Batsi (Greece 2)

After a sumptuous breakfast in the dining room, with a window overlooking the sea (actually, not very hard in this hotel as almost every window faces the sea), we drove off in our hired car in the direction of Batsi, which is about 5km south of where we are. We in turn are about 2.5 km south of Gavrio, which is where the port is. I've marked with an x where the hotel is situated.

One of the advantages of having one's own transport as opposing to being with a touring group is that one can stop wherever one likes, for as long as one likes. So when we got to a high road overlooking the bay of Batsi, I announced that we had a photo opportunity for ten minutes. One can get a good idea of what the town of Batsi looks like from the accompanying photo.

We drove down the hill and into the town area, assessing what we might do. What became clear was that the road around the harbour was one way (and fortunately we were driving that way); this meant that there had to be a road which enabled one to travel the other way. In the end, we went completely around the town and found a back road which led to Gavrio. We then followed this road until we found where we had turned off in order to go to Batsi, then went down this road again.

The town itself was deserted - and this was at 11am. There also aren't many shops, which disappointed me as I had envisaged something like the main alley in the old town of Sorrento. We found one souvenir shop run by an old lady, where we bought many items - they were all fairly cheap. The most expensive item was a book about Andros costing €12.50. I don't know whether it was because we paid cash or because the lady was pleased to have custom, but we received a 15% discount.

We then sat on a bench - perilously close to the water's edge - and had an ice cream, whilst assessing what to do. Apart from a few tradesmen, there was nobody about. Well, it is off-season, but even so, I thought that there would be a few more people. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a supermarket at the back of Batsi, where we bought tea, milk, sugar, bread and cheese - for impromptu lunches or dinners. We had our first impromptu lunch on our balcony, overlooking the sea. This is what 'having a rest' really means.

After a rest in the hotel, we set off again, this time heading to Gavrio and the hills that overlook it. We went a certain distance in the hills, but there wasn't much to see and we didn't want to get lost. Coming back to the harbour area of Gavrio, we spotted a shop which sold a variety of items: summer dresses and shirts, along with a variety of handmade souvenirs. We spent maybe an hour in this shop as there was so much to see. We also talked with the man who runs the shop - he comes from Chora, the island's capital, which is on the other side of the island. 

One interesting thing which I noted was that all the souvenirs from Batsi had 'Andros' written on them in Greek - Άνδρος (this is in script, but the cups etc. used Greek capital letters) whereas all his souvenirs had 'Andros' written in English. The shop owner explained that this was due to the clientele - most people coming to Andros are Greek, not foreigners.

In the evening, we decided to dine in the restaurant which is otherwise known as the breakfast room. We were entitled to a 20% discount for our first meal here, which is just as well because otherwise we wouldn't have eaten there. They don't have grilled fish on the menu - too early in the season - so the menu didn't really speak to us. They are aiming for a gastronomic experience and we were looking for something to eat. It was clear that future evening meals will either be fish in Gavrio or sandwiches in our room, if we have a cooked lunch.

Arriving at Andros (Greece 1)

Yesterday morning we flew to Greece at the very civilised hour of 10:30 am, landing at around 12:30. We passed through Athens airport very quickly - our luggage arrived at the carousel about a minute after we did - in fact, so quickly that we had to wait a long time for the arrival of the driver who was to take us to Rafina port. The drive from the airport to the port seemed to go only on minor roads, which was slightly unsettling. The flora of Greece is the same as in Israel, so we felt very much at home.

We arrived in Rafina slighly before 2pm, so our first task was to have lunch. There are several tavernas on the Rafina 'strip': our driver stopped outside one, seemingly at random, so we chose this one. After ordering red mullet, I slipped away to the ferry ticketing office where I exchanged my reservation for tickets - and paid €2 for the privilege of having the tickets printed. Lunch was a drawn out affair and tasty, although I doubt that we will be ordering red mullet again (there's not that much meat in a portion).

After waiting for a few hours in a shelter by the promenade, the time came to board the ferry. We were one of the first people on board; the luggage storeroom was empty, which seemed good at the time but was a minus when getting off. The lounges were empty, so we picked a very nice spot by the window to sit down.

After a while, the ferry set sail for Andros. The trip was very smooth, lasting two hours, At one stage I walked around the boat a little, filming. The view from the back of the boat was lovely, with the sun playing on the wake: I filmed this, but unfortunately the zoom control on the camera was out of control, so the result is useless.

I sensed a change of motion from the engines which signalled that we were slowing down and approaching Andros. One of the crew confirmed this for me. The boat then turned around slowly, so that the rear end would be facing the jetty on land. We docked after some time and those disembarking at Andros did so. We had some slight problems getting our suitcases out of the storeroom but nothing that time could not fix. We were probably the last people to disembark. Then cars and people started embarking - the ferry continues to Mikonos.

Now comes the low point of the day. I had naively assumed that waiting for us on the jetty would be a representative of the car hire company. No such luck. When this became clear, I checked the documents which I had printed in order to find details about the company,  and saw that I hadn't printed this. Then I turned on my mobile phone; I had not attempted to use this as I didn't have a Greek provider. But I could access all the mails which had been sent to my Gmail account, including the correspondence with the car hire company. This said succinctly that they were near the jetty. I couldn't see their sign, so I walked to one end of the promenade then to the other end without finding them. Eventually I went into a cafe where someone told me where the office was: almost exactly opposite the jetty!!!

