Prom

I have just jumped through many obstacles to my mother being able to come to the Prom I'm performing in. The issue was mainly parking; the Royal Albert Hall will do allocated disabled parking for wheelchair users, but it's only available from 5.30 at the earliest. However, the warm-up is at 6, and even if Mum and Pete ate on their own without me there isn't time to get down to South Ken and back with the wheelchair.

So I rang Imperial College on spec, and got through to the buildings manager, who has given me an allocated parking space for the afternoon. No charge. What a lovely man.

And talking about lovely people, a belated big-up to bugshaw who lent us a wheelchair. It might not be needed eventually - Mum's muscles are getting stronger and some of the feeling is coming back into her feet. It's a slow business though and could take up to a couple of years.

The Prom is on Wednesday 23 August. Rachmaninov's The Bells, based on a fantastic Edgar Allen Poe poem. It's a bit odd singing Poe in Russian. And A Relic of Memory, a new piece by Mark-Anthony Turnage which is bar none the most difficult thing I've ever had to wrap my soft palate around. Full of non-intuitive intervals; augmented fourths is the least of it.

Uncle Nick - still alive. Smoking is bad for you, kiddies.

ION, Evil Property Developer being fought back with flaming torches and pitchforks. Also looks like forbinproject is being sent to Australia for two weeks in September which neither him nor me are keen on. It's one thing getting to travel for fun, quite another being stuck round the other side of the world on your own and having to work.