To hell with your mug tree. The monks are dying in the mud!

I have an in-growing hair right on my jaw which has left me looking like a cartoon character with a bad tooth, or a lack lustre Elephant Man. Monica has gone away to Denmark this morning so now it is just me and the cockatiels rattling around the house. My mother is coming down for a few days at Christmas and I believe we will be dining on pheasant. Not bad really. I also have a holiday to Denmark at the end of January to look forward to. So all in all, despite being without Monica for the best part of a month, things are not so bad.

I suppose I could throw a major party at some stage, with donkeys and drugs and togas and puerile boob gags. On the other hand I might buckle down and work on the music for the Sereia de Curitiba show. Of course I can do that but tell everyone that I have been having a zany time a la Animal House. Thank goodness there is no chance of me having a zany time a la Weekend at Bernie’s. Or, worse still, a zany time a la Caddy Shack. What breed of creature is Rodney Dangerfield?

We went over to Huw and Manuela’s on Monday night for a lovely meal and plenty of wine. We played a crazy French card game, the name of which currently escapes me. Nines were worth fourteen except when they weren’t and if you didn’t score eighty two the other team got two hundred and fifty two. Delightfully confusing.

The music for the second story in the Sereia de Curitiba will resemble what you hear when you walk around at a musical festival, with the different pieces of music being played on different stages mingling together. It should be really interesting to write and nice and atmospheric. We’ll use two basses on this one rather than the first one, to give it that distorted sub bass feel of live music in the open air. What makes it doubly interesting is that since Monica is away for the best part of a month I will write my own part and let Monica do hers when she gets back. Should be good. Huw showed me around his virtually completed recording studio on Monday and I was really impressed. When I remember what that little damp cellar used to be like the transformation is exceptional. This is where we will be recording the music for the talking book and it should be a good experience.