The good, the bad and the ugly

I have a new sub-folder in my writing folder. This one is called New Poems 2020, and I'm really pleased. In the last two weeks I have been struggling with lockdown. Just when things seem to be easing, my tunnel has appeared longer.

I've tried to work out why I feel this way. These are the conclusion I have come to:

1. Because I don't do Zoom I suppose I feel more isolated from my friends
2. Although some restrictions have eased they haven't benefitted me. Those with cars can now drive out to places. Without a car I rely on public transport, which we are told to avoid. Therefore, I feel I am missing out.
3. The things that I most want to do are still unavailable - museums, art galleries, historic houses.
4. The weather can change how I feel

Being outside really helps me. It is where I relax and find peace, so walking is high on my agenda. But I have exhausted the nearest green spaces. To find others I have to walk several miles before I can embrace the green. For a while I was in a dark place but there is now talk of how museums might operate, so I keep up to date with that waiting for the green light.  That's a lot of green!

My one, no two life saving things right now is poetry and art, oh and music - that's three, and this line is starting to sound like a Monty Python sketch!

I had written a couple of new poems and realised I missed writing my one-a-day-poem-for-a-year. This time I'm not purposely setting out a commitment to write everyday for a year. Just to try and write something each day, but no pressure to do so. Luckily, I have hit one of those rare writing splurges. Some of the poems have been quite desparate 'lockdown' poems, but others not. I have been reading The Forward Book of Poetry 2019 and the Brotherton Prize Anthology of Poetry (judged by Simon Armatage). Here I have found inspiration (as well as wondering what some poems were actually about!). I am now reading Gerard Manley Hopkins, whose poetry style I find intriguing and sometimes try to emulate. I already have twenty-five new poems in my new folder (that shocked me when I went to count them). Of course, some won't see the light of day, some are personal and some were just fun to write. But I am pleased with quite a few, and I have time to spend going over them, so they are not such raw first drafts.

Art-wise I spent an hour yesterday morning drawing a plan of the park where I jog to show the progress I have made since I first began running back in March. And I also made paper girls to support #ListenToGirls for World Refugee Day on Saturday. Art comes in all shapes and sizes whether it is a not-to-scale park map, paper girls or a pen and ink drawing. I have to say I loved drawing the map!

Music is with me constantly. Right now I'm listening to a YouTube Mix, and I mostly write to music. I listen to music while I iron (singing and dancing with an iron can be tricky!). Oh, and I finished my online songwriting course. I learned a lot, especially how much a technophobe I am. Lots of other students recorded their songs with professional sounding music software. I was struggling with Audacity just to record voice and a badly played guitar! But other students were very kind to me. I am now considering which free music software to download to use at my leisure. They all look so complicated and I'm dithering. The one everyone raves about is GarageBand, but I don't have a Mac or Ipad, so it is of no use to me.

So, there we have it, a mixed bag. Keep writing. Keep reading (another life-saver - that's four things!)

Here is my song (words and music by me). Hope this link works. Sorry about the low sound.

https://soundcloud.com/heather01-1/small-town

Arty and musical diversions

I've been so busy in the last couple of days that I have barely watched the news, which I think is probably good for me. I seem to have set off into my own little world. I rise early. This is the second morning I've been up around 5.30am because the light wakes me. I come down for my first mug of tea and my son's pet rats are climbing up the cages for their treat of the morning. They are most often waiting for me! I chat to them - I'll talk to anything - flowers, trees, myself, and then, if it is not my morning for jogging, I read before coming on to my laptop. Maybe I will do my poem of the day or work on my novella before stopping for breakfast around 8-8.30am. After that I usually get dressed. If it's a shopping morning I go out into the crazy world of social distancing and shop where I can. Yesterday, I finally got into Waitrose and stocked up on my regular washing power (cruelty free) and such like. I also got into Wilco. It really was my day.

A slight diversion coming here. It has been difficult to keep up my pledges to ditch plastics since lockdown. Nearly everything comes covered in plastic and I've had to revert to using fabric softener because I have difficulty getting the large white vinegar bottles I've been using. Still, I have managed to stick to cruelty free versions at least, but I have ordered online for my washing up liquid from Natural Collection. I found they stock quite a range of food and since stocks at Holland & Barratt are dwindling I've ordered soya chunks and tins of braised Tofu. My son tried ordering from H&B's online store but both times only received part orders. It has been very disappointing. For us veggies and almost vegans it has been hard to source everything we need. The smaller local shops have little choice even in everyday stuff sometimes. So, I have had to make some compromises, but cruelty free products I will  not compromise on.

