Month: September 2006

7:05 – Rise, shower. Sitting. Breakfast.

Guildhallery.

13:00 – Lunch. Today’s video.google video is (most of) a 1970s BBC documentary about Nicola Tesla (labelled as a “the government want to suppress FREE energy”, but actually presented by a perfectly scientific and avuncular bearded gentleman). Tesla is fascinating, by the way. The story of Tesla versus Edison is worth checking out, as well as Tesla’s later life.

More Guildhallery. I’m still not done, but at least there’s now a lot less of it still to do than I have already done. I have to keep reminding myself that this is not the same thing as “done”.

18:40 – To the Samye Dzong for the shinay sitting – since the last time we went it has got darker earlier, so today’s sitting is in a very dim light.

At home, have dinner and watch the television – QI with Stephen Fry and Newsnight/Newsnight Review.

7:07 – Rise, shower. Sitting. Breakfast.

More Guildhalling. Haruko goes out.

13:00 – I go to the shop and get a cheap loaf of bread to make sandwiches and, while I’m eating them, watch the interviews from the documentary about Fox News that was released a couple of years ago, on Google Video.

Quick noodle.

Back to work.

Haruko comes back.

At 17:00 she comes running in with the mobile – there’s a call from Sue, formerly of Walker Books, about to cycle past the flat. She comes round the corner and we have a conversation through the window. Passers by try, and fail, to ignore us (interestingly they wait until we’re behind them before they turn around and look at us, despite the fact that they’re not behind me, at least, and from my vantage point I can see them quite easily). Hopefully we’ll do tea soon.

I’ve had a number of calls and emails from people I’ve not seen for a while over the last few days, beginning about a week ago. Indeed I was googling for people I was at college with just the other day. I don’t know what this is related to.

Back to work.

19:00 – Dinner – steak and soup with some of H’s bread from yesterday.

Instead of getting back to work, I find a site on the net that has jazz chord progressions on it with very crude MIDI files and play along. Much fun.

Again the morning involves getting up late and not achieving anything much. A bit of work for Walker. There’s a package from Haru’s mum, which includes top-notch instant Ramen (along with other things, such as a cool grater), which we have for lunch.

After lunch I do some Body Book. H bakes bread.

At 17:30 I begin making dinner (stew with sausages and bacon).

At 18:45 Juan arrives. We chat, then do guitar stuff (better than last week), then eat dinner – stew and fresh bread. Then Juan goes off to Cornwall.

All through the day there’ve beene emails to catch, so I catch more of them.

8:20 – Get up. Sitting. Breakfast.

Hugely distracted by my classical guitar in the morning. I’m rediscovering jazz noodling, which may not be a good thing. Beguiling new chords fall under my fingers, which feels like a good thing. I don’t manage any work, which isn’t a good thing.

Okonomiyaki for lunch – mmm!

In the afternoon I get Guildhalling, this time the Body Book.

I had intended to get to the gym at 19:00, eventually getting there at 19:45. Running on the machine for an hour.

22:00 – Back in the flat. Shower then a cheese sandwich.

Internetting.

8:05 – Get up. Shower. Sitting. Breakfast.

Taking and printing passport photo for H, who then goes to the photobooth to get a machine version, and then goes out to the Japanese embassy to apply for a new passport.

I do various bits of administration, telephone calls and invoicing, which makes me feel a lot better.

13:00 – Lunch – I watch a documentary about the making of Blade Runner via the internet, and then a talk given to the employees of Google by a scientist who has also been a Buddhist monk, who points out that materialism isn’t everything. Also a programme by Stewart Lee, who co-wrote a musical called Jerry Springer – The Opera, which was constantly picketed by evangelical Christian protesters. Interesting and calmly reasonable, and not polemical, which is a relief these days.

Enjoying the entertainment that online video affords, while it lasts.

Less done during the afternoon, then. More Stuff. Some vacuuming.

19:15 – To the movements class.

22:30 – Back in the flat. H has cooked some bacon and egg.

23:40 – Post this.

