the errands and the errands for tomorrow

Waking worked well today, there is no real knowing why, but that is how it worked. Went to the barber, and was given an appointment. The hair can grow on until Tuesday, then it will come off. Wander on around the town for a while. Take time to digest that which had been eaten during the morning.

Do a few more things at home, organise this that and the other. Try to repair the case on a tiny camera with instant bond glue and end up with the stuff on the fingers. Hold them apart fro a few seconds until the glue has set. That is the safest way to prevent the fingers sticking to each other.

Then go to the opticians and order a new pair of reading glasses, using the voucher given some time ago. Receive pleasant service from the manager. Order a pair of black reading glasses. They are a very dramatic matte black.

At home again continue testing and cleaning cameras. Test the digital back on the single lens reflex camera. It works well.  The soft lens produces a fantastic effect. It is a lens that was made in the late forties of the last century. Use an old shop window dummy to test the lens with.

Go for another stroll around town.

Then fill the washing machine with all the dirty clothes and set the alarm on the mobile 'phone as a reminder. Rest on the couch downstairs for a while. Then go upstairs and iron the remaining short sleeved shirts and start on the long sleeved ones. When the alarm sounds go downstairs to the washing machine and put all the washed clothes into the dryer but for three linen shirts. Fill the washing machine with the dark clothing, then go upstairs and get the small bottle of starch. Make a solution of the starch in the bathroom wash hand basin and starch the three shirts. After that bring them upstairs and hang them on the balcony to drip dry.

The cat is hungry, feed it and notice that there are hardly any tins of cat food left. That will be the first errand tomorrow.

nicely

The morning with its meanwhile usual upstairs and downstairs, and off to the bathroom and breakfast and what have you.  Today there was no collapse, almost strange to say.

Took the car to the artist's studio and collected the camera. Returned to the house and unpacked the gear. Then discovered that there were no further pharking spots available.  As a result, spend a lot of time carefully fitting the car into an almost impossibly tight parking spot, really just with centimetres to spare at either end of the  car afterwards. But all is well that ends well.

Set up the camera to test and to see whether it was in good working order. Everything was fine.

Check on the clock and decide to go to Regensburg to have a look at the shoe shop selling the Austrian shoes. After leaving the house realise that the mobile 'phone has almost no power left. Decide to take the next train, return home, set the alarm for threee quarters of an hour and lie down on the studio couch.

Finally, catch the bus and be driven to the statihon. The train is punctual, and in an hour's time arrive in the city of Regensburg. Walk from the station to the shoe shop.

Spend an hour there trying on various sizes and colours. Come to a decision, and the attendant promises to write a mail as soon as the shoes arrive. That should be on Saturday, or better still, Monday.

Stop by a bookshop on the way back and buy a book on mathematics and music. Stop into a café and have a cup of coffee.  The service is delightfully ultra slow, and the coffee is very bad indeed. It is expensive too. The place is charming, apart from those details.

Then walk back through the town, and board the waiting train.

On the journey back receive a note on the phone with an invitation to meet up and to go to the cinema. That should round off the day quite nicely.

lie down again for ten minutes

  woke feeling great, took a shower, took the pills dressed, made the bed, went downstairs and then had breakfast.

After that felt rotten and collapsed on the bed with aches and pains everywhere. Two hours of the day were spent on the bed in the studio until the body felt secure standing upright and the brain stopped rotating in its casing.

Adjusted the pictures from last night until there was nothing left to adjust, it was generally not a case of making the good better but making the hopeless acceptable.

Went out to do a shopping fragment, bought two of everything and two coffee glasses as well. For the espresso machine, because the glasses are double walled with a vacuum inside it is not necessary to warm them up, they are insulated like a vacuum flask. A stupid purchase, but a small luxury. 

At home, there is a note from the wife on the table. The online company has telephoned and said that the contract for the telephone is to end. Check on the two contracts, and see that it is the contract for the mobile 'phone that is to end. The mobile 'phone is not her concern, but walk down the main street to the office that the provider keeps there. Sign a new contract, that is cheaper than the old one, and that is all.

At home, the general feeling of sickness takes over again.

Make a cup of coffee, why not.

Perhaps it would be good to lie down again for ten minutes.

ruff post

 Another concert, and the first band is still playing its black sabbath set. Heavy Metal, very heavy for a country band. The other song was smoke on the water, it will be a short while now before the big band starts . Varkeiety ia the spice of life, no?

