The Studio, The Mouse and The Soup – Weeknotes 2

The pleasure of waking up Monday morning – indeed the pleasure of going to bed on a Sunday night – without the thought that a new week of work is looming was immense. With nothing to do, we took ourselves off to Hampton Court, the three of us and pal Mike, where we visited the maze (rather than the house), the tea shop, (great cakes!) and took a walk through Bushey Park to Kingston. It was fantastic going into Waterstones in the Bentall Centre as a customer and not as work.
I’ve really missed that kind of mid-week, for the fun of it, lazy day – I used to do tons of it when I was younger, but these days there never seems to be time.

Tuesday my colleague Caitlin came around to declassify the Mac that work is letting me keep. It was cathartic to see a pal from O’Reilly, especially someone I’m keen to keep up with. We had biscuits, we had jaffa cakes, we had sausage and egg. A lovely way to sign off from the old place. I think that’s the last dealings I’ll have with them in an official capacity after 12 years. It’s going to take a long time to sink in, I think.

With regards the laptop, I’m going to make it my music computer. I have a dozen projects in my head that I need a proper set up for. I particularly need a decent-sized keyboard – I’ve been trying to work with a two-octave midi thing, and for what it is it’s perfectly alright, but I need to get both my hands on the keyboard. I also ordered an East-West Virtual Orchestra, which is going to be great fun to play with.

Wednesday I made a bit of soup – my first for a few months, predominantly carrot and potato. Chris Aldridge, the carpenter we’ve used for so much of our home improvements, came around to measure up for bookshelves in the office. I won’t be working from home from now on, so the spare room which for 8 years has been taken up with a desk, printer etc is going to become a family room. My music stuff is still going to be in there, but generally we want it to be a fun place that can get bashed about without worry. Of particular concern are the towering, free-standing bookshelves, which we’re fearful could be pulled over once Arlo starts to move around. To get the room right, we need to pull the 1950s fireplace out, (I like it, Fi doesn’t), carpet throughout, and decide what other furniture we need to have. We need to ditch a sofa or two, but they’re proving tough to let go of.

Thursday I was in the Soup Studios in Shoreditch, where ostensibly I was putting the finishing touches to Love Songs from the Feral Park by The Ephemerals. I haven’t dared listen to the mixes yet. I can’t afford the time nor the money to right anything that might be wrong, so I’m stuck with anything I’ve got. I dread them not being good enough, therefore I haven’t had the guts to line them up and press play. I think this anxiousness contributed to the puking session I had on Thursday night, which also meant Friday was a write-off, the best I could do being to sit on the couch holding Arlo while we watched the first series of House. Saturday we babysat Ariadne for friends Zoe and Alex, which was crazy stressful, even though they were lovely and Ariadne was as good as gold. And Sunday we went to a vintage show at Finsbury Town Hall, which Mike and I walked around with Arlo while Fi and Allyson went in to peruse the goods.

A lovely week, though we found a mouse in the kitchen, in the cooker to be precise. I put a jaffa cake on a mousetrap and went to bed!