Bagpipes

Heard them this morning, just a few notes which started and stopped abruptly.

I don't know what it is when your mind just patterns things together, that phenomenon where ordinary sounds seem to contain melodies or become notes of music. I get this a lot, along with other things, tinnitus, the sense of pressure against my head, temporary or changing synesthetic constructs. It's weird but usually quite pleasant, and as I had a scan a couple of years back that showed nothing ominous in the old brain pan, I might as well enjoy it.

Maybe someone in the street who has taken up bagpipes. That'll be popular.

The last time I heard them was on New Years Eve in Sydney, where a family member proudly presented her pink pipes and started to play them. I thought she was really good, but perhaps she felt shy, maybe even mortified by the pair of labradoodles present, one of whom started barking along, while the other hid under the table, then came out and joined his buddy, whimpering every time the barking stopped. I could have sworn they were all in time. Anyway, she didn't play long, which was a shame for me. The pipes can be a bit merciless, but they do have a grandeur to them; their moods can be merry, forlorn, bracing, eerie... I like them. It was just a bit bizarre hearing them at 6 in the morning.

Wasn't like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DF-pIojGME

B*gger

No Brum for us, no meeting up with chum for a gig. Bloody snow.