Tuesday, June 8
Last night was the first show of
Mark Radcliffe's new career on, *snigger*,
Radio 2. With the exception of Mark and Lard's last show for
Radio 1, I haven't listened to them in 4 years or so but I tuned in last night regardless, ready to give him the benefit of the doubt and start again with a fresh slate. And I'm very glad I did so. I've listened to his shows for verging on ten years, and for me nothing they've done has lived up to the Graveyard Shift. You might say that I'm holding on to past glories, or that they've moved on and I haven't, but for three years I listened to that show every night and it, along with the Evening Session, was the soundtrack to my yearly teenage years, which although they were admittedly rather troubled and fraught and I'm eternally grateful to have escaped them, they were still my youth and it was a wonderful time to be young in, the British music scene was fantastic and Radio 1 was chronicling it all. Anyway, back to last night's show. I thought he managed to capture the spirit of the earlier shows, which they lost by moving to daytime radio and having to adhere to playlists. It was like a group of old friends getting together for some beers and to play some records, and it made me happy. I hope that it's the first of many shows in a new era, though I'm still suspicious about it being on Radio 2.
Yesterday evening was also the last session of my short meditation course. It had been hugely hot all day and I arrived only a couple of minutes before we started. Unusually we straight into an exercise so I hadn't had time to catch my breath back properly or to cool down, and the room only seemed to be making me hotter. I couldn't concentrate on my breath or the flowers, the only thing I could think about was how hot I was and how my leg was hurting from the walk. I left at the first opportunity I saw and came home again, feeling rather bad about it all. I haven't been practicing my exercises these past few days either, I've been getting frustrated by my lack of progression (though I know that these things take time, up to six months the tutor said) and annoyed by the repetitiveness of the exercises. I know I should vary them, but being sensible isn't my forte. In addition to all that, I was feeling bad about my weight and how much I've been eating and it all fed into one another and I wished it all away. It was a good thing that Mark Radcliffe was on the radio, it cheered me up and made me hopeful.
09:41
