Echoes of Flavio's Ghost Dreaming

Three months on, I still have to wear that splint.

A week ago I was getting ready to leave the house on Friday night, was thinking that perhaps I didn't really need to still be wearing that thing, my hand hadn't been hurting for a couple of days. Then, pulling my boots up I get a stab of pain -like the first day after the bike incident.

At least I can play guitar now, although there are many things that I still cannot do or that make my hand hurt.

No summer concerts this year, I think. Shame. Will see whether I can prepare a programme to play in September/October.

Was looking forward to working with a singer that wanted to do stuff together but she seems to have lost interest. Shame, as she has a lovely voice and good ideas.

On a Met line train, making my way out of London for my teaching day in Watofordo. Running very late, won't be able to move stuff around (which will prevent me from using my printer, locked in a filing cabinet in my old teaching room which I cannot use because of a broken window mechanism that the school hasn't had time to fix, it's only been nine months since I reported it for the first time). This is probably going to be an interesting teaching day. As per the old supposedly Chinese curse.

The BT/Openreach engineer came yesterday, fixed the line, confirmed that 'somebody' had disconnected me to connect somebody else. This makes me wonder how long I will have telephone and internet before it happens again if it happened twice within 36 hours.

Elbow seems to be healing well but now I'm getting pain in my wrist (and more creaking when I turn it -not liking this much) and have noticed bruises on my knee and my leg that I hadn't noticed before, maybe because of the elbow. I should be able to play the guitar by the end of the week. I hope so; it is so much more long-winded to explain things in words than to demonstrate guitar in hand, even if you have the right words

Wondering about some friendships of mine (ok, one) that seem to be one way only, as in 'I try to be a friend, the other person tolerates my friendship'. That is not a satisfactory situation and I think I'll just get out of their hair. Anyone who reads this and knows my recent history will probably know who I'm talking about. Not their fault, we all are how we are.

Need to push the house-concert microgig idea more and get myself a few recitals for the summer. I'm so rubbish at 'selling the product', though. Need an agent, clearly... but that's another minefield.

Well, that's the current state of the flavio, I think. That, and strange dreams of loss and recovery and strange but familiar distant cities.

Back from doctor's appointment. Nothing serious, just a follow-up to last months's thing. But being told to take pills and all the increasing risks of this and that and inevitably the feeling of entropy slowly encroaching....

Yesterday I spent an interesting, if rather different, few hours at the A&E of the UCL Hospital. Nothing majorly wrong with me (hopefully, knock on wood) but .. bear with me.

( bit long.... )

I had a very heavy second week of term. Ok, I whinge a lot about the early-early start, etc but it never feels so bad in only the second week of term. I think I have an idea now. Today I woke up shivering and feeling as if I had been beaten up and had had a couple of bottles of whisky last night. Not a lot definitely hurts but it doesn't feel pleasant.

Now resting -cancelled lessons today, have been mostly sleeping, reading a little bit and playing with Notion on the iPad (although I suspect any music I write right now will be rubbish). I need this, whatever it is, to go away quickly -can't afford to fall ill. Sorry if I said I would attend your party/birthday/event.

ION, but probably related, tonight I have started the central heating for the first time this winter... even though the weather pages don't' show it to be particularly cold for the time of year.

For the first time ever -or, at any rate, for the first time in time immemorial, I went to a swimming pool today. Was going to the gym and the reception attendant asked, as they always do, "gym or swim?" and I thought... well, one of the reasons I joined the KT Sports Centre was the pool. And, with the heat wave in London outside, it was the perfect day for it too.

Hardly ever -or never, really, had swum in a pool before and had been quite embarrassed to go to the swimming pool; for one thing, the spectacle of flavio in a swim suit is something the world can do without. And flavio floundering about in the, ahem, style I learnt when at age 7 my father thew me in the water -ok, in the Caribbean, and salt water holds you better and it was quite safe really even if it didn't feel like that at the time- saying 'ok, now you float or you die'. Well, he probably didn't say that but that's what I clearly remember.

I enjoyed it enormously, as well as discovering, after a year going to that gym, exactly how unfit I still am. Won't tell the embarrassing tale of how many lengths did or didn't, but it was enormous fun. And, they don't play the horrid trash music at full blast they play in the gym upstairs. Will do that more often, I think.

... didn't go anywhere far this week-end as there were a few lessons that needed doing. And seemed to have got confused and missed at least one birthday I would have liked to attend; instead, ended up at Vagabonds, which was good although I don't really like the venue -too much of a split between the 'social catch-up' bit and the dance floor. Even if it is more convenient for me to get to. And then at the Slimelight, where I hadn't been for a while and which was actually quite a good night, which made me think I might return a little more often -although not too often, not every Saturday like ten years ago, for sure.

I seem to have caught some sort of weird bug, wonder whether I have a bronchial infection as I have a strange smell/taste in my mouth which seems to come from my chest, feel generally down although there aren't flu symptoms or pain... oh dear, have I already got to the point where I make conversation out of my ailments? Not yet, not yet please!:D

 Ok, so I had the tooth taken out in the end. I finally had the letter from UCLH telling me to phone to book appointment with the specialist. I did -they gave me one for the 12th of October.  I thought to myself... I cannot carry on like this for that long, so I had it extracted. I will still need to go to that appointment as there is a more serious underlaying problem. 

 Another dentist's appointment made, this is not getting better. Or rather, it is getting a bit bad again and I have to do something about it. Bother. I may have to have that tooth taken out, which I was trying hard to avoid. It is not 'hurting' as such but I can 'feel' it, feel like my whole jaw was being pulled sideways and get a sort of electric shock when I bite (but not exactly a tooth ache; difficult to describe).

Apart from that, everything going swimmingly. Or is it being dragged away by the currents....

Dentist appointment was .. mixed. The dentist was a nice Portuguese girl who didn't offer to implant vampire fangs on me. She took her time to explain lots of things to me -why do dentists tell you off for smoking when you've just told them you don't smoke? I still got the spiel about how bad it is for you, etc.

Bad news: I seem to have quite a serious problem with my gums, with loss of bone tissue and probably will lose a few pieces. I do not like this, I already have lost too many teeth. She referred me to a specialist to have a look and a more detailed diagnosis to see what can be done.

Today, one lesson and, tonight, featheredwings 's flat warming. 

A couple of photos from last Thursday's Sluts' meet in London Bridge, featuring drreagan , here
Lovely sunset London sky by the river....