This might surprise you : I’m enjoying life.
I’m enjoying this season’s football, although the quality isn\’t always high.
And I’m enjoying the challenge of finishing my 70s rock memoir.
I still love going out with Mrs Palmer.
I’ve seen some terrific games in the Champions League, the Cristiano Ronaldo second leg is coming up at Old Trafford, there are some Premier League narratives that I follow, and some managers I respect, like David Moyes and Michael Laudrup.
I admit that AVB has rather startled me at Spurs.
What I don\’t enjoy now is talking about Arsenal to my friends, most of whom have been Gooners all their lives.
Those fans are suffering huge frustration.
What\’s going on is soul-destroying. What\’s going on is sheer hell for them.
Bottom line : apart from Arsenal, my life\s enjoyable.
That\s where I\m at now.
Tuesday I skipped my pilates class to take Jan to a preview of the Roy Lichtenstein Retrospective. Really liked 4 of the 13 rooms that contain 125 works. I’m going to go again. I hadn’t realised Roy also did sculpture or that the Tate bought the WHAAM! canvas in 1966, three years after it was painted. Somebody was on the ball back in the day. Tuesday afternoon was so warm that Members were sitting outside in the rooftop restaurant. We got very lucky with such a sunny day in February, way up on the fifth floor roof, with the Shard spiking above us into a bright blue sky.
On Wednesday I met up with Zeroplane before their rehearsal, then watched Milan outplay Barcelona. and on Thursday I just did pilates and read some stories from an Esquire anthology, a second-hand hardback I bought after walking on Hampstead Heath last Sunday. I started reading on page 181: This Sandwich Has No Mayonnaise is a story in which Holden Caulfield\’s brother remembers what happened before Catcher In The Rye.
After reading J.D. Salinger, I read Albert Camus and Norman Mailer and Evelyn Waugh (superb as always) and Alberto Moravia and Aldous Huxley.
I feel humble when I read good prose. But also inspired. The Armchair Esquire, edited by Arnold Gingrich, was published by Heinemann in 1959 and it\’s the best £2 I’ll ever spend in Hampstead.
On Thursday I did pilates and saw Luis Suarez baffle Malafeev with a wickedly bending free-kick from 30 yards. Liverpool beat Zenit 3-1 but lost on away goals.
Overall, it’s a pretty tame life these days but I love it and feel blessed.
PS. Zeroplane is a ballsy 4-piece rock band with good songs.
Two guitars.
I reckon they could play arenas in 2014 and I\’ll tell you more about them next month.
Drummer Levi makes his own drums and they sound fantastic.
One of my favourite songs, My Eyes Will Tell You, had no ending last summer but has an ending now.
My Eyes is easy to listen to but not so easy to play, as it has about 15 chords.