Sunday, November 17. After morning prayer and an earlier than usual lunch, I orbited the Vicarage Field while the sun still shone. The grass lessens the impact upon ankles, knees, hips, and lower back, so I’ve been told. I was like a hamster on a wheel – running in circles and going nowhere fast. Home, as the clouds gathered, to hot chocolate, a mince pie, and a shower:

The remembrance of a hotel room:

Monday, November 18. 7.30 am: a cold morning:

8.15 am: The Monday overview of the week ahead, register updates, email responses, and general dismay regarding what’s to come. I’m dragging behind a little; my self-imposed deadlines need to be adhered to, otherwise there’ll be a log-jam in a few week’s time. 9.00 am: The main website was, for some inexplicable reason, not uploading changes to data. So, I carried on doing what was possible to do: checking every link on the site, one-by-one. External links (which are outside my control) can either change or disappear. These need to be tested annually, at least. I’m increasingly wary making links to my own media that’s deposited on external sites. How long are these sites (like Chirbit) going to last? From henceforth, all links to sound samples and pdfs will be deposited in the media library on my own website. Vimeo won’t any longer allow me to log-in without coughing-up for a payment plan. Not that I had much (and nothing of consequence) on it. I’ll stick to YouTube from now on.

A resplendent day:

11.00 am: While the main website was receiving Mr Iliff’s expert attention, remotely, I cranked up my studio PC, with a view to getting the thing functionally operational across the board of software and apps. In betwixt, I responded to a flurry of incoming emails, tutorial requests, and things to be read. 12.20 pm: Mr Iliff mailed to say that he can restore the slide-show facility to the latest version of my WordPress third-party template. I am inordinately happy.

1.00 pm Lunch. ‘What enormous eggs!’:

Computers beget problems. This is an axiom. Few things are straightforward and are often costly in either time or money to make straight. Frustration City. And who or what do you trust by way of sound advice and a safe download these days? The fake, spurious, and deceitful are facts of life these days. Who can tell what’s legitimate any longer? Who is, now, safe from the on-line/telephonic harasser and extortioner? Our devices are open doors to those who’d wish to frisk and expose us. ‘Oh, come on Adobe. Play ball!’ I have a legitimate licence, just give me the link to an old (pre-scam) version of one of your products!’

6.15 pm: I held a practise session on my guitar for an hour. 7.30 pm: Back to the website, now that my expert technician has had a day on it. I worked through my list of ‘to dos’ for the remainder of the evening, while arguing with remote assistants at Adobe about the validity of my serial number:

I’m still not sure whether I was in discussion with a human being or a bot.