Kink's birthday. 19. Incredible. Sent her some acrylic paints. She wants it in 500ml pots, which seems an awful lot and costs a ridiculous amount of money. I only got two.
And colours - I stood in the shop trying to get inside her head. A dangerous place. "Buy mixers" I thought. Primary colours.
She was very pleased and I got it exactly right. Spoke on the phone for an hour at lunch, during which time I also confirmed with her sister that she can come down with her boyfriend the week before Christmas. That will be a weird thing. I've met him a couple of times before and he makes enough effort to impress me. Apparently he knows all about us and is expecting a manic couple of days.
He won't be disappointed…
For the last couple of days we've tried an experiment with the evening meal becasue it has been degenerating lately. More and more food is being wasted and the kids are each getting more selective than they ever used to be. Decided its to do with them being starving after school and then eating too much so not hungry at five. We've moved dinner to 5.30 and they are now only allowed fruit after school. Its been ridiculusly easy to implement and both today and yesterday everyone has eaten everythng. Trx has also been deliberately serving food she knows they like, to get them used to the ideas. That'll be pasta then…
Again…
Stan will only eat carbohydrate and nothing green. Alice eats only enough to feed a small flea. Elsi only eats things she can skwish and Flo is getting picky about potatoes and tomatoes. That's quite new - she has usually eaten anything and everything.
SPoke to my sister this evening - we're invited there on Saturday.
Its been ages, and will be good to catch up properly again. And find out what the boys want for Christmas.

Had a phonecall at the office today from the Debt Recovery Agents we have sent in to collect our money from DCM. It was tough decidng this was the right course of action, and whenever I think about it I have second thoughts - I'd more or less forgotten that we are using them. It seems they have tracked him down (to Exeter???) and got a commitment from him that a cheque was posted to us on Monday. It should have been posted to them, and the agent wasn't very happy that DC said he was sending it to us, but at least they have made some progress. We weren't even sure that we'd hear from them again, so that's a bonus in itself. Would be great to get an extra thousand in before Christmas.

Should get a few more press cuttings this week. John's response to the website has been rather muted, his only significant comment being that there isn't anything in the media archive. And an exasperating claim that his email is "down" so the last few weeks correspondence haven't been dealt with. Why not just admit you haven't done anyhting about the emails yet, instead of going for "the cheque's in the post" option? He really can be infuriating!
Anyway, to address the media archive, we are busying transcribing, editing, scanning and proofreading articles, reviews and interviews from the Ultravox period which also suits Artful who want copies to source information from for the Island sleevenotes.
Two birds. One stone.
Aim carefully.

Cats need to go out.
It's really cold.
They protest.
But look at all the twinkly stars - it is a beautiful evening.

Biosphere again. Substrata.
And then some Cocteau Twins.

Suddenly I find myself
Lisnin to [girl] I've never known before
Tellin me about the sea…

Some renegades turned up at random at about 9 oclock and dragged me down to the South Western. It was a birthday party and we played pool and a miniature table football.
Why, when playing pool, do I consistently follow in the black?
No kidding I have lost the last four games I have played like this.
Perhaps I'm crap at it.
Still, it got a laugh and ever so slightly-more-conversation-than-is-healthy from a really cute Australian barmaid. Few people bother to acknowledge the beard as "cool".
Nah, I'm not flyin home for Christmas this year mate. Gonna stick around here and catch some snow."
Fair play to you.
But why keep coming back. How many times do you need to clear this table??

Her aim is not to please
All she wants to do is tease
See those eyes…

Claire Grogan. Still cute.
Pinky blue skies today
Chasing my dust away
Why you, y'know
It's almost light…

Seems we only made £900 at the Christmas bazaar on Saturday, which is £300 below average and doesn't really seem very much for all the effort put in by everyone. Thoroughly enjoyable though - I don't quite understand what it is about organising this and running the bric-a-brac stall that I like so much. Getting more familiar with people now maybe - its the same faces at each event that come along and buy the same stuff...
Opening up the Church Building was a great idea tho, and Frank worked miracles showing people inside and generally talking about his passion. If we have raised the profile of the building among the wider community and generated awareness now that we are looking for funding, support and interest in its future then we have succeeded.
On the other hand, the "quiet room" I suggested to reinforce the idea that we are actually a 'church' not just a bazaar was very disappointing, and our attempt to organise a raffle was laughable. Made acutely more embarassing when I pulled out my own ticket to claim first prize.
Perhaps I should have put it back and drawn again, but then I decided it was a totally fair draw and I had just as much right to win as anybody else. So thats the present for my sister and her husband sorted out.
Mum and dad are going to get a year's membership of the Northants Wildlife Trust to encourage them with their walks and see if we can't get dad involved in some of their conservation projects. He's very good at mending, making and repairing stuff and is showing more interest in being out in the countryside these days, so this might help give him a new focus.
And speaking of focus, I have tried to ring the girls tonight and both are out with their respective boyfriends. Kink is still getting on well with Matt and their relationship is lasting better than I had feared.
BUT she has just told me that she has now packe din her cleaning job to spend more time finishing the web design course. I reserve the right to remain sceptical…

Thursday night. Cathedral Oceans. In the old church!!! HURRAHHHH!!!!
We had the big PA set up in there on Saturday playing Carols from Westminster Cathedral and it sounded awesome. The acoustics are superb and the space is massive.