When I got to the office, it was closed, but fortunately the owner saw me from the street. When he opened the office, we discovered that there had been a mixup with the dates (what a surprise)! I had ordered the car from the morning of 17 May, not expecting originally to pick it up in the evening of 16 May.

After filling out the forms and paying, we had a quick lesson in the car, an orange Suzuki Ignis (a fellow worker has one of these, so I knew the car somewhat). Eventually we set off for our hotel, which is supposed to be about 2.5km from where we were. We found the hotel without too much difficulty.

From the little that we have seen, the hotel gets high marks for its appearance, cleanliness and functionality. We have - in common with all rooms - a balcony with a lovely sea view. Today will be devoted to getting to know our whereabouts. I presume that we will drive to Batsi, which is a town situated a few more kilometers south from where we are.

Greece (0)

It's half past 8 in the morning and I'm sitting in a relatively empty departure lounge at Ben Gurion airport. There were very few people checking in, which is strange and welcome, but as a result we have too much time on our hands.

At 10:30, we will be flying to Athens; from there, a car will take us to the port of Rafina, which is on the eastern side of Athens. Moving on, we then take a ferry ride for two hours to the island of Andros, the most northern island of the Cyclades, where we will be staying for nearly a week. No one that we have met in Israel has heard of this island, which is interesting (maybe we have finally won the unofficial prize of visiting somewhere that no one else has heard of, let alone been). We won't arrive at the hotel till after 8pm, so there won't be anything to report until tomorrow.

 For the first time ever, we will be hiring a car there so that we can get around this island. We will pick the car up at the port and then drive 2.5km (so I am told) to our hotel which apparently is one of the best in Andros (so I am told).

Return of the mobile

I wrote a few weeks ago about the fall which my home mobile computer suffered, and about the need to restore all its data. I received the computer last night with Windows 10 (instead of Windows 8.1) and several other programs installed, and immediately set about the process of restoring data.

I was most worried about the video files from our trips abroad in the past few years. On the external disk drive I found files upto and including 2016 (as well as many directories of music and books). For some unknown reason, the computer refused to recognise the camcorder when connected via USB, but I remembered that the camcorder has a memory card installed, so I extracted the card, connected it to the computer and transferred what was stored there - all the video files from our 2018 trip. So the material from Rhodos 2017 is lost.

The moral of the story: video files should not be deleted from the memory card in the camera, and they should also be backed up to the external drive.

[Edit from a week later: The problem with the camcorder was due to my faulty memory, rather than anything else. I forgot that the camera has two modes: recording and viewing. Once I changed mode to viewing, the USB connection worked perfectly fine and I could download the files.

Further edit from 27/05/19: it seems that there is a problem with the USB ports on the computer. Every evening I would have great trouble in connecting the camera so that I could download the files. Now that I am home, I'm going to extract the card and transfer the final files this way.]

Diet, part 2

Friday mornings are when I weigh myself. I wasn't sure whether I was expecting that my changes in diet would have an effect yet on my weight, so I was surprised and pleased when I discovered that I had dropped 800g in one week! I now weigh 81.1 kg, which whilst being in the correct direction, is still 3kg more than I weighed a few years ago.

As I wrote before, yesterday was the first meeting in a series of six for kibbutz members who are in the glucose danger zone: not diabetic yet, but will be diabetic unless steps are taken. I felt somewhat out of place as most of the people there were 10-20 years older than me; I was definitely the youngest. In terms of content, the nurse explained the causes of diabetes, and reiterated that we are in a position to prevent diabetes, by changing diet and by exercising. 

Several people in the group expressed surprise that they are considered to be at risk, for they have been maintaining a healthy lifestyle for years. It was explained that by virtue of their healthy lifestyle, they have not become diabetic yet and so should continue in their habits. The body wears out and diabetes is one of the problems that 80 year olds face.

I didn't get much out of the meeting, partially because I had been to my own dietician a few days previously and partially because I have read up on the subject. Next week there will be no meeting, as it will be Independence Day, and the two weeks after that I will be in Greece. I won't be missing much.

After the meeting, I took the dog for a walk. The day previously, I commenced running an app on my phone which counts steps: I discovered that without a long walk, I took about 4500 steps a day - half of the recommended value. I had been expecting a lower number for I had thought that my walks with the dog didn't contribute very much. Today I suspect that the total will be much higher, even without the long walk.

After the dog walk, I came home to a supper of tuna salad which I wolfed down (to my wife's pleasure), accompanied by several glasses of cold lemon water. I found it very easy to drink the cold water, although this might well be because the last few days have been very hot - 30 degrees in the house at 8pm! 

So far, so good. I have to continue this way!

Diet

As a result of my recent blood tests, I had an appointment with a dietician the other day. The primary aims of the diet that she set out are to increase the amount of iron that I absorb whilst reducing the number of calories. So, it's NO MORE MILKSHAKES (boo hiss!), no more flavoured water, let alone biscuits; it's more ground beef, more fresh vegetables and above all, more water.