Breakfasr snd ediring pictures, that was all up to now. The editing is all done.

and the thumbs are no good for posting this

pardon

this is added the following day, just to say that the evening yesterday was spent taking pictures of a big band playing to an almost deserted beer tent. The tent was deserted because of the rain, people do not come to a festival in the rain. Had a nice conversation with the bass player on the way home. It was her last concert with the band. She wishes to spend more time with her family.

Writing things on a tiny smart phone with large hands is not easy.

short message only

 spent all day editing and feeling not so good. Two days festival are tiring, but it was two days work after all. The weather was quite nasty, and all the local heroes were their usual selves

Finished breakfast at midday and have edited the pictures since then. It all takes its time.

The radio is playing Wagner today, the first of the Ring. A live show from theater in Bayreuth. Loud music with some of the passages not so easy to follow.

There is still a lot of editing to do, but it may be finished by tomorrow.

Tired today, and not too well.

So there is only a short message today.

tumult

 It is forty eight minutes past midnight, and the festival is over. After a classical downpour yesterday the festival grounds were sodden. Planks were put down in those areas most frequented to save the people from the mud.

As the day progressed the weather got drier. The first acts were delayed, but then they took place. The day started with a free jazz show followed by various acts.It was all music that was more or less accessible. The day finished with a man playing a cello and another on drums. Both were amplified to a point where they were almost  unbearable to the untrained ear. Still, the music was interesting enough.

At home, it was realised that this duty had been forgotten in the tumult of the day.

Enjoy a private bottle of beer and write these few notes. There were over two hundred exposures made yesterday and today. That is enough to keep a soul busy with editing for a few days

mirror

 This post has inherent a sense of duty, duty to you and to the self. There is a concert this evening which starts shamefully early, and it will be necessary to leave the house shortly. Since the affairs may well last until midnight, this work will need to be done now. The pictures at the concert have been promised for a long time now. Despite there being no enthusiasm attendance will be necessary.

The day was started with a small grocery shopping trip, and  a major coffee to start the day and to wash down the pills.

The collector telephoned, announcing himself for the early afternoon.

the rest of the morning was spent reading

Take a bus to the railway, and meet the collector as he leaves the train from Passau.

Walk back into town with him and show him the gallery. Then two people turn up and ask if they can see the exhibition also. So now there are three people viewing the show.

Take them all down to the artists studio, and the artist is there and now another hour elapses.

Now, like the white rabbit in Alice's dream, events are taking over and it will be necessary to go to the festival and to take pictures. Show the people a looking glass full of their antics

good times bad names

Last night was a long evening that turned into an early morning discussing things in the artist's studio, watching him work and get on with his work. The work adding to the pictures on the cover of the boxes containing the small pieces was done smoothly and quickly. The only work in the evening was the simple job sweeping up the wood shavings from the floor. Now they no longer  crunched unpleasantly underfoot. In a way, this is satisfactory.

This morning failed to happen really. Spent time lying in the small upstairs room listening to the rain  come down outside, sometimes as a downpour and sometimes just as a drizzle. The plants outside are growing very well, even the hops have reached up almost under the roof. That is almost seven metres. The honeysuckle is going wild, it is really well established. 

Go downstairs for coffee, on the way hear the doorbell sound. Open the front door and there is the postman with a package in his hand. He does not want to leave it at the door because it is raining.  Such a good postman.

Make coffee and consider what needs to be done next.

Listen to the radio.

It is all most enjoyable in its way, but there is nothing moving. The rain outside is a welcome excuse for not leaving the house.

Look up the path to tomorrows gig in a place called Beer Paradise when you translate it. That is an awful sounding name.

social

 Perhaps things are improving, just bit by bit. Made a slow morning, got up early and made breakfast. This was fine, and tasty too. It might have been the highlight of the day.

Went to the artists studio and disturbed the saxophone player at his practice. Sorted through the box with the little figures, all in their felt beds now. Two of the figures have been removed, and are lying on top to the box. This is hard to understand. Perhaps the artist or one of his friends removed them both and did not remember where to put them back. 

Return the two figures to their places in the box. Then turn all the tags so that the numbers can be seen easily and take a photo of the box using the camera on the mobile  'phone. Repeat the procedure with the other two boxes. Then there is an episode of socialising, the saxophone player leaves, sit down and relax for a while, and then his wife turns up.

