Today I finally found the shop where I could take my delay pedal to get fixed. It was so easy to find that it would have been harder not to find it, somehow I managed the latter. I could even see it from the road I walk down every day. Friendly guys in there, Jorge and Pedro, Pedro on his way out, Jorge had spent four years living near Oxford and spoke really good English. I showed him the pedal, he tried it, it didn’t work. He unscrewed it all, took the casing off and inside it looked quite complex. He went and tried it again without the casing and it worked perfectly. He then replaced the casing and it didn’t work – I left it with him.

I walked to the gym/pool a different route and found myself on some windy narrow back streets. It was a typical Porto street, with houses of different shapes and sizes, different colours, lots of tiles, some ruined, some extraordinarily beautiful. I walked until I found myself back in a street that I knew, I’d overshot the street I needed but was near enough and had explored an area I hadn’t been to before. It was a beautiful day for a walk like this, a stroll through authentic southern Europe.

I had two seshes today, one with Brian in Indiana, the other with Jeff in Ohio, dinner and Aston Villa/Liverpool in between. I was also trying to do the daily language but managed only a small part with seshes and a chat with my mate Boydy on the phone. The days are way too short. I collapse into bed wondering about the things I didn’t manage today, wiring up my pedalboard, writing a song, reading a book.

The insects have started flying back into the room, bees and flies so far, nothing too scary. I keep on thinking one of the seagulls or pigeons is going to fly in because up here on the fifth floor, they are always flying past the window or landing on the roof just above us. Sometimes they sit on the window ledge and coo. As the early evening arrives and before the light fades, a gang of tweeting birds arrive on the roof and sing sweet music to the sky.

People are talking about a murder today here in Porto, young men fighting until someone dies, pointless, the man who died was 26, the man/boy allegedly responsible for his death, just 19. Meaningless slaughter in the streets, the humans are at it again.

Music today has been Tori Amos – Ocean to Ocean. She was always accused of being too much like Kate Bush but these days she sounds quite like herself. This is her latest album released at the end of October 2021.

Music Of The Daze