Fanciful?

Once again it was my turn to host the Music Group session. Also once again, I'd left all the cleaning and tidying and furniture rearranging and dusting and vacuum cleaning until the actual day, which meant I was up at 7:30 to sort things out. (I say over and over again that committing myself to monthly hostings forces me to do a bit of regular housework, but I know it's silly leaving myself in a situation when I devote hours n end to making the place respectable.) As usual, I had everything ship-shape with some time to spare - not much time, but at least I looked in control when the first guest got here.

We had a good session, with the final-30-minute presentation slot proving especially memorable (the amazing Claudio Abbado conducting the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in the final three movements of Mahler's 3rd Symphony - a dream partnership if ever there was one, and a remarkable musical experience).

Just two of us went to the local pub afterwards and then I settled down to wait for Carl's arrival, to be here in advance of his business trip to the US, beginning with a flight to Manchester at 6:30 am. We two retraced my earlier steps and had a couple of drinks and a chat back in the local before admitting defeat and settling down for just a few hours sleep.

The blip? I was on the phone to Carl around 6:00 pm when I happened to look down and see the hall carpet in a new light. I'd never before realised that there's a face hidden in the pattern. I don't think it's Jesus (too demonic for that), so I probably won't earn much by auctioning it on eBay. Honestly, the fact really was vividly evident when I grabbed the camera, but it didn't seem quite as obvious when it made its way onto the computer. So I've given it a bit of a helping hand. Hopefully somebody else can see a face there too - or am I going slowly mental? (Maybe looking at it with a bit of a squint will help.)