They have missed each other. Now there is more socialising. After she leaves, leave locking the door and more socialising with the owner of the pub and his friends who are gathered outside.

Go home, and lie down for a minute. All that socialising was too much. 

After a short nap. realise that the mobile phone has been left in the artists studio. After a very few minutes set out to get the phone. This is a nuisance.

At the studio there is further chatting. Cut that short and return home.

Print the pictures from the 'phone. They will serve their purpose.

Clean the floor in the shop. It needs it badly.

And now it is time to go for a shave.

Now, in the evening.

pains

 During the walk about town this early afternoon start to feel very strange. There is an outbreak of sweat upon the brow, and a general feeling of dizziness. The feet hurt too.

Earlier in the day visited a shoe shop and looked at shoes. Shoes are nice things, but they must be comfortable. These ones were not convincing in that respect. So thanked the woman in the shoe shop and left. It was on the way to the second shoe shop and after buying half a pound of coffee in the coffee shop that this attack happened.

Walk home swiftly and go to bed, lie down dozing and not feeling well.

Consider that it may be just a feeling of general illness due to not eating enough. Make a dish of hot potatoes, ad a few pats of butter. They are ready in twenty minutes. Even after that do not feel better. There is no idea what is wrong.

It was strange getting out of bed this morning as well, but got out and went downstairs and had a shower.

It is strange, but all the people round about in the town are irritating. They are just going about their business, and that is good.

But something is driving a form of madness that just will not accept people around at the moment.

And the ribs hurt, not that there is any reason for this.

the extra is the cure

 Spoke to a friend on the phone last night, without thinking drank two bottles of beer just like that, all very pleasant. And it was late when the conversation ended. Left the third and last bottle on the table and wend upstairs to sleep.

It was a late morning this morning and stayed downstairs in the shop drinking coffee and not feeling well. Read the news, and decided that when profit meets injustice then both win.

The rich screw the poor as the American president would not dare to say.

Listen to the radio and the rain outside. Truly as forecasted, it is varying somewhere between drizzle and downpour all day. That is slightly depressing , rain is beautiful but it is rarely cheering. The radio  does not mind, the program is played, rain snow or hail.

In the early afternoon go out . Have a fit of coughing walking down the street, it is persistent. Stop into a bakers shop cum cafe on the way and order a cup of coffee,  Enjoy the glass of water, and this glass of water served with the coffee as an extra cures the cough.

Go to the grocers. Walking through the aisles meet a woman who used to serve in one of the pubs the family used to go to. She is suffering from an intolerance which is affecting her scalp. Think back to those years ago when the daily job was as a photographer in a skin clinic. Remember the diagnosis and the things that they did then to cure the problem. Commiserate with the woman and tell her to go to a dermatologist, do not make recommendations as a medically unqualified person. Knowing the form and the appearance does not make medical ability.

Buy two jars of jam and a sausage, also two small containers of yoghurt.

Nothing else is required, go home .

Sunday, a few of the things that have needs of their own

Sunday morning will be done in ten minutes, then it will be one in the afternoon. Well done for those that see noon as being at 12:00 precisely. 

The morning was strange, sleep was deep and luscious, and the wakening occurred once it became too hot to go on sleeping. There was no drink taken the evening before, obvious solutions are as there name clearly says, easily recognised resting on the top of a pile of solutions in plain view. It is not comfortable, for alcohol develops a noticeable social pressure all of its own. Those indulging want others to indulge, this may not of generosity only but also to cover up the fact that they have needs of their own.

A longer telephone conversation last night with the collector, he spoke of his daughter, who is miraculously healed of her lethargic sufferings with a French name. He spoke of his swimming activities, now more difficult because of the dry weather and its effect on the current in both the Isar and the Danube, that the time involved now is more than seven hours. Commend him upon his fitness. Think of despair and lethargy, both vile creatures demanding comfort and reflection. Talk, and arrange for a meeting in the coming week. That will be between the job at the party and the job at the fair. It will all be to do with musicians wanting their publicity. And in between all of that a collector of African art will survey an exhibition of enlarged tiny wooden figures.

This morning downstairs, breakfast, a lovely meal, and now the kitchen clean. Hear the son in the background, upstairs and downstairs. 

