Back in the Game

Okay, I’m back in the land of the living – but it was touch and go for a while; I thought I was fading out again about eleven o’clock this morning, but luckily I rallied and completed a decent day’s work for the first time since I got back from Sitges.

There’s lots of stuff to cover in today’s edition! I didn’t actually complete my holiday blog and although it seems a bit late to post about it now, let me note, as a kind of future aide-memoire, that the festival through the streets of the old town was just fantastic; music everywhere, fireworks everywhere (minor burns on my arm!), firecrackers at the intersection, a dragon with a flaming mouth and catherine-wheel-tail, the massive mannequins dancing with each other, surrounded by groups of attendants (to make sure they didn’t topple over!) Absolutely great!

The period of being ill wasn’t too bad either. It certainly wasn’t the worst ‘flu I’ve ever had and I got to watch lots of TV and DVDs. (On the TV-front, Jerry Hall’s Kept is a scream; She tries to train a group of fairly rough-and-ready men to move in high society and, in a reality-TV elimination kind of way, keeps setting them challenges to whittle them down to the final winner.) I managed to avoid any of the talk-shows that people usually complain about when stuck at home during the day – although even on the Discovery channel I couldn’t avoid people offering to refinance my debts, no matter what my circumstances. Thank god for Tivo and fast-forward!

Tonight was the first night of my piano course. I’m taking a ten-week night school class to get me started on one of my life-long ambitions. It wasn’t quite what I expected; thirteen students, two pianos and one tutor. Nevertheless we managed what felt like a productive session – although hands-on piano work is obviously limited. It certainly felt good to get some right-brain exercise after a day at the left-brain grindstone. I seem to be one of the more advanced students in the class (inasmuch as I am not an absolute beginner) but even so I fear I am nowhere near the ‘intermediate’ level of the class next term, so I need to do my practicing like a good student. Still, an enjoyable way to spend the evening and I am looking forward to the next lesson.