Friday, May 31, 2024

When just making it home can be the highlight...

Playlist
Trans Upper Egypt - No Dub
Steve Roach - The Desert Winds Of Change
Assistant - In The April Sun and This World Could Be So Much Fun
Xu & Francis Gri - Valley of Languages
Giannis Gogos - Linger
Empirical - Wonder is the Beginning
lovetrip - pareidolia
Nils Bo Davidsen - Terpenes
Machinedrum - 3FOR82
Koppel - Herman D. Koppel Edition, Vol. 1: Piano Sonatas
Kevin Juillerat & Cedric Pescia - Kevin Juillerat: Dämmerung
Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp - Magical Incantation
Trio O3 - Échos de la Terre
Fazil Say - Morning
Fazil Say - Evening
Espial - The Act Of Noticing
Dall'abaco - Cello Sonatas and Duos, the London Manuscript, Vol. I
Irish Baroque Orchestra - Rachel Baptist: Ireland's Black Syren
Various - 2024 LPs of the Day January to May

Feeling a little better this Friday morning...

May away...


Up and trawling for new music that I really, really do not need...


Luna was where we'd left her last night...


She appreciated some early morning biscuits...


Back in the old routine...



By the time I was ready to work, it was past 6...


...and the wee one was relaxing while Anne slept on...


This morning, having missed yesterday due to illness, I popped to my mum's and sorted out her recently delivered drugs'n'stuff...


Visits to the GP and calls to the district nurse and the hospital were required to get clarification on a few things...

Then, of course, on the way home, this pile of shite...


...but I was, indeed, soon home...

Luna was enjoying Squirrel Watch...


I did not do the podcasts (two due now, re so much stuff to do and being so ill) but I did collate the tracks for each...

And we enjoyed some telly - including "Monk" of course

Highlight of the Day : Getting home from my mum's...

Today's New Music:-

Thursday, May 30, 2024

A festival appearance confirmation can lift the day...

Playlist
David Rothenberg, Bernhard Wöstheinrich, Ali Sayah - Don't Hide From What You Seek
DIIV - Frog In Boiling Water
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Everything Ends
Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development - Your Community Hub
Eloy - Essential Eloy

A day of being ill...

This the view on awakening...




Up late -  a rare occurrence...



Luna entertained as I lounged around - watched a few episodes of the Russian robot thing as Anne was out...


Luna stole her seat...


Lunch was a kind of cheese and onion omelet on toast...


Can you tell Anne was out?


One nice thing happened though...

I received word that I have been selected to play at this festival in November and will be paid 67% more than I asked for...


...which is nice...

Tried some work around 10 but to no avail...


Downstairs, Luna retained her position...


...overnight too...

Lights out...

Highlight of the Day : Festival appearance confirmation...

Today's New Music:-

Wednesday, May 29, 2024

Skin remains in the game...

Playlist
Capital Models - 2024-05-25 Leith Dockers Club
The Psychedelic Furs - Made of Rain
Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers au Club St. Germain 1958
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Live Suite 2023/24 (2023-08-17) (Long Mix)
Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development - Your Community Hub
Capital Models - Current Repertoire

Wednesday...


Up too early as is usually now the case...


Nearly 40 years ago, the 29th of May, from around 1987 to 1991, was a memorable day every year - I ran a large publisher's pension scheme, onsite, and today would have been scheme renewal (or anniversary) day...

Now?  Not so much.  But funny how dates stick with you...


Anyway...


Today, into my office for a meeting...

Down the hill...


...and on the bus...


I still have "skin in the game", owning a smidgeon of the company and so need to be aware of what's a-happening...

Post being made aware, a bit of a wander about but, not feeling too great, soon headed home...

I managed to miss most of the torrential downpours which happened intermittently...


...and Anne prepped some tasty home made lamb burgers - which were, of course, a shame for the lambs involved...


Post tea, a wee friend arrived for a couple of weeks' stay while her mum and dad are in Florida..


Luna!



Erm...




That's better...


I remained under the weather till bedtime...

Highlight of the Day : The arrival of Luna...

Today's New Music:-

Tuesday, May 28, 2024

End of an era...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Mercurial
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Vanilla Receiver
Dario Lessing - Schneegestorber
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Dissolution: The White Album
Capital Models - 2024-01-14
Capital Models - 2024-01-28
Capital Models - 2024-04-07
Capital Models - 2024-04-21
Capital Models - 2024-04-30
Various - Ska: Moonstompers, Shufflers and Skankers
Sundrifter - An Earlier Time
Abrams - Blue City
Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan - Your Community Hub

Tuesday and so slow, to quote Mr Morrison...

Up late after being awake most of the night from around 2:30 onwards and after already being up and going back to bed to try and get some sleep - to no avail though...


Anyway...


End of an era today as Anne's mum moved from her retirement apartment to a care home...

Anne set off early for a 9am at the hairdresser and I followed, heading down the hill for a bus around 9:10, making my way to Loanhead to see my mum...

Due to traffic problems which had caused Anne to abandon the car, I stopped at Balgreen and picked it up and moved it to Anne's mum's retirement home, where Anne was to meet brother Keith at 11 to take their mum to the home...


Me, I was on track for a two hour journey to Loanhead - by car just 20 minutes...


To Queensferry St to switch buses...


...eventually arriving at mum's around 11:15...


This was once the best hill in the world to slide down on mirror slippy glassy ice...


In, and, shortly afterwards the carers, Rachael and Shola from Nigeria arrived to do mum's lunch...

The mum remains quite sharp and we were going through papers today, finding one in particular which should have been submitted a week or so ago re her council tax single occupancy rebate...

There then followed a search for envelopes - to no avail...




Oh well.  I showed the carers this picture - mistakenly saying it was 1989 when it was, of course, 1979, at Sister Sheila's wedding...

Half of this family is no longer with us...


Mum wanted to know what provisions there were - despite having been shown this on Sunday and me having done a shop on Sunday - so, you know, maybe not that sharp after all...







Much having to repeat almost everything I said due to her unaided by very expensive hearing aids  stone deafness - which was supremely annoying...

Especially as I was struggling with the lurgi and trying not to spread said lurgi to her...

An appointment for a hearing man to visit a week on Friday...

Just after two, after three hours of torture, to the GP to try and find out how it works re repeat prescriptions etc...

Past the slide again...


After initial worries and various long phone calls with district nurses and the hospital at Bonnyrigg, turned out all was in hand...

Back to the house to let mum know...


"What?" was the reply...

Jeez oh...

And so onto a bus back to town at gone 3...



On the only real upside today, news that wee Luna will join us tomorrow evening...


Anne sent a picture of some ducks obviously trying to take over her mum's now vacant apartment...


Got off the second of my buses at Roseburn and walked up to the care home, passing this, which might be a thing in a week or so...


And to Mary's new abode...



At which, of course, her TV did not work, on her first day...


Here she is in situ...

So very sad indeed but, sadly too, for the best, all things considered...


We left her just before 6 as dinner was about to be served...

Back home, almost as if he knew Luna would arrive tomorrow, Fang popped by and, unusually these days, decided to stay for a while...





Meanwhile, Anne was creating...



...yumtastic chicken flatbreads...


No Feta Cheese for me as it is the very cubed spawn of Satan's loins...


"Have I Got News For You" and "Monk" entertained and took our minds off our mum-related travails for a wee while...

Upstairs to attempt some work...




Prepped four entries here (written up tomorrow morning) and then another "Monk" pre bed...

Still no new podcast...

Lowlight of the Day : Mary moving home...

Today's New Music:-