Saturday 26 September 2009

My cold finally gave in and went away, just in time for the next week to get even busier than I thought it already was. We have a wee tour ahead (come and see us), and I'm also submitting a funding application to a public body for a future project, which is a process best done a bit at a time, as it's a deeply dispiriting thing to do. My favourite question in the form asked whether 'we had considered environmentally friendly materials and production methods'. This from an organisation that's still insisting that we submit our application by mail on more than 25 sheets of paper (many of which are just their instructions), which it tells us will then be photocopied several times to be read by the assessors. Still, sustaining me through this process is the possibility that if dates, travel and other unseen factors all come together, next weekend I might be spending an afternoon in a studio with a lot of people playing ukuleles: yes these people. That's cheering, isn't it?

Continuing the nostalgic online shopping, this came in the post today: I had a copy in the 70s and somehow lost it. Not only does it contain Freddie Phillips's original arrangements for two guitars, but also how instructions for how to make the sound effects of Windy Miller's windmill and Jonathan Bell's combine harvester.