'lived' at the Hospital for a whole month back in February, I could look out of the window to see a flat roof covered in conduits and cables... but looking down at the Hospital on G***le Maps now, I couldn't confidently tell you exactly which one it was. I have spent many a happy hour being wheeled around (or hobbling about) the endless labyrinth of halls and tunnels, but it never seems to resemble the inkjetted A4 floor plan that they give you in your 'starter pack'. You can often follow one corridor and end up back where you started. Yet somehow I've instinctively learnt how to find my way around now...?

After I'd done my duty at the WALK-IN PHLEBOTOMIST (very little "PATIENT WAITING"!), I hopped back on a bus and made my way down to Commercial Road, so that I could visit the still-half-decent HMV and purchase a couple of 'wanted'/'new' seedy items that I failed to get in Southampton last week (THE ORB and NUSRAT). The extra LEG WORK will almost certainly take its toll later...