20.52
Hotel Acceptable, Milton Keynes.
Then & Now…
The photograph of Sister & myself was taken on this day in 1957. Anyone generous enough to have taken an interest in my career may notice more outward-going physical display while holding a guitar than in the subsequent 48 years.
Our Boxing Day morning began in Bredonborough. T’s main Christmas present to me was a year’s membership of the London Library in St. James. Very excited by the promise of bibliophiliacal tumescense ongoing throughout the year, I went online to discover more about this refuge in the centre of London, a town I do not find overly welcoming. Perhaps one of the reasons I do not find London particularly congenial is that I do not take full advantage of the opportunities available; eg the National Portrait Gallery is wonderful, and free, in the centre of a very expensive city.
While online I learnt that Soundscapes Up The Junction is now No. 4, up from No. 9, in the DGMlive Top Ten.
To Milton Keynes. T had two shows today, and the Minx is now enjoying a restorative soak in the bath.
My own afternoon was spent in the MK Centre, an interesting experience. Boxing Day sales in England are, conventionally, huge events in the shopping calendar. There were less shoppers in the Centre today than on the 23rd; although not all the shops were open & John Lewis begins its sale tomorrow, so perhaps the numbers will increase. I noticed that many young children shouted & hollered a great deal, even where there seemed to be no particular negative stimulus to provoke the hollering. As if, shouting & hollering was a standard communicative form. In Italy & Spain & Argentina, Latin cultures all, children go out in public with their parents & grandparents. In the main, they do not shout & holler to communicate. Why might this be?
As on the other recent occasions in the MK centre, there seemed to be very little sense of personal presence in the traffic flows, including stationary positioning. If presence were present, it was well camouflaged.
Practising.
Collected T at the theatre, now gentling.
"When we have nothing to say, it is very hard to say nothing.
When we have nothing to do, it is very hard to do nothing."
