Late to bed (no, surely not) and up early for a sesh with Arktik Lake Tony in Sydney, four hours sleep. I nearly stayed up as the snooker final geniuses had started – one frame in and I was, no, you’ll regret it later. I set my alarm for three hours later and got up to realise Liverpool were playing Spurs, so I watched most of that (4-2) before heading into posters in the front room and CDs in the red shelves. Olivia was on posters, I was on CDs and it took hours to sort them out but now A-Z CDs are on shelves and there’s poster plans for framing and some are up on the entrance windows. The Archive is taking shape.
We have our first visitor since our recent progress coming tomorrow. Scott, who bid and won the Rickenbacker 12-string (kindly donated to the cause by Houston kool-kat William Buras) will be dropping in amongst the boxes. We did manage to get the table the right way up tonight even if it is in the wrong place. We are just making it up as we go along, put a shelf here, hang a poster there and see what it all looks like when it eventually becomes box-free.
My hands are hurting. I get waves of pain along my thumbs, pulling records out of boxes and shelves isn’t helping, but I have no choice. I’m hoping it calms down, but arthrosis sets in after 66 years of bone wear, apparently there is an operation which I must consider, especially if it gets any worse and if it becomes an issue for my guitar playing.
Seeing the rooms slowly shed their boxes and seeing the shelves swallow up the records is really something. Thank you to everybody that has helped make this happen, I hope you get to visit one day. The decor is starting to take shape too, we found both parts of the lava lamps today but as we start to figure out where everything is going to be, we need to get the electrician in. We need new plug sockets in various places before we can have an array of psychedelic lava light.
Music today was Van der Graaf Generator – Pawn Hearts (1971), intense music whilst being accessible. It’s passionate and raw, innovative, melodic, complex, and boasts one of the greatest singers ever – Peter Hammill.