Heat Wave Claims

Supposedly London is in the grip of some kind of super-extreme heatwave! That normally means temperatures have skyrocketed up to the mid twenties - for English people that is far above normal. In this case the thermometers must have all exploded because we have reached the two-digit part of the scale beginning with "3" - that's 30°C!

According to news sources and people in general, it is too hot!

But according to me, it is a little on the cool side!

Yes, I only begin to enjoy myself at 30°. It's a fact. And as we are only just touching that, I would like a little bit more.

Of course I realise that it is too hot for some people and that some of those may find it difficult to get through - or even survive (in some cases). The people here are not used to it and do not know about hydration anyway. They think a cup of tea with milk in it is hydrating! Well, I don't even know what it's like to drink a cup of tea, because I have never had one. Never ever!

Now you are starting to ask if I am really English. I don't wear a bowler hat, either! I have played cricket though. A bit. It's good as long as everyone keeps quiet, not like this modern style which is a bit like baseball. The more colourful clothes and lively music are supposed to make it more popular, and I'm sure they have, however I appear to think it is still 1952 0r 1882 or something. Yes, the lemonade has been poured and the sun's on the croquet lawn. One of the servants has been made destitute as a consequence of not bowing low enough, England are 445 for 3 against the West Indies and we have just added another six countries to our portfolio of interests, or Commonwealth as we call it. That troublemaker Gandhi is nowhere to be seen and no Kaisers or Führers have yet dared to disturb Britannia's calm seas (and iron grip over them).

As you will no doubt realise, I'm not entirely in favour of our colonial habits (many of which we have lost now) though it seems I do like the idea of that England in some choice aspects. Tough luck for me that if I were alive then, I'd probably be down a mine somewhere rather than shimmying across the lawn!

Anyway, it is England in some way or another, and it is hot, and I am beginning to thrive, as I always will at this temp!

Hurrah! Jolly good show, eh what?

The Magic of Words

Words have a magic all of their own.

They can tell the truth. But you must test for yourself if it is true, because words can also twist your mind to embrace a lie.

Without words, many things would be different. Would a rose smell as sweet if it had no name? Or even sweeter perhaps?

Today I want to mention the magic of the written word. That is something important to take notice of.

There is one particular thing that written words can do that we sometimes find difficult.

Written words can remember things.

When you write a to-do list, or your list of goals, you are using the magical power of written words to change your reality.

Because the words are helping you remember and helping you direct your energies in a certain way.

They're not just words.

To-Do Lists and Goals Lists are important for this reason.

When you need to remember a goal that you want to achieve ten years from now...you can check the list every day and it will remind you even though you could forget without help. The world gets very busy and things try to deflect you from your preferred course. This is when your list could help.

If you need to remember who you were ten years ago, you can look in your diary. People change - sometimes deliberately - and if you have made any improvement, it is often difficult to see that. So it's good to have something to compare it to, a bit like the height marks on the frame of your kitchen door. When you were six, you were this tall. Now look how much you have grown!

But if you are planning to grow a certain number of inches, or the spiritual equivalent, then you need a similar kind of aid to plan your course. Memory is, of course, the thing that will do this for you. But when you are beginning, as I said, it is sometimes rather hard to remember in the face of a lot of confusion. So that's when making lists comes in useful.

Things you need to do. Things you want to do. Things you have to do. Things you wish you could do? Things you need to learn how to do. Things you have never done. Places to go, people to see, things to do. Things to say. Things to sing. Music to play. Games to play. Games to win. Battles to fight. Enemies to befriend. Friends to take care of. Flowers to grow. Children to meet. Your success is here. Plan it now, by saying one thing: I will do a little more each day, and I will do it a little better each day.

You can make a list if you want!

Strike Struck

Today (and tomorrow actually) there is a Tube strike! (That means the workers of London's underground railway service are refusing to work, translated for people who don't know what tube and strike are)

It means you have to walk to your work, or sit (actually probably stand) on your bus for 2-3 hours!

So what was different about today? All the little people crawled out of their holes, yawned several times, and squinted their eyes and said What is that in my eyes? and the answer was It is the sunlight, welcome to the world!

They couldn't sit on the train scowling with their iPod banging away in their ears - they were RELEASED!

It was exciting and quite sweet because everyone had a map - they don't know where anything is in real life! Let's see, I"m standing on some kind of "road", it seems to be, and I need to get to a sort of er "street" I think it is called, but the Tube is not working. What do I do? Can you see a taxi...?

It was just like in the Simpsons when the cartoon Itchy and Scratchy is cancelled and all the children go outside to play, to the sound of Beethoven's 'Pastoral' Symphony.

Welcome!

You were annoyed about the strike perhaps, but I was happy to see you!

For the first time!

European Elections Problem

There is a little problem. In Europe there are some elections. In the UK you can vote today. But there is some worry about voter turnout. Last time about 45% of people voted. That is taken to mean that 55% of UK people don't care about Europe.

Now the problem I have is: I haven't received any information about these elections. I don't know where to go or what to do. I don't even know what is being elected. I only know about it because a Spanish friend told me.

Is this anything to do with the low turnout that's expected?

What am I going to do? If you have the chance to vote you should use it - whether you believe in the process or not, you are at least increasing the chance that you will be happy with the result.

