The week begins

with a squall of rain and wind that tosses the mango tree out back enough to shake loose blossom, filling the air with fragments that were meant to be succulent, fragrant fruit.Some of which would have ended up on my breakfast menu eventually. Rain is different here in the Caribbean. Yesterday I drove around the corner from one patch of sunshine to another, but the second patch was filled with a driving rain impervious to the highest thrust of windscreen wipers. Another 100 yards and it was done, road dry as bone. We say 'the devil is beating his wife with a cou cou stick' when rain and sunshine come together. Cou cou being made of cornmeal and okras and churned with a flat paddle like a tiny cricket bat. Delicious with steamed flying fish or salt fish in a butter sauce with onions. For some reason my cou cou turns out green which is not standard issue. Maybe too many okras.

Another week. My tape recorder ordered six weeks ago has not arrived and I am shackled to the studio not truly designed for production work. Am currently doing a Heath Robinson with extra cables, pulling the mic out from the console and creating an area where I can sit face to face with a guest but with the current configuration there is no way to make it look natural which further stresses those already nervous; and it is hard to make things look and feel effortless with one's back to the controls that need monitoring. I tried a mirror in an experiment and it is just not on as an option. I tell myself to breathe, pull my shoulders down from around my ears and ply myself with platitudes about Rome and ancient and modern building practises. Sometimes it helps but I need content and I have all these people eager to give it to me and nowhere to gather it effectively. Of course there is the loose cannon option...rent studio time from my competitors. Maybe I can suggest that and see what outrage can achieve...