Today we went to the Marquês market, close to where we used to live, to check out what oddities we might find there. Emanuel was there, I have been buying his collection of Wire magazines from him every time I go there (€1 each), today was the last batch. He also told me that he’d found a live review of the ex-band in Lisbon (apparently it was good). It was in May 1990, and the only time I’d ever been to Portugal before moving here. It might seem strange to move to a city you’d never been to and to a country you have been to once 30 years ago for a few hours – hm, it probably was a strange thing to do, but I’m glad we did it.

Other oddities were a €2 back scratcher disguised as a pen, a €4 mermaid doll (not Barbie, a competitor), an old scale from a pharmacy (€15), a 50c pink holder for paper towels and a €3 concertina magazine rack that’s not really working very well. After that we went down to Tubitek, I got a mail telling me the new Clientele – I Am Not There Anymore (2023) had arrived and the new Greta Van Fleet – Starcatcher (2023) was also waiting for me in the shop – two slightly opposite pop/rock bands, variety is the spice of life. On the way down there in the week, I was spotted by Michael (an Australian on holiday) because I was wearing my Red Eye shirt, which he commented on. I invited him over to see the place later today, which he did.

Someone in the building next door complained about our neighbours’ café deck that’s right outside our front gate. One of the complaints was the colour of the umbrella – they supplied a list of acceptable colours. Oddly, one of the colours was a shade of red, the colour the umbrella already was. So it was a very big umbrella and it seems that complaint inspired three smaller umbrellas for the three tables. Honestly, who lives in a street like this and complains? I remember playing at The Fillmore once in San Francisco and being told, ‘Whatever you do, don’t have the back doors open during soundcheck or we’ll be in big trouble from people who have moved in across the way’. Is there anywhere you can just complain about horrible people?

After Michael was here, we decided to watch a film and mega-Trekkie Olivia who has seen every episode of every incarnation of any Star Trek-related series, somehow hadn’t seen the films. So tonight we watched the first one from 1979, it was beautiful and slow. It was ten years since the original sixties series had ended and this was the beginning of the franchise. I was thinking they probably thought to make the film because Star Wars had been so popular in 1977, but interestingly the film was more thoughtful and visual like 2001 (1968) with no epic battles at all.