(Apparently, clicking on these pics opens them in a separate window)

I expect that the Church Warden won't be impressed with the music, but I'm not asking him to stay. I will get Mike Murphy along tho, and probly play only Part One to start with. Once I've learned how to set the sound system up I only need to borrow the key and I can be entirely self indulgent.Can't wait to tell Rob!

It's going to be freezing…

when you press the button to go over a 'bleep', you don't expect the cars to stop immediately.
Least of all if you're second in the queue driving a big van and you've already decided you are going over the orange light.
crash…
it happens
The van piles into theback of the car in an explosion of glass and green liquid. The car is pushed scratching, hissing and squealing onto the crossing and the bike is calmly and gently taken from my hands.
Expletives, tears, hands over faces.
Shouting, arguing, anger, fear.
Shock. People emerging from houses.
brooms, Cups of tea. Phone calls.
I didn't get into the office until nearly 11 and then felt odd all day. Cycling home tonight was quite strange.
You fear every car will pull out in front of you, or jump a red light.
For fifteen minutes a trip I make every day becomes a white knuckle ride.
All I have to show for it now is a story and a slightly 'clicky' and a bit twisted pedal. Her car is a crumbled mess. His van is bruised and bleeding in the road outside.

Lord, why did I forget my lunch this morning and return to the house?
What's that all about? Give thanks that no-one was hurt and all the kids were safely at school

Cell tonight was one of the best. Intense prayer, very moving. Sarah is a real inspiration. The loan for the business is just another piece of His plan for my life slotting into place. The lessons we have learned in the past couple of years and the financial hardship we have endured, (while the legacy will not go away quickly) has strengthened our relationship and enhanced no doubt the appreciation we will have when the money does at last start coming in. It will have more value than ever.
Pray for Sera, watching in desperate frustration as her sister in law dies slowly from a brain tumour. Pray that she can reach her husband, steadily withdrawing into himself as he deals with 'a nightmare that doesn't go away'.
Pray for Claire, diagnosed this week with a non-malignant cyst which is the reason she and N can't start a family yet.
We know Lord that we are not put into a situation or faced with a challenge for which you do not give us weapons and protection, and with your Love and support and guidance we can face the problems that confront us and make us strong. Thank you for revealing her demon so that she can now identify and confront him.
Pray too for J and K as Matthew returns this week from his aborted degree course in Lancaster. His path is now unclear and uncertain while he waits to learn whether or not a place is available on a different course in London. Pray that J's anger with her son and her disappointment don't weigh her down for long and that she can soon sleep again. Be with them too at this difficult time, adjusting back to having an untidy and loud aspiring musician in the house again just as they started to enjoy the peace!
Pray for D and D, learning too the nature of their own demon. Devastating news that the boys father has turned abusive, but we pray Lord that this issue can now be challenged. The boys behaviour can now be explained, their tears and pain consoled and slowly plans can be made to treat and heal the wounds of this new family in our church. Thanks for bringing dave into our group, and giving him an environment in which to safely unload these worries and for giving him the strength and confidence to share them with us.

Amen

Someone stood beside me for a moment in the rain
A silhouette, a cigarette, and a gesture of disdain
I felt a dark door open
Saw a sudden ghost come through
A spark leapt from a fingertip and I knew it must be you
Ain't you The Man Who Dies Every Day
Ain't you The Man Who Dies Every Day
Yes you're the man…

You always kept a sunset behind your lonely shoulder
You never showed on photographs and you never grew much older
You flicker like a shaky shadow
Move in like a thief
You never drop your facade and you never seek relief
Cos you're The Man Who Dies Every Day
Ain't you The Man Who Dies Every Day
Ain't you The Man Who Dies Every Day
Ain't you The Man Who Dies Every Day
Yes you're the man…

The opening track from every night on the US Tour in 1979. The song usually lasts between 5'30" and 6'00" depending on the length of the introduction.
According to his custom, Foxx introduces the set with "Hello [venue]. This is The Man Who Dies Every Day".
The version recorded in Philadelphia is the best sound quality by a long way, althought he drumming in particular and overall performance is better in Hollywood.
Except that its NOT Hollywood! I have listened tonight over and over, and I am convinced that Foxx shouts "Hello L.A." at the beginning. In which case this is a new date that we don't know about and the Hollywood idea could be wrong. But then is the date right? March 15th?
Need to look into this, but in the mean time inform those that need to know.
On every recording except Philadelphia, there are distinct backing vocals on the chorus and each third line from (presumably) Chris Cross? The lyric is consistent with each performance. I think it is one of John's best, and especially the second verse. The lines scan perfectly and the disdainful attitude of The Man is summed up in the third line. He is world weary (an example of many references to maps throughout John's work), distant and somewhat evasive. Hard to define and with a presence that goes beyond his physical being so far as to be almost entirely separate from it. The poetry is both intensely personal, at the same time detached and aloof.
The band go from this straight into Slip Away from the first album.
The bootleg from Buffalo NY plays too slow and Detroit, though better bass in particular, is quite hissy.