The last two days weren't difficult as I wasn't in the office and so my opportunities for eating were limited. Today I am in my office and so came prepared: a bottle of water with lemon slices, along with slices of yellow bell pepper. I was a bit wary of the bell pepper but I've managed already to eat all that I brought, without any problem (although without any enjoyment, either). According to the nutritional values, it would be better to eat a red bell pepper, as they have even more vitamin C than a yellow pepper, which is more than enough! 

The vitamin C is important as it helps absorb iron, so I've been eating an orange at lunch, after consuming the beef meatballs which have replaced the chicken breast in my daily meal.

In the evenings, I am intending to eat as often as possible fresh salad (cucumber, tomato, onion, bell pepper) along with tuna. All this, along with a half hour strenuous walk almost every day, is intended to decrease my weight as well as improving the haemoglobin count.

Tonight, coincidentally, is the first meeting in a series of six for kibbutz members who are in the glucose danger zone: not diabetic yet, but will be diabetic unless steps are taken. I'll have to miss two meetings as I will be in Greece in the second half of this month, and I wonder whether there will be needless repetition between these meetings and my dietician*, who has scheduled a repeat meeting at the beginning of June, when she expects to see progress.

My third dietary problem, the possible lactose intolerance, has solved itself - I am now hardly drinking any milk so the problem doesn't exist. And that's after buying lactase supplements.

* Being British, I naturally spell this word with a 'c', but American dictionaries as well as this blog's spell checker use a 't' - dietitian. To me, this looks wrong!

Holiday doctoring

Today is the last day of the nine day Pesach (Passover)/Easter holiday. I had been looking forward to this week for some time as it would give me an opportunity to do some serious work on my doctoral thesis.

My first task was to go over the thesis and reduce the number of references to Priority, normally replacing them with 'ERP'. This was because the thesis review (last November) pointed out that some of the thesis read like a consultant's pitch for Priority. It was easy to replace most instances, but in some places I simply deleted the offending sentence.

I then addressed the reviewer's concern that I hadn't quoted the seminal paper about multiple case studies - Eisenhardt, K. M. (1989): "Building theories from case study research", Academy of management review, 14(4), 532-550. This paper currently has over 50,000 citations! I quoted this paper for two separate reasons: the first was about the technique of case studies, and the second was about the number of case studies. The paper suggests that four to ten studies is the appropriate number.

This number makes life easier for me as at the moment I have five separate case studies with ten documented examples. I still want a few more, but this shows that I am getting close.

After sending the current version of the thesis to my supervisor, I then concentrated on writing up some of the interviews. I discovered that I lacked the English translations of some of the interviews - these may have been on the hard disk of the broken computer - so I worked on this again, as well as finally writing up the first interview which was for the pilot study.

I have a few more companies in my sights - it looks like that these companies will have to be 'interviewed' by having them fill in a questionnaire, as finding a suitable date for an interview seems to be very hard. If I do get results from these companies, then the research will be approaching the upper limit set by Eisenhardt.

I still have to find an amenable company which is using SAP Business One. It's hard enough to find any company which uses this system - I found a few, but received no answer from them.

My supervisor has scheduled a discussion for 10 May, which leaves me stranded for two weeks. I am then going on holiday to Greece, so it looks like no progress will be made during May. But all of the above means that I am much more optimistic about finishing the doctorate, and it appears that I might well be very close to finishing by the end of August. Then will come the stage of polishing.

Hardware woes

After receiving my new (at least, to me) mobile phone, I commenced the process of bringing it up to the same status as my previous phone, more or less. The phone is of type LG G4, whereas previously I had a Samsung Galaxy 5, so there are many slight differences. The contacts and pictures came back intact from wherever they are stored by Google, but it was a different story with WhatsApp. Although this app does backup to Google Drive, it only does so when connected to WiFi, and generally the phone is not connected. All messages until mid-January returned, but nothing after that; also missing are all the pictures from WhatsApp. This is not the end of the world. Of course, Gmail came back in its entirety. I also installed the few other apps which I use. The phone's interface is subtly different from what I am used to, but I think that I have adapted now.

As it happens, there was an article in the online Guardian a few days ago about someone forsaking Google for a week. For me, the app which I missed the most during my 30 hours of disconnection was the clock!

If this were the sum of my hardware woes, then I would be a happy man. Unfortunately, on Friday morning, my mobile computer slipped somehow off its table and onto the floor. As a result, the computer no longer boots, which means that there is a problem with the hard disk. I took it yesterday evening to a computer repairman who lives on the kibbutz: maybe the data can be restored and maybe not. I don't have an answer yet.

What do I have on the mobile computer?

• Files belonging to the doctorate - my work, the papers that I have referenced, and extraneous material. This is all backed up with Mega, so I am not bothered about this.
• All files from our holidays - I hope that this material is backed up on an external drive which I sometimes use. In some cases, the original material is still on the video camera so all is not lost.
• Books - in any case, the books which I want are stored on the Kindle. Some of these will be on the external drive.
• Music - all my material is on my XP computer as well as on Mega. Other material is on the XP computer as well as external memory cards in my various mp3 players. There's quite a bit of material which I had downloaded recently from YouTube - of course, I can download it again.

