Breast feeding

It's been another long and gruesomely tiring day down at Uncle Archie's in Kentish Town. It was most tiring, I suspect, because I'm having to keep my head inside two worlds at the moment. I've been surrounded all day by people researching the documentary project, so have been keeping one ear on all of that, whilst the other ear is immersed in Brass. Today I dusted off an old familiar, the somewhat clunkily titled, Wire, Ire, Mire, Fire, which didn't make it onto the original cast album because it's largely instrumental, and a bit scary in its scope and ambition. As a result of all of this, it's taken me a great deal longer to format than I'd hoped. The sixteen songs which featured on the album have all been through more processes than the songs which were last performed live at the Leeds City Varieties theatre a year and two days ago. Album tracks were re-scored for studio sessions, and then thinned out again during the process of mixing, so by this stage I'm pretty confident everything is playable and sonically spot on. The process of peeling back the layers of Wire, however, has uncovered countless problems. To make matters worse, a whole new section has gone back in which didn't even make it to rehearsal. It's dense. It's hideous. And it nearly tipped me over the edge!

It was good to have Nathan with me in the office all day today. He's been busy working at various box offices for the past two weeks, so hasn't been able to be hugely present, which can make matters a little frustrating when decisions need to be made which he needs to have a say in. We walked all the way to Kentish Town this morning in glorious sunshine. We took the route down Swain's Lane, through Highgate Cemetery, which was traffic-free and rather charming. As soon as we arrived at the office, the heavens opened, and it pretty much rained all day until home time, when it cleared up again. I'd call that fairly considerate weather!

We had takeaway pasta for tea from Papa Del's, the little Italian two doors down from us. There's a sign on the door which I found really quite heartwarming, if I'm honest; a true commitment to the local community. "Breastfeeding mums..." The sign reads, "Need a pit stop? Come in and have a cuppa on us. No need to eat. No need to ask."

I'm wondering if there's a post-recession shift going on in society at the moment. I'm pretty sure people have started to look out for one another a little more of late, as evidenced perhaps by the wave of interest in Jeremy Corbyn and his more humanitarian policies and, of course, in the overwhelming support the gay community has garnered of late. People seem less greedy, perhaps, more caring. Nathan thinks it's a knee-jerk response to a second term of Tory government: when people realise that their politicians don't give a stuff about them, maybe they start thinking about protecting one another.