Lockdown Diary - Friday 21st August 2020

Today is the last day of the course and the only question is whether my brain will continue to absorb more information, or explode first. Watch this space!

The training course is now over and  my head is still intact.  My next task is to go through the entire course slides from start to finish and also the manual - a mere 300 pages - then take the practice exam.  If that goes well, time to book the real exam and hopefully get certified.  Or more certified, perhaps?

Another day without time for either reading or any serious immersion in music. [...the sun fell to the ground and rolled away / flowers beheaded themselves...]

Early evening trip to the station with son #1 and gf, so she can get home in order to get up for work at 6 a.m. tomorrow.

Back home for dinner whilst watching the end of the Rolling Stones Hyde Park gig in 1969 on Sky Arts - the one just after Brian Jones had died and notable for their evident lack of practice: most notably Keith Richards and Mick Taylor's guitars were badly out of tune. Missed the first three quarters of it, so I recorded it for a later date - it's worth watching if only to see Mick Jagger in his prime.

Unexpectedly all three sons went out to the pub, so I had a very quiet evening, which wasn't the best timing possible, but good to see them socialising - they are very sensible and cautious, given the home circumstances.


I'm often mystified by bands/artists who write one staggeringly amazing song, yet fail to write anything else that wouldn't wither and die in the glare of their blazing best tune, and so it was with Cousteau. 'The Last Good Day of the Year' is utterly magnificent: world-weariness, creeping ennui and melancholy mixed with a vat full of regret for the loss of something that'll never return: heady stuff indeed. Little did I know when I bought this album back in 2000 that I would come to resemble that remark. [Neither the video or audio quality are that good, but this is the only legitimate copy of the song I can find. Listen to it on Spotify. Better still buy a copy!]


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