It's all go at the moment and today was busy, busy, busy, but I didn't get much chance to actually do any work.
First up I was at the dentist at 8.30 for what turned out to be a 2 hour appointment to fix my knackered tooth.
Then back home to record the 9th Collings and Herring podcast (
now up at the usual location).
Then down to Hammersmith to meet with Janet Ellis, the object of my teenage and subsequent lust, to discuss a charity gig at the Lyric Hammersmith (don't forget you can see this week's show for just £5 by ringing 0871 22 117 29 and quoting "Richard's Blog" - tell all your friends. Still a lot of empty seats!)
Then up to Regent Street to take my crappy MacBook Pro in for another fix up session (I had to leave it at the store, but they rang me within two hours to say they had identified and fixed the problem - maybe Robert Webb was right after all. I don't know who to trust! Let's see when I pick it up tomorrow. I am writing this on my little used desktop PC, so David Mitchell doesn't need to feel too bad. I admire them both for feeling so strongly about their opposing positions to fund those public announcements. But they are confusing- which is best?)
Then it was nearly night time so I headed home, thankful that I had the night off.
I stopped off in Notting Hill to buy something for dinner. I passed the Oxfam shop on the High Street there and saw that they had two wedding dresses displayed in the window. Initially it seemed like quite a sad image, that two dresses from (presumably) two women's special days (or one woman's two special days) were now being sold for charity. Either two loves had died and the women had cast off their unwanted wedding weeds, or the women themselves had died and those left behind had not wanted to keep these romantic momentos. I felt slightly chilled by either option. The dresses were pretty enough and one of them came with a little tiara with (probably) fake pearls on it. It made me feel sad.
But then maybe it's not so bad. Maybe it's good that these dresses might be worn again, even if by a total stranger. Hmmm, maybe not. Would it be a bit sad to buy your wedding dress from a charity shop? I am not a superstitious person, but still these forces are hard to overcome, and might it be bad luck to wear a dress that you don't know the provinence of? It might be CURSED!
Like I say, I am not superstitious.
And I thought that most likely the dresses would be bought by some students who would wear them ironically when out on the town (perhaps ripping them to make some kind of satirical point) or in a theatrical production or short film (perhaps covering them in fake blood to make some kind of satirical point). It made me feel a bit sad again. Perhaps I am a sentimental old fool. Maybe the dresses were never worn in the first place. Maybe it's good that they would make some money for famine relief now, wherever theyhad come from and wherever they would go. But out of context something that is usually a cause for pleasure can become a signal for doom, like ventriloquist dummies sitting alone on a chair in an unoccupied room.
Perhaps it's something to do with Miss Haversham that wedding dresses outside of a wedding are sinister and strange. I'm just glad I wasn't there after midnight, when those headless mannequins must surely come to life and murder happy courting couples - I'll send this idea off to Dr Who. That's pretty much all you seem to need. Mannequins/androids all dressed identically!
Anyway I started the day with a broken tooth and a broken computer and fingers crossed both are now mended at the end of the day. If only I could say the same for all the broken hearts in the world. I don't know how many there are, but there are too many. Right Jason?