So what is lost? I doubt whether anything important will have been lost, but it is very annoying. I have my work mobile computer which can access Google Drive and my XP computer, but not Mega. I can access Mega via the XP, and access the XP from my work computer via AnyDesk, so at a pinch I can still retrieve material (I was working a little on my thesis this morning - this now exists in three locations, namely my work mobile, Mega and Google Drive). There are compensations for being paranoid.

But it is inconvenient and annoying. I hope that the final analysis will show that very little has been lost.

Communications

I discovered this morning that I had lost my mobile phone. I certainly had it when I left home, as I used it to open an electric gate near my house which leads to the main road. It was only after about an hour at work that I felt a need to check my phone ... and it wasn't in my coat pocket. I tried ringing the number but there was no answer. As I turned on the GPS function  permanently a few weeks ago, there should be the possibility of locating the phone. Android has a locate facility, but even this could not find the phone. I strongly suspect that a lorry ran over the phone.

As I have remarked to a few people this morning, I'm not married to the phone, so I don't feel much sense of loss; also it's quiet this morning as no one can phone me (I still have the landline, of course). All the photos (not that many) and contacts are backed up via Google so nothing except the hardware has been lost.

I immediately notified the person who is responsible for mobile phones at work, as well as sending a general message to everyone. He has just phoned me to say that he is arranging a new phone - with the old number, of course - and I should have it tomorrow. There's no rush.

---

A few weeks ago I installed a program on my work mobile computer which allows me to access the Yealink video conferencing machines that we have in Tel Aviv and Karmiel. Normally, there are calls between these two sites, which obligated me to travel to one or the other (normally to Tel Aviv) when such a call is arranged. But now I have the ability to connect from my mobile and so I don't have to travel.

This is very strange! My mobile computer is currently connected to Karmiel: I can see and hear people in the meeting room there; I can also see what is being displayed on a computer connected to the projector. I can even see myself in a small window. They say that they can hear me but not see me - apparently this requires the projector in Tel Aviv to be turned on as well, even though no one is connected there.

Shadrach in the furnace

Several years ago, I wrote here about the summer of 1978: "Every weekend I would take the train to London ... I think that I used to borrow books from the public library in Swiss Cottage on one visit then return them on the next visit". The only book which I do remember borrowing is "Shadrach in the furnace" by Robert Silverberg; I very much enjoyed reading this, and bought my own copy (21 August 1978, as noted in the book) when I visited San Francisco shortly afterwards.

After the great Kindle disaster and its restoration, I discovered that I did not have a copy of 'Shadrach' on the Kindle. These days I am inclined to think that I never had a copy of 'Shadrach' as I have not been able to locate any e-book version on the Internet. On the other hand, I was able to find a scanned PDF version of the book and downloaded this a few days ago. I then converted the PDF into epub format so that I could edit it. Apart from removing the page numbers, the original scan was about 99% accurate, so editing the scan was very easy. 

I discovered this time where each book's cover is stored: in Calibre, one can see the various files which comprise the book (I read recently that the epub format is simply a renamed zip file). Calibre organises these files into sections, one of which is called 'images',  allowing the replacement of any file in this section with another jpg file. It seems that Calibre created this cover image during the conversion process, based on the first page of the PDF file. As this inexplicably has the wrong title ('In the furnace'), I dug out my old print copy, photographed the cover (as appears above) then added this file to the epub.

I have always loved this book. As I wrote to the Robert Silverberg mailing list in 2007 (in response to RS noting that a new edition was to be published by the University of Nebraska Press) -

I was rereading "Shadrach" the other day and as usual was swept away by its majesty, its breadth and its humanity. What's amazing about this book is that it covers so much material. Whilst it's a story about betrayal (and if one wants, one can easily find the stages of Greek tragedy buried within, namely introduction, complication, attempts by the protagonist to solve his problems, resolution), it also:

1. serves as a medical primer in case anyone wants to become a surgeon
2. serves as a travel guide to the world (and when, Mr Silverberg, are you going to return to Jerusalem so that I can play Meshach to your Shadrach?)
3. gives a geography lesson about Ecuador
4. gives an off the cuff lecture about feedback systems (Nikki and her discussion of MichaelAngelo's David)
5. even invents a few new religions, including the most unlikely one of carpentry

... and makes it all so believable.

I know that people like Valentine and all his stories, but that's all bloated adventure when compared to Shadrach, even though Valentine does have his metaphysical moments, and no Silverberg book would be complete without them.

So if you haven't read this tower of a book, then you're in for a special treat! And no, I don't think I've given any spoilers about what happens in the book.

Maybe I'm doing it wrong

I wrote yesterday about a song which I had recorded, hinting at problems encountered when mixing it. Whilst this might be clear to me, I realised that not everyone knows about the different terms used in this process.

Mixing is probably the simplest: this means taking any number of audio tracks and creating a new track by blending - mixing - the tracks. This primarily involves setting relative volumes between the tracks but also means using effects to highlight portions or to create a better sound.

