Metaphor

I'm writing the chapter on metaphor, which is quite challenging. Cohen's metaphors are obscure and I can't pick and choose because I've done the logical thing of 'every nth line' to produce 100 lines to work with. But a huge number of them contain metaphor. 'Between the sundial and the chain'?? 'Avalanche' is a lyric with no further reference to avalanches but I think I've worked that one out. 'To a teacher' is bothering me at the moment. I've really settled back after a busy Easter (all the cakes turned out well and were in demand) and I'm making progress.

We also had a day out at Beamish with Dinosaur, who refused to sleep all day because of the excitement of all the activity - vintage cars, trams, steam tractors and a small farm. At least we delivered him back safe and exhausted - like we were.

I mentioned a while ago that I'd moved on from my Old Faithful hairdresser. The new salon has a lot of different stylists who keep leaving, so I've had four so far. Today I had the salon owner (New Star) at a reduced price because someone left suddenly. He was brilliant - I haven't had my hair cut so attentively since the 70s, when I was young and vain. OK, so now I'm old and vain. We didn't talk about holidays. Just hair and layers and maintenance for a whole hour. And I've got the sort of sharp(ish) cut I didn't think my hair was capable of. I suppose the real test is tomorrow when I attempt it myself.

Another distractions week

This week has produced very little writing. We are deep in the design for the new kitchen and I am an expert on worktops and fridges. Not to mention taps and sinks. I have sent for a light meter because I don't trust anyone on lighting. Its very confusing and we like our rooms really bright!! That might be an older person's thing.

We moved my aunt into sheltered accommodation - all on one level, which will be much better for her. We were so exhausted at the end of the day that we felt as if we had moved ourselves (well, OK, not that bad).

Only a few weeks to go til the Amazon trip - will we meet the deadline for the kitchen order? We intend to buy malaria tablets on Monday and yellow fever vaccinations are booked for the following week. And Christmas needs to be organised before we go, including writing the cards. I have just baked a ginger cake, to go in the freezer and be used at Christmas.

We found out today that one of our neighbours, an otherwise healthy woman of similar age to us, had a stroke. You never know and you need to make the most of everything.

Received another good picture of Dinosaur's no-holds-barred approach to eating. A few days ago we Skyped him and he spent some of the time round the back of the screen looking for us.

I saw a greetings card in the shop which really annoyed me. It was a retirement card which suggested retirement was about getting up late, having long boozy lunches and snoozing the afternoon away. Well, its nothing like that here!! In fact, that lifestyle sounds like a recipe for early ill health. We still walk a bit and do Tai Chi most days, as well as racing round the house all day doing chores.

TSH is already emoting about Cruise 2016. Cruise 2015 is, of course, already booked.

Some progress

I have started to develop spreadsheets for the lyrics in 'Songs from a Room' - Cohen's second album, from 1969. I suppose that seems like ancient history to some people. I am looking at the pronouns - who is speaking? who is he speaking to? who is he speaking about? Cohen often mixes up these roles - he speaks as if about a third party and then it becomes apparent he means himself.

Yesterday we went to a party at Dinosaur's other grand-parents. He was very well behaved and charmed everybody. And I got sunburnt. On a cool day in Yorkshire. Probably no-one else present had this issue - I really do have very sensitive skin. So today its Aftersun every few hours.