A prayer to Robert.

 Time: 6.10am.

I'm having a coffee after a fairly restless night's sleep. Hey, today will be my 7th. day back home! I'm mending slowly, I think.

I know that Robert's blog is back, and it has a place for comments, except that the friendly ones I've left have never materialized. I wonder if he looks at this blog? I bought him a book yesterday and left it at his door (he was not home) with a message inside the front cover.

I thought that this book might help with things like his cello playing. I hoped it might inspire him. But how do I try to give him this message? Then I remembered that he likes to pray. Okay, I thought I'd might as well try to pray to him. Here goes.

"Oh, Robert who farts about Heaven. It is your sinful brother here. I thought that the book that I dropped off might help you to make your life more happy and fulfilling. Changing, or making little habits can give us great results. I've already experienced this with my violin playing and it gives me a real purpose in life as I try to recover from not being well. With regards to your cello playing, the idea is to create little habits that don't take much time, but that can make important parts of your playing automatic. Let me give you an example from my violin practice. 

1st. violin habit: How do I sound? Am I playing in tune? I play some long bows and think about my bow grip. I play a simple scale to check my tuning. I might go on and bow notes all over the violin - this is just a personal decision of mine. If you want, performing this habit can be kept really short, say one or two minutes. Or even less. The important thing is to try to do it EVERY DAY.

2nd. violin habit: I've decided to play some Bluegrass, a type of music that has lots of double stops. There are only really three three note major chords (and three minor chords) on the violin. From the D string to the E string these would be:

D A F# (D major)

D B G (G major)

E C G (C major)

If you are playing major double stops (say in G major), you can play up the A and E strings with:

B/G    D/B    G/D  This pattern just keeps repeating.

Making these patterns (and three note chords) automatic in every key is the job of this daily habit.

I have three more habits that I do. I practice 12 'jazz' scale and chord things (just a few each day). I play through a chosen jazz style piece. I practise some Bluegrass things, like Hokem bowing.

So, how long does all this take me? I could do it in about 15 minutes, but I usually spend between 25 to 50 minutes on it. My personal choice there.

I'm also working on habits to get me back into improving my Italian language. If I'm sitting around with some spare time, I'm better off doing some Italian practice than simply playing on my phone. I'm changing a habit there!

Changing habits can really change your life for the better. Imagine someone who gets really anxious about certain things. They could change this 'bad' habit simply by saying, "If something makes me anxious, I'll stay away from it."

I hope you hear my prayer, Robert. If you don't, just read this post. Ah women!"

* * *

Here is my new (second hand) car.

It's a Nissan Note (A=440. A little musical joke there.) and is almost the exact same colour as our Toyota Vitz. My old car went to the wreckers. They gave me $350 for it. I was pleased. I don't think Peter likes this make of car, but it's too late now. I needed to get a car quickly so that Shelley and I are both mobile. The idea was to get a small car that we both felt comfortable driving but, for some reason, Shelley seems a bit scared of driving this car. I guess she'll soon get used to it. Anyway, we now have two cars again.

While I was in hospital I had left my old car parked in our grove and not up our drive. I didn't mean to do this. Someone spotted that its WOF had run out and informed the authorities. See, there are self centered cunts out there. Our mechanic died recently. Normally his company would have reminded us that it was warrant time. I only found out about it when I got home. Anyway, it inspired me into action and we now have a new car. I must fill it up with petrol today. 

We're going over to look after Harrison today while his very pregnant mum visits her doctor. Harrison turns two next Monday. We've bought him a little bike thing that his parents suggested. I've got it half assembled, but the instructions are hopeless. I think I've damaged one of the wheel-holding-on parts. I'll need to finish the assembly on Saturday. Wish me luck!

Peter's dad probably didn't have
to assemble this bike.

Well, that's it from me for this morning.

Ciao tutti.