I have been binge watching art programmes including Grayson Perry's Art Club which is great fun. Last week he was talking about portraits and I did this one of Boris Johnson. I think drawing faces is the hardest thing, and it must be decades since I've attempted one. There was one tip that artist Maggie Hamblin offered about art in last night's programme - draw every day. Sounds like writer's advice. There are great similarities between art and writing, I feel.

Pencil and charcoal

Another project I have become involved with is a music one. An ex-musical director of the choir I sing with is forming a virtual choir for a mental health charity and was asking people to record themselves singing the song he posted up via YouTube and email it to him. He will then stitch all the parts together and the finished video will be posted on YouTube around the 18th May. So, a lot of Sunday afternoon I was upstairs in the bedroom learning the song (it only has four lines) and getting used to using the camera on my laptop (yes, I had to ask one of my kids to help me with that...oh the shame!). It took rather a lot of takes to get it right, but it is now with Ben and he is happy with it. When it appears on YouTube I will share it with you.

Still, on the subject of music, I have started an online course with FutureLearn about songwriting. Several years ago I took one with Coursera, but this one feels a lot different and I am enjoying it. I got so caught up in it that I completed the first week in one day. The theme this week is home/place. There are playlists, videos and advice. My first set of lyrics weren't that great, though I was pleased with the chorus. I decided to have a second attempt. I'd hoped to save the chorus but I ended up with something different. I'm more pleased with these as they offer a better nostalgic feel. I began my writing adventures as a young teen writing lyrics, so I am going back to my roots here.

And still more about music, watching Ben working with mixers and loops on his YouTube channel is making me itch to have a go, though I have no idea where to start. I've been looking at tutorials for Audacity, which I had on my old laptop for the Coursera course. Back in my day..oh eons ago...I devised my own way of recording two tracks by using my brother's cassette recorder for a first voice and guitar. Then I'd play the track through my stereo and harmonise with myself and sometimes add a basic rhythm using the body of my guitar (though I also had some drum tracks on cassette I would also use at times).  When I bought Dan Morgan's book on guitar it was this method he suggested. In those days mixing decks weren't widely available unless you worked in a studio and the internet and music software was a thing of the future.

You may be able to tell that I am a little excited by all this, but then I've always been fascinated by musical things. I enjoy watching musicians warm up, I want to know where the leads go and why, what they do. The equipment looks daunting but I would love to know how it all works. I know that if I'd been born later I'd have been into all this big time by now. Now, if I could just overcome my fear of Zoom!

Ollie

Rizzo

Satellites, flames and the aroma of art materials

Ah, the whiff of paper and charcoal

Some surprising things this week - the excitement of watching Starlink Satellites moving through the sky over our house one night, the aroma of new art materials, and finding a spark has ignited the flame in writing.

Yes, this is the week when we were to see meteor showers in the night sky. Well, never saw those (though a friend north of London says she saw them on Monday night), but the experience of seeing the Satellites was wired and awesome. They came over our roof top in a line, a tiny light each like high flying planes. They were spaced out in equal distance, and there were masses of them coming one by one moving at a steady pace. It was fascinating. My son tells me these are to do with the internet. I wonder if our signal was stronger as they came over our house! As for the meteor showers, I did spend a good deal of time looking for them to no avail, but Venus has been so bright these nights and seems closer. I'm no astronomer, so I have no idea if it is any closer.

Venus (taken with my mobile)

This morning my art supplies have arrived. Now that is exciting too. I had not noticed before (or have forgotten) the aroma of art material. Books, yes. I am a sniffer of books, a toucher of books. Books are seductive. But paper and charcoal? Well, yes. Mmm. With the good weather holding it might be a few days before I get down to any real art. My attempts at watercolour last week were laughable. Now with the right paper....well I'm not holding my breath. I seem to either produce something good or very, very bad. We shall have to see.