Wednesday's are always a challenge with the early start and late finish - you'd think I would have learned by now that nursing hangover on aWednesday is really quite silly.
It doesn't happen often anymore (I have learned something!) but last night I went out with Ian to see a band and quite forgot to take the necessary precautions - in my case, a glass of milk and a banana before I go on the beers.
Felt rubbish this morning and have not been on the best of form today. Serves me right I suppose. What didn't help was going online when I got in at midnight after walking home from town and then chatting for over an hour.
The band were very good, but so far removed from anything else I listen to that I had decided I was going to be bored before the night even started. I just don't do 'wrock' music - and the Psychics do that very well. They are basically a tribute to Gillan, van Halen and Hendrix. Loud. very very louder. Pretty much a one man band tho. Mark Lawrence plays lead guitar superbly and writes their own material (which actually comes across as their best stuff), his identical twin brother Steve sings (badly) and Ian's friend Ian plays bass. They have a professional drummer to who really knows his sticks. But Mark is a brilliant guitar soloist and I watched enthralled at his amazing technique and sound range. He has been there, done that and toured professionally with both Gillan and Van Halen at the height of his career, selling 200,000 albums across the world. Right now tho, he's happy to play in pubs to fifty people and earns his money writing material for others. Including (apparently) some of the material on Ozzy's latest album...
Watching them tho just proved to me how much I love the whole live music experience, even when the music is Miles Away from my usual taste.

Early Christmas present today from the Inland Revenue in the form of a £300 rebate on my National Insurance.

Invitations to quote for mapping in West Berks and the Isle of Wight from Hidden Britain. At this rate, we will have already tendered for 2006's cartography budget before the end of the year!!

And yesterday I was asked (via Rob) to look into a tracklisting for a definitive Ultravox gig from the 1979 US Tour. There are seven boots on the circuit I think, and it seems I am the only person In The World (??) who has at least six of them. They are varyng degrees of sound quality, but what an honour to be asked to put somethng together. I just have to listen to them all and decide the best version of each song and an indicative track listing. Philadelphia is the best sound quality, but Hollywood has more passion and more songs. Boston offers better versions of The Man Who Dies Everyday for instance, while Detroit is the only recorded version of Radio Beach. So should that be included? Its rare so yes, but its not "typical" so no...

Uh oh. Seems there is a 'tummy bug' going round the school. Both Trx and Elsi have picked up something, so no doubt that will (literally!) run through the family over the next week or two.

Well, well - it seems we have hot water in the office kitchen at last! Only taken about six months, but the landlords finally had enough and got a plumber in. The disappointing thing is that a) they are a buildin9 company (www.orchard-homes.co.uk) - don't buy a new house from these people, the walls are made of cardboard and things pack up after six months) and b) they have only fixed the water because people repeatedly complained, and not because it didn't work. Now only soap in the toilets and the lift to fix…
D is out with Jo again today and they have meetings with Fareham and Gosport Councils to talk about Visitor Guides and tourism products, leaving me in the office to sort out the Southampton books. Lots of complicated politics going on. We include in the Visitors Guide a definitive list of accommodation providers in the city, most of whom pay well to advertise their service. BUT we can only include those who are registered with the Coouncil and have received the appropriate gradings. One of the biggest private hotels in the city (the owner also runs three self-catering apartments and a row of shops) simply WILL NOT get his premises registered and refuses to co-operate with the council for his own reasons. Therefore, we have left him out of the Visitor Guide and he's furious, becasue he is prepared to pay quite a lot of money for a full page ad. Thankfully i don't generally have to deal with this and its more D's role, but this kind of thing seems to happen all the time. other people seem to have got the idea that we (walking distance) are actually the people who carry out the inspections???
Ho hum. There are some very stupid, ignorant people out there.
Anyway, their abscence means I can really crack on with laying up the guides and looking in more detail at the London project, as well as get into some of the CDs I picked up at the weekend. Norway's "Biosphere" are apparently well known in the ambient soundscape genre, and I can see why. Substrata is really beautiful, deep electronica with minimal rhythms and echoes that paint a vivid picture of the Arctic landscape around Tromso. Unfortunately, the Macs here don't have nearly adequate sound reproduction and some of the deepest, echoing bass is lost. It is a hypnotic album tho, and perhaps not best suited to a work environment. I keep drifting off into it.
Mind you, that's me and music generally - I can't concentrate on much else when I have a new album on of any kind!

Picked up our first consignment of bricks last night from Joyce and Tony - who had forgotten we'd arranged for me to call round. They had about 50, so now our collection is up to - er, 51! I think by Easter if we start to scrounge a bit more we might have enought to make a start on the garden wall.
Good to catch up with them tho, we kind of pass by between services and stuff, never really catching up. Excellent cake from Joyce's 50th birthday last week, and she kindly gave me an Advent calendar for the kids.

My book choice selection for next month.
Jeanette Winterton, Vintage, 1990.
Cover Art by Dennis Leigh. Of course. And I have one of the superb printed cards that were printed to promote the book. His early work has something I find definitely lacking in the more recent stuff. I like the collage and the pasting of apparently random images - reminds me of the surreal video made for "Lose All Sense Of Time".
Safe home thru the fog in the Thames Valley, loaded down with a whole stack of goodies including SIX CD-R albums:

Banco de Gaia - Last train to Lhasa
Dead can Dance - Aion
Biosphere - Substrata
Mike Oldfield - Amarok
Harold Budd - White Arcades
Ordinary Psycho EP - Hiroshima Mon Amour
I have never heard any of these before. I kow I have a musical 'overlap' with Rob, but I'm not sure how much stuff we have in common. A lot of my stuff doesn't fit into this soundscape thing that he seems to like, buut as usual I'll give anything a go. I know the Dead can Dance album and have heard bits of White Arcades, but Oldfield has never done it for me and I've never heard of the others.
Interesting time ahead going through this lot.

Oxford in the winter fog is something else. High Street today and St Aldates absolutely beautiful in the bitter cold - and I have discovered the charm (and price!) of coffee and cakes in Puccino's.
Everything went SO well. Much to do and a very exciting period ahead.

