Tyger Tyger ...

As my photo today is ... different, I'd better begin with it. If you follow this journal religiously, you might suddenly remember a post from a couple of months or so ago, when my teacher started work on this big painting to illustrate Blake's Poem. It's finished now - this fiercely leaping creature seeming to grow out of the steel ribcage at the extreme right of the picture, like a feline Terminator. I still find it extraordinary to be able to call this out of the bright blobs of paint in that earlier photo of mine - my paintings so far have all been from either photos or objects. I'm loving my classes, though - the sudden silences when we start concentrating on something, the conversational bursts, the coffee ...

Before that I went out in the downpour to drive to the hospital to see the NHS physio there about my back. She was a delightful young African woman, encouraging rather than downbeat, happy to share in a giggle when this old woman seemed able to hold a squat and maintain a conversation ... I had 45 minutes of fairly intensive questions, notes, observation and exercises, and a sheet with links to videos that arrived by email before lunch. (Another thing to fit into a day...)

After that, the day took on its predictable foul-weather shape of Italian, a bowl of pasta with two venison sausages left over from last night and a random selection of vegetables, a glass of our favourite Chilean red, and a doze in front of Stanley Tucci in Italy - the episode happened to be set in Puglia, and the last bit in Altamura where we were. Then out to choir - this time we had 4 altos but no sopranos at all, but somehow had a great rehearsal. We need to get together before Christmas, though ...

Now it's time for that marmalade sandwich. Talk about creatures of habit!