4:57 p.m. - 2024-03-13
sometimes a man just gotta do what he is asked to do

Lots of travelling today to get through my list of tasks. I hurried home from her place to just make it to an early afternoon dental checkup. I dared not miss the appointment as these days it's an automatic fine, and a warning that you might be removed from their client list. Finding another practice locally is nigh on impossible these days. I also travelled through to my old home town to meet Joe about some business, and that went well. I've acquired some future project work and paid rock bottom for it. Joe was a nice dude, in his early 70s and still a player. We exchanged contacts just incase we are gigging anywhere near each other in the future. I then drove by Andy's studio on the way home to meet up with his second lieutenant, Darren. Some new business was waiting for me in the form of an Eden Traveller 550. It's now on the bench for a repair investigation.

In the mail was a renewal for my car breakdown policy. I was reminded that I took it out this time last year the day before I travelled to England with Rui and we spent a wonderful week together at her former husband's home in Essex. He didn't make it through the pandemic and she needed to tie up some legal stuff before going home to Hong Kong. I was at a loose end and offered to take her there. I have very fond memories of that week, and it was our time to say goodbye to each other before she returned home. She's since married again and will now be six months into her first pregnancy by her new husband. I haven't heard from her since but she did say she would be in touch at some point, if only to let me know how the pregnancy was progressing.

It was good to see Marion again after just over a fortnight without her. I really had missed her and I shed a little tear or two of joy as we hugged. She felt the tears and asked me if something was wrong but there wasn't anything wrong in that moment. A highly emotional man isn't something she is used to or maybe even thought existed. I can tell I still surprise and confuse her sometimes, it's almost like one step forward and two steps back some days.

She had to work yesterday so I arranged to go see her dad for a few hours to tell him about the Trace Elliot's and to trade musician's tales with him. I dropped her off at work and as we pulled up to the place where she works, all the girls in the office were smiling and waving at the window. I smiled and waved back at them and they waved even more. She gave me a look, and then sighed. "On your way" she said, and remember to come straight home from my dad's. No distractions on the way home. Remember you have chores and I expect them to be done by the time I get home.

Yes, I forgot about the chores list she gave me. I think I'm being evaluated for domestic suitability. She knows I can fix stuff, that I can cook edible meals, and I have all the important man stuff in the bag. Can I clean a bathroom, a kitchen, vacuum carpets, operate a washing machine and successfully do high and low dusting without breaking anything or burning the house down? Oh, and take out the trash and make sure to separate the recyclables. My talents are wasted really with such tasks but sometimes a man just gotta do what he is asked to do. She hadn't asked me to do so but I decided I'd even have her dinner ready on the table for her when she came home from work. That really surprised her, doing something not on a list.

Malcolm was amazed with the Trace Elliot repairs and hearing my story about using them at last Sunday's gig. He's given me the Mk4 GP11 to keep as that was my request, and the GP7SM is now for sale. Marion was less impressed with the technical stuff but I'm in her very good books for doing all the work for her dad. And for doing the chores, and for making dinner. We had an early night last night to make the most of our time together. I haven't slept so well in weeks and strangely I have been having recurring dreams about babies.

On the night after the gig I dreamed I was in a hospital maternity ward and she was sitting up in bed holding a new born son. Lilly was sitting on the bed next to her but there was also a man standing beside the bed. When he looked around I realised he was Lilly's father, the resemblance was uncanny. He raised his hand to shake mine and said thank you for looking after my girls for me. I couldn't raise my right hand to shake his and when I looked down, I was holding a bunch of red roses so tightly that the thorns had pierced my hand and I was bleeding out on the floor. The next thing I remember, I was running down an empty hospital corridor bleeding out as I ran.

Last night, I dreamed I was at a family gathering. She was there, M was there, Rui was there, Donna and Victoria where there, several members of my family were also there, and everyone was happy and celebrating and raising flutes of champagne to make a toast. I was holding a baby boy in my arms who was wearing a little blue romper suit. When I looked at him, he looked just like me. But who was the mother if I was allegedly the father? I didn't find that out.