Egypt house

I had a rather narrow escape at Highgate this morning. An almost never-ending snake of children was being briefed on what to expect from their