Is it safe to pop my head up over the parapet yet?  I dug myself in good and proper yesterday! 

Shame Bryn!  There we are trying to do our bit for society as well.  I felt like a reject. Nursey did say I could go back at some point in time if the migraines settled down, but whilst they were severe it was for my own good.  She said they will only take blood from migraine sufferers if their attacks are extremely infrequent and very mild.  I'm absolutely sure that there is no such thing as a "very mild" migraine.  It's the headache from hell!

Ho!  We are constantly being urged to re-cycle, save fuel, save electricity and use low consumption light bulbs.  It is these last four words that are causing me a deal of annoyance.  It requires more energy to manufacture a "low consumption" bulb than it does an ordinary one.  However, I feel we are all being conned. The following will procause you to think:-

  >>>  For years, it has been believed that electric bulbs emit light, but recent information has proved otherwise. Electric bulbs don't emit light; they suck dark. Thus, we call these bulbs Dark Suckers. The Dark Sucker Theory and the existence of dark suckers prove that dark has mass and is heavier than light.
First, the basis of the Dark Sucker Theory is that electric bulbs suck dark. For example, take the Dark Sucker in the room you are in. There is much less dark right next to it than there is elsewhere. The larger the Dark Sucker, the greater its capacity to suck dark. Dark Suckers in the parking lot have a much greater capacity to suck dark than the ones in this room.
So with all things, Dark Suckers don't last forever. Once they are full of dark, they can no longer suck. This is proven by the dark spot on a full Dark Sucker. The dark which has been absorbed is then transmitted by pylons along to power plants where the machinery uses fossil fuel to destroy it.
A candle is a primitive Dark Sucker. A new candle has a white wick. You can see that after the first use, the wick turns black, representing all the dark that has been sucked into it. If you put a pencil next to the wick of an operating candle, it will turn black. This is because it got in the way of the dark flowing into the candle. One of the disadvantages of these primitive Dark Suckers is their limited range.
There are also portable Dark Suckers. In these, the bulbs can't handle all the dark by themselves and must be aided by a Dark Storage Unit. When the Dark Storage Unit is full, it must be either emptied or replaced before the portable Dark Sucker can operate again.
Dark has mass. When dark goes into a Dark Sucker, friction from the mass generates heat. Thus, it is not wise to touch an operating Dark Sucker. Candles present a special problem as the mass must travel into a solid wick instead of through clear glass. This generates a great amount of heat and therefore it's not wise to touch an operating candle.
This is easily proven for lightbulbs too. When you compress a gas, it gets hot, right? So the light bulb gets hot because of all the dark being squished into the wires.
Also, dark is heavier than light. If you were to swim just below the surface of the lake, you would see a lot of light. If you were to slowly swim deeper and deeper, you would notice it getting darker and darker. When you get really deep, you would be in total darkness. This is because the heavier dark sinks to the bottom of the lake and the lighter light floats at the top. The is why it is called light.
Dark Suckers are only able to suck dark in a straight line. Dark, because of its mass, will not penetrate solid, opaque objects as it is being sucked by a Dark Sucker. When a Dark Sucker is operating, you will notice that dark that is behind a solid, opaque object does not flow through the object or around it to the Dark Sucker. Some of the dark will accumulate on the side of the object away from the Dark Sucker as the Dark Sucker attempts to pull it through the object. These residual patches of dark are often referred to as 'shadows.'
Some surfaces are able to function as secondary Dark Suckers by sucking the dark from behind solid objects at an angle and then rerouting it to the primary Dark Sucker. These surfaces have a property we refer to as 'reflective.'
Finally, we must prove that dark is faster than light. If you were to stand in a lit room in front of a closed, dark closet, and slowly opened the closet door, you would see the light slowly enter the closet. But since dark is so fast, you would not be able to see the dark leave the closet.
So next time you see an electric bulb, remember that it is not a light emitter but a Dark Sucker.

Try removing a programme or two - for a short while I was plagued with messages telling me that I no longer had a valid IP number; I removed the Google toolbar, Google earth etc and everything is fine again.

The bassoon player I am playing with also doesn't like to change his reed. He has good reeds and not so good reeds (he practices with us on such).
My student clarinet player keeps adjusting his reed endlessly. I think that clarinet is a very fussy instrument to play on. Then he knox on his clarinet with his fingers (I don't know what good it does to a clarinet but it settles it like if you tap a baby on its back while holding it in your arms).

I am always amazed how wind players are talking between themselves. The piece can be called - a long blow. A concert can be a long blow or not so long blow I suppose. I never thought about things like that before.

How is your lip, ollie. I played with a student doing clarinet exam that was alergic to clarinet and had rash on her lip. She had to put a lot of cream of some  kind. She passed the exam on the second try.

shucks ollie... that made me wince ....ouch !

try a bit of licking.... on second thoughts ... perhaps not !!

A

Licking's a bad idea since it just keeps the cut open. There's nothing oozing any more but there's a great big lump with not much skin on. At worst I think it'll just bleed a little in the gig but I don't think it'll hurt so much I can't play.

I think it's time for the cognac now. Thanks heaps for your sympathy.