I made tentative connections with my novella and everything was painfully slow and painful to write. I felt nothing in particular. I tried working out next scenes in my head and lost a lot of sleep one night over it, but in the morning I reeled off over 2,000 words. When I read it back I was surprised to find I quite liked it, despite having changed the tense a few times and even the POV. But I could rectify that straightaway. I seem to have found a way forward, though no ending as such - I hope that will sort itself out in the same way as this part of the story unravels. But I noticed that I was excited by what I was writing and I've written something for the last three mornings. I am back to my mulling between writes. When that works and the ideas come then I can't get the words down fast enough. I'm trying not to think far ahead and writing for myself. This began as a dystopian story and I thought it was for adult readers, but now I'm wondering if it falls in with young adult as the main character is a thirteen year old boy. I do read young adult myself sometimes if the story appeals, like Seeker by William Nicholson and Half Bad by Sally Green. For now I just want to finish it and then maybe I'll be able to finish the other novella I started several years ago.

One sad thing happened at the weekend. The tree in the alleyway was butchered by the guys from the garage because the branches hung over their garage roof. Technically the tree probably doesn't belong to anyone, though my neighbour had a tree surgeon in a few years ago to cut it back as it was overhanging her garden and house so much. But she lives in South Korea and only comes home once a year. The garage guys just used a hacksaw and made a terrible job of it. I felt bereft as that tree, which I consider 'my tree' because its the first thing I see from my lounge window, brings me so much joy as I watch it change through the seasons. All kinds of birds visit it too. I thought they were going to cut the whole thing down but they have left some of it and I am grateful for that, though it looks how I feel.

What's left of 'my' tree

In my own garden I have installed a tiny fountain in my tiny pond. This pond is only an old pet carrier which arrived without a lid. The company just sent a complete one and never asked for the bottom bit back. I found a use for it. The pond became stagnant in my little wildlife garden. So I bought the fountain, cleaned the whole pond out and installed it. The only thing is that because the wind has been so strong the water gets blown over the grass and I filled it three times yesterday. The fountain is solar powdered and I have to move the panel around to catch the sun as where the pond is is rather shady. I moved the panel away from the sun yesterday while the wind remains strong and will try again.

So, that my week.

Overwhelmed with resources and finding the calm way

My mixed media effort

There are a lot of resources out there right now, whether it is a chance to learn something new or enjoy a virtual gallery visit. Lots of the resources are free, and everyday my inbox informs me of the many things I could be doing as I have all this time on my hands.

There has also been posts about being under pressure to write. Well, we have no excuse now, do we? I have become a little overwhelmed with what is on offer and have backed away. My only goal is to finish my poetry challenge - only three weeks to go!

One thing I have wanted to have another at is art. I am trying to find which medium my talents (if any) lie. I have dabbled over the last few weeks, producing about four pieces of work. I don't consider myself to be very good at watercolour painting, but yesterday I had an email from Cass Art with tips. Seems like maybe I have been doing it all wrong. The tips were most enlightening and perhaps I should not throw out the paints with pad. Indeed, I have ordered some art supplies online. That in itself was difficult as most suppliers were out of stock of the things I wanted. I finally found a company in London who turned out to be cheaper. I've always been drawn to ink drawing and would like to try ink and wash. In the past I also loved using charcoal so I've sent for some charcoal pencils rather the messy sticks I have lurking somewhere in a box. It might be two weeks before I receive the goodies but it is something to look forward to.

Having been so active in the garden I now want to brighten it up with accessories and have ordered a ladybug house and a tiny fountain spray for my tiny pond. It is in desperate need of something. At present the water is stagnant and the pond needs cleaning, It is supposed to be part of my wildlife garden which I started last year, and there are some nice rotting wood pieces and other items to encourage wildlife. Now it needs a bit of attention to bring it to life.

The only 'writerly' thing I have done is to buy a download mini guide from Mslexia on poetry writing.

Perhaps I should be writing more, but I think each of us has to get through these times the best way we can, and having had a couple of melt downs with short fuse syndrome, I have to seek out what calms me. Sometimes that is escaping for a walk far away from everyone (which has been difficult as the weather has brought everyone out) or burying my head in music and messing about with paints.

One line is all it took

Candle holder (detail)

It seems that the nearer to my goal I get the harder it gets. With just under seven weeks to go before I end my one-a-day-for-a-year poetry challenge, the blank page taunts me. Some days I am throwing words together to get something down.

This morning, however, I was reading about David Jones, artist, in the book Unquiet Landscape by Christopher Neve and one line shot out at me, something Jones had said about a place he stayed in, and I used that line to form a poem.

