Welcome back dear reader. Now it’s officially spring and the clocks have gone forwards, I would like to say that it is nice and sunny out. Unfortunately, it’s been nothing short of morose all week long: grey and drizzly. The good news is that it is due to improve over the course of this week, so hopefully the cats will be able to resume their daily wanderings and will leave us in peace.
Talking of the cats, they’ve both been ill recently. As Matt said in his last entry, we nearly took Louis to the vet early last week as he was clearly either injured or very unwell and was hiding in dark little nooks – always a sign that something’s seriously wrong for a cat. Luckily, he bounced back very quickly indeed and by the middle of the week, was completely fine. It was obviously some sort of 24-hour bug. No sooner had he shaken it off though than he gave it to the Smoo. The Smoo is more robust than Louis and didn’t go and hide, but he was still clearly in great discomfort. I’m glad it was so short-lived, whatever it was. We are of course blaming the evil intruder cat for infecting them. On that, the one good side to the endless drizzle is that he hasn’t been sighted recently so there have been no more fights.
Matt too has had a recent illness: he’s currently getting over a cold and is less than impressed about the irony. We’ve both been exposed to so many ill people this winter and neither of us caught a thing. Now, 2 weeks after giving up smoking and he’s rewarded with a snotty nose! It came on on Wednesday evening and is already nearly gone so at least it was a mild one. I think he must have caught it from someone at the choir on Tuesday. I have – hopefully – dodged it.
Ok, obligatory work summary: I’ve nearly done the site for the removals and transport guy and have started on the last one for David & Leigh, our clients from up the road. I’ll be relieved to have this one done as they’re very keen (lit. “pushy”). The insane caterer who had a wobbly thanks to my nightmare wedding planner has gone eerily quiet. This is actually a relief after so many days of being harassed by him, but I’ll be happier when the site is finally finished. We had a new enquiry the other day: a photographer, who I worked out is actually my nightmare wedding client’s husband. Given her reaction to the site I made for the caterer, I’m somewhat amazed she’s still recommending me to anyone – and I’m more than a little wary about how involved she may become in this project too. He himself seems a really lovely man though so hopefully it will all go smoothly.
In other news, the sale of my brother’s house finally went through over the weekend, all as planned. I should get some very welcome cash out of it shortly and then can begin my acoustic guitar hunt in earnest.
Work aside, we managed some socialising on Thursday. I was going to say that Ridgit are in town, but actually this time there was only Richard as Bridget had to stay at home. They’re both mostly OK, except that Bridget’s sister has been diagnosed with cancer and the outlook is a bit bleak. Depending on how things pan out, Bridget may come out later this year. Rich had brought a friend of his along, a nice chap called Russell, who shares Rich’s passions for food and for exotic smokable herbs. He made an odd starter dish of pears in a sort of custardy sauce – into which he had added about 3 grams of the aforementioned herbs. It was pleasant enough, but it adversely affected the conversation when it all hit us some time after the meal. That evening was our first lapse as far as the tobacco goes – just a few puffs. I was immediately struck by just how strong a drug nicotine is: within seconds, you can feel it tearing through your veins and it gives a palpable rush. The experience has made me more resolved to stop smoking on a regular basis – but at the same time, the rush is not unpleasant. The trick is to keep it to occasional social evenings – actually an easy thing to do when the nearest tobacconist is a 15km round trip away.
We left Rich’s around 1am by which time we’d just about sobered up enough to drive home. Friday was a less productive day as a result, but we both made up for it a bit on Saturday. On Sunday, we were invited over our new friends Lewis and Pary’s place for dinner. They live around 10 mins from us, in a lovely old 17th century house. Pary is half Iranian and the Persian new year is at the start of spring, so we celebrated that with a Persian themed meal of cheese and fresh herb wraps followed by a chicken main. Afterwards, Lewis played us some of his music video creations. They have a projector rigged up in their lounge that covers one wall entirely, so it’s like having a home cinema.
Right, that about sums up the week, but I have one other item to mention: Blur. I have what I call a “holy trinity” of musical loves: the group Blur, whom I have adored since the age of 13, Radiohead, who come a close second, and (of course) my personal lord and saviour, David Bowie. Blur split up about 12 years ago, reformed some years later and did some gigs. However, again and again they ruled out making another album, to my endless dismay. Well, it seems they pulled a fast one: they recently announced that not only have they made a new album after all, but that it’s due to be released in just a few weeks! So far they’ve previewed 3 of the new songs online and have played the album live in full.
I am obviously biased here, but “The Magic Whip” (as their new album is called) is flawless. A perfect blend of experimentation, ballads, pop, inventive guitar parts and thought-provoking lyrics. To celebrate their return, they are playing a number of gigs in the UK this year, culminating in Hyde Park. Blur have sort of laid claim to Hyde Park: they’ve played there more times than any other band ever, so it feels right they’re doing so again this year. My bestest friend Anna is looking in to getting us tickets. If she succeeds she will win my undying love (well, she has that anyway) and my planned trip to the UK will be moved back to June. More news on that soon!