Absolutely knackered now tho. Had the kids this morning while Trx did some Christmas shopping with Celia. We walked up to the shops ourselves and then played cutting and sticking, tho Elsi insisted we got the play-do out! They are exhausting - the first half an hour back from anywhere is a real challenge. Coats, drinks, toilet, immediate entertainment.…
But then they settle and get on with it. I think we had about half an hour together over a cup of tea and a pastie before I had to zip off to Oxford.
Which means that I have forgotten to go into the storgae unit tonight and pick up the covers for the posters I made with the church warden last night. Should hopefully have three nice big plastic sleeves there we can slip them into. So now I have to fit this in before presenting them at the service tomorrow morning, and will therefore inevitably be out when Mum rings to discuss presents for the kids. She will have already wasted £20 each on three cheap crappy things instead of asking and just getting one something they actually want that might be of some quality.
And we let this happen every year…

Everything worked like a dream this morning. D really comes into his own when talking about our business with advisers, specialists and financial people which is somehting that always makes me uncomfortable. Having run thru the business plan yesterday and finished off the 2006/2007 cash flow statements in advance of the meeting with Barclays Local Business manager, we felt confident that it was in the best state in could be in and identified "Pressure Points" for cashflow after January next year althoughits tight enough now.
We were offered a £15K load just like that, and the adviser really is the nicest most enthusiastic guy I've met for ages. Feels really good to hear someone raving about how strong, viable and exciting our business is, even if he then proceeded to do us down for massively understimating ourselves and the value of what we do.
No worries now. I know its an immediate reaction but everything suddenly seems to be sorting itself out. We can pay ourselves double from the start of the New Year, afford to pay Jo, pay off our (very late!) bills and possibly have a bonus before Christmas!

Hurrah - if I had a hat I would be throwing it into the air at this point!

Its all going according to plan, even if things have been ridiculoously bad for money this year. Could be that in six months time I'll be feeling more relaxed and possibly earning by the end of 2006 as much as I was on when I left LJ in 1994. That will make living a bit more comfortable and we can start making serious attacks on Debt Mountain. If things then double again after that as we hope by the end of 2007) I will be well and truly into uncharted territory.

Probably not before time…

And so this evening I have been painting. Not grown up DIY painting in the kitchen, but with poster paints on a big sheet of paper for the first time in a million years. Not counting an art session with the kids of course.
I'm doing two big A0 posters for the church Bazaar, but I have already given up hand lettering them when it occurred to me that it would be much easier to print the letters off at work and simply stick them on.
A cop out I know, but it was taking me absolutely ages to do. I am only halfway through one and they both have to be put up on Sunday!
Using a mixture then of stuck on print and painted background - so I've actually made quite a nice effect with the Christmas tree and the star background glow. Repeating this graphic behind a cutout silhouette of the building looks very effective.
I've given up with the fliers too - only managed another 500 today and there is no time left.

Only half a day in the office tomorrow which will be taken up meeting a bank man and presenting our new Business Plan for the first time (tarting for finance begins now), and then going to Mrs ("Old") Bailey's funeral in the afternoon. Our neighbour ("the lady over the back") died in a care home last weekend at the good old age of 95. She was great too with the kids and everyone loved her around here. She's not lived at home for more than a year tho and the house is looking very shabby. Hope her son finds the strength now to sell it and let the place live again.

Rewards day at School tomorrow for Alice and Stan. he's very excited as its the first one for him, his class having made their target of 20 Reward points this term. Alice in year 2 needs 50, but she is dead please dto have earned the last 3 needed for her class by herself, showing visitors round the school during her Civic Awards session on Wednesday morning.
This is probably the beginning of the end for this term. It alwasy detiorates into a shambles the last two weeks, and we're already halfway thru the half term. Seem spretty much a waste of time going in at the end - I really don't see what's changed. We had ONE day of games and stuff on the last day. Not two weeks...

This week I have been listening to:
John Foxx - Cathedral Oceans 3 Inspired. A work of genius.
Asrea Redux - Fractals Interesting, but of its time and will go out of favour quickly. Depeche Mode & Fad Gadget meet Eno
Throbbing Gristle - 20 Jazz Funk Greats Outstanding, creative, dark, clever. Iconic, mad, difficult, underestimated
Anne Clark - Pressure Points I keep trying, but its still crap. Too much attitude and rubbish voacls
Harold Budd - Avalon Sutra Calming, radiant, hypnotic.