Isn't it great how the imagination clicks into place? I savour moments like these. Where would I be without them? I quickly dashed off a poem using each verse to describe different elements and their affect on the person (not Jones, particularly, but someone).

I have (apparently like Simon Armatage, so I read), been writing rather a lot of poems about Covid 19, but it is easy to get bogged down with them. I was, before that, bogged down with climate change poetry. It seems that a lot of my poetry this year has been about what has been going on in the world, so it is nice when something else breaks through. I write a lot about nature, the elements, and then there are those I call rather 'off the wall' poems, or a little risque, or indeed the ethereal. I also return to subjects I have written about before as if I am not happy with what I have previously said, and by covering it again I might just get to what I really mean.

I think most creative people do this returning to things. I have written about this before - artists certainly do it. We become obsessed with one particular subject, or several subjects, as if we really need to pin it down. I'm not sure we ever do, but we keep on trying.

Well, having written my poem of the day I now have many hours to fill while staying home. So far, my plans haven't quite worked because the weather has been so beautiful. I have a bench outside the kitchen door (featured a lot in this blog!). It's a suntrap and I have been spending a couple of hours or so there each day reading. I have to make the most of it because the weather is due to turn colder by the weekend. However, I have signed up for an online course, Introduction to Geology with OpenLearn. I have had a fascination for it going back to school days and watching volcanoes on an educational film in the classroom. My science is zilch, much like my maths, but my interest hasn't waned. My favourite fossil is the Trilobite, should you be interested, and tectonic plates fascinate me. So, there you go. I've just completed the first week of four. on that course. Where will all these lead, I wonder? Maybe to some new poems!

Live poetry, an exhibition and Christmas

I have been without the internet for three days. You never quite realise how much you miss it until that happens. Some workmen drilled through the Virgin Media fibre optic cable, near me, along with some gas pipes and it affected a large part of south west London. The priority was to get the hospital back on line and then everyone else. I'm not sure if everyone has been re-connected but ours came back at eleven o'clock last night.

At one point I used the internet via my son's mobile so I could do some essential things, but his data was going so I was quick. Even our local coffee shop had no wi-fi! While there is something to be said for getting away from social media for a while, the internet has become an everyday essential.

And now I'm back I can do a catch up. Last Sunday afternoon I went along to the Boulevard Theatre in Soho again. This time Live Canon presented an event with Valley Press - four of their poets were reading. I came across Valley Press some years ago and have bought books from them. Recently they started a subscription service and, liking what they do, I have signed up for a year. So I was keen to support them at this event and I got to see the theatre itself. It is a small and very intimate space. I booked a seat in the second row. I hadn't expected to be so close to the stage. This is an excellent space for poetry. Helen from Live Canon introduced Jamie McGarry from Valley Press who then went on to introduce each poet. The four performing were Ralph Dartford, Cherry Taylor Battiste, Adham Smart and Julia Deakin. I had not come across any of these poets before but their poems were powerful and very different. While I enjoyed all the poets my favourite was Julia Deakin for her variety.

I hope to return to the Boulevard in the future and hear more poets. There is something going on there every Sunday afternoon. There is a lovely bar/restaurant area, which was quiet by that time. I had a nice pot of tea, but I had to smile. With all the drinks machines around these days huffing and puffing through frothy coffees and different teas, my tea was made by boiling a kettle. How quaint!

Since that event I have received my first newsletter and book from Valley Press as part of the subscriptions service (you get to choose your books). I have a book of short stories by Judy Darley, and I think next time I will choose Julia Deakin's book.

Now Christmas is upon us and I've been baking biscuits and making my marzipan sweets. It's something I used to do to you use up left over marzipan after covering a Christmas cake. I no longer make a Christmas cake as only I eat it. There is a limit even for me! But I adore marzipan. I cover glace cherries with it and roll them in icing sugar. There are variations and this year I've covered some in chocolate and cocoa.  My elder son is going to make a non-Christmas cake (an orange cake) and I've still to make mince pies.

These Amaretti biscuits are the best! First time making
them. Going fast. Everyone loves them.

Cranberry Thumbprint Biscuits

Marzipan sweets (first layer!)