In the old days, studios used tape recorders which had 2, 4, 8, 16 or 24 separate tracks (there were also 32 and 48 track recorders, but I think that these were obtained by using two machines simultaneously). A sound (like vocals, bass guitar, etc) would be recorded on a track, which was separate and not affected by any of the other tracks. Of course, the tracks all had to be in time. 4 track recorders were in use in the mid-60s; 8 tracks came into use 68-9; 16 tracks in 69-70 and 24 tracks by the mid 70s. Having more tracks enabled each instrument to be recorded separately and several times, but it made mixing much harder, which is why computer aided mixing appeared in the late 70s. My recording setup 'cheats' slightly: first, I record a music track which is effectively the final mix of all the instruments. Then I mix this music track with vocals.

There are three primary effects which I use on the vocals: compression, equalisation and reverb. Compression evens out volume levels; loud sounds remain loud, but quiet sounds become louder. I normally use this in order to provide a more consistent volume when singing, but I also use it on the final, mixed, track.

Equalisation (eq) is a souped up tone control. This allows different frequencies to be decreased or enhanced in the sound. Normally I reduce all the bass frequencies in my vocals, as these might clash with the music, but they also thicken the sound too much. I frequently enhance higher frequencies to help the voice stand out. Commercial studios spend a great deal of time with equalisation, 'carving out' space between different instruments so each one becomes clearer.

Reverb is a contraction of 'reverberation' and is the easiest effect to understand. Compare yourself singing in a room with open windows as opposed to singing in the bathroom: the sound bounces off the walls in the bathroom, creating echoes, otherwise known as reverberation. A room with open windows and walls which don't face each other, along with carpets and furniture, will absorb the sound and no echoes will be created, resulting in a dull sound. So one adds reverb to a recording, in order to add depth. There is also a relationship between the speed of a song (or part) and the reverb: short notes require a short reverb, as a long reverb would cause the echoes to dominate and swamp the original sound. Slow and long notes can sound exquisite with a long reverb - think of choirs in a cathedral.

My usual effects chain on vocals is first to compress, then equalise and finally add reverb. What happens sometimes - and this is what happens yesterday - is that the frequencies enhanced with eq cause certain sounds, especially sibilants, to stand out; the reverb causes these frequencies to become even more enhanced, creating many unwanted peaks in the volume, which is exactly what I don't want.

After thinking about this a little while walking the dog last night, I hit upon the following solution: change the order of the effects. First add eq, then reverb and finally compression, which smooths out the volume. I did a quick mix after returning home with this new order: the result was much better than all the previous mixes. For some reason, compressing after reverb causes the reverb to be more noticeable; as a consequence, a more minimal reverb has to be used.

So (with thanks to Randy Newman for the obscure song after which this blog is titled) maybe I've been doing it wrong all these years. I haven't decided whether to rerecord some of the vocals (primarily the opening verse) but otherwise, the mix settings are very good.

Excellent music blog

I stumbled upon a new music blog the other day. The 'about' page gives a little bit of background, but no name and no dates. Maybe that's just as well. So far I've only read a few pieces and have enjoyed them: the no-name author seems to like much of the same music that I do.

A recent post was about master arranger Paul Buckminster, who is well known as having been the arranger for David Bowie's "Space Oddity". Without going into details about this article, there is a very important quote from Buckminster (who died a few years ago), when talking about arranging the early Elton John songs:

The delayed entry of the rhythm section makes it more dramatic, and serves to lift the piece into a more propulsive mood. One general rule is to hold back as much as possible, to give the listener the chance to let the song grow and unfold, introducing new sonic elements, such as new instruments or sectional groupings. If you use everything from the beginning, you have nowhere to go.

This principle was called 'the staggered entry' by Ian MacDonald when writing about The Beatles: a good example would be 'Day Tripper'. But The Beatles generally only used this approach for their intros: the instrumentation during songs would be fairly constant.

I have been working during the past week on a song that was written 42 years ago and first arranged 22 years ago, bearing a very strong and mature lyric. In updating the arrangement for Reason, my main goal was thinning out the notes. There are very few notes that I have added, but quite a lot has been subtracted. Parts have been moved around, assigned to different instruments and even split into two, further deepening the sound. The solo section is played by three instruments which make their initial appearance at this stage, one of which then disappears.

I used a little trick, which is also my form of musical joke, or tribute: the intro also appears as the coda, and these few bars form the introduction to King Crimson's 'Starless' (just the mellotron chords). I only needed to sing the song once, but at the moment I'm too close to the song  to decide whether the current mix is the final one (and that's after about six previous mixes, each slightly changing the equalisation settings on the vocal).

New song

In one of the more lucid moments when I was ill with pneumonia at the beginning of the month, I sat down at the piano and began improvising. After a while, I discovered that I had created the basis of a new song. I then rushed (as much as is possible with pneumonia; it would be more accurate to write that I dragged myself) to the computer in order to enter the song into the sequencer, but also decided to record myself playing the one verse on piano by means of my mobile phone. It's a rough recording but good enough to remind me of what I had written: another one of these serpentine-like tunes which go up and down the keyboard, accompanied by chords which don't necessarily belong to a key or mode. After thinking about it for some time, I realised that the song was basically in A minor, although there are a few bits which are out of this key.

