( ... )

 so... anyone wondering what happened, after that unusually promising start to the blogging year? or does everyone just assume that it's business as usual for me?!

what actually occurred: around the end of january, mrs c suffered a recurrence of a back injury (well... actually two - really three, four different injuries) and went off sick from work. at first we attempted to carry on otherwise as normal, until it became obvious that this was not gonna fly. she couldn't drive, and indeed couldn't really cope with me being out of the house all afternoon and evening, which in the end left me no choice but to go on the sick also. that, in theory, left me loads of time for - well, any number of things, but specifically for writing and listening. yes? no.

listening was out - that much was clear early on. normally i need time and space alone in the house for this, and ever since my working hours changed to permanent lates last autumn, i've had precious little of that, but since mrs c has been laid up - none whatsoever. her recovery space has been governed by her choice  of sounds, of energies. when i realised this, i briefly felt a sort of ultra-intense silent strangled sob, then quickly and unilaterally compacted to see the whole thing through with paregoric, in the form of the ol' mean 13 (as uzh, continued drug of choice), thus pacifying myself instantly in time-(dis)honoured fashion... and that was that for the next few weeks. sofa, kitchen, car. mrs c above all esle cannot (or couldn't, back then) sit and definitely could not (still can't) drive; hence i have been a daily chauffeur/assistant/co-carer etc etc... and ended up, in short order, pacified-to-mush, out-of-shape (no taiji at all whatsoever - then once in a blue moon, surprisingly good but never then sustained), and finally so in thrall t the household's newly-uncovered retrograde energetics that i ended up succumbing to my daughter's school-driven lergi (at the second time of asking, having already fought it off once) and took two weeks to even think about recovering.

every year or so - i need to do this - why? and why, still? well... that's under discussion elsewhere and i wouldn't want to pre-empt that; but i am finally back at work (ish) and lo and behold, the opportunities may not look exactly the same as when i abruptly went away, but they are nevertheless manifold and abundant and imminent, imminent.

good good... squeezed in some music last night, too - that particularly good dcw (core) trio from 2011, this month's current download with my new-this-year official tcf membership :)  ok, i may or may not be able to justif my recourse to jazzer-style licence: this performance is "particularly good", or is it just the first one to which i have paid proper attention in a while? and how was it for you? drop me a line and/or please comment, just please take the time and trouble to get your facts straight in your own mind before embarrassing us all by compelling me to do the straighening for you ;-)

ah... there was gonna be loads of course - still will be - i expect! but i can't say off the top of my head which ones will or won't limp off the planning board and onto the online page... but you know, please stay tuned nonetheless :-D

bye for now! cent x