Yusef / Cat, Shakespeare, Pneumonia, Soulsinging and bookshops in Greece and Paris....

Well, what a strange week! Wednesday night I went to see Yusef Islam / Cat Stevens, which was rather strange and contradictory – like the real world. Clearly a lovely, peaceful man now caught in the rhetoric of his conversion to Islam. In truth it would seem he would never agree to something as violent and stupid as a Fatwa (Death Threat) to Salman Rushdie ; in reality it must have seemed to him that he was a high profile Islamic convert who would look like he was betraying his new faith if he didn't go along with it (???). His songs remain beautiful roadmaps to the path through life and it seems sad for him to have been associated with the nuttier and most radical and murderous side of his religion.

The Shakespearian setting for this: warm car to cold windy night to warm restaurant to colder, rainy night walk to the concert, hot in the concert, freezing cold and wet outside after the concert. All this ignited a throat infection that had lain dormant with me for weeks. By three a.m. I was coughing my little heart out. By ten a.m. I was in hospital, prodded and poked and x-rayed and diagnosed with pneumonia. Why the x-ray I asked. "Oh, we couldn't hear your right lung they cheerfully replied". Damn I thought. By the afternoon, armed with strong and very suss antibiotics I was home in bed and suffering.

Saturday went to the choir angel combined Soulsong Concert. They did themselves proud. Very Beautiful. Drops from Sally, Scarf from Stella, comfort from all. Many thanks. Hope to be climbing out of bed by Tuesday.

Meanwhile my friend N sends me postcards from bookshops all around the world. !. The Atlantis on a little Greek Island. 2. The Shakespeare & Co. Bookshop in Paris (my favourite) where you can rest your elbow in the spot worn smooth by Hemingway as he stood in there reading the books without buying them (along with James Joyce and some other locals) it really is a wonderful and magic atmosphere. I am very jealous of my friend N.