I just came back from a visit to the people I'll be staying with in Lewisham starting next week: lovely people and I'm going to have access to back garden with a huge lawn, vegetable garden, a plum tree and a cat, and permission to share the above with "my mates". And a massive bathtub (not in the garden, not to share). Heaven.

I woke up with a long to do list but when I checked my Swiss bank account online (yes, I've got two but they're not the numbered ones), I found that I haven't been paid for quite a few concerts, so I couldn't tick buying a bicycle or a new computer off my list quite yet. I cross my fingers that the massive vintage Raleigh folding bike on gumtree.co.uk just down the street will still be there when I can. I also couldn't open a bank account today as I had no proof of address until tonight. About to head out into the sunset, I realize I'm probably quite lucky to have had such a stagnant schedule forced upon me: I think I quite needed it. I did play some very high alto trombone in preparation for covering the third cornetto part in an untransposed Vespers Magnificat this weekend though.

Now I'm off to Woking to enjoy the hospitality of a Norwegian cornettist friend before the madness strikes again tomorrow.

Oh, and I have "la vie en rose" stuck in my head, which I suppose I'll have to get used to as I'm to play it on my sackbut with loads of slide vibrato towards the beginning of Henry IV. I should learn the words so that I can sing it out loud as I change trains in Paris' Gare du Nord on Sunday morning.