I've been enjoying practicing more and more lately. It's so meditative. Each week more of the program is in my fingers. The pieces are fun to play. I still spend time on keeping up repertoire and practicing etudes. 

I've been vaguely thinking about buying a grand. A Steinway is out of my reach but a 6 foot Kawai grand would do nicely. The Yamaha to my mind is not bright enough. 

Arthur says he would come and look with me and help me choose. 

Wow. I got really busy towards the end of last year. Arthur finished lessons mid December and started teaching again last weekend.

The fourth piece of the program is going to be the Chopin Ballade no 4 rather than Rachmaninov. I don't think the program is exactly imaginative but hopefully it will allow for consistency and a depth of performance.

I'm almost half way through the Bach fugue. Arthur was surprised that I had highlighted all the subjects pink, all the counter subjects orange and all the upside downey ones purple but that is the way I have always learnt fugues. This one is in four parts and is six pages long.

Ok. I think the program is coming together. Bach prelude and fugue from WTC book 1 no 20 in A minor BWV865; Beethoven sonata in C major op 2 no 3; Cloches a travers les feuilles - Debussy and the fourth is still a problem.It will either be rachmaninov Etude Tableux op 39 No 1 in C minor or Chopin Ballade No 4.

I had a good lesson today. We spoke some more about possible exam programs. Arthur told me yet another horror story of a student learning the wrong repertoire.

As it stands at the moment it will be a Bach prelude and fugue, a Beethoven sonata, a Rachmaninov etude from Et. Tab. and Debussy's Cloches etc. I'm a bit worried about not playing Chopin.

Being on hols at present is good because I can practice when I'm not tired.

Finally, I can leave the Brahms rhapsody behind or should I say 'for the time being'. It was driving me and I'm sure, my neighbours bananas.

I may have a permanent new lesson time at 3.30 pm rather than 5.30 pm, which will suit me much better. For one thing, I'll be able to walk there instead of driving, even in winter.

We're building an L mus program for late next year. I'd like to be playing at that standard but I've told Arthur I'll completely rely on his advice as to when it is all going pear shaped.

I've just had cable TV installed and discovered the Lifestyle food channel and the History channel which may put a few dents in my practice time until the novelty of the new channels wears off.

Another long gap between posts. This one will be in memory of Nancy Weir who passed away on the 14th.

Well, a whole two months gone by with packing, moving home and unpacking. In the new place, the piano is now in a better position, in a larger room with better light and so there is some progress. The Chopin ballade is nearly fluent, the Scarlatti sonatas are well on the way.

Unfortunately I missed the majority of this years' Sydney International Piano competition. Arthur says they may show some of the fifth round, the concertos, on telly soon.

Recently, David Helfgott played in Brisbane. I saw him at the University of Queensland in the late eighties. His playing then was technically brilliant but emotionally void. I did not ever want to hear him again.