It's maths time...

Musician: Nat Keen (guitar)

I started the day by hanging out with resident IF. She seemed buoyant, chirpy and generally pleased that everybody was in their rooms, thus providing some well-needed tranquillity, 'Where is everybody?..haha, they must be asleep!'. I took the opportunity to spend some quality time with her, weaving in her rose tinted memories of her boxing father and the sweeping landscapes of the highlands with some imagined Scottish melodies of mine. The result was quite an interesting half-way house between spoken word/poetry and reharmonisations of melodies she sang, with me guessing the chords. It turns out that half of her family are of Irish heritage so I continued to play songs, jigs, reels and improvised pieces from that neck of the woods. Although IF talks continuously, about Jim Reeve (her favourite musician) and her father etc, there is a clear sense that music brings her comfort and a feeling of belonging, after all 'In the Highlands, everybody plays a mean guitar’

I then went to see DW, it was double celebration time. For him it was the day of his wedding anniversary, he and his wife were married in 1965! So that's....maths time....57 years! To imagine 1965 seems like another world, to picture the things they must have seen together, the changes, the advancements and the deteriorations, to still be together, supporting and caring is incredible. We joined in celebration (it was my birthday) and I played some uplifting music.

Back to politics, DW and I talked about our fears and hopes for the direction our society is moving. He lamented the lack of fight and rebellion in the younger generations and the state of our government whilst commending the work people do for their communities, giving so much back to society when there's so much selfishness around. He praised The Spitz, mentioning how fortunate he feels to be able to listen, talk and interact with what he described as 'an interesting bunch'