Next ...

As if to compensate for the increasingly gloomy day, with the rain that began to fall about an hour ago, the lilies I bought in the supermarket a couple of years ago have begun to open in a blaze of cheering golden red. Rather like my hair, actually - I managed to complete the trip to my hairdresser in Greenock before the weather became truly beastly. While there, my pal and I met a group of Canadians who'd just come off the cruise ship moored alongside at Ocean Terminal, a couple of streets away from said hairdresser. They told us they'd had grey skies all the way, and we commiserated at their having to dock in such an unglamorous venue ...

Now I have to go and sing. Impossibly fast music, well outwith my preferred repertoire of Byrd, Palestrina, Leonard Cohen ... and needing a great deal of homework if I'm to survive on one actual rehearsal. What was I thinking ...