As we walked towards the gym today, we caught the breeze in our bones, cloudy sky, no rain but after five minutes of walking you’ve warmed up anyway. It’s not exactly Siberia here and cold is relative, I still see people in coats when I’m in a T-shirt. Today walking through the Marquês green island, there was a seagull pecking at the carcass of a dead pigeon. Ok, it’s nature but to put a sentimental slant on it, this little park is usually populated by both seagulls and pigeons, they share it, but if you die, you just become meat. The park is across from the church and there are often homeless people here who go across to the church for food. Yesterday as we were just finishing the interview three teenage girls came up to us and told us that there was a man over there who was not feeling well. He was sat at one of the stone tables, he was homeless, he was an alcoholic and Carlos the interviewer went to help him and called an ambulance. The ambulance crew arrived and knew who he was. He hadn’t eaten all day and looked very fragile, Carlos went and bought him a sandwich. The ambulance took him away, another day in Marquês.

I had a sesh with Orlando in Cornwall today, I finished his book and was thinking more about how reading has this strange ability to make you love it whilst you are doing it, and yet despite that finding the time is almost impossible. Again, it’s priorities and even half an hour a day would be worthwhile but I was thinking today that in order for me to do everything I want, I may need to make a list with times on it that says things like, 8.00 PM eat, 8.02 PM, chew. I suppose one has to face up to the fact that most of your life has already happened and any big plans have to be carefully set out. Well, my father lived till he was 93, 30 years of music, travel, reading, languages, curating the In Deep Music Archive, and living, hopefully healthy, seems like quite a long time to enjoy your hobbies.

I didn’t want to get out of bed today and reluctantly got up after the third alarm. Hawaii is always the first task on the list as he lies by his food bowl and meows until he gets his brunch. Half a papaya, some cereal, and a cup of Celestial Seasonings Tension Tamer with honey for me, and it’s time to go, Olivia also trying to catch up. In the gym, I was reading on the bike and avoiding any machines that relate to my back as I have muscle pain higher up on the right side. On the pavement outside the gym, there were bags of half-eaten food strewn near the bins, it might have been the seagulls that had dragged them out but they don’t seem to like cherries as much as pigeon flesh as they lay untouched on the ground.

On the walk back home I noticed that there are posters displayed at the bus stop for live music. Os Azeitonas (The Olives), a pop-rock band, popular here in Portugal. It’s good learning languages because you finally understand things like ‘Os’ is ‘The’ in Portuguese. The Portuguese sixties psychedelic band Os Mutantes who became known some years ago outside Brazil translates simply to The Mutants, a radical sound, look and name for their country and era. Actually today I studied three languages, none of them Portuguese, I did simple exercises in German, Swedish, and French. French has become a little more complicated and I need longer periods of time to get through the lessons, so a slow down for the complicated and an introduction to simpler forms in other languages until I can get solid concentrated time on the more difficult levels.

Football today was very exciting for Liverpool fans as they beat Man U at Old Trafford 2-4, Kloppo’s first victory at their ground. It gives Liverpool the chance to qualify for the Champions League next year. But they have to win their last three games against West Brom, Burnley, and Crystal Palace. It would be a magnificent end to a disappointing season.

Music today has been a mixed bag, I woke up and played Wind And Wuthering (1976) by Genesis because Olivia likes it. Later it was Procol Harum’s great third album, A Salty Dog (1969), followed by Van der Graaf Generator’s more recent releases Trisector (2008), A Grounding In Numbers (2011), and ALT (2012). The first two are vocal, the last instrumental. Ooh, so good if you like this kind of thing. MORE ABOUT VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR.

Music Of The Daze