Venturing out today I got as far as the recycling bins across the road. There, amongst an overflowing mess of plastic bags, clothing and cardboard was a small quarter-size wooden palette. We’ve been looking for something that’s just the right size to place between the wheel arches that rises Ariel’s mattress a little higher, and this looked just about perfect. It was then that it started to rain, so I had a good excuse to take the palette home and in dropping it off pick up my umbrella. I’m glad I did because the whole length of the walk to the pool it poured with rain. But despite autumn’s presence in the street, the evidence of brown leaves suddenly appearing in the gutters and those lush and vibrant branches in the Marquês park looking decidedly droopy, it was still warm – but then my hot blood thinks it’s warm when the humans are all wrapped up and it’s the middle of winter (okay, not in Stockholm).

I’ve been working on a new swimming regimen, ten with the floats, ten breaststroke, twenty freestyle, ten backstroke, twenty more freestyle and two dilapidated moths. It’s quite exhausting, especially the ten with the floats, just kicking your legs and trying to gain forward momentum. Swinging your arms in all different directions wears you out and that 72 lengths ends up taking about an hour and a half, substantially longer than just swimming a non-stop freestyle mile of 64 with a mix of eight extras in different strokes. Consequently, it doesn’t take long for the day to disappear and this is why I stay up so late, as Olivia reminded me – into madrugada – as they call it, the time between midnight and sunrise, it’s also the name of a Norwegian band.

On the way to the pool today I came across Austrian bikers, with the ‘cuts’ and Harleys and the hair and the beards. Their bikes were parked and there were six members, two walking, two standing and two oddly sitting at a small table in a cafe which looked too small for them, like adults sitting at a kids’ table at a kindergarten. I had bikes as a teenager and hung out with some bike lovers (Hi Spant). We had leather jackets, but I never felt the urge to get into the tough side, these guys looked tough.

Pool, psychedelic psupermarket and sesh followed by dinner and watching Giri/Haji (one episode left). Duolingo Spanish and some texts with Olivia and I’m about ready to hit the sack. I watched some of the Roma/Empoli game but I was falling asleep and forced myself up at halftime into the kitchen and iPod land.

Music today was Porcupine Tree’s Deadwing (2005), a riffy affair with some great melodic moments like the single Lazarus and long engaging tracks like Arriving Somewhere But Not Here. Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt guests. Great album if you like this kind of thing.

Music Of The Daze