So my filling had finally and completely fallen out by the end of the day. A gaping hole in your tooth isn’t the best way to start the week, especially when six days earlier you were lying flat in the chair trying not to expose who the other agents are and where they are located. So that’s where I start my day tomorrow, trying to get an appointment to fix my last appointment with a dentist who doesn’t have an available appointment before the last day of August.

I started the day with an Arktik Lake sesh with Tony before continuing to find things that need fixing as we get into the closing stages of Phase 2 in The Archive, all the painting should be done this week, but I don’t think we’re going to have door handles for a while. A couple of more wall brackets for the guitars and then I’ll be able to sit and concentrate on all the finishing touches on the nearly finished projects and then start all the projects that need starting and continue with the projects that are halfway through. I suppose that’s how it has to be, projects have to be at different stages of development. When you are working in multiples, you can’t be at the beginning of everything or the end of everything, although I am still trying to figure out how to get 48 hours into a day.

On the subject of time, I was reading an article today about scientists getting closer to figuring out why we age, I guess I’ll be missing out on that technology like the Victorians missed out on Teslas. But maybe they can save the DNA and bring me back in 3023 to restore the In Deep Music Archive if digital madness has seen it fall into decay. On that note we are just about €500 from reaching the Phase 2 goal, preparing for the realities of Phase 3, the exodus from England of the collection and its establishment here in Porto. Ariel’s exodus from England would also be welcome, we wait.

We decided to go for a walk today just to get out of the house, and see the sun on a Sunday. The streets were full of tourists, but we left it till 6.30 PM, so there were fewer people around, probably they were at dinner, or back at their Airbnbs. The tourist explosion brings a lot of money into Portugal, but there is a massive affordable housing crisis as the Airbnbs are everywhere and rents are generally too high for locals as monthly wages are some of the lowest in Europe. Good luck getting out of your parents’ house, flat shares are the only option, one average local income simply isn’t enough to secure a flat. A cap is needed on rents, so the locals can survive because a town full of tourists and locals who can’t make ends meet is not a happy place, and the Portuguese are a naturally welcoming people.