He does not stop in to say good morning, that is sad. Take a look upstairs in the area of the big house inhabited by the son and the wife.

It is the usual sordid mess.

The cat came in to visit in the morning, it inspected the human lap covered in black trousers, then flexed its hind legs and sprang up and onto the legs to start purring and have its head stroked. 

After a while the cat is bored and jumps down again.

Leave the door to the shop open to let the warm weather in.

five and no motto

 The return from the artist's studio was at three this morning, it was interesting enough in the studio. There was a private party in the pub opposite, having private parties in pubs is probably a way to end a successful business catering for the regular visitors.

Chatted with a musician, a saxophone player; and his girlfriend, Showed and explained the use of rise and fall and tilt and swing on a technical camera. It is unsure whether they understood or not, but they made impressed noises. It was nice to get a lift back home.

There was the usual early morning awakening, it was ignored. 

At ten there was a knock on the door and the son came in. He seemed well and cheerful, he wanted to wish a good morning. Spoke to him about a number of things, and then let him hurry off again. Dress for the day and go downstairs.

Make coffee and breakfast, read the news. It is almost eleven o'clock now, make a supplement to the breakfast and answer a few email messages.

Sweep the floor in the shop and tidy up the little corner kitchen. Go out and join the weekly gathering around the photo gallery, Listen to their stories and their indignation, and then when that is past guide a pleasant couple through the exhibition  as it stands now.

Then go home and have another plate full of muesli with cold milk. Muesli was a Swiss invention, a breakfast cereal.

And now it is five in the afternoon.

spawn, forever increase

 Awakening was good enough today. The early awakening was at four in the morning, got up. went downstairs to the bathroom, had a piss and then rwent upstairs, went to bed and resolutely faced the wall until the bells sounded for nine in the morning. Somewhere in that period Morpheus, or whoever the god of sleep is,  ruled.

And then downstairs, shaved and showered and upstairs again took the pills and dressed. All the way downstairs and into the shop and made breakfast in the kitchen corner. Read the news during breakfast, then cleaned the kitchen.

And until now listened to the radio and made the new container for the last figurines to have had their pictures taken. Now it is twenty three past two and now it is time to take on another job. At some stage jobs may get scarce, one thinks. Perhaps it is also true that jobs spawn their own and that the workload will for ever increase.

Chat GPT rewrote the above human effort like so:

The morning began acceptably. An initial awakening occurred at four o’clock, followed by a descent to the bathroom for necessary relief. Afterwards, the return to bed was marked by a deliberate turn to face the wall, where rest resumed until the bells signaled nine o’clock. During that interval, sleep took hold—whether governed by Morpheus or whichever deity presides over such matters.

Following this, the morning routine proceeded: a descent for shaving and showering, then a return upstairs for the intake of medication and dressing. The next movement led downward again, this time into the shop, where breakfast was prepared in the corner of the kitchen. The news was read during the meal, and the kitchen received a thorough cleaning afterwards.

The intervening time until the present was spent listening to the radio and constructing a new container for the latest figurines that had recently been photographed. It is now twenty-three minutes past two, and attention must turn to the next task.

A thought arises: at some point, such tasks may become rare. Yet it also seems possible that each task gives rise to another—that work begets more work—and that the accumulation of duties may continue indefinitely.

Then Chat GPT made a poem out of it:

The day began before the sun,
At four, when sleep had come undone.
Downstairs, a silent hallway passed,
A moment brief, and done at last.

Then back to bed, the shutters drawn,
To wait beside the coming dawn.
No dreams recalled, no time was kept—
Some quiet god ensured one slept.

The bells at nine began to chime,
And marked the end of borrowed time.
Then came the rites of daily grace:
The razor’s sweep, the water’s face.

The stairs were climbed, the clothes arranged,
The scattered pills no longer strange.
Once more below, where morning pressed,
A meal prepared, the table blessed.

The paper's voice, a distant hum,
And dishes cleaned when breakfast done.
The radio hummed its measured tune
While work resumed that late July noon.

A box was built, its edges neat,
For figures posed and made complete.
And now, as clocks approach half-two,
Another task must come in view.

Yet thoughts arise, as quiet grows:
What happens when the labour slows?
But even still, one might suppose—
That work, like seed, forever sows.

The last line is nice,  but using Chat GPT is not the purpose of this blog.

---

9:24 feed the cat

 up to early, everything fine, and then the collapse.

