Notification yesterday that Flo has got her place at our first choice Secondary school in September.
She's the only one in her Year 6 going ot this school, but seems OK with it. A couple of girls from her Guides pack will also be starting.

Meanwhile Girl 5 is responding well to the Sleep management programme.
Last night, she slept from 8pm till 4am so I didn't have the inbetween wake up to do. No sign yet either of her midnight wakign tonight, so we are getting somewhere.

The 2--7 music wave is building up at last. It's been a slow start this year.
Today I have downloaded the new
Harold Budd album "Perhaps"
from samadisound. Beautiful as ever, but doesn't strike me as desperately innovative this time. It's Harold Budd being Harold Budd, and no-one does that gentle treated piano thing better.
I went out lunchtime yesterday and purchased
Grinderman
the new 'hairy scary' album from Nick Cave.
Absolutely superb, even from the point of view of someone who prefers Cave's ballards and moody (Boatman's Call etc) albums. Hard, fast, and in yer face!
ELO re-mastered "Out of the Blue
One of those great-moments-in-world-history kind of albums. It's just impossible NOT to have this and say you're "into music"
Ditto of course (and this is outrageous)
The Beatles fortieth anniversary edition of "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band"
Apparently, this has lost some of its charm since it was reprodcued in stereo. Hard to concieve that it's lost anything! How good must it be in mono???
What else? Record library acquisitions include
Ian Dury"Mr Love Pants"
if he ever did an album to rival New Boots and Pantiesthen this has to be it. I love his wordplay, and he excels in his genius on tracks like Itinerant Child and Mash It Up Harry but never has anyone recorded anything to match the sublime ode to the the wonderful Geraldine

I'm in love with the person at the sandwich centre
If she didn't exist, I'd have to invent her…
In beauty's eyes beholden my enamorata
As she works her magic on a dried tomater

G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-Gereraldine
That's the nicest badge I've ever seen

Isn't it though? You just know the despair and complex feelings the singer is trying ot express. Genius.

And the two I haven't played yet
Dead can DanceWave
and, from 2006
Nouvelle VagueBande à Part
whcih includes covers of 'Bela Lugosi's Dead', 'Ever fallen In Love' and 'Dancing With Myself'
if it's half as good as their first album, I'm in for a treat