Not a cloud in the sky this morning, at last at last. No doubt later the sun will warm things up, at last at last.
Am struggling to write a new lyric for BLACK MARIA. Not easy. It mustn’t sound like “I am what I am” from LA CAGES and it mustn’t be “I have a dream” like Martin Luther King but it has to be somehow along those lines – just different. Added to the problem is the fact that I am trying to set it to an already existing piece of music with quite intricate phrasing so altogether quite an interesting exercise. Placing it in the script where I have also means the number following, a very slow ballad, torch song really for the juv, is too close so has to be moved and I am thinking of making that the eleven o’clock number. If that doesn’t work it will have to be moved forward.
My sister has sent me from South Africa an article on Durban’s buses, or rather the complete lack of them. There is no doubt that once beautiful city has degenerated into an unholy mess. Why did it have to happen? One would have thought that of all African countries, South Africa would be the exception to chaos but obviously not and evidently it could only get worse. Admittedly it hasn’t gone the way of Monster Mugabe’s Zimbabwe so that at least is a mercy, but inefficiency, bureaucracy, despotism, and corruption are obviously rife.
Have moved on from watching YES MINISTER to watching YES PRIME MINISTER, just as terrific. Made twenty odd years ago last night’s episode was all about a cabinet minister trying to push through an anti-smoking bill which would include a ban on smoking in all public buildings. Of course there were all sorts of objections raised but it was fascinating when one thinks that in fact it has come to pass. One expected the Brits to toe the line like good boys and girls but in Italy we were surprised to find the law was being obeyed to the letter. The first large hotel we stayed in had signs up everywhere. “It is against the law to smoke in this building” and it applied everywhere we went; but what about the Greeks, a country of really heavy smokers? No longer will the surgeon at the end of a successful operation still in the theatre be able to light up his cigarette and take a longed for draw. The law is definitely being obeyed in hospitals, clinics, surgeries, (I think) the roads and areas outside being littered with cigarette butts but I don’t think they’re going to put up with not smoking in bars, tavernas, etcetera, and Chris tells me in the bank yesterday there was still the aroma of stale cigarette smoke in the air so, even if customers are obeying the law, bank manager and tellers were no doubt pulling at a sneaky drag. As for me I am just glad I gave up six years ago and only wish I had managed to do it sooner.