In between the cleaning, baking and shopping I'm still writing my one-a-day poems. I went along to the British Museum on Tuesday to see an exhibition. Inspired by the East shows how we fell in love with tiles and ceramics and copied them. Paintings, sculptures and sketches of objects and costumes were also on show. While at the museum I looked at an art exhibition in room 90 featuring contemporary art from the 1970's to the present day, with art from Tracey Emin, David Hockney, and a favourite of mine, Anselm Kiefer. I found the day inspirational especially when it came to some poetry writing.

Anselm Kiefer

I also managed to get back to writing group in over in Hammersmith yesterday afternoon. I've really missed it, though it took me a while to get my head into gear. I'd not had a lot of sleep and felt quite tired. But it was fun and good to see everyone. The cafe was almost deserted. I guess everyone was off Christmas shopping.

Finally my new laptop has arrived and my son has been setting it up for me. I used it briefly yesterday but I need to transfer some files over (my writing ones) so today I'm using the old one as it's quicker and easier until I get to grips with the new one and have everything I need on it. I was amazed at how quickly it boots up and shuts off. This one takes about ten minutes!

This will be my post until after Christmas, so I'd like to wish everyone a very Happy Christmas and thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I do hope you'll come back now and then.

HAPPY  CHRISTMAS

Not quite poetry but still art

Imperial War Museum, London

I hadn't intended to go to the Imperial War Museum yesterday, but I was a little early for the Morley College Winter Fair, so I nipped over the road just to kill some time. I ended up spending about an hour there taking in the free exhibition Culture Under Attack, which is split into three sections - Art in Exile (the choosing of which art works in museums and galleries to store away during World War II), What Remains (why culture and heritage is attacked during war) and Rebel Sounds (how musicians used music to resist and speak out against war and oppression).

I found these exhibitions really interesting. The first thing of note was whose paintings were saved. Mainly William Orpen as he was highly thought of. Paul Nash (a favourite of mine) had just three paintings saved (his prestige is higher these days and it was admitted that more of his work would be saved now!). What's in a name one might ask!

I'm sure we all remember seeing artifacts and historic buildings being smashed by Isis. I still remember how that made me feel. This was what was looked at in What Remains along with other war destruction like Dresden in WWII. History and culture are important. It's where we come from, our roots and can leave us devastated at the sheer mindless destruction. At the end of each exhibition is a chance for visitors to vote on different questions, like is it important that buildings should be restored? Even...would you die to save a building? When you vote you get to see the percentage of people who agree or do not agree with you. It's a nice interactive task.

In the Rebel Sounds exhibition there are videos and info about various conflicts and the part music played to rebel. From the Hot Club in Frankfurt during the war, The Undertones (Teenage Kicks) from Belfast in the Troubles, Public Enemy and a group from Africa. The Taliban banned music but people still listened despite the consequences of being beaten. I certainly remember when my hubby and I were in Belfast our guide talked about the Punk era in Belfast. Our guide was friends with the DJ Terri Hooley (featured in the exhibition). Punk was a backlash to the Troubles.

The room where you can sit and listen to four tracks is great. It has the sound of the stylus making contact with vinyl (you can't beat it). The bass notes vibrate through the benches so you really feel the music! I loved it. I did my voting in the end room and I heard Teenage Kicks playing again next door, and yes I did do a little dance (I love that song and I have it on vinyl). It probably gave the CCTV security guy something to smile about! I just can't keep still when music is playing.

What does this have to do with writing? Well, certainly a lot of poetry was written during the wars. Like the war artists I'm sure some was censored. Many paintings were rejected because they didn't want the folks back home to see what war was really like (not good for morale). Poets and painters told it like it was. It was their way of expressing their emotions. Sometimes writing poetry is the only way you can do that. It's cathartic.

Anyway, this turned out to be a nice little diversion yesterday. A good hour well spent. The exhibition is on until 5th January if I've whetted your appetite.

The collection to save during WWII

Paul Nash - The Ypres Salient at Night  (1918)

Outside the Imperial War Museum

Antony Gormley at the Royal Academy

Slabworks

Did the Antony Gormley exhibition live up to my expectations? Oh yes! There was something very powerful about being close to his work, a totally different feeling from looking at paintings.