It is hard to account for. It is not the pills, they were taken today after midday. All is well there.

Took the car to buy some beer and some groceries. But the rest of the time just stayed at home. Did things like cleaning and sharpening the knife in the workshop. This worked out all right, it is now possible to cut things with it and not just to bluntly squeeze them..

Iron clothing, iron seven shirts in all. This is satisfying, it means that no further shirts need to be bought. Going through the clothes see that there are more trousers than expected. This is good too, Buying clothes in the local shops is an unpleasant business. After taking them home they never seem to fit right.

Spend the evening at home.

Make a snack and have a bottle of beer with it,

And now it is twenty past nine, and the cat wants to be fed.

as this is being written

 A curious day spent mostly alone. Resolved to do part two of the pill test, took all of the five pills after dressing.

Went downstairs, showered and made breakfast. Breakfast was no problem, but that brand of Africa Blue coffee had an unpleasant sour taste to it.

And then the collapse came, complete with dizziness and all the trimmings. Lay down on the bed in the studio and fell asleep for nearly two hours.

Woke feeling fine. Resolved to drive to the furniture shop to get a small table to place the heating plates on. Take the car and drive firstly to the petrol station, and then drive on to Eching near Munich. Keep the speed down to the same speed as the trucks, there is no hurry. It is satisfactory to watch the petrol consumption to stay low.

At the store go for a small meal, a plate of rice with vegetables. It is really quite tasty. Then go downstairs in the shop and find the shelving unit where the desired object is stored. Carry the box to the till, pay, and leave.

Return the same way, driving slowly the whole way. It gives the pleasant impression of not using any petrol at all.

In Landshut there is a flash from behind the car whilst navigating a building site on the road. Let us hope that it is not the police recording some transgression, some new roadsigns overlooked or something.

At home, assemble the small piece of furniture. It fits perfectly in the empty space in the kitchen and looks well.

Make a plate of noodles as a sort of an evening meal, and then edit the pictures taken yesterday, and print them out now, as this is being written.

go elsewhere

They appear  not to have been the problem, those pills. The business of waking up early and then falling back to sleep again an hour later does not seem to be based on the pills as such. It is now just after midday, the shopping is done, and the second sleep has been held. It is not so easily explained.

It will be necessary to visit the artist's studio later on in the day to finish the job with the tiny figurines. A group of visitors on Sunday had great praise for the show of the pictures in the photo gallery, which was simply pleasant. But the job is not finished yet, the artist wants to make a book of the pictures. Let us hope that he knows that he will either have to find a sponsor or pay for it.

Town is busy, but there is a strange atmosphere in town. The people wandering about are either  pensioners or holiday makers. They all wander around without much of an apparent objective, they all seem to be looking for some kind of amusement, they are all searching for an agreeable entertainment.

The afternoon is turning grey now, the sun is in hiding. A dark coloured van parks outside the window, according to its decoration it is the van of a plumbing firm.

Then a large woman with a grey dog passes. The dog steps up to the glass door and looks in through the window.

It is time to go elsewhere, this is all getting hard to bear.

Before leaving, make a telephone call. Have a delightful long telephone conversation  with the lady from France who is now in a nursing home in England.

It is lovely to talk to her, it really is.

Now there is an invitation to England, to London to be exact.

simple little job, tidy up the passageway

 Perhaps it is the pills in the morning that cause the daily collapse. Take them later tomorrow to see if the effect is produced later.

Leave the house at ten, and go for a thoughtful cup of coffee. Then clear up several things at home. 

Then decide to get rid of the waste material and rubble and dust left over from the renovations tho the back room last February. They have been a nuisance since. There are buckets full of sandy dirt, all nearly white, from the coatings removed from the walls in the room. The dust consists of various types of wall paint and different plaster and lime wall coatings. Because of the potential for dirt nothing had been done about them up to now.

Remove the trailer from its corner. It is a small container, not capable of holding much, but it is better than making a complete mess of the car. Load up the various backups into the trailer and drag it down the passage to the street. It is a mediaeval house, there is a passage to the yard going through the building.

See that the one tyre of the trailer is flat.

This is a setback.

After some time searching for tools to remove the wheel, realise that it would have been easier to just take the compressor to the trailer. This is just because of anger. It led to a stupid decision. Replace the wheel with the meanwhile inflated tyre, open the main doors to the house wide, and wheel the trailer out into the street.

