Open All Hours

Noi stayed up last night, or rather this morning, to 4.00 am cooking and cleaning ahead of today's big event. I was safely tucked in by 11.15 pm, not to avoid work but because she doesn't want me around. For last year's open house she had one or two people around to help at various times; this year she is mounting an astounding solo operation. We went to the market this morning directly after the swubuh prayer to get the last of what she needs, and now it's full steam ahead in our little kitchen, and elsewhere.

I enjoyed a terrific Later with Jools Holland last night featuring appearances from major luminaries Paul Simon, Dave Gilmour - backed by David Crosby and Graham Nash with stellar vocal harmonies on the title song from the recent solo album, and with Rick Wright on keyboards and vocals for, gasp, Arnold Layne - and Elvis Costello with Allen Toussaint. In addition to these grizzled oldies (Paul Simon looked well past his sell-by date, and that flawlessly youthful voice is, not surprisingly, showing distinct signs of wear and tear) there were a couple of engaging young bands, The Streets from Brixton being the stand out. Question - is it just embarrassing to see old geezers playing young people's music? I think it might be so for young people, but not being one of them I wouldn't know. As for myself it's sort of yes and no, and I have no time to expand on this as I'm now rightfully required to make myself useful. More anon.