Over the days, I developed the song whilst arranging it: a middle, instrumental, section appeared, followed by a bridge. At one stage, the instrumental section was repeated as a coda, but this got changed later on. I also created a minimal version of the song - just some chordal instrument along with the tune: this was a guide version intended to help me write the words. Whilst doing so, I saw that I needed a few bars of music between the first two verses; the link between the sung bridge and the third verse also needed a few extra bars. It was probably at this stage that I realised that the tune did not match my vocal range: either I would have to lower it a bit and sing at the top of my range, or raise the tune and sing at the bottom of my range. In the end, I raised the song by four semitones, to C# minor, making the lowest note B below middle C.

Once the arrangement was nearly complete, I could write the words. On a Friday two weeks ago, I wrote the opening verse (after discarding my original lyrical idea); the following day I wrote the next verse, and just over a week ago I wrote the rest of the words. Of course, I was very interested in adding vocals to the music as soon as possible, as this helps me hear the entire song better (as a producer).

I made a few attempts at recording the vocals as well as mixing: I knew that I would eventually be discarding these vocals. This initial version had tentative singing, which shows how new the tune was to me. I always wonder how the Beatles could record a song which had been written only a few days before with such confidence, sounding as if they had been playing the song for months or years. I'm thinking of the pre-Revolver days, possibly even pre-Rubber Soul, when a complete song was recorded in one or two sessions, with no room for reconsideration.

Yesterday I had the time and space to record new vocals. My usual strategy is to record me singing all the song through a few times then make a composite version. If one take was good all the way through, then this would be used, but sometimes I mess up the words (even though I'm reading from a lyric sheet) or the phrasing, so I could have one take with two good verses and another take with the other verses. From this composite version, I then do 'breath removal' and tuning: these are technical and painstaking, but they make a big difference to the final product. Breathing sounds especially bad after equalisation and reverb. From this master, I might then extract lines for further manipulation, either for emphasing a part or for creating harmonies. As it happens, after all this, I wasn't happy with the vocals for the middle bit, so instead of singing it again, I extracted the necessary bars from the original vocal from last week and gave it some treatment.

After all this technical material, one can see that I am more interested in the music and the final production; what about words? As opposed to my last few songs which seem to be interested in telling myself something, this one was a throw-back to the days of 1975/6, starting "Where are the autumnal backstreets where we used to walk? Where are the leafy bowers where we used to talk?". They're not bad lyrics, but they don't mean very much to me, at least, not now. Sometimes lyrics which seem to be written off the cuff later turn out to be very perceptive.

Wake up call

A few days ago, I had a routine blood test performed. These days, one can get most of the results the same day, so that evening, I was able to log on to the appropriate website and see the results. Most of these were fairly similar to my last set of results (although the cholesterol set of tests may have slightly improved), but one result set my alarm bells ringing.

The blood glucose level was 110 mg/dL, where the recommended range is 70-100; looking at the history of results from the site, there is a definite tendency to increasing levels.

Date	Concentration
10/04/2014	97
07/08/2014	92
14/09/2014	98
19/10/2014	90
28/01/2016	103
18/02/2016	94
27/08/2017	95
10/05/2018	99
21/03/2019	110

The statistician in me would prefer more data points taken at more regular intervals but I think that the meaning is clear. Lest I suspect that there was a problem with my recent blood test (like eating ice cream after 8pm the evening before), there is a separate blood test called Hemoglobin A1c %, which evaluates the average amount of glucose in the blood over the last 2 to 3 months by measuring the percentage of glycated (glycosylated) hemoglobin (source). The normal range is 4.0 - 5.7%; my level was 6.1%. I have no history of this test for comparison. It is interesting to compare this level with overseas standards: The American Diabetes Association currently recommends an A1c goal of less than 7.0%, while other groups such as the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists recommend a goal of less than 6.5%. In 2016, the ADA recommended that an A1c level of 6.5% as a cutoff level to diagnose diabetes (source).

I read somewhere (possibly on the health fund's site) that these elevated levels can be caused by the following factors

1. A sugar rich diet
2. Lack of exercise
3. Some pre-existing condition in the body

I have control over the first two factors, so I will have to do my part with life style changes. I used to speed walk 5km every evening a few years ago, but this stopped after we 'changed' dogs. It's easy to find excuses, such as 'next week I have to travel to Karmiel on Tuesday and Wednesday, and to Haifa on Thursday' or similar. But I have to do something!

I am out of condition. Yesterday I walked just over 1.5km in 17 minutes before my right leg started hurting just above the ankle. Today I walked 2.2km in 23 minutes before the pain started, so at least I am improving. I shall have to force myself to find the necessary 30-40 minutes every day whenever possible.

I suspect that I am also developing lactose intolerance; apparently this increases (i.e. the body becomes less tolerant) as one gets older. One of my brothers in law has lactose intolerance and avoids milk and cheese almost completely. He is of Yemenite stock, which is traditionally lactose intolerant, whereas I am of European stock, which is traditionally tolerant. This is a problem for me as I drink 2-4 glasses of milk a day; I have learned to drink only one glass of milk when I am in Karmiel if I want to avoid pains and hiccups on the way home. It probably doesn't help my digestive system that I am sitting without moving for a few hours.

