Olivia and I got to walk out into the summer today, in Porto, a first. When we got back from Texas she was here for five minutes and then she was flying to Germany to host the Night Of The Prog festival, visiting family and seeing friends. So that romantic walk to drop off the rubbish and the cruise around the second-hand furniture shop was extremely satisfying. On top of all that, we bought two small pieces of furniture, a mad cheap orange fake fur seventies blanket for no money, and two great old-fashioned mannequins in good condition that will keep the In Deep Music Archive weird.

A trip to the coffee shop didn’t work because the summer queue was too busy and when we hit the main street it was so packed it looked like The Beatles must have reformed. Still, Porto has that lovely, mild sea breeze from the Atlantic that makes summers here bearable. We haven’t been experiencing any of the terrible heat problems that the rest of Southern Europe has endured.

Hayden and Suze were priming one of the Archive rooms today and sanding the studio room, which was another reason why we took the opportunity to get out into the day. The screeching of that tool on the panels is excruciating and we really needed to escape it. It means that all the rooms have now been started or finished and the main work should be done by the end of the week. Maybe some trims will need finishing next week and door knobs would be nice. Also, the windows need a serious cleaning and there are lots of them. There are big windows at the front and then all the panels throughout the place have glass above them, none of which have been cleaned for five years.

It was nice in the quieter moments to sit in the front room and listen to music, sitting in front of the speakers in a comfy chair, with no phone. This reminds me, my phone’s battery has died. It says 100% after it’s charged and the next time I look at it, it’s dead. So if anyone is trying to WhatsApp me at the moment, I may not see it till I get the battery replaced, which might be next week.

I’d better go to bed, I have ‘horror day’ at the dentist day tomorrow as a crown fell out, so it’s either pull the tooth, get a plate for this and other gaps, or pay a million for a new crown, and I need more than one. All bad choices to be made whilst lying on your back with an interrogation light shining in your eyes and a stranger drilling in your mouth, can’t wait.

Music today has been Lana Del Rey’s mellow Chemtrails Over The Country Club (2021), her seventh album and the first of two albums she released that year, she’s prolific and I like her.

Music Of The Daze