7:45 – Get up, sitting, breakfast.

10:00 – Go to supermarket. I manage to get through unannoyed today until (after getting money from the ATM) the wheels on the shopping trolley lock and I almost have to carry it across the car park.

11:25 – Juan calls from Waterloo – there’s general chaos on the line today, as they’re doing engineering works. We set off for the station forthwith.

11:35 – Arrive at Waterloo. Buy tickets, then coffee and sandwiches. When our train is announced we get on and eat our lunch.

12:09 – The train leaves.

The train arrives at Feltham and we have to get off and get onto a bus. They do this about once a month as far as I can tell, and it’s still chaos. Nobody seems to know which bus goes where. We get on one that’s going to Epsom, which appears to be the right thing to do. We’re sitting on the top deck, which is nice, as it’s quite scenic.

The bus goes past Runnymede (where Magna Carta was signed) and some ruins (stone pillars, no idea how old).

Bus arrives in Epsom, Juan calls to ask where we are, and he’s still at the station, despite having a half-hour head start. We all catch the train to Wokingham, then walk to Ken and Alice’s.

17:15 – H & I leave Ken and Alice’s and walk to the station, getting there just in time for the train. So, train to Epsom, bus to Feltham. This time the route isn’t as scenic, but it’s all right, as it’s three times as long. Train from Feltham to Waterloo.

19:45 – Back in the flat – Rice and chickpea curry that H cunningly prepared this morning (and it tastes better for being allowed to mature).

Evening on the sofa looking at a website idea, which I quite like.

8:30 – Get up, sitting, breakfast.

10:35 – Very late leaving to go to Walker.

11:00 – Arrive.

Maisying. I’m sitting at a different computer today, which is quite nice.

13:00 – Lunch.

14:00 – Back to work

19:00 – Leave Walker and walk home. Speak to H, who’s just had another interview.

Home. Stuff. Dinner. Small crisis, which is addressed, if not dealt with.

8:45 – Get up. Sitting. Breakfast.

In the morning I work on getting the Mahler corrections done. I have a strange kind of tunnel vision – I know what I’m doing on a moment-to-moment basis, but find it difficult to know what I’m supposed to be doing in general – my awareness goes fuzzy there.

I miss lunch and work through to 15:00, then go to the gym and try to run on the machine. Again, very low energy levels.

Very warm out, back to early summer levels. Last gasp of the summer before lurching into Autumn for good, I suppose.

18:00 – Back in the flat.

18:45 – Juan comes round. Tea and chat.

9:30 – Guitar stuff. Distracted. Not as good as recently, but then there’s been a pattern to this week and the session’s in keeping with it.

More tea and brownies and biscuits.

10:00 – Juan goes.

It appears that emails I should have been getting have been bounced by an organisation called Spamhaus en route. I’m at something of a loss to work out what I should do about it.

7:40 – Get up, sitting, breakfast.

The morning I originally intended to use for Guildhall work, but actually spend getting the files to do that work from my sister as I didn’t know that they weren’t there yesterday.

H makes brownies.

13:30 – Lunch: Udon. Mmm!

In the afternoon I finally get down to work.

19:00 – Juan calls to say he’ll be late: I carry on working.

19:45 – Juan arrives, but needs to do some internet stuff. Also I get a call from Phil Jeays about the Christmas gig – it will be a lot of musicians (on a tiny stage) and hopefully a lot of fun. Also I have to write a reply to an email that’s been left for the last couple of days.

We end up being so delayed that we postpone until tomorrow. Still, there are brownies. MMMM!

After Juan leaves I play through some Jazz standards.

Very low energy today, as yesterday. Let’s hope tomorrow is better.

8:30 – Wake up. Sitting, breakfast.

10:20 – Haruko goes out to a job interview, coming back at 13:30.

I fail to use the morning effectively.

I also fail to use the afternoon effectively, but I do have a shower at 13:15.

Lots of phone calls today, though, from a number of different people about different things.

Dinner is delicious Japanese food.

Goodness, a day without very much in it at all.

Fracaso.