Olivia told me late last night that we should expect an electrician to come calling between 10.30 AM and 1 PM. As I got to bed after 5 AM I wasn’t looking forward to the horror of the bell ringing. But at 12.30 PM my alarm went off and he hadn’t arrived yet. We later got a message saying he managed to look at the problem by just being in the building and didn’t need to get into the apartment. The reason I bring this up is that the Earth should be twinned, ok that’s not going to happen, so how about we have two societies, those that like to work at night and those that like to work in the day. It would be perfect for the capitalists because there would be 24-hour commerce, not just in the world but also in each country as the night society took over from the day society. What I’m suggesting is that the night isn’t just for clubs and going out – entertainment for the day people, there should be a whole other society of “normal” jobs that start at midnight in the office and finish at 7 AM, sleep till 1or 2 PM and then have the afternoon and the evening before going to work. We could even share the evening entertainment with the day people. Perfect. Why do we have to get up so early for school? Hasn’t the pandemic shown us that we can do proper work from home? Couldn’t we pick our own hours from either of the two societies? Couldn’t there be plumbers and electricians that didn’t start work at 7 AM? Couldn’t school start later? “Please don’t wake me, no, don’t shake me, leave me where I am, I’m only sleeping”.

I’ve had new sessioneers this week, Michael in Sydney, Chris in Cape Cod and Mike in Chicago, so it’s been busy with the 112-year-old sessioneers as well. As it’s the end of the month, it’s time to start seriously booking the archive move. Aram who looks after the archive when we are not there has been helping me figure out how many boxes we need for 50,000 vinyl albums. Then there’s the CDs, the singles and the books. Then there’s packing the boxes, labelling the boxes and carrying them, they’re heavy and – can the truck take the weight? What about the heat issue, they can’t get hot or they’ll be ruined. I’ll keep you posted on progress but I have a question for those of you that have your record collections on hand. If I have a box that is 13 inches high, 13 inches wide and 18 inches long how many records will it take to fill it up? Of course, some records are thinner than others but they will be packed in alphabetical order so it will be a mixture. Then the question is how many CDs or 7-inch singles fit in a box this size? Let me know if you can work it out, thank you in advance.

Other important events – the tea I made this morning didn’t get to my lips till 10 PM tonight. I just couldn’t throw it away and make a fresh one. I heated it up in the microwave and frankly, it tasted just as good as if I’d only just made it. A herbal teabag isn’t the same as ‘real’ tea that needs to be brewed. The other problem is that I’m on the last box and although we‘ve ordered some more from Spain, it hasn’t arrived yet and the thought of running out is too much to bear. The other problem is that when we ordered it we got two simultaneous messages giving an approximation of delivery along with another message saying “out of stock”. So every last teabag has to be preserved in case the unthinkable comes to fruition.

On the way to the pool today my posh Lidl bag finally lost its last strand which left it awkward to carry and had me wondering if I could find the time this week to get to either the sports shop to buy a proper bag or get back to the psychedelic psupermarket for another classy Lidl bag. I just haven’t been able to find a gap between polishing the Roller, seshes, staying fit, languages, writing and hanging out with the ghosts of music past. At the pool, I managed 102 laps and Filipe who also swims there told me I must have good lungs. I told him that it’s probably a good time in the history of the Earth to have good lungs. I hadn’t really considered why I swim so many lengths except for the fact that I like swimming, cutting through the water, finding a rhythm and feeling my body getting worked. Also this week I have an early sesh on Friday so I’ll only be able to do the mile before I have to stop so these 102, 112 days will make up the numbers. The lockdown scared my body, literally to death and now the opportunity to recover it is timely, I just wish the pandemic would leave the planet so my body can start functioning again out there in the world.

Music today was mostly playlist and random songs but when I got back from the pool I listened to Led Zep IV – really I did! So I actually listened to Stairway to Heaven, the song that along with Smoke On The Water and Money, you may not need to ever hear again.

Album Of The Daze