I'm so tired

... but I can't go to bed because I have yet again started the washing machine far too late, and I cannot leave it unattended because it tends to overflow the sink when draining off. When will I learn to look at the clock before pushing the damned buttons?

Anyway.

The weekend has been busy, with moderate amounts of mild excitement. Slim and I went to a Christmas concert at a gospel hall in Feuerbach on Saturday evening, which was quite pleasant in a chaotic, amateurish way. Not that I have anything against amateur choirs as such, but if you're going to put on a concert and charge people money to attend, then you should at least have rehearsed a few times. The acoustics in the hall (not a "church" though they do have religious services there daily) are also extremely poor, which the organizers have tried to compensate with loudspeakers. It's clear that the architects knew nothing about acoustics, or (more likely) that the client overruled them and insisted on getting the most possible floorspace for the least possible money.

Slim was brought up nominally Catholic, as are most south Germans, but without any real faith or connection to the religion, and lived vaguely agnostically as most of us in the decacent West do. A man whom she met through a dating agency took her to a gospel hall meeting, where she "opened her heart to God" and was welcomed into the fold. I am very happy for her that she has (re-)found this new/old faith.

This afternoon I went to an "open studio" day for an acquaintance (not quite a friend) whom I know from a shop and coffee bar where she works weekends, the first stop on my Saturday-going-downtown routine for a cappucino and (if I'm lucky) a pain au chocolat. She bemoaned that few non-friends had turned up, and the conversation naturally went from there to publicity in general and the unfortunate necessity of having a website - even for an artist. Professional artists are spared this burden because their galleries do it for them (part of the way they justify their minimum 50% cut of the sales price), but those who haven't reached that status have to do it themselves. We agreed in principle that I will make her a website next year, in exchange for a painting. There is still much to negotiate, but it should be a fair deal on both sides.

She shares the space with another painter, much more "professional" in attitude but also unrepresented, whose work I preferred. She too has no website... I sense a new career in the making here.

In other news, the battery in my three-year-old iBook had degraded to holding only about twenty minutes' charge, so I spent an absolute fortune - 115 Euros - on a new battery. It now runs about four hours, and seems to charge up a little faster too. This will be my Christmas present to myself.