Friday 1st of August, 2003
Las Palomas porla noche duermen
I like / dislike
I bought more Ninja picks than I really need, because I like having them.
I dislike (and avoid) work before it starts more than I dislike the work itself (which is, more often than not, interesting and stimulating, even the 'boring' tasks.
I like to be in the kitchen by myself.
I dislike having to share the kitchen with other people.
I like coffee.
I dislike the way I feel after drinking too much coffee.
I like the sound of my watch ticking
I dislike the sound of my voice
It seems to be very difficult to begin a statement containing the word 'like' without beginning it with the word 'I'.
Coffee station
Not many people in the house for most of the day, and no one seems to be drinking coffee or anything else, so not an onerous chore.
7:00 am Rise
7:30 am Sitting
8:15 am Breakfast
10:00 am
I manage to get some shots of the League's set-up in the Ballroom.
My first photographic captures of my fellow Crafties are the Puglisis (and some extra Amelie shots), Horacio, Paolo (who won't keep still or look at the camera), Victoria (who photographs very well) and Claudia. I also get pictures of La Casita por los Duendes, Hernan's flowers and other significant points.
I also try to snap The Mask, but he obviously does not want to be photographed. I must be careful to ask first. I later do so and get a proper photograph.
I practise Paulo's piece as silently as possible in case he still wants to do it for lunch.
1:00 pm Lunch
We don't perform - it's saved for tomorrow morning, the last possible moment.
Brittle atmosphere - hushed voices but a lot of minor clumsiness, clattering, dropped cutlery, things being knocked. Walking on eggshells and breaking them with excessive care.
Silence falls. Without Her Majesty the Baby to disturb it, this is a warm, rich silence deliberately brought to a conclusion by Hernan.
Normal sounds return - hushed, but no longer brittle.
2:30 pm
I find myself, for no discernable reason, sweeping and mopping the top floor landing and corridor. I sort of hope that this will lead to a spontaneous outbreak of cleaning, but this doesn't happen.
3:00 pm GG meeting.
To finalise the Mass gig tomorrow. It's slowly sinking in that I'm going to a Catholic mass.
4:00 pm Tea
Just a few biscuits, really. Tea wasn't, technically on the schedule but we had it anyway.
5:00 pm GG meeting - Horacio.
6:00 pm
7:00 pm Dinner
Actually at 6:45.
An even sparser meal than the other day. The first half was in quiet time so there was no conversation.
I liked it.
8:30 pm Collected by bus
Paolo, Victoria and I practise the Penguin Cafe Orchestra tune and Paolo and Victoria play a Bartok piece.
The bus comes to get us. We are a quiet but not unhappy lot.
9:15 pm We arrive at the venue
But the door staff don't want to let us in. Because that is their job. To stop people getting in. It's remarkable that there are any audiences at all with doorstaff around.
There are signs painted on sheets hanging from the nearby apartments - these are complaining about the noise from the club:
Las Palomas porla noche duermen, la del raval no nos deja
and others far too complicated to transcribe.
10:30 pm The Gig
Very late getting in.
It was a nice room.
The hum.
Standard Acoustic Guitar Sound.
The all-acoustic encore.
Mariana's Groupies
There is a show band on disturbingly quickly after the Crafties' set.
I stand next to Shinkuro and get mistaken for a League member. I should do that more often.
Afterwards I get to travel home with the Morin-Gillets, which is something of a whirlwind experience all of itself.