Fetch the car from its parking spot and hitch up the trailer.

Drive to the recycling place, stopping on the way at a filling station to check the air in the tyre.

At the recycling place drive the car and the trailer onto the weigh bridge. Then follow the instructions and empty the contents of the trailer onto a heap. After that weigh the car and the trailer again.

Pay fourteen Euros.

Drive home, unhitch the trailer and return it to its place in the passageway, and leave the empty containers for collection later.

Then discover that there has been a run on the parking spots. Circle around the town twice looking for a new one, the process takes almost a full hour.

Return home and clear up the mess, pack away the empty buckets, change the clothes now soiled from top to toe and have a shower.

Settle down to an evening meal of beans and potatoes. Keep things simple, there is no need for meat on Monday.

It is good to have that simple little job done.

complaining

 It is becoming hard to bear. Awake feeling good and awake, and then hardly having dressed and eaten

collapse

Remain downstairs in the emergency bed newly installed there. That is all quite fine. Sleeping is strange, constantly unwell and then sleeping again.

The wife radio sounds booming german voices through the ceiling from what is now her bedroom upstairs.

It is midday.Struggle, then make the emergency bed, put on a pair of plastic shoes and make a cup of espresso.

Read the news some more.

Later, sitting on the stoop in front of the shop see a man approaching pointing a camera. It is the photographer from Munich.

He has arrived with two friends. 

Chat, and then take the surprise visitors on a short personal visit to the gallery. Use the key that the gallery owner provided.

The three visitors duly admire the pictures. Then they hury off to their next station, to the next place on their stressful Sunday.

Return home, make some more coffee. Listen to the people passing on the street outside. 

Why do so many people sound as if they are complaining, even in normal speech?

heartburn

 Stayed in bed a while more again today. Despite being awake at seven, perhaps it would be a good idea to try and force some sleep. Six hours sleep are not enough. Surely one third of the day spent sleeping would be good, a quarter  is just not enough.

Downstairs, the wife has occupied the bathroom. That is one reason to get up earlier.

Later, read the news and eat breakfast, a  late breakfast.

Lie down with an extraordinary heartburn, this is all not fair.

The early afternoon chat with the gallery owner turns out to be very pleasant. It lasts for three hours, and the heartburn is forgotten.

Staccato day, go shopping. Buy ten tins of cat food, a contribution to keeping the animal alive.

And now, in half an hour, there will be an exhibition opening at the gallery next to the artist's studio. It will likely be an embarrassing waste of time.

Eat some of the shopping before leaving.

fishy

 today was simply depressing, and the mood suited. It would have been better to stay in bed than to get up so late and start to do futile things.

In the afternoon went over to the studio to take the pictures of the last of the stick figurines. They are all right, they are satisfactory. The people at the pub next door to the studio started a garden party with fish grilled on a stake. The fish dish was expensive, and anyway a rain shower stopped the garden party half way through.

Finished the photography and locked up the studio. There is no real point in doing much when you are depressed.

The zip on the trousers refused to stay up on the way home.

This is embarrassing, there is no point in allowing people to view the underpants.

A silly business,  all in all. Have a plate of spaghetti at home, and print the days pictures. 

Some are good, some are disappointing.

Now it is evening again, listen to opera on the radio. 

At least they make no mistakes in their recordings

figurines

 Started the day with an attempt to get things organised.Took a shower instead and cleared the blocked shower drain. Breakfast was as usual.

At eleven the wife brought down her tax forms in a sealed brown envelope. Put it all into the prepared envelope and print out an online stamp. Take the big envelope down to the postbox at the end of the street and  now that has been dealt with.

Spend the whole of the afternoon taking pictures of the wooden figurines at the artists studio in the Karlsstrasse.

And stop working there at nine. Show a few people around the studio to satisfy their curiosity, and get a plate of bread and cheese from the landlord in payment. That is nice in its way.

Then walk home.

Exhaustion is taking its toll.

But now there are less than ten figurines left to be photographed.

ariel

 Getting out of bed functioned today. The first thing was to have a shower, and then to brig the washing machine down to the machine. It is barely seven in the morning. The machine is full of unwashed clothes, presumably some project of the wife. Take the unwashed clothes out of the machine and put them aside. The collection of underwear and light trousers from the upstairs bedroom make up one load for the machine. Take the last of the washing powder out of the plastic container and fill the soap hatch on the machine. Leave it to wash.