Fortunately, milk companies in Israel sell 'low lactose' milk with 2% fat; I bought a couple of cartons yesterday and have been drinking the milk with no ill effects. But at work this is going to be a problem: I can't see me taking a carton of low lactose milk to work and leaving it in a refrigerator without someone else using that milk, even if I label the carton. I think that the solution will be to keep it in a non-transparent plastic bag. But I can't see myself traveling to Karmiel (3 hours) with a carton of milk in my bag; I think that I'll ask the secretary there to buy me a carton for next week.

I assume that I will be summoned soon to our family doctor where we will discuss the blood results. I also intend to bring up the lactose problem. From what I have read, intolerance is not normally tested by clinical means but rather by symptoms and reducing exposure to milk. So I'm going to continue with the low lactose milk for a few weeks and see what happens.

The Tel Aviv Saxophone Quartet

Yesterday evening, combined with a celebration of Women's Day, we were treated to a concert by the Tel Aviv Saxophone Quartet. Their personnel has changed from the photographs on their site: whilst the alto and baritone players are the same, the tenor and soprano players have changed. The new soprano player comes from our kibbutz (he and my son were childhood buddies) and the new tenor player comes from a moshav not too far away and went to school with a few kibbutz members.

I missed the beginning of the concert (8:30pm is too early for a Friday night) so there may have been a formal presentation of the quartet and its aims. I didn't catch the names of most of the pieces they played, but looking at a list posted on their site, I can see that they played a piece by French composer Bozza as well as what was originally a string quartet by Kodály, rearranged for a saxophone quartet.

The only piece whose name I did catch was the closer, six bagatelles by Ligeti. I found a performance of this on YouTube which gives an idea of what we heard last night (although without the choreography!). There it is played by a piccolo, oboe, clarinet, French horn and bassoon; obviously one part got swallowed up in the translation to four parts.

As is hinted by all the composers, the music was strictly 20th century, meaning that there weren't any 'tunes' nor chordal progressions. The pieces in no way are easy on the ear, although some of the Ligeti pieces were more textural as opposed to musical (that's not a criticism). Whatever, the playing and communication between the instruments was precise and impressive. The acoustic balance was excellent, achieved without microphones. The tone of all the saxophones was 'pure' as opposed to 'jazzy'. I often feel that the saxophone parts which I sequence are not realistic as there are no slurs or other modern affectations, but they would have been at home with the pieces played yesterday (although they would have stood out due to their simplicity).

Looking at the list of pieces by Ligeti,  I see that there is one called 'Clocks and clouds', written in 1972-3. There is a piece by National Health bearing the same name from about 1975; it wouldn't surprise me that Dave L. Stewart appropriated the name although I doubt that the content is similar. Stewart's one time collaborator Mont Campbell lifted a part from Vaughan Williams' 'Overture to The Wasps'.

Unfortunately I don't have a photograph from yesterday evening: the empty seat which I found was behind the baritone sax player. Even from straight on, I doubt that I would have achieved a good photograph as the players 'hid' behind their music stands. It never even occurred to me to record their playing.

Pneumonia again

My last minimal blog entry from Friday concluded with these words: I woke up yesterday with an aching throat; now I've got a cold, the likes of which I haven't had for a few years. On Saturday, I didn't feel any better and spent most of the day in bed. On Sunday, I went to the clinic for a throat swab, as my primary problem was pain whilst swallowing (dysphagia) along with the copious production of mucus. I stayed at home on Sunday and Monday, and by early afternoon I was beginning to feel better - especially my throat wasn't hurting as much.

But then I developed a headache and a fever and began to feel much worse: less mucus, much more coughing. Yesterday (Tuesday) I went again to the clinic and was surprised when I was ushered into the doctor's office without waiting and without an appointment. This doctor - a locum - listened to my presentation, examined me and then sent me to the neighbouring town for a chest x-ray. As my wife wasn't around, this meant that I had to saddle up the motorbike in order to get to the x-ray clinic. Fortunately, this is situated next to the railway station, which is very close to where I live.

After a few minutes waiting, I had two x-rays taken, then was sent back to my doctor. She was able to look at the pictures immediately (this is fine progress!) and was able to see that I had pneumonia. She gave me a prescription for antibiotics and for a mucolytic agent, saying that the (kibbutz) clinic had the antibiotic.

As it happened, there was a kibbutz member who had seen the doctor just before me; he too had been diagnosed with pneumonia and had been prescribed the same antibiotic. The nurse was dispensing him the antibiotic when we realised that the clinic had only enough for him; I did not fancy going back to town to the dispensary (I was very weak at this point). The member was very kind and suggested that he take one of the two packages of antibiotic whereas I would get the second package; I would return the package (or equivalent) when my wife sets the prescription filled. Since then I've taken three doses of antibiotic.

Looking at the previous time when I had pneumonia (almost exactly five years ago), the story is almost the same. Then I was diagnosed on the basis of the physical exam (a rattle in my lungs) whereas this time it was on the basis of the x-ray. I don't think that I am as weak now as I was then, but I am having difficulty in concentrating on anything that requires mental effort (writing this blog was difficult at times). People at work send me letters (to the internal mail server), seemingly unaware of my incapability; I haven't answered many. My phone is on 'quiet': I've noticed that a few people have tried calling but of course I did not reply. I communicate mainly by WhatsApp which is just as well as I can barely make a sound with my voice.

