Missed

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Week from Monday 10th February 2025
Week from Monday 17th February 2025 - Whoops! I missed a week! Y'see, the trouble with all this KEEPING A DIGITAL DIARY* malarkey is... My life is split between mundane periods of having NOTHING NEW to write about, or being so otherwise busy that I DON'T HAVE TIME to write about it all! Last week was divided equally between both contingencies. (*BTW the normal repetitive routine medical stuff still gets logged in a good old-fashioned PAPER diary, using an actual 'analogue' BIRO.)

"The very act of concentrating on writing makes it difficult to do so, since ideas normally arise not when one is focused, but when one is open in some way..." (Brian Eno)

Earlier in the week, I had another sudden flurry of back'n'forth activity with our Edinburgh correspondent CLOUDLAND BLUE QUARTET. Mister Quartet is planning the public release (on that there Bandcamp) of the results of our recent collaborative efforts. He now suggests that we also include our previous 'unreleased sessions' from 2016. I dusted off the CD and had a listen back and I wholeheartedly agree! I've also submitted another new slab of XENOCHRONOUS chancemusic, whereby I've effortlessly plonked one of his Frippertronic pieces over my recent {Don't-Know-What-To-Do-With-It} rhythm track to thrilling effect. And yes! I DID use all twenty-odd minutes of it!

(This week he played one of our 2016 "bonus" tracks on his own RADIOSHOWPODCASTYTHINGY. I almost didn't recognise myself! One of the advantages of not listening to my own stuff once it's done and dusted, is that when I eventually DO hear it again with fresh ears, I can appreciate as if it was SOMEONE ELSE's music! It's um... it's actually quite good at times, innit?)

On Thursday last, I took a trip up the HOZZY for a handful of BLOOD TESTS, hampered by the fact that the bus drivers are currently taking "INDUSTRIAL ACTION". There's strictly ONE BUS PER HOUR going from here into town, and only THREE PER HOUR going to the hospital. While in Portsmouth, I hit the city centre for a brief bout of CHAZZA shopping, acquiring a plain-white hooded sweatshirt (that probably makes me look like a member of some religious cult!) and a rather nice CD of 'Tango Nuevo'. Of course, the omnibuses being what they are, it took three different route changes to get back home again. So thank goodness for FREE bus passes!

Subsequently, with the BUSES being so few and far between, THIS week's Wednesday visit to the HOZZY required some bigtime WALKIES. With no conveniently-timed service being available at this end of the network, I had to WALK INTO TOWN in order to catch the bus to Cosham. Needless to say, I was pretty knackered afterwards. That's the most longish-distance pedestrian activity I've done in a long time! The chat with DrDR was fairly productive - re: chronic fatigue, FUNNY EARS and all - and I shall resume my regular-ish pamidronate drips this Saturday... A couple of days free to recuperate, then orf I go again!

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