HIFA again. N (Sr) plays on Saturday. Tonight we went to watch Hope play on the same stage. It was pretty good if a little bit Brand-New-Heavies-accentuate-the-positive - 'Woman! You're a bird!' etc ... sing it in a Cockney accent and it would have a very different connotation ...

I mostly write this diary in a notebook and then periodically transcribe it. I don't know why. I need to try another system. On Monday, I lost a notebook with the best part of two weeks of entries. It's quite taken the wind out of the sails of my quotidian reportage. I mean, what a two weeks they were! Not so much in terms of happenings, but certainly in terms of the wit and precision of my writing. I have never been on such good form, but you'll just have to take my word for it. Maybe I'll fill in the gaps at some later date with some of my more timeless (eternal, perhaps) observations.

Twenty-five years later and I discover those teachers were right after all. I was only cheating myself.