Bank shadows and reflections

The owner of the apartment we'll be staying in in Lisbon had requested payment of a 30% deposit, and I'd opted to pay this through bank transfer. So I did one of my bank jaunts over to my Bank of Ireland branch, which is in the HQ building on Baggot Street. Having laboriously filled in the necessary paper work with the details which Paulo the apartment owner had provided, the transfer was duly processed. I was a bit surprised to hear that it would be three to five days before Paulo would see the money in his account: seems rather a long time in these days of electronic transfers and all that. Anyway, the important thing is that the deed is done. Back outside, the winter sun was doing interesting things. A couple of bank workers came round the corner for a quick smoking break just as I clicked the shutter, making it all that little bit more interesting.

I'd recently run out of reading material (well, run out in the sense of not having anything new). What I've been doing is reading CHarles Dickens: The Pickwick Papers, specifically, which I don't think I've ever read before. I can't say that I found it a barrel of laughs, and I wasn't too sure about the serious turn when Pickwick ended up in debtors prison, but I certainly enjoyed it, especially for the terrific characters (the ever-faithful Sam Weller top of the list). Still, that's now finished, so I needed to find something else to turn to. As it happened, BBC Four showed a couple of programmes last week about the great pianist Alfred Brendel, who recently announced his retirement, and gave his last public performance in December. We in the music group have always been struck by how desperately serious this pianist always looks on his CD covers, and often mentioned this. It was a great surprise, so, to discover in the first of these television programmes that he actually has a wicked sense of humour, that he's a remarkably amiable man, that he also writes poetry and paints, and that he's generally totally different in person than how he comes across in photographs. I already knew about his reputation as an writer of music essays, so when the television programme ended I did a search and made a note to look for the book. So, when my bank business was accomplished, I went on a book search -- successful as it turned out. It's a big change from Dickens, but I'm looking forward to getting stuck into this.

While at it, I also had a look in the Travel section in a couple of book shops and also came away with a guide to Lisbon. So, a successful day.

Finally, I've also back-blipped Saturday and Sunday.