(no subject)

Wednesday went very well.
More than 200 people turned up at St M's.  G & J unable to attend: G bedridden now with Parkinson's, J attending to him constantly.
Many from CAFOD. A few formidable old boys and girls from Fleet Street. All went off v. well. Good speech from Mike.
I thanked Doctors etc. Food was alright. Then I was a man beset by four aunts, which sounds like something out of Wodehouse, excepting they were all Irish (Ma's sisters). Good family gossip and catch up with the Irish side.
Mum's coping.
Studio yesterday morning for 11am. Left studio at 3.30 for soundcheck at 6pm - had to pick up vocalist at 5. Arrived at  venue at 6.15. Soundcheck. Onstage at 10pm. Finished at 12, packed up and paid by 1am. Home by 2 - journey much easier without school run/rush hour traffic.
The amp works well, however.

I'll miss Dad lots.
So will all the folk that knew him.

(no subject)

Worry that K Milligan may be right about Iran - if he's right, and I'm right about the Sunnis siding with Al-Qaeda, we're really deep in the shit, unless Syria can act for the Sunnis, and remove the need for...etc etc, which leads to Iran needing to balance the Syrian influence..etc etc.
And which could leave us as brokers, not breakers. Which brings me back to my original point about Diplomacy, which is different from appeasement.
(Appeasement actually sounds like what Tony Blair gives GWB.)
There is always advantage to be won, even with (to use the Piquet phrase) junior hand. We can lose, as well, but so can the stock market - the trick, surely is to be ahead of the game, to know more, to have better strategies, and , most importantly, to have a better long term performance.