Covid and teeth

After a few days of feeling unwell, my body (and the vaccinations) beat the covid virus. My first day back at work (last Sunday, 24/4) was a little shaky at first, but soon I was feeling back to normal.

Or not. I would suffer pain whenever I drank some cold water or ate something cold (like the blackberries that I eat for breakfast); the pain would be sharp but would disappear almost immediately. I suspected a problem with receding gums but there might also have developed a crack in a tooth filling. On Thursday, I made an appointment to see my dentist the following day (which is now 'yesterday').

First off, the dentist took x-rays of my lower jaw and compared them to the set from my previous check-up which was in January. She said that she couldn't see any problems with the fillings but there might be a crack in the left-most tooth, which she proceeded to correct. Upon hearing that I had just recovered from the covid virus, she suggested that the pain was probably due to hyper-sensitivity brought on by the virus and by the weakening of my body, caused by my fighting the virus. Apart from the special toothpaste that she always recommends (that helps combat receding gums), she suggested a new cream that one applies to the teeth and gums that works very quickly. 

I have an appointment with the dental hygienist on Monday (made three months ago) and I am especially not looking forward to this appointment as the frequent washing of the mouth with cold water is going to approach agony. I am thus very interested in improving the condition of the gums and reducing the sensitivity as quickly as possible. Before going to bed last night, I rubbed some cream onto the teeth as instructed: the sensitivity to cold might have decreased slightly today. There'll be another two evenings to apply the cream before the hygienist, so there is a good chance that it will do its work. Apart from this, the tooth that had been treated continued to hurt all yesterday afternoon and evening; it still hurts if I press down on the tooth with the corresponding tooth from the upper jaw, something that I do whilst eating. As I always say, "teeth - can't live with them, can't live without them".

Still positive

The rules say that one does an antigen test four days after the initial test: if it is positive, then one stays in isolation for a week (in total), whereas if it is negative, then one does another antigen test on the day following; isolation depends on the result of this second test. As can be seen, our antigen tests were positive this morning (i.e. we're still infected), so we have to stay isolated until Saturday night.

On Sunday and Monday I felt very unwell, with symptoms similar to those of pneumonia. There were a few hours on Monday afternoon when I felt a bit better, but then my temperature went up and I began to feel unwell again. Tuesday was better: no elevated temperature and no headaches, but still weakness. Today I feel as if I have returned to normality: the weakness has gone and the coughing much reduced. 

I might even do some work tomorrow....

It had to happen sooner or later

My wife didn't feel very good on Wednesday evening and spent Thursday and most of Friday in bed. It was clear that she had some form of viral infection, something from which she very rarely suffers. I felt fine during those days; on Saturday afternoon I finished a 5 km walk with the dog and watched a little television when I started to get a headache. That by itself didn't mean very much but then I began to feel my temperature rising. Two paracetamol tablets took about half an hour to have an effect and I began to feel a little better. I showered and went to bed early, but at 11 pm I was up again for more paracetamol.

This morning I awoke late (I am on holiday for the Passover week and there was no reason to get up early) but stayed in bed for some time before I felt strong enough to get up. Most of the morning passed by me watching YouTube videos on the television: no elevated temperature but weakness.

At about 12 pm, we decided to go to the local town where there is a free Covid testing site. After fiddling around with the web app, we had our throats and noses swabbed. The results didn't take long to come through - both of us are positive. Probably someone at our son's wedding infected my wife, she exhibited symptoms then infected me.

Although we're over 65 years old, we've both had four vaccinations, so we're not expecting anything more than a few days of flu symptoms. Fortunately we have enough food at home (we're not allowed out of the house) and I don't have to work, so in a sense, it was the right week to get infected. There are things that I would like to do but they will have to wait a few days.

It had to happen sooner or later.

The malleability of folk songs

I was stopped on a path the other day by the lady who arranges activities for the 'golden age', i.e. pensioners, on the kibbutz. I should note that these activities are very worthwhile and important, providing interesting things for these people to do and hear, getting them out of their homes and challenging their brains. It transpires that she wants to organise a set of talks about music, each one lasting for about an hour. Someone suggested that I would be able to provide a good talk.

As it happens, several years ago I put together a song list for an evening that I had entitled 'Folk into Rock' (strangely enough, the sub-title of a 4 lp compilation put together in 1975); this was meant for a series of talks that someone had put on, discussing various types of music (this same person will be giving a talk about Bob Dylan, who is the same age as most of the listeners). This series petered out and I lost the list, anyway. But in the back of my mind, the idea of giving a talk about semi-traditional folk music still existed, so I agreed to the proposal for the pensioners.

This time, I thought that I would take a song and play different versions, showing how malleable these songs could be. I made a short list of four songs: 'Nottamun Town', 'My Lagan love', 'Matty Groves' et al., and 'The water is wide'; all of these have multiple and varied versions, hence the malleability. I think that this stems from two factors: two of the songs (NT and MG) have very simple harmonic structures thus allowing them to be interpreted in different manners. The other two songs (MLL and TWIW) are richer harmonically; all of the versions of MLL that I found are very similar musically, but two versions have completely different lyrics (Kate Bush and Sandy Denny). The other reason for the malleability is that these songs (all strophic) have many verses, and to an extent the performer can choose which verses to sing. Two examples: the Fairport Convention version of NT lacks some of the verses of Jean Ritchie's version, and Joan Baez's version of TWIW includes two verses that I have not heard elsewhere. I must remember to mention prosody in connection with this song - on the line 'not a soul would look up', the tune goes up, and on the following line 'not a soul would look down', the tune descends.