Glissando and staccato

Yesterday was the first time I've seen my elder grand-daughter for some time, so of course we had to play a little piano together. I tried to explain to her the terms glissando and staccato (and of course, legato); whilst she understood staccato, the glissando was beyond her. Not surprising really: it requires quite a bit of strength to press the keys properly.

I woke up yesterday with an aching throat; now I've got a cold, the likes of which I haven't had for a few years. This means I'll be keeping my distance from the grandchildren tonight.

I can't sleep without CPAP

On Thursday evening at around 9pm, the power went out. Shortly afterwards we received a message on our mobile phones saying that the electricity company was working in the area and had caused the power cut, which was expected to last two hours. Like everyone else, we went to bed early.

There are three factors which help me sleep well: being relaxed (normally due to a hot shower just before going to bed), having a warm bed (an electric blanket in the winter) and my CPAP machine. It also helps to be tired. On Thursday I had none of the three factors and so I slept badly; I had great difficulty in falling asleep and when I did, the sleep quality was not good. It didn't help that my right nostril has a propensity to close at night; CPAP keeps it slightly open.

I got up at around 1am and sat in the lounge with my mobile computer and personal internet router in order to connect to work in order to check something. I stayed up until around 1:30am; before returning to bed, I checked the fuse box and also went outside to see whether the light on the landing worked. The electricity had yet to return.

Back in bed, I managed to sleep somehow until my phone alarm rang at 6am. Still no electricity. After taking the dog for a walk, I noticed that there were lights on in other buildings. I checked the fuse box again and saw that the circuit breaker was off; once I raised it, all the devices in our house started working. There were several beeps as devices announced their return to life; the lights came on as did the air conditioner. 

As far as I can remember, there hasn't been a night in the past ten and a half years when I haven't slept with the help of my CPAP machine. I have read that many people can't get used to it, but I can't get used to sleeping without it. Even in my darkest hours with pertussis (whooping cough), the CPAP machine kept me breathing - and just as well.

I was looking forward to a hot shower on Friday night before going to bed, but the water was only lukewarm. The electric blanket had warmed the bed so my body relaxed quickly. Of course, I was very tired so I fell asleep quickly. This morning we realised that the power cut had caused the timer on the water boiler to go out of sync which is why there was no hot water in the evening.

By asking other people, I established that the electricity returned at about 2:30am, much later than the electricity company said.

1,200 blogs

Another 100 blogs gone: blog 1100 was posted on 24/12/2017 and blog 1199 was posted on 08/02/2019 - 13 and a half months, which means that my posting rate is slowing slightly compared to other years (e.g. 100 blogs in eleven months).

Here are the top tags, again with few surprises

Position	Tag	Count
1	DBA	13
2=	Personal	12
2=	Priority tips	12
4	Holiday	11
5	mp3	7
6	Programming	6
6=	Torino	6
8=	Delphi	5
8=	Headphones	5
8=	Obituary	5
11	Jewish holidays	4

I'm in a very sombre mood at the moment: the shock of the funeral yesterday, the rain which has poured down almost without break since yesterday night, and the fact that the topic 'obituary' makes it into the top ten.

I found a few more pictures of Yair hiding in my mobile phone: this one is from four months ago, from our most recent 'company day'.

Black Friday

This morning, a colleague telephoned me to say that another colleague, the manager of the factory where we work, had died suddenly, and that the funeral would be today at 12:30pm. To say that I was surprised and shocked would be an understatement. This manager is not my manager, although we worked most of the time in the same building.

I was preparing mentally to give a eulogy at the funeral, but there were hundreds of people there (the deceased is one of seven brothers and two sisters), most of whom probably would want to speak, and also the man running the proceedings said that as it is Friday and some people have to travel long distances, there would be little time to prepare for the Sabbath, and so only the son and daughter would speak.

So I am going to write here what I might have said....

Just before leaving for this funeral, I heard about the death of a kibbutz member, MB. This man was the manager of Tzora Furniture who accepted me to work, 30 years ago. It is a sad coincidence that he died the same day as Yair, who has been the manager of TF for the past eight years. Yair and I used to speak most days, not only about work matters, but also about more personal topics. Despite the many differences between us, there are also many similarities: we're both near enough the same age (I'm slightly older).He has a son and daughter, I have a son and daughter. He was at my daughter's wedding, I was at his son's wedding. He had a grandson, I have a grand-daughter (in fact, two). 

We often used to compare notes about our grandchildren; Yair's eyes would light up when he spoke about his grandson and about the joy which he brought to his life. Yair even told me that his grandson has a special 'kiddush cup' for Friday nights when the family sits around the table.

At this point, I would have dried up and possibly choked up; I don't have anything more to say except for the fact that I am still in shock and unable to process the news. I don't know what is going to happen come Sunday morning when the workers, almost all of whom were at the funeral and as stunned as I was, turn up. 

The picture above shows Yair and myself captured at my daughter's wedding, nearly five years ago. It's not particularly flattering to either of us, but it's the only picture I have of my friend and colleague.