Upward trajectory

It’s Pancake Day, and I’m waiting very patiently for Nathan to come back from a rehearsal. I feel a little bit like Madam Butterfly. Very shortly, I’ll take myself on a little trip to the shops to buy ingredients for batter. It’s something to do... I’m a bit bored and lonely!

I went up into the village first thing, and sat in Costa Coffee. I saw my friend Philippa’s mother getting onto a bus and ran in slow motion to try and catch up with her. Sadly, the bus pulled away just as I reached it. It all felt rather filmic.

I've been researching Scottish music all day as part of this on-going mission to get the BBC Nations to come on board with our symphonic project. There are some utterly amazing musicians in Scotland; the most impressive of whom are surely a band called LAU. Take a look at this for virtuoso music making at its very finest.

Apart from searching for incredible musicians, I’ve also been looking at various Scottish folk songs, and crying like a baby during most of them. I don’t know why they affect me so badly. At one point, my research took me to the violinist, Nicola Benedetti playing The Lark Ascending, and that just about finished me off, to the extent that I started to worry about the neighbours. I know I’ve got a lot going on at the moment; the hell of this court case and the financial worries that have been generated by whole sorry story, but there is NO excuse for heaving like some kind of 18th Century love-sick teenager! I suppose it can only be a positive thing that music has such a visceral effect on me but sometimes it can be very embarrassing. A certain chord, or combination of chords and I’m a quivering wreck.

After a late lunch, I went to the gym and ran, hopped, skipped and rowed myself around the room for the best part of an hour. I felt very fit afterwards. I guess I AM very fit at the moment, although my workout was somewhat compromised by some poor woman on Deal or No Deal, who was having just about the worst game I’ve ever seen. In the end I had to stop looking at the TV screens, because her sad little face was making me feel like I needed to donate money to charity!

Friday 8th March, 1661, and Pepys went to the Tower of London for lunch with his friend Sir John Robinson, who was Lieutenant of the complex. The “high” company included the Duchess of Albemarle, Lady Anne Moncke, who Pepys described as “ever a plain homely dowdy.” Poor woman. The ladies retired in the evening, and the men got drunk, and there were various rows. Pepys returned to bed “almost overcome with drink” and wrote in conclusion, “I was much contented to ride in such state into the Tower, and be received among such high company, while Mr Mount, my Lady Duchess’s gentleman usher, stood waiting at table, whom I ever thought a man so much above me in all respects.” Pepys was still on an upward trajectory.