I woke this morning, with ideas for my book demanding I note them down ... I gave in at 5.30am, grateful I hadn’t lost them to laziness.
This book will be full of images but I need text too. This morning the images came marching into my mind so I got up and wrote the words for them.
Yesterday was a day spent going through all of my notes; a day spent working out the structure of the workshops I plan on offering soon ... the workshops where I see if you want to come spend time in my worlds, either via the chair where you read this, or physically come wandering.
As I do these things, new ideas come knocking on my door.
What about this idea for a book?
Hey, where’s that manuscript ... that story you put down and forgot to pick up in your mad rush to live?
Don’t you wish you could draw ... imagine, then we could do this with that idea?.
Wednesday was a stunning day. I had no idea it was going to be.
It was enough when the postman delivered a parcel and I opened it to find a book titled Eugenio Montale, Collected Poems 1920-1954, a revised bilingual edition, translated and annotated by Jonathan Galasi.
I had wanted that book for research. And it arrived unexpectedly. Thank you, Gert.
But that wasn’t enough. That night we had dinner at my favourite Antwerpen restaurant, Pasta Hippo. The food was glorious, as always. I remember I stopped going for a while. I believe I may have run into the owner one time, if not, a staff member who was so rude, I remained offended for months however ... the food is that good. And the slightly expensive glass of Chianti I had while waiting for Gert ... it was divine.
Then to the concert of an Irish singer I had been loving forever. I remember gifting a copy of his cd to my ex-mother-in-law, more than a few years ago. On our recent trip from Dublin to Connemara, my first time driving in 7 years, I stopped enroute, stating that we simple MUST have a Christy Moore cd playing, as we wandered in Ireland. It was grand.
Christy, at 60-something, is one of those musicians I could listen to for a very long time. He’s a story-teller gifted with the loveliest voice. Individual political songs he has performed throughout his career include Mick Hanly’s ‘On the Blanket’ about the protests of republican prisoners, his own ‘Viva la Quinta Brigada’ about Irish volunteers in the Spanish Civil War and his own ‘Minds Locked Shut’ about Bloody Sunday in Derry.
Moore has endorsed a long list of left wing support causes, ranging from El Salvador to Mary Robinson in the 1990 Presidential Election.[2] At Glastonbury Festival in 2005 he sang about the Palestinian solidarity activist Rachel Corrie.
I loved his courage. I loved his voice. It was a grand evening out, with Gert and the lovely Stephanie. You know, if a fortune-teller had told me the story of where and when and with whom I would see Christy Moore perform live, back in those New Zealand days, I would have known that she was a charlatan ...
One never quite knows where life might take them, does one.
Wednesday was the loveliest day. Thursday was spent hunched over my desk, I worked through into the night after dinner.
Friday ... let’s see how plays out. There’s a plan that involves a private art viewing, a castle, and lovely friends tonight.
Note on the editing and re-editing: I started writing this about 5.30am. Errors were made. Now I must go and find coffee.
Have a lovely day and tot straks!
I have some truly remarkable friends and I've been busy with some of them.
