Quinoa

I worked with Philippa in a cafe in Old Street this morning. I think we could have maybe been a little more productive. I was a little distracted by the music they were playing; old school soul with those really indulgent vocals which hardly blend into the background! I was wearing headphones, and the music seemed to be creeping into them, and rolling around my ears in a boomy, echoey hell zone!

We did about an hour's work before heading back to Philippa's house where she packed a suitcase for a weekend away at her mother's in Wales. She showed me the heartbreaking little bag which her daughter Silver had packed for herself. It's amazing what kids of that age consider special: a little note pad and a pile of pretty plastic jewellery! 

I made dinner. Quinoa, celery, tomatoes, carrots and onions fried with a load of halloumi. Profoundly delicious. We then went off to Silver's nursery where the kids were doing an Easter egg hunt. We used to do Easter egg hunts in the garden of my Grannie's house. My Grannie used to create little nests out of margarine tubs and straw, which she'd fill with Cadbury's Cream Eggs. For some reason they were always more delicious than any of the other eggs we were given.

I'm still not totally sure what Easter is all about. I got very confused last year when I learned about Zombie Jesus. I'd hitherto thought that Big JC flew down to heaven on Easter Day. How was I meant to know that he'd lived amongst us in a creepy undead sort of way for all that time. It's an odd thing to want to celebrate isn't it?

I worked in the afternoon at Jackson's Lane where a number of female opera singers were obviously auditioning for something. I could hear the top notes reverberating around the building like some sort of desperate theramin. I know opera sopranos are hugely impressive creatures but they leave me as cold as ice. Massive vibrato covering up really dodgy intonation. I've never understood why people consider the sound to be so beautiful. It's just loud and high. They were all dolled up to the nines as well, in a way which hardly gave the impression that they thought acting was an important piece in the jigsaw of performance!

I worked till about 7, when I hit upon a moment in the Nene piece which felt like a good place to take a rest. I've forensically made my way through all but percussion instruments from the start until about 9 minutes into the piece. The end will take me a lot longer because everyone's going hell for leather, but I'm probably in a fairly good shape to show the piece to the commissioners next Tuesday if I work solidly on Sunday and Monday.