Slow typing

I cut my thumb last night when I was preparing dinner and I am having to use the wrong thumb for the space bar. I can't believe how slow that makes my typing so if I seem curt you know why. See how slow it is here.

I can't play the clarinet either for at least a week because of the bandage.

We didn't even get the dinner in the end because I burnt it while faffing around for plasters etc.

I'll be all healed up in time for Nano, though, so that's all right.

Clarinet again

I have now played a tune that someone else recognised without me telling them what it was meant to be. Progress at last.

Clarinet

I had my second clarinet lesson yesterday evening and my teacher told me that I'd made progress, so my daily practice is clearly paying off. I can now play both parts of Duet for Clarinet and Duck simultaneously. Previously I could only play Duck Solo with Long Silences. I still get the silences but not as many.

When I manage the occasional good note, or even a succession of good notes, I get a real sense of achievement.

Things to do in Bath

1. Arrive at Bath Spa Hotel. Find that someone has shaved their beard off in the en suite bath. At least, I hope it was someone's beard. Get housekeeping to sort it out.
2. Next day, find the bath is blocked and get told that you should not have been put in that room as it is out of service. Get allocated a junior suite with four poster bed.
3. Go to the hotel spa which has a sauna, steam room with twinkling lights and music, indoor heated pool and outdoor pool heated to bath temperature. Relax.
4. Go to see a raunchy black comedy called Hoors. Laugh a lot.
5. Eat in lots of different restaurants. Find a house red wine that's better than some expensive wines. Don't cook. Yay!
6. Have a back massage.
7. Wander round the shops.
8. Buy a clarinet.

I didn't want to come home.

Why I didn't write this weekend

Boating at Oxford

I was at a wedding in Oxford this weekend, my fourth this year.

It was a special wedding for a special friend and I met some interesting people and learnt about the English quarter pipes which are played using a bellows rather than by blowing into them. I'd love to learn to play but I'd probably be better off learning the clarinet and I would never be much good, starting at my age.

There's no charge for dreaming though.