Guide dog

I have met the guide dog I will be sharing with Debbie today.  As I haven't had a dog before I am going to be sharing Millie with Debbie to learn how to deal with the dog.  I walked over to her house to meet Millie who is a lovely yellow lab/retriever cross and very friendly. 

We took her for a walk over the fields where she met another dog and had a lovely chase round with him, but came back when Debbie blew on the whistle straight away which I thought was very good as she is young.  I will be having her for a week or so at the end of the month when Debbie has visitors, and maybe for a weekend as well.

We had a lovely weekend with Boo and Trevor and it was great to have time to catch up and chat.  Great.

Eat drink and be merry....

A different diet.

I am trying the GI diet because if it works (fingers crossed) then it is something I can sustain forever.  So far it seems to involve eating more food than I was eating before, there are cakes you can make, it includes puddings, and includes carbs.

It doesn't include just any carbs or cakes however, they do have to be GI ones which are slow to digest eg porridge not corn flakes, wholemeal bread not white, no butter, but so far (week 1) I am loving it.  At the moment it feels a bit too good to be true but I'm enjoying the food so we shall see what happens.

One step forwards.....

Brian has put the updated version of iWeb which he uses to write his website onto his computer.  Unfortunately it has lost the hyperlinks to the scores which he has on the site.  Well,  the link is there - but invisible.  Why?????

He is upgrading to the next version up and fingers crossed it works. 

Why does something which worked fine before stop working with what is supposed to be an improvement? 

Grr

Removal of clarinet

The BBC recording of Brian's piece 'Shadows of Memory' which was played last week has a wrong entry by a clarinet at a crucial moment - should be a silence but in comes a clarinet - and as it was a workshop it wouldn't be rerecorded.  However Brian phoned a friend who has a studio in his house - he writes film scores, tv scores etc (did Fireman Sam) and Ian said he could take it out.

We went round there yesterday and after an hour we have a new recording without the stray clarinet.  It is so clever that they can take a bit out like that. 

B has gone away with huge amounts of updating to the website to do this week so will be busy. 

New Year Resolutions

One month in and I am not doing brilliantly  on the resolutions.

I have been going to the gym and have managed twice a week most weeks - this is good.

I have started sorting out the photos on the computer etc - also good.

I haven't sorted out all the financial things - bad

I haven't lost weight - bad

I have done a bit of writing - good

A curate's egg of resolutions then - not bad actually

Shadows of Memory

Last week B had his piece called Shadows of Memory performed in a workshop with BBC National Orchestra of Wales, along with 5 other Welsh composers. 

It was very exciting though I didn't actually get to hear the piece live, nevertheless even in a rehearsal recording it sounds really  good. 

All artists have problems with getting in touch with the public, but it is probably worse for musicians than most others.  Painters, sculptors etc can hire a hall and get people to see the final product for a reasonable amount of money.  Writers these days can do it all for free if the publish as an ebooks - though getting actually published in book form poses more of a problem.  However all of these people can show their work to family, friends and anyone interested.  Film makers and composers however need lots of other people to get their work from the page to something that other people can appreciate.  An orchestra is an expensive beast.    

It was lovely to hear it