There are twelve rooms in all, the first one is called Slabworks and consist of steel slabs cut with precision using industrial methods then stacked. Each represents a body lying, sitting, leaning etc. The closer you look the more you see. The really big installations are awesome - The Matrix and Clearing - and the  there is the room called Lost Horizons with the body cases at all angles - hanging from the ceiling, projecting from the wall. It's quite disorientating. There are rooms with paintings and sketches and Gormley's workbooks. And then there is The Cave. If you don't want to walk into the dark tunnel you can go around the outside. Though I don't like dark spaces I ventured in, hand to the wall (as advised) to make sure I followed the wall round. You come out into the cave where light filters in at odd angles before you exit down another short corridor back out (I did hit my head once on the low ceiling!).

When you leave the exhibition there is a room with a large table and benches. Here  you can sit and look through a selection of books, including the exhibition book (which I did!).

How ever many photos you take (and I took a lot), nothing can be as powerful as being there and seeing it for yourself. The exhibition lasts until the 3rd December, so not long to get there if you want to see it. I very rarely book exhibitions in advance, but I would advise you do so as times slots are selling out or have already sold out.

Will I find something to write about here, to put into a poem? Oh I think so!

Matrix

Matrix

Clearing

Clearing fits the room and in some place
is right against the wall. Care needs to be taken!

Subject

The Workbooks

Lost Horizon

The cave (entrance on the right)

The outside of the cave structure

Host

The face of Freud

The nearest I got to the Gormley exhibition was this in the
courtyard of the RA

Yesterday I went along to the Royal Academy in the hope of getting in to see the Antony Gormley exhibition. It was sold out for the whole day. My second choice was Lucian Freud Self Portraits. No trouble getting a ticket for that and I went straight in. It was busy, and I'd not normally go to exhibitions at the weekends for that reason. However, time is short and my diary is filling!

The exhibition is quite short (in fact I went round a second time!) but interesting. Freud has always been obsessed with his face, it seems, and he began doing self portraits early on and continued throughout his life. Even when he painted portraits of others he often appears in the painting somewhere, either through a mirror reflection or a window. He even has his shadow in one! However, like photographs it shows the aging process, warts and all (he was never one to shy away from those). There is a full length nude of his son and a rather disturbing one of his wife in a hotel room with him looking down on her. The painting of two Irishmen was interesting, but it was the background that fascinated me. Through the window behind the men is a city in great detail and so well done, not something I'd normally associate with Lucian Freud (detailed backgrounds). Technique changed over time to from flatter painting to impasto and towards the end of his life his paintings became even more what I'd call rough textured. I almost wanted to touch it and feel all the bumps and dots.

An early self-portrait

And a later one

Not sure you can see the background terribly well on the photo, but its very detailed.

Hercules

The Poster Bar

Inside the RA

Having finished the exhibition earlier than I thought I had a bit of wander around the RA, realising that I'd not done that before. There were some student exhibits and a great Hercules statute in the connecting halls. I also found the Poster Bar for the first time (no, I didn't stop for quick one!).

Wondering what to do next I headed over to St James', Piccadilly and went into Cafe Nero for a hot chocolate and a look at the map (I usually carry one - I'm old school) to see what I could do. A lady sat down next to me and we got chatting. Turned out she lives in the town next door to me and goes to St James' Church. It wasn't long before we were swapping Christmas shopping tips and the perils of buying clothing for people only for them not to like it! Yes, been there, done that. No longer!

I couldn't decide what to do next so I just headed out and went my feet took me (oh I can be so wayward!). Ended up by the old Scotland Yard building and Whitehall Gardens before crossing the river at Embankment (Hungerford Bridge) and heading for the station.

Fortnum & Mason Advent Calendar windows

Churchyard, St James', Piccadilly

The Listening Hut, St James' Church, Piccadilly

St James' Park

By Horse Guards Parade

Whitehall Gardens

Statue of William Tyndale, first person to translate
the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into English, Whitehall Gardens

River Thames from Hungerford Bridge

And yes, there is a writing point here, never fear. I was thinking about painters and their obsessions - Freud with his face, Monet with his series of paintings of the same building, Gormley with bodies and Hockney with trees. And there is mine for writing about the same subjects in my poetry! There you go, every experience can generate a piece of writing.

As for Antony Gormley, I decided to book a ticket and I'm going tomorrow afternoon. I'll let you know my thoughts then.

Meanwhile I've been marking up my words for choir with the good old pink highlighter, a job I should have done last week.

A bit of homework!