Go downstairs to the shop and have breakfast. Then examine the front door of the house. The door appears to have shrunk a bit in the hot weather, and the lock does not engage properly anymore. Search the house for some small washers. Having found them unscrew the catch on the door and then insert two waters to tilt the catch ever so slightly. Now it engages with the bolt of the lock again, and the door can not be opened without a key any more.

Leave the house and go to the general store in the main street. Buy a large box of washing powder. On the way out there is a child having a tantrum. Catch the young man's eye and question his obvious anger with a smile and a comment. He is instantly silent. He is no longer shouting at his mother. The girl at the checkout laughs. She looks at this old white-haired man and smiles at him. Now it is his turn to feel rather weak, for in a simple way she really is most attractive. Go home again.

The family waiting in the car outside the door smile to see such an early return with a large colourful box

too bad

 Now, at three minute past midnight type these notes. It is too late, but in they go anyway.

The day was strange and started badly, as always. It will be necessary to ask the doctor as to why there is always a collapse into drowsiness and sleep after taking the pills that she and the urologist prescribed. Surely something is strange.

The morning goes in a daze, things get warmed up and eaten. There is no explaining this constant dizziness and shortsightedness. It is too much to bear really.

The door to the house does not lock any more.

This is nasty, and there is now way of knowing where to go to have it fixed.

Anyone can wander in from the street. Just like that.

After midday, go to the artists studio across the river and continue with the never ending story of taing pictures of the little figures. This just goes on and on. There must be an end to it somewhere.

There is a party opposite the studio. It is unfortunate, but most of the guests do not turn up. That is sad, but tha is how it goes.

Before long, it is dark, and now it is almost midnight.

The door to the house lets itself just be pushed open.

Too bad.

weak

 Outside there is the sound of the early morning birds and the early aircraft passing overhead to land at Munich airport. The weather is pleasantly cool, the temperature down from the heat of the last few days. It is not that early, it is seven in the morning. Go downstairs to have a shower, and come upstairs again to have a rest and to get dressed. Downstairs again, in the shop, make breakfast in the kitchenette and enjoy the coffee and the eggs on toast. Then, quite suddenly, in the middle of the Wordle puzzle, feel faint. Start to feel actually cold. Go upstairs and lie down on the bed that had just been made up. put on a pullover, and rest again. Sleep for half an hour until things start to improve. Then get up and go downstairs, the son asks me out for a cup of coffee. That is fine.

But upon returning from the short walk about town start to feel unwell again.

This is ridiculous.

It cannot be now that age is coming that weakness comes so suddenly.

music on a lazy sunday

 A day well spent at home, there was nothing more sensible to do than that. A short walk around town, a visit to the bank. That was all.

Otherwise there was nothing of great account. It is still important to rest.

There was a telephone call from the artist, a poster is needed for a friend, would there be time to print it.

Printed it, and then enjoyed a cup of coffee with the artist when he came to collect the poster afterwards. These are things you can do on a Sunday. Went to the bank to get some cash as a birthday present for the son. It is his birthday tomorrow.

But there is nothing much to do. It would be sensible to go to bed earlier, and then that would be that.

Perhaps listen to some music.

etheric substances

The day got wasted, because last night ended at three this morning, chatting with the artist and the owner of the new pub in the Karlsstrasse.

Awakening in the morning was difficult, mainly for the above reason.

Got water and watered the plants.

Took the pills and got dressed.

Went downstairs, and made a cup of coffee. This was the last of the coffee, it will be necessary to get some more soon.

Go outside, and arrive too early for the Saturday midday meeting at the gallery. Go on to the coffee supply shop at the other end of the main street and buy a pound of coffee. The woman behind the counter there takes the time to point out that coffee is twenty percent cheaper today. She asks whether it would be sensible to buy more to maximise on the saving? Decline, as there would be no saving really, as the coffee ages after being ground. The various etheric substances evaporate.

The artistic crowd are all at the gallery now, join them. They are all arranging a tour to Austria. There is no wish to join them, but listen anyway. They are all quite humour-full, as always. Drink a cup of coffee. Chat.

At home again make a large dish of spaghetti with sauce.

Lie down to digest this.

And now sleep comes, and it is welcome.

