Carousel of Fun

I met a ukulele player last night. I've never met one before so I was particularly interested to find out more about him. He's only a young man too – I always expected ukulele players to be old, and a bit seedy. Someone my age will always automatically think of George Formby, but this guy has a happy smile and cheeky, youthful good looks. He performs in all sorts of venues and must be a great hit with audiences. I can't wait to go along to one of his gigs. It never ceases to amaze me what a diverse and talented community of artists and creative people we have in Nottingham.

I love the busking bongo players who play in Pelham Street – sometimes I'm in the flat working on a Friday evening and if I have my terrace doors open I can hear them, just over the back. It's such an exotic sound, and even if these guys are competing with the whooping and shrieking of the mob scene, it still cheers me to hear them. It gives me a sense of sitting somewhere else; somewhere tropical. I like to think I can smell the spices drifting in the air, or hear the sound of crashing waves on a sandy beach. In reality, it's probably the rising stench of stale beer, vodka and vomit that would drift in over my terrace, nothing more.

I have my daughter and her French boyfriend staying with me at the moment. This means that I'm not really getting much work done – too many trips out to the bars; too many expeditions to the local eateries. They're much more accustomed to café society than I am – they have been living in Madrid for the last year and a half; before that in Paris. Now my daughter has left Madrid and is moving to London, whilst her boyfriend is moving to Geneva but working in Lisbon. What cosmopolitan lives the young lead these days – living in Nottingham seems a bit boring after this. But I love it. My other daughter is currently studying in Prague before taking up a work placement in Warsaw, before going to Hungary for the Sziget Festival (billed as the most popular summer festival in Europe - see below left), before taking up yet another work placement in Paris. What a charmed life they all have!

Oh well, back to the novel. Oh, I must put some more rinse aid in the dishwasher.