Just discovered to my frustration that it's not possible to change your YouTube username. Once you plump for a name, that's it, you're stuck with it for life--you can't even change it by deed poll like you can with your birth name. Which is mortifying for me as a professional editor and proofreader, as it means I'm now stuck with a typo for a user name. :-( For the record, it should have been silvawymn (Silva being my dog and wymn being the 80's feminist spelling of women that became part of my online moniker when I was living in the US and every normal-sounding handle I tried for with AOL was already in use). The name I am stuck with on YouTube, however, is silvaymn, with the w missing. Any suggestions as to what I could claim I intended by 'ymn' will be gratefully received. Yemen? Yeoman? You Mis-spelt Name? (These are my suggestions, love) See below for explanation of last sentences of paragraphs. Guh.

We ventured back into the wilds of Hampshire yesterday to pick up the pick-up (not, however, in a pickup). Amanda's guitar now sounds fabulous amplified and I'm lusting after a beautiful Dave King parlour guitar that was sitting there in his workshop waiting to be played. Not that I need another one - in fact, we both need rhinestone-studded spectacle leads more than we need more guitars. I've left my specs at Amanda's twice in one day and hers are invariably not where she expects them to be. It may be a function of age, regularly misplacing your glasses, but we thought that rather than be embarrassed by it, we'd make a feature out of our scattiness, with the rhinestones. Ok, I just worked out how to do this Blog thing....        hmmmmmmm...... think this is right.... good grief! Oooops...... how will anyone know that the last (important) sentence on each day's blog is from me - ?????  

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Amanda was somewhat taken aback when we crossed the border into Hampshire yesterday. It was like I'd taken a wrong turning and there we were in deepest Peru or something. Anyway, her guitar was duly dropped off and we headed back to civilization and a full English at the Art Lounge in Abingdon, where they turned out to be under a lot of pressure due to staff shortage and inclement weather having brought in the hordes. We therefore had a bit time to idle away until our breakfasts arrived, but it's always worth the wait there... We have two new words that I may try and incorporate into my next song: the verb 'absquatulate', as in 'Your horse has absquatulated' (if that helps...), and the noun 'cembalo'. The first one has such a plethora of meanings it's almost an entire language in itself, while the latter, a clavier-like harpsichord (of course), has a distinct echo of Coronation Street if said in a particular way... How sparse our language would be without the Guardian crossword to enrich it! Oh, today Bluebird heads north, to Bedfordshire...

We're off to Newbury this morning to have a pickup put in Amanda's guitar by Dave King, who made the guitar. It's also a chance to convince Amanda that Newbury isn't beyond the edge of the universe. Or maybe it is, and I've just forgotten...