I guess it’s nice to have a choice, but do I need to have so many? At the moment my biggest problem is probably the selection of priorities. Having shaken off the dreadful cough I had lest week I find myself trying to defend art against the clamour of demands from other activities. We have just decided to put our house on the market (after twenty-seven years) with all that this entails. A part of the process is, of course, making sure that the place looks nice to visitors. It has been a lovely week, and not surprisingly one of the main demands on my time has been to make sure that the (rather large) garden is under control. So, today I planted out the vegetable seedlings I have been nurturing sun the conservatory. A persistent intrusion into my time has been the succession of decisions about the disposal of things (especially books) which I don’t want to keep. A passion for my wife is politics, and the local elections have taken place this week. Much as I am inclined to do so, I can’t shut out the noise.
I have to confess that my only sporting interest is snooker, and this week sees the World Championships, in Sheffield. My strictly applied ration still amounts to about four hours a day.
Then, of course, there is art! To my enormous relief I am in the middle of a new picture, taking me back to my first love with pastels. I have been struggling to make sure that I can put in several hours every day, and it isn’t easy to do that in the face of so many other competing demands. I was quite pleased today to secure the great part of the afternoon for this purpose. It hasn’t reached the point at which I draw up a timetable yet, but if things go on like this I can see that this might be necessary.
Time for another frame of snooker!
Incidentally, one of the commentators this afternoon remarked that snooker must be the only activity in which twenty minutes pass during which nothing happens, but the viewers declare it to have been first-rate!