The story of Matty Groves (Child 81) - or Little Musgrave - is worth an evening on its own. The basic story is told in all the versions: a titled lady casts her eyes on a servant who is commissioned for an evening of fun while the lady's husband, Lord Donald/Arnold/Barnard, etc, is away; the Lord returns, catches the lovers en flagrante then challenges the servant to a duel where of course the cuckolded husband has the advantage of knowing how to use a sword (writing that word, I wonder whether there is a double meaning hiding there: in one Peter Robinson novel, a character is described as a 'swordsman', i.e. someone who has good sex with many partners). As someone (probably Simon Nicol) once put it, this song has the main ingredients, sex and murder, that interest everyone. The twist that interests me is that there are different versions of the tune: for example, Jean Ritchie has a different tune from Joan Baez. Fairport threw a spanner in the works by setting the words to a completely different tune, 'Shady Grove', of which I found a bluegrass version by Doc Watson. Compounding their decision to muddy the waters, Fairport then tacked on yet another, unrelated, song as the instrumental coda ('Famous flower of serving men'), but I won't be including that in my talk.

Instead of playing all 19 verses of the original Fairport version - groundbreaking at the time, but now sounding slightly flat - I decided to keep the first half of this version then continue with a version from 2012 (including the Ikea curtains) whose arrangement is more dramatic and certainly more varied. This has Chris Leslie playing banjo, possibly a nod to Doc Watson; Simon playing it more or less straight; Peggy playing extremely funky bass; Ric playing free-form jazz; and Gerry holding it all together on the drums. 

According to the Google page, there is also a Czech version (!) of this song that I am also including, by the group Asonance (they are definitely not assonant). I haven't a clue about the lyrics, and the music doesn't seem to have that much in common with the other versions. The flutes on this remind me very much of those of Lúnasa. I've just discovered why this version doesn't sound like the others: it's not the same song at all! I was listening to a song called Návrat krále - the return of the King - whereas I should have been listening to their easily recognisable version of 'Lord Bernard'.

I found seven different versions of TWIW: I very much wanted a simple, unaccompanied, version of the song but I think that no such version exists due to the implied harmonic richness of the song. In the end, I found a version by John Rutter and the Cambridge Singers that at least is unaccompanied; the first two verses are sung without harmony (making a divine sound, I should note) but then things get complicated. In the end, I edited this to use just the first two verses, using this heavenly sound to introduce this song.

I should have mentioned much earlier that I edited most of the songs: for starters, playing all of them in their entirety would have lasted about two hours, and I also have to speak, maybe even answer questions! Some of the versions are somewhat harrowing to the ear IMHO, and the number of verses that most songs have enables me to take one or two verses from one version, another two verses from another version, etc. I am including the first two verses of the version by Filska that is completely instrumental; this is the first version of this song that I ever heard, and for several years I thought that it was purely an instrumental tune, until I heard someone sing it with words. Finishing off the talk is a version by Yours Truly; I remember that when I came to record this (for the Folktronix project), I looked at the lyrics of several versions, some of which were the same and some were different. I decided which verses I chose to sing and I remember that I even altered a word or two (maybe even a complete line) - after all, this is the folk tradition, where everybody adds their own input.

Our son got married!

On Sunday evening we celebrated the wedding of our son, Nir, to his then-girlfriend, Liraz!

The picture isn't of very high quality - we won't receive the official pictures probably until after the Passover holiday that starts on this Friday evening. I am posting a picture taken with my mobile phone of a picture embossed on a magnet.

There's so much to say about the wedding but not very much that I want to write here.

The view from our rear balcony

I was asked recently if I am planning any trips abroad for a holiday. Apart from any personal reasons that might prevent a foreign holiday, I honestly don't miss visiting somewhere else. And with the view from our rear balcony, there's no real reason to seek an alternative to the crowded streets of Israel.

Onion sauce

Approximately every other week, Friday night supper is for my grand-daughters, daughter, wife and me. After some experimentation, we discovered that the best dish for these evenings is simple spaghetti, grated cheese and tuna. For the last few months I've been on a low potassium diet that means that I can't eat tomato sauce, surely an essential part of any spaghetti dish. The Italian in me would be shocked to hear that I eat the spaghetti plain.

Something is definitely missing: between what I can't eat and what I don't like has to lie some form of sauce. After mulling this over for some time, I realised that I can make onion sauce ... except that I don't know how to make onion sauce. So I looked for recipes, most of which included some ingredient that again either I can't eat or I don't like. In the end, I decided on a compromise recipe, as follows.

I diced 3/4 of a middle sized onion and sautéed this in olive oil. When the onion pieces began to caramelise, I added a small amount of finely chopped mushrooms to the frying pan and continued to sauté for another few minutes. Then I added a cup of boiling water in which I had dissolved a teaspoon of chicken soup powder: it seemed like most of the water boiled off immediately. Finally I added a heaped spoonful of flour to the mix: this was a mistake as it was very difficult to prevent the flour from clumping. Eventually I managed to break up most of the lumps. This mixture cooked for another few minutes and then I cut the heat.

The result was quite good although it seemed very salty when I tasted the sauce on its own (I am very sensitive to salt which is one reason why I never add salt to anything that I cook). The sauce also thickened up before it was served, although this isn't necessarily a bad thing. The sauce was a welcome addition to the spaghetti although only my daughter and I partook. If and when I prepare this again, I will have to do something with the flour, like mixing it in advance with the soup powder before adding it to the sauce. I should probably also reduce the amount of flour.