I’ve ordered the homemade beans on toast and some Japanese Gen Mai tea. I’m sitting in the corner, having moved from sitting outside (beside the wonderful ‘found object’ mosaics): it’s a bit colder today. That’ll hopefully not have been the extent of our summer!
I’m sporting a new haircut from the nice Arabic chaps on Camden Street. They’ve left my fringe a bit more down than I normally wear it, so I’m feeling a little self-conscious
Tea’s just arrived – smells, as promised, of toasted rice.
Mmm, beans have arrived and they smell good!
…
Very tasty – canelloni beans, sausage, tomato (pulverised) on two generous slices of buttered toast. Toast was sliiightly burnt and a bit tough, but it all added to the homemade vibe.
The tea is really good. Went well with the food and the toast theme of today’s lunch. Very clean, I’d say it would go well with a lot of foods (on up the spice scale) in that it doesn’t get in the way.
A little blonde girl in a long white lacy skirt and red leather shoes with a strap is waiting at the door for her mum, holding a well-behaved puppy on a lead. Cuteness 🙂

Last night was the first of a four-Thursday residency in The Purty Loft by Hamlet Sweeney & The Handsome Strangers (of which I am Handsome Stranger No. 1 ;-)).  On the way out to the venue in Dun Laoghaire we stopped into a garage and I picked up a box of Cadbury’s Heroes – miniature versions of popular Cadbury’s chocolate bars – for half price.  This competition product to Mars’ ‘Celebrations’ contains Bournville and the addition of the dark chocolate brings the Heroes collection up a level in my estimation.  It brings a maturity and gravitas to the box, like the plain licorice or ‘the bobbly ones’ in Licorice Allsorts…or the coffee Revels.

I was just giving a guitar lesson – working on Regina Spektor’s lovely songs ‘Samson’ and ‘The Call’.  ‘Samson’ is a beautiful, wistful piano ballad that offers a fresh perspective on the familiar bible story and it was interesting to figure out how to play it on guitar.

‘The Call’ was a different challenge again, it being scored for orchestra.  It actually works well with slightly unconventional Bb (6x056x)/ Eb (x6506x) chords I like the sound of.  The F chord, when it arrives, is scored strongly and, though I would often cheat on F, the way it’s used in this song means that the full barre chord is best.  It strikes me that the F barre chord is possibly the meatiest chord on the acoustic guitar: it requires the most physical strength to play properly and so has a pent up power that’s not as present in its jangly neighbouring chord of E.

Before she left, my student told me to go and look up a duo called ‘First Aid Kit’ singing a cover of Fleet Foxes’ ‘Tiger Mountain Peasant Song’.  Great harmonies – what @hamletsweeney would call ‘kitchen table harmonies’.

I was going to try and link the dark chocolate to the melancholy streak in the best songs and art.  The link is that I was eating mainly Bournville as I listened to the beguiling First Aid Kit girls, Hamlet and the others having scoffed most of the other varieties!