In the evening the son looks by, and explains his new mobile 'phone, a machine that he got somewhere and is now ten years old.

counter intuitive

 At four in the morning the thumb hurt. It was the bandage from last night, just too tight. Go downstairs and make up a new bandage, this seems to fit more comfortably. The wound still bleeds when it is not held together by the bandage. The bandage discolours after a short time.

After a while go back upstairs and fall asleep, awake to the sound of a heavy rain shower outside. It is after nine now. Get dressed, go downstairs and ring the doctor. She is on holidays. Try another doctor, one that has his practice nearby.

He is a most friendly doctor who deals with the matter immediately, he says it is healing well, despite not having had the stitches that the wound in itself would have warranted.

There will be no taking showers for this weekend because of the bandage.

Eat a few slices of bread and cheese, have some coffee. 

Then go to the artist's studio and start to check up on the equipment. It is not easy to identify the fault, but it would appear that the flash synchronises with the leaf shutter badly. The flaws in the exposures are gone when the exposure time is increased. This is counter intuitive, but it seems to be true.

bloody thumb

 Start the day trying to make pleasant things a regular feature of the morning. Make a  more or less proper breakfast and enjoy it to the sound of classical music on the small Bose speaker.

Water the plants in the back courtyard. They do not say thank you, but at least they will not die so early.

Examine yesterdays work, it all seems in order.

At midday walk over to the artists studio and set up to take more pictures. The pictures are strangely difficult today, but just work on steadily. Chat with the people in the pub opposite who are setting up for their evening's business.

Take a break and habe a glass of beer.

And then finish taking pictures,  there are now one hundred and seventeen of the little figures carefully photographed.

Then decide to pack up. There is still one battery that has to finish charging, start to sharpen one of the artists chisels to pass the time.

In a moment of carelessness the chisels slips on the stone and cuts the thumb of the left hand. Hold the hand under the tap to clean the wound. The water turns red, the bleeding is profuse. Take a paper towel and wrap the cut with it, but the blood soaks through the paper almost immediately. Go out to the pub and ask for help. They get out their emergency box and prepare a small plaster. It is well meant, but is insufficient to stop the flow of blood. One of the staff who works in the hospital takes  another bandage and makes a serviceable bandage, which seems to staunch the bleeding.

Return to the artists studio and clean up the mess. There is no point in having the place look like a slaughterhouse.

Then wait for a small while, and walk home.

Settle down to the radio. The weather is now overcast, and slightly cooler.

heat

 Today was a simply hot day. It was hot in the morning, too hot to sleep and it was hard to be productive.

Dealt with thevletter to the accountant, that was a simple matter of copying it from the artificial intelligence. It wrote a perfectly normal request with no errors. You would almost imagine that it had sense.

Spoke to the wife, she said that she would have her documents ready for tomorrow too, it makes sense to send them in together.

At midday walk over to the artists studio. Spend four hours taking pictures of the little wooden people. The tiny statues are not easy to take pictures of. In the evening go past the shops on the way home, and then realise that the data card is back in the studio. Stay at home for an hour, and then borrow the tenants bicycle to drive to the studio and to collect the tiny item. The old bicycle is a very good bicycle despite its being old. All it needed was a bit of air in the tyres. A dusting would have done no harm either.

Spend the evening at home, edit a few of todays pictures to see if all is in order.

Play a computer game.

All the body's joints are strangely sore today. It must be the heat.

write these notes

and drink another bottle of beer before going to bed, hoping to be able to sleep in the heat.

relax

 The tax was done today, all of the receipts and accounts neatly stacked on a corner of the table. That is all done.

A small radio arrived with the post today., it is a pleasant addition to the shop. It is maybe bad taste to use classical music in the background, but it is pleasant. It takes the mind off the street sounds and allows conctentration on the work on hand.

It is getting later in the day now, this was a very relaxed day, it was possible to remain calm and quiet and not to worry about all the things that need to be done

There was even time to try out the new hotplate to make a plate of spaghettin and sauce. Nothing complex, just edible, even tasty.

It was hot outside, and just follow the general advice to stay indoors, Anything else might just be a path to an early circulatory collapse or something horrible like that. These are things that nobody wants. The sun is punishingly hot with its steady bright burning glare.

Now that the tax things are finished, change the music. Listen to the sounds selected by that Australian transmitter specialising in Jazz.