A whole week and a welcome flood of cover work has kept me from blogging. At least the New Year's arrival should not see my finances sinking too dramatically, if at all. Olly's September 2008 posting to Afghanistan is, by far, the week's most dramatic news. Fortunately he will be going as part of a band of 15 musicians, so there will be 'official' music as well as driver and medical duties.

Having reflected on Olly's determination to cut himself off from a steady income and guaranteed community, by leaving the Marines in 2009, I feel more at ease with the idea. Although we have much in common, he is far more single minded, more essentially musical, and far better trained for launching himself into the world of professional entertainment than I ever was. Not that my feelings are of any great moment; it is his life that will change; but I had to share with him the sometimes difficult, and steadily impoverishing, results of my own journey in that direction.

It was quite lovely, last weekend, entertaining Marek and Sabina to supper. Having spent my 20s and 30s as well as much of my 40s, with no real contact with parents or siblings, it is great to know that I have a real rapport, not only with 2 sons, but also with a future daughter in law. Sabina sees the light at the end of the City law training tunnel with an MA in prospect. Marek is discovering the difficulties of marketing, but I am confident he will not become so downcast as to give up; his determination to acquire material comfort is matched by expertise and a willingness to learn.

I was surprised to hear of their rental of an apartment on the Belvoir Estate; it is great that he does not want to cut loose from he E. Midlands, and I look forward to w/e visits to Belvoir as much as Marek and Sabina do. My first visit was on Sunday, with 3 dancing partners, en route to a milonga in the Castle. We were shown over a vast, solid and ancient flat with mighty fortress like walls and beautifully proportioned rooms; so many of them I lost count.

AT the milonga the exotic Gothic surroundings, the giant ancestral portraits, the candlelight, Christmas trees and stuffed reindeer, made up for the odd choice of music and crowded dance floor. My half joking suggestion to Jenny, Maria and Rosanna, that we continue our Sunday afternoon's dancing into the evening with some salsa at the 'Up and Down Under' bar in Nottingham, was, amazingly, taken up. We danced thus, almost continuously that day, from 5pm until 11pm; and we will meet again at Wilson's Christmas do tomorrow, in Fletchergate.

I have finally finished Albert Shweitzer's 'historical Jesus' book and am reading a selection of apocryphal gospels while I await Shweitzer's 'The Mystery of the Kingdom of God'. My revision of the 'Jesus' chapter will, if nothing else, be much better informed.

Time for Guitar practice.