Tizzy

Today was meant to be a day off, but it felt like nothing of the sort. I had rather too many things to do and technology kept failing me. It was 4pm by the time I'd had my lunch, which meant for at least the three hours before I wasn't functioning as a human being. Today I had another mass storage device grind to a halt. I'm hoping this one's just an issue with cabling, which was chewed through by our per rats about three years ago. But then again, I thought Nathan's device looked fixable.

I am not quite sure where the hours of today managed to go, but I worked myself into a right old tizzy at one point. I must learn to stop doing that!

I took a trip into Muswell Hill to develop some photos, pay in a few cheques and buy some card for a crafting mission I'm presently on. I sat in a cafe, four doors along from Barclays Bank and was continually disturbed by their free wifi announcements popping up on my screen. On one hand, I think it's fabulous that Barclays wifi has such a large reach that customers in two nearby cafés can take advantage, but on the other, if you're half way trough a very tricky bar of music and your screen is suddenly filled with a box which says "would you like to log on to free Barclays wifi?" it can get somewhat irritating. Particularly when, if you tick the "no thanks" box, you're asked again in exactly ten minutes. To make matters worse, the box takes at least twenty seconds to load, during which time you can't do anything but sit and stare at it! Starbucks uses a similarly frustrating system. Frankly, I'm not keen on anything which can crash into my computer without being invited.

I went to Earl's Court this evening to see an evening of songs and monologues performed by the Earl's Courtiers in the immensely grand setting of St Cuthbert's Church, with sits on the equally impressive Philbeach Gardens. Abbie was performing. In fact, she'd also directed the evening. She sang You Have to Be There, which is from the musical Kristina by Benny and Björn off of ABBA. It's a glorious song, which she did with great dignity and aplomb. Abbie's having a bit of a rough ride at the moment, so our thoughts and prayers should all be with her and her family, particularly in the next few days.

I don't think there's much else to say about today. At midnight last night I finished the eleventh draft of Brass and sent it out to a few people for their thoughts. Quite a lot of people who saw the show felt it could do with being 15-20 minutes shorter, but only seemed to have suggestions as to what else I should add rather than any comments on what outstayed its welcome. The new draft is fairly different, yet, I'd say, less than five hundred words shorter than the last! I maintain that the overall pace of the first production was slow, however, so am hoping this version isn't going to be subjected to too many more trims. Trimming the piece is like hacking off pieces of my own flesh!