Up and out in the direction of the pool today without actually getting in it. I’d brought some Earl Grey tea from England for the reception ladies as well as an Erling Haaland figure for one of their sons. It was quite a walk from where we are but I wanted to do it to get my legs working again after they were failing during the food poisoning debacle. I’m going to try and make it to the pool on Wednesday, we’ll see. From there I walked up to Marquês and bought some pão da avó (grandmother’s bread rolls) from the bakery I frequented when living around the corner. I walked past the old flat as someone was going in the front door and didn’t miss it, nice location, too small but at least we had water and electricity.

I met Olivia at the coffee shop before we went to the new place to do some more cleaning which is pretty hard without water. Still, some brushing and cleaning surfaces with wet wipes, some cobweb removal, and a little mould spraying kept us busy. We had to take a picture of the electricity meters for the landlord and Olivia took pix of the tapless sinks. We went and bought a trowel so I could dig into the plant soil and reinvigorate it with another bottle of still water. We went to the second-hand furniture place and considered buying a table but didn’t, it all depends on the plans for the front part of the premises where the big windows are. Should it be tables and chairs, sofas, sun lounges, an intergalactic beaming point? Who knows.

One thing we know is that luthier Jorge is coming at midday tomorrow to dismantle and take away the counter that must have been the reception desk when it was a lab (which reminds me we saw a beautiful Afghan hound today). It’s perfect for his new workshop reception area and just in the way where it is now. It didn’t look so dirty because it was light wood but I wiped the top with a wet wipe anyway and it was black, that’s five years of dirt, dust, and pollution.

I left for a Skype with Andreas about the next mixing projects and soon realised that I was two days early. I watched Everton/Spurs for a cracking last-minute 1-1 draw before talking to Salim about future projects and doing my first of the week’s Duolingo Spanish before my eyes became tired and my head literally folded into two and rolled under the bed, that’s when I knew I should sleep.

Music today had been Seal’s debut album (1991). As I was sitting in the new premises today, a car in a queue outside was blasting Crazy out of the window. I always thought that was a great song and bought the 12-inch, the CD single, and the album – thirty years ago.

Music Of The Daze