Bloggish neglectfulness

Postings have been a bit light on lately.  There are a couple of reasons for this hearty neglect of the blog.

I've had two very debilitating bouts of the 'flu.  It seemed a couple of weeks ago that things were getting back to normal, then I woke up feeling a bit congested last week and the rest was history.  It is almost unheard of for me to retreat to my bed during the day, but it's now happened twice in recent weeks.

When not confined to the sick bay, I've been traveling the countryside on a recruitment contract.  For three days of the last few weeks I've found myself hearing the national anthem more times in one day than the Prime Minister herself would be expected to endure in a whole year.  I can say with great certainty that the quality of singing in the state's primary schools is very patchy.  Which is what you'd expect, given the generally poor state of music education and the rather intriguing attitude towards singing you often encounter in schools.

I also have a regular round of work commitments that have had to be squeezed in around the traveling work.  In the last month I've completed an essay for publication, and started sketching out ideas for an article I've been wanting to write for a while.  This is going to have to wait a little while longer, as I will be moving house in the next month or so, my gracious landlords having intimated their intention to renovate my digs.

One of the joys of moving house is that it allows an opportunity to sort through books and other things.  My shelves have been organized rather randomly for a while, so as I pack the books up there is a preliminary process of categorizing going on.  At the other end -- with any luck -- it will be possible to be clearer on where things go, so that they can be found again.  In a perverse way, I'm actually looking forward to clearing the shelves, emptying the cupboards, and jettisoning stuff from boxes I haven't opened since the year 2000. 

None of this is to say I've run out of puff for things to write here.  Quite the contrary.  Since the beginning of the year I've had a series of posts planned on a variety of topics, including speeches at funerals, more explorations of the quiet corners of the organ world, and much else.  The challenge is finding time to get the writing done so that it can be posted here with confidence of it being useful to someone.