EMP in the US

The boys have taken more interest in the piano lately, perhaps because I haven’t been playing much.

Thomas has started trying to “compose” pieces:

I remember doing this as a kid. Thomas is helped by the fact that I have stuck the letter names of the notes all over the piano. This backfired a bit, when they got hold of the stickers when I wasn’t looking, and we had notes like “P” and “z” in the scale. Also, I noticed Thomas using an “h” on one of his compositions.

Ollie too has become more interested. I have been using what must now surely be the only way to teach solfège:

I have also been trying to maintain some old skills. When I worked on “The Bill” we seemed to be constantly fixing radios. The boys have a set of walkie-talkies, one of which wasn’t working properly.

I took it apart, but actually the problem is a mechanical one, which I tried to fix with blu-tack. The knob is not engaging with the pot properly (an unfortunate problem in any context). It held for a bit, but Ollie’s strong hands made short work of breaking it again.