2013 — 6 August: Tuesday
Well, that was good timing. I had only just switched on my morning dose of BBC Radio 3 "Breakfast" (which I sometimes dodge on a Tuesday as it features a weekly examination of the fatuous "Classical Chart") and was drawing back the curtains down here when I caught the dying note (literally) of a marimba arrangement of Arvo Pärt's "Cantus" (for Benjamin Britten) as arranged by Kuniko Kato.
For once, it's — both immediately and (more important... hello pension!) cheaply — available as an MP3 download1 from my favourite tax-averse multinational corporation. Odd that I'd heard the same music (though not that performance) as chosen by Jocelyn2 Bell Burnell just two days ago.
Having meanwhile 'Get_iPlayered' the four Gideon Coe 6Music evening programmes still available that had recently passed by me unheard 'cos I was doing, or listening to, or watching, or reading, other stuff, my little audio bank/buffer is once again restocked for emptying at my leisure. Now, where's Jeeves got to with my breakfast on this sunny (but noticeably cooler) morning?
Simon & Garfunkel?
Never really been one for meditation, and (after 60 years or so) can't easily imagine my "inner voice" managing to shut up for long :-)
Or one might try Vipassana — a form of mediation [sic] that goes to the heart of this conflict between yearning for silence and fearing it... The first Vipassana retreat I attended, some five years ago now, was in the mountains north of Milan where I live and work. There seemed no point in going further afield merely to sit on a cushion.
As ever, some of the comments are interesting.
I've just arranged...
... the next annual car service (a 'big' one) and "MOT", which will add up to £244 or so. Six years on, and with very nearly 39,000 miles on the "clock", I'm almost getting used to doing this. I've also opted for the "pick up and drop off" as I found out a couple of years ago that (a) there's no extra charge for this, and (b) there are very few places less interesting than Millbrook for two to three hours of enforced heel-cooling. Particularly with the nearby Comet store now closed. Besides, the customer TV in their waiting area is tuned perpetually to rolling news and that is never likely to soothe the soul, is it?
I've also cheekily invited myself over for a little afternoon tea treat with Roger & Eileen. Now, if I could just remember what book I lent her last time so I can segue my next choice into something vaguely appropriate... The problem with having a trick memory is its tendency to play tricks on me.
Returning, somewhat...
... after the local mini-version of the Rush Hour, I can contemplate a set of donated blank minidiscs that has (in one swell foop) doubled my reserve stock, a donated copy of a recent FT weekend colour supplement with an interesting focus on graphic design, and a washing machine whose small load of laundry has very nicely done everything except hang itself up to dry during my absence. Time, methinks, for an evening bite to eat. It's gloriously sunny without being oppressively hot.
I proved unequal to the task of resisting today's Amazon UK Kindle 'daily deal'. Bang goes another £1-09. [Pause] Nor, after this morning's delightful download could I resist the album "kuniko plays reich". Here's her website.