Things are certainly moving on at Island - they are expecting all images and copy for the sleeve booklets to be with them this side of Christmas! Ha!Ha!Ha! They think this material is just lying around??
And last we heard, the tapes have turned up from WC so that completes the set now although the sound quality of one or two demo pieces could be a bit dubious. That means I have to revisit the miscellaneous lyrics now and try and finish them off, using RH input and trying to come up with a definitive version to hand over for John to sign off. Could be interesting. He's done loads of work on this already, so it will hopefully just be a case of listening super-carefully. Seems weird that this is how its done - there is no more professional method avaiable to us. The songs don't exist on master tapes, 8 tracks or in any layered or digital form right now and no-one has ever transcribed the lyrics before. As Rob says, it is often the case anyway that real fans do a much better job than music industry gimps. That's why he's scanning and retouching all the artwrok. Again, most of the photography from the period doesn't exist in digital form.
You'd think that once the songs have been re-mastered properly the vocalcould be extracted and played through independently which will give us all a much better clue. Ho hum. Something else to discuss on Saturday. before then I need to revisit and familiarise myself with at least babelfish if I can't find any other OCR software. Email Mr Alldays, that'll turn something up.
Talking of emails, a message from Steve in deveon has turned up out of the blue. Seems it was he that IDd the Least Sandpiper in Devon recently, previously on Birdline as a Temminck's Stint - so well done you sir. Nice one. Glad to see he's still sharpening the old skills. Must admit I'm a little bit envious of that as I do virtually no birding at allthese days, let alone twiggling. His account of red-flnked Bluetail and Squacco Heron too brought back fond memories of my own experiences with these incredible birds.
Thhis is one part of the Earlier Man that I perhaps miss most of all, although its difficult to see how rejuvenating this would fit into the more stable, less fragmented life I lead these days. Its gelling togetehr more coherently every day almost now and the other night as I sat up within Cathedral Oceans I became very aware of this. If you think of music as perhaps the plaster in a mosaic, poured around the little bits of glass and lumps of rock that is me and all the elements of my life then I can feel it strating to set and form an identifiable image for perhaps the first time. "Can you tell what it is yet?" . Well, now I think perhaps I can.
Hand in hand with that tho, and something I can feel beginning to form, is an awareness of the gaps in the picture. Most things are very complete and satisfying, but there are weakness and gaps in the structure that will need to be addressed if I am to see the completed form. Things like my impatience with Kink and D, my insular attitude to others around me and lack of motivational skills. I'm too quick to criticise and slow to appreciate. I need to recognise and allow for tiredness in myself and others. I tend to feel that I have largely got on withthings during my life. Not at the expense of others, but perhaps without many confiding friends, without looking for approval, and without stopping to get bored. There are just SO many exciting things to do and get involved with that bring their own rewards, to me the single most irritating phrase anyone can say is "I can't be bothered". It really grates on me, so when I hear Kink saying exactly this I have real difficulty offering her support and motivation. Perhaps this is reflected in a shift change in the things I read and listen to lately? Darker, more difficult books and music are getting more and more attractive, as the things around me that appeal. It worries me a bit and Trx more - her take on this is perceptive as usual. Its because I am holding up this mirror and can see the personal failings that I ned to face. Its therefore natural to turn away from them. taking up the challenge is much more difficult...
All this comes from the relationships I am developing within and around the church community and I can feel it all lifting me and helping at a very fundamental level. Prayer has proved itself such a powerful medium. Even at Monday night's second PCC meeting in a week, when I expected to be bored silly, the presence of Bishop Paul and the short pieces presented by other members of the PCC about our church and its life was inspiring. So many people do so much and get great satisfaction from it, I feel almost unworthy of my place on the committee. Suddenly printing off and trimming another 1500 fliers for the bizarre seems a breeze, and tonight I need to get a couple of huge posters painted up for displaying around the building at the weekend. I was particularly moved by Carol's work with our link parish in Wakitaka in Busoga, Uganda. Must make an effort to find out more about this and see if i can get Alice and Flo to start some penfriends or something.
More uplifting news last night from Dave. It seems Mervyn is not as ill as we first thought and has responded so well to medication that he's coming home today and should be able to manage on his own. the difficulty has been casued (as we suspected) by a change in his medication that hasn't quite worked. The drugs to control his leukamia aren't necessarily compatible with the drugs that keep another stroke at bay, and now to control future seizures too make the balance even more delicate. Trx wants to go up on Sunday, but is obviously relieved that her Dad's out of any short term danger.

