The morning started well. I was so early arriving at the dentist that the receptionist made me a coffee, and I was back off the bus in Govan, five minutes after my Partick appointment should have started. (Don’t worry – no hammer or pliers were needed there. I just had a filling replaced. The nougat my son bought me had a lot to answer for!)
With more morning left than I anticipated, I turned to look at the proofs of my article about the Song Gems (Scots). Tweaking the abstract (still no hammer or pliers in sight), I decided I ought to look at the cover again, before using the word ‘beneath’. But there was a problem …
No Song Gems (Scots), my much-loved pride and joy.
I blamed my boxing-up and un-boxings occasioned by the rewire and redecorating projects, but only I could be blamed – no-one else was permitted near my precious research materials. Whilst I was still in a state of panic, I moved the duet piano stool to get better access to the bookshelf.
The bottom fell out of my world. Or, more correctly, out of the duet piano stool. Did I say I had time in hand? The hammer and pliers are easily accessible, but the tool-box containing nails is far less so.
The regular piano music is now back IN the piano stool; the tool-box is back under the stairs; and the prodigal Song Gems (Scots) has been found hiding in a pile of equally big, heavy books that are too tall for the allocated bookshelf. Proofs have been read, a bio written and the abstract perfected.
I could not use the word, ‘beneath’. Good thing I checked!
Karen McAulay, Musicologist 