How many hours shall I spend on trying to locate this election?

**UPDATE** (the next day...)
I couldn't vote! It's really a shame. I was also working yesterday so I couldn't devote the whole day to this problem, but I tried the internet, I took my voter registration card out with me just in case, but there was no sign of any place to vote. So I didn't vote! It's rather a shame. One person doesn't make a difference on his own, but you still have to exercise your ability to vote. Now I wonder what it was that obstructed me this time?

"Modern Music"

Yesterday I attended a lecture-recital on the piano music of Haydn given by Andras Schiff at the Wigmore Hall. He played quite a lot of the music (an early Capriccio in C major, F minor Fantasie, the last Sonata (E flat major)) and talked us through the harmonic movement, pointing out what harmonies were a surprise and in what way. It was very gentle and quite amusing for a typical Wigmore audience which is of course very music-loving and intelligent as well as, it has to be admitted, rather conservative.

I was disappointed by one of his comments, which was directed against "modern music". He was expounding the virtues of the wonderful way Haydn returns to the home key after all his excursions and surprise moves in the wrong direction, and said that's the thing that bothers him about contemporary music - that it never arrives home after it has begun. It wasn't a terrible comment, but I wasn't too impressed by it, and certainly not by the way he knew he could say that to this audience and be sure they would go along with him, and even find it amusing.

Do you think one day we will be able to have music in concert halls?

Yes, just music - sounds that mean things. Not "our music not yours" or "of course this music is some of the greatest ever composed (because it has existed for hundreds of years and hasn't hurt anybody since then)".

It's an interesting point that the very conservative repertoire often is some of the greatest music ever composed (it seems to me) but there are certainly plenty of gaps where other great music has been omitted, and where living composers do not have any comfortable place. Or at least the ones with the comfortable place are just lying around in comfort, not writing anything of any note.

England is unusual because it has a very conservative part which, while it inhibits change, succeeds in preserving (conserving) some things that, if we didn't have them, we would be much the poorer for that. So even though I don't like these remarks about "Listen to all the wrong notes! How silly it sounds" and so on, I don't actually mind too much. But one day they will appreciate that you can see in all directions out of the windows of your house, not only the directions you already know about.

There is great music now, and has been since the last officially great music was written (when was that, 1910 or 20? And even a lot of that is sometimes considered a bit modern, such as Ravel). I don't mind at all that we are taking it slow with the new repertoire choices. We could have a fast-moving all-changing society and it might not be long before we lose the good parts.

Yes, at the Wigmore hall you, like Volvic mineral water, must be filtered through volcanic sand for 15 years until you reach the required level of purity. Except it's more than 15 years.

But if we can stand the test of time, then we can wait a few years for the music-lovers.

Don't be scared, audience! It's just that we have some more things you can love.

Today in the news (my news)

When you get the chance to speak to somebody I think you should, rather than avoiding it. It's easy to avoid, for any number of reasons, all of which make sense if you say them, yet the one that doesn't make sense is not talking to people. Because we are all in here together, and how will you learn things if you don't bother sampling things that are different from you - things that you don't already know about?

I spoke to a man today. I didn't have to, since he has only met me a few times and fairly certainly didn't remember me, but I was asking how things are and he says his son has died recently and he was only 35. So I could easily have passed him by. I'm not saying it's necessarily a good idea to talk to me about your problems, maybe it will just make them worse, but still I'm glad I could try to be helpful at least once. Next time, say hello to somebody! You can, you know.

In other news, there is a new winner of the Gaudeamus Interpreters' Competition, called Małgorzata Walentynowicz. As you can see, she is Polish and congratulations to her and good luck for your next success! Here is the video about it.

You see, we aren't the kind of people who have enemies in the same line of business. I don't mind that there's more than one winner of Gaudeamus - of course there will be! Good luck to all of them, they all deserve success if they try hard. Sometimes people get jealous, even of me (which is pretty amazing) but I think that's because they feel they aren't really that good. It means they'd like the people they think are good to fail please. Well that certainly is comprehensible but it doesn't make a lot of real sense, sorry. If people are better than me, wonderful. I seriously hope they are. If I'm the summit of excellence, we're in trouble!

Last of all, Marks and Spencer is the name of a shop in UK. They are mainly known for clothes but they also have a food wing or branch. The food wing or branch sells quite nice food, all of it very expensive and very over-packaged, however it is of quite a good quality at the same time. So sometimes I give it a try. Anyway, they previously had quite a good selection of salads that were well made. But all that has suddenly changed! Now every salad, no matter what it is, no matter what are the ingredients, has potato in it. Everything has potato. Why? Is there some sort of glut? Are the fields awash with potatoes?

Well I can tell you another thing. It's not nice. The one I just ate tasted like something they found in a ditch. The recipe made no sense and I hardly ate any of the potatoes. Well, they should think on that.

Please note: I said the salads were good previously. I have nothing against potatoes or their use in cuisine. It's just a question of mad recipes or sane recipes. Take your choice, Marks and Spencer.

What we learned today is: help people if you can, let them win if they can, and don't allow any more of this potato insanity. The end!

Saint-Saëns/Godowsky: Le cygne (The Swan)

I have to go out in a minute so here is this morning's present for you. An elegant swan!