The ones left behind

My chauffeuring duty done at 5am, I have had the rest of the day to consider my altered state.

I have had a chat with the wood stove, and it seems a little more cooperative than usual. The teenagers have been washing up and tidying so enthusiastically that I think their father must have bribed them before he left. I have recorded the vocals for three jazz tracks, and tried to learn an unlikely French carol beloved of my autistic students called La Marche des Rois, set to a melody of Bizet’s. I have sung a whole repertoire of Carnatic Indian music, learned the harmonium parts to two of them and mastered a nasty 5 4 rhythm on the Southern Indian tambourine (kanjera) for another. I can almost get my sruti box (the drone) in tune with the harmonium…but it will keep drifting out, which is strange because it is electronic.

It’s amazing how much you can get done when you are on your own…