Just come home this evening from my first meeting of the "fabric committee" set up at the last PPC, set up to look into the renovation of the church building and its longer term use as a 'performance space' of some kind for the University's music department. Mike, Frank Chris and I have an awful lot to do and the whole project is very exciting, but our course of action will be determined it seems by the response of the Diocese to all the plans we make. For now, and in the immediate short term, we are looking at the most essential repairs needed and how much they will cost in order that we can at least get the building serviceable again, hopefully within six months.
I'm still not convinced that I really have the time for this, coming as it does at the end of (or the beginning of another?) week with evenings taken up by nights out doing one thing or another.
There's a new man at the edge of me, it's crazy. Making new plans for the rest of me
But now I come to write that I can't even remember what they are. That's the price I pay for not blogging more regularly I suppose…
It was Alice's 7th birthday yesterday and we had great fun bowling with ten of her school friends over in Bitterne. Typically bad organisation and service tho by the venue. Many places that offer kid's parties recognise the value of the service as a money spinner, but they offer virtually no support or enthusiasm for the events. This was one of the more expensive ones (over £7 a head) and was unfortunately less organised than almost any other. But the bowling itself was a success and they all loved it, even tho Trx and I were knackered at the end because no other parents volunteered to stay around and help us out.
Alice had a vast array of pink and purple gifts, and seemed most impressed of all with her own 'secret diary' (that she's already started writing in) and the inline skates we bought, which we christened this afternoon in Riverside Park. Flo and Trx got theirs out too and all three went round hand in hand looking inept and clumsy giggling their heads off, while Stan, Elsi and me sat by the river doing the "duck-duck-foo" thing. Absolutely freezing tho after the first frost last night, so we had another fire going when we got back. Seems we won't have any problems with the chimney, so no need to pay out to get it swept again this year.
Friday afternoon's news from Hitchin that my father-in-law has been taken into hospital again following a 'major seizure' has dampened spirits here, but several phonecalls from family members suggest it isn't perhaps as bad as first seemed the case. He has responded well to medication and got out of bed yesterday afternoon, but his recovery will doubtless be slow considering his general ill health anyway. At the moment it is looking very unlikely that he'll be able to continue living at home without a regular care package, and all of a sudden we are back where we were two years ago. Physically he is very strong and that helps with his immediate short term recovery, but he is very confused and is rapidly losing hearing and now vision too. Offered testimony to the congregation at this morning's service about this, which three years ago I would never have even dreamed of, and feel refreshed and encouraged by the prayers we shared with Chris especially this evening.
Church things generally are taking up much time. Cell on Thursday when I finally picked up the Christmas Service times to put on the back of the Bazaar flyer I have been printing. This has been such a chore as I can only do them in batches of 500 and have had to go over to the office two or three times in the last couple of days to change paper and or ink cartridges.
Actually cell on Thursday was very uplifting again, and I was encouraged sufficiently to sit and talk to God late into the night, accompanied by the glorious majesty of Cathedral Oceans 3 again. Bearing in mind comments from RH about how people have generally dismissed this album and not really given it time I have found inspiration in "Fog Structures" and "Oceanic" especially. The music really does open the mind and focus the spirit.
This in turn has lead to my 'completing' the next phase of the Foxx timeline, having now sat and worked thru all the new information at metamatic.com. In all honesty, RH hasn't put up much in terms of releases and gigs that I didn't know all ready and there are more or less equal number of things new to me and details I have that he doesn't. I'm putting it all into a file to take up next Saturday. I've manage to write up a couple of chapters quite extensively too which he's promised to look over. Things really are moving on a pace now and there are several exciting projects moving towards completion before the years out.
What else?
Jo starts with us in the office on Tuesday for two days a week until the New Year. SO much to sort out. While D and I run the "business" very efficiently, I'm less convinced that we run the "office" so well, which we talked about on Friday. He's not so good at this side of things, so it wasn't difficult to agree a plan of action and to define our roles within the company rather more specifically. Already, Jo's appointment is, if nothing else, giving us a good opportunity to focus on things like this and make sure we have systems in place on a day to day level. He's agreed I should take on the position of being her immediate manager as her presence in the office is primarily intended to allow him greater flexibility to be out on the road more and spend less time in the office. Which of course is absolutely fine by me…
And I spoke to the girls today. Which pissed me off. Again. Kink is as frustrating as her sister is inspiring - I just wish I could tell her how annoying this attitude of not be bothered with anything really is. Its perhaps just about the most irritating and cross-making thing anyone can say to me, but I can't bring myself to get sufficiently cross to challenge her about it. The latest is the cancellation of tomorrow's driving test. Why? "I can't be bothered…" It's now TWO YEARS since I bought her the simulator lessons and she's not even having regular lessons anymore. I pray for guidance and strength with this - I haven't a clue whether or not her moving down here will help. That's not true. I'm sure it is the right thing to do, but rather like the church project, I really need some guidance as to how to implement it for the best.

At last I am listening to Throbbing Gristle. Why have I not done this before!!! Soft Cell and the Some Bizarre experience makes so much more sense now. Wonderfully weird and difficult - as any classic album should be. I really am getting things so much into place this year and picking up all this seismic influences at last.

At the PCC meeting this evening we have at last discussed and made a decision on the future of the church building here that has stood "empty" since parts of the ceiling were declared unsafe 8 years ago

We are going to approach the University music department as our preferred option, and I have volunteered myself onto the steering comittee to oversee and manage the project.
It is the largest space of its kind in the city and could be so valuable as a performance space. They intend to use it for orchestra rehearsals/recitals and have many other excitng ideas about live performance. The project means also that the internal space is retained and we, as a church, get an opportunity to fund not only repairs but also other projects of our own. The building has been discussed at Diocesan level, and in principle the new regulations about co-ownership of churches work in our favour, although we are a little reluctant to become a "test case". Having taken this important step tonight tho it seems we almost certainly will be.
Fascinating times ahead.
We ended the meeting by standing togetehr in the old building for a prayer before looking around, and I used the opportunity to ask the vicar about playing Cathedral Oceans in there. He wants to hear a piece first, but otherwise has no objection to me rigging up a computer in there with Kink's amp and speakers. It will have to a "private" session of course but I can hardly wait now. It will be wonderful to hear this huge music in a more appropriate setting…
The metamatic update last night was quickly discovered (good. more people visit the site than is generally thought) and I spent an hour looking over it today. Brilliant! Unsurpassed as an information archive at the ery least. Lacks a little in terms of graphics and general sex appeal, but its clean, easy to read and works. A great new start.

I was thinking about starting a new book tonight, but I have a business plan and a pile of stuff about employment law to read. D and I are meeting Wednesday to sign the plan off and start looking for some serious funding and investment, which we will need if we are to grow in the next couple of years and get the best value from Jo when she starts in the New Year. We need to manage the next six months very carefully because things are really starting to move for us now. There was another piece in the Echo on Friday about our 'rescue package' for Hamble Valley Tourism. from our point of view, it was potentially successful, but poorly run and lacking insight; from the council's position their department has done a brilliant job setting up a service that is attractive to a private business looking for investment opportunities. D and I do live in such totally different world's its a wonder we make the business work at all sometimes. We need to pull together more than ever now, and work out some difficult compromises.

Sometimes I think it's great to get nervous and worrisome about things, because the relief when it all works out beautifully just seems to enhance the situation! I can't seem to help it, and felt really quite nauseous when I "found myself in a Strange Town" yesterday afternoon and spent over half an hour trying to park. One thing tho that I never question is my ability to find somewhere. Anywhere. All I had was a rendezvous with Tara and Andrew in Yates's in Stevenage Town Centre, and yet I was able to leave the Westgate carpark and turn several corners in the general direction of the place before I asked for guidance. "Just down there, mate. Past the clock and turn right."
Easy peasy.
And what great people! Thank you SO much guys for the relaxed welcome and warm converstation. OK so we talked about music, Utravox, music and er…Ultravox, but the two and half hour session went by so quickly I could have sat there all day. Seems a shame now that I have decided that I can't go to the second Voxgate in London on 19th.
Especially in the light of a chat I just had with RH, who is now considering going to that and the possibility of postponing our meeting in Oxford. It won't matter I suppose, and I can understand his logic, but I am NOT going to London, so that will be disappoinitng. He rang though with the most exciting news - I am the first person In the World to know about the uploading of the revised official website. Not even John knows yet, apparently, and I feel quite light-headed at the thought of being in this privileged position. We discussed briefly several other projects too, some of which are quite sensitive and did in fact cause me a little discomfort yesterday afternoon. It's weird, but does give me cause for reflection and has helped me reconsider my role in the forum and in email conversations etc. There is definitely a case for keeping a lower profile, especially with other less tactful and trustworthy people.
As if this wasn't enough, just as we left for Hitchin yesterday, the postman handed me a package from MetalBeat containing copies of the two Astrea Redux albums "Language" and "Fractals". No chance to listen to them yet. I have so many new CDs to listen to now - five in the last two weeks. It really has got very exciting very quickly.

Great to see Mervyn on such good form yesterday and in very high spirits. He is clearly enjoying visits from Elsi and Stan in particular these days, and I'm really glad we did go up to see him. Another example of His divine hand in things, bringing plans and ideas together, was the surprise arrival at 3 o'clock of T'x brother which of cause had all the kids shrieking round the garden in their excitement. Always good to catch up with him, and a relief to see his new role in the Squadron working out so well for the 2006 season.

We put a horribly wet and great afternoon to good use today,and sorted out FOUR bin bags of unwanted toys and books for the Christmas Box project and Church Bazaar, Embarassing really that we have accumulated so much "junk" over the past year or so - and a real lift clearing it all out.
And the Church Meal worked like a dream too. Everyone said the kindest things about my Harvest Vegetable Casserole and a guy I hardly know called Pete came in the kitchen to help. He worked really hard, chopping, washing up, etc etc and we got on well. It's always a massively stressful experience, and this can manifest itself itself in my taking on a kind of Gordon Ramsay persona (which is why Trx and I never cook together!). Chefs, eh? Perhaps its true what they say after all. But I don't think that came out too bad with Pete - he just worked behind me and I let me get on with it.
Too much food though. We had to give out bread and apple pies at the end. Poor turnout probably due to the rain - less than thirty people came along. And I completely missed all the service, even communion, which was disappointing. Stayed to help clear away tho, which is a first!

Erik Satie.
I'd have to say Vexattions is one of my favourite pieces of music of all time. I truly get lost in it everytime, even the shorter interpretations. It fits so well with the music I am drifting into recently, epitomized byt he package I picked up this week from CC.
From Brussels With Love (TWI-007) is a remarkable album. It seems to be the embodiment of everything I have been meandering towards over the past year or so. It contains early piano pieces by such important artists (John Foxx, Bill Nelson, Brian Eno, Harold Budd, The Durutti Column, Virginia Astley) and fills the air with the most radiant beauty. I will work on this and write up a review for revolution's Orphans quite soon, alongside that which I am working on for 3 Jak and Dive.
Again, they are not so very different. Foxx has moved in twenty five years from Metamatic to Metanym and I feel in so doing has come full circle. Listening now to Child on the Hill by Budd and then Satie's vexations, its only a small step to the contemporary electronics of Lee Norris, Jori Hulkonnen and co.
Theis years compilation will be the best yet - I have most of it put together in y head already and I have chosen a piece of Kink's artwrok for the cover. Next year could be really exciting as we move into a neo-Romantic renaissance.

And surely my mood is enhanced by three (THREE) converstions with RH today and confirmation (with some persuading) that he really is going live this weekend and that SM may be joining us in Oxford. Strange days indeed.
I am very nervous about meeting Tara and Andrew tomorrow, to the point of distraction, and sharing relief with Trx that the £600 cash I picked up today should comfortably see us through a challenging Christmas. We even managed to eat out this evening (OK, it was only Sainsbury's!) but thats the first time in an age.

Last night the burned out building and the blackbird while I played NildraHain. Tonight I have beside me the work of Beaudelaire and have just slipped a copy of Spleen and Ideal (Dead can Dance) into the CD player.

He does indeed move in the most Mysterious Ways…

In Euphoria, after the rain…

I'm walking through the University campus past the burned out block after a night in the Crown with Mike. Exchanging lyrics from Wedding Present songs:
Brassneck - I just decided
I don't love you any more etc. Inspired again
Buildings look so impressive in decay.
Twisted metal, smoke stained concrete.
Behind the Shattered glass.
A blackbird sings over "Her Second Winter"
Unusual for me to walk with music, but NildraHain is irresistible
There are stars
and laughter
A woman stands
naked at the window
Black on gold
Les Femmes Damnée
Sweet langour
An agonizing thrill
And when the streets are quiet
We'll walk out in the silence

It seems to have stopped raining. For three days now we have the most amazing swirling, windy downpour - seasonal weather at last. The school playgrounds been flooded out, so everyone's been piling into the classrooms at half past eight this week. I overhead the head commenting to Stan's teacher that people can make school a lot earlier when its raining…
We had to be there for 8.15 with Alice on Wednesday. She's been selected this term to take part in the new Civic Awards Scheme. This involves learning a new hobby (she and Trx have taken up knitting!), doing 15 minutes "housework" at home two days a week (she sets up and clears away the breakfast table) and half an hour once a week at school (tidying up the library books and/or the IT room). She loves it, and is doing very well so far. The knitting is challenging her because she absolutely cannot at all ever sit still long enough to get into something. Trx has picked it up very quickly tho, and already working on a scarf for her brother for Christmas!
And at last Alice lost her front tooth last night after weeks and weeks of fiddling and crying and making a general fuss. Stan wants to know why he can't lose his teeth either. He was early to get them tho (cut his first at three months) so I expect sometime this school year he will start. His "problem" has sorted itself out now, and we are wondering how much of it was to do with being apprehensive about going back to school after the halfterm holiday. Now he is no longer worried about that and all is well, he is so much more relaxed and was really good company at the swimming pool last night. Alice managed a whole 50m length on her front during yesterday's lesson, which pleased her no end because she is so much more confident on her back as a rule.
They're growing up, no doubt about that.
Managed to get along to Triangle Readers last night too (I missed thelast one in October) to talk about Suskind's "Perfume" - one of the best books I've read for a long time. Most people enjoyed it, but the dynamic of the group is weird and it really doesn't work in the shop anymore. Good food and all that, but the noise of the fridges drowns out conversation and its so small we have to sit in three groups. perhaps its time to move into people's homes?
With this last night and a night on the phone to RH and Tara Tuesday I haven't had an evening to get on with anything this week. Trx is out tonight as well, and then Friday I have pulled out of the Quiz night over at the church in order to get the shopping in for the meal I'm cookig on Sunday. By that time, D and I should have picked up the cash we're due from a leaflet print job which hopefully will be enough to last us over Christmas.
Intense Foxx period too now. Trading material with Shadow, MB and CC this week which has at last got me a copy of the very wonderful "From Brussels With Love" compilation. All in exchange for the Metamatics Nildra Hain EP which is growing on me more all the time and is this week's essential listening.
I prefer it to the Jak and Dive album on the whole, though that itself is brilliant, creative electronica. Strange, but the Free Robot single really stands out of place from the otherwise trance-like soundtrack. And the last track 'Stop This CD' is just silly.
Expecting a lot of material over the next six months. It seems John's creative log jam is beginning to clear and the Electrofear album will open the floodgates. "Musique Electron" should be next, though now that's been separated into two albums "Imaginary music" and "Tiny Coloured Fragments'. If everything that's being talked about happens we could see half a dozen albums by Easter!!
Joined iTunes today and picked up "Young Savage" by the Thrones as my first download.

At last I have time in the office to catch up on some of the work that piled up in my abscence last week. Sorted out the Hythe Ferry locator yesterday and spent a coupleof hours this morning up on the Common trying to redraw a lake! The Hawthorns send back our proof, which they are basically happy with, but one of the comments suggested that the Ornamental lake was the wrong shape! No other direction, just that. Best thing to do as always is to get up there and draw it from fieldnoted, so I took the camera and made a pleasant break out of it. They are right of course, we have drawn it wrong, but not badly enough to get too upset about. Two bus maps waiting for edits too, and a cost to put together for a new plan of the University campus.
it seems that Student Service have fallen out with their internal cartography unit who seem unable to produce a map of the site that is useful for prospectuses and websites! Crazy, but true, so they are looking at external suppliers. And they have their own aerial photography so i think we should be able to put together something more appropriate.
Wandered round the city with D yesterday putting up pageone and the response to this poster has been phenomenal. Everyone is cleanng it, keeping it clear of clutter, moving furniture etc etc and we have been promised another six sites this month. trouble is that we can't afford the frames! Our credit witht he supplier is right down the toilet and getting worse while we negotiate this cashflow deficit that threatens to last into the new year.
Spoke to Kink earlier, she thinks she may have left her bank card at the house. That probably means its in one of her collection of handbags. I think she bought another two during her four days here - not to mention another half dozen Tshirts.

And last night I rang Tara, but of course there was no-one in! trying to decide what to give her when we meet up on Saturday. The fotos from the Voxgate have gone online and it looks as if there were perhaps only a dozen or so people turned up. feel weird and nervous about meeting her and Andrew now, and it is becoming rather a Big Deal.
I think I will do a copy of the Hollywood gig from 1979, and maybe the new Metamatics album "3 Jak and Dive" which the office supplies account bought for me this morning. Its a little on the trance side of things for my immediate taste and I need to listen to it more carefully. The NildraHain EP at least, although this does include the original version of 4am on Spectre Canal. Most people I speak to seem to prefer John's remix - I haven't played the two back to back yet.
A copy of this album will also go in a package to ShadowMan before the weekend, setting him up to copy all the recent 12" vinyl remixes onto CD for me. And sometime this week, maybe even today, I should at last get a copy of the CD version of From Brussels With Love. Its been a nightmare sorting out this for the metamatic.com discography because there are so many different versions of it. Initially released on double cassette, then double vinyl, then CD all with different tracklistings. It will be left off for now until RH comes up with a definitive version.
really hope something goes up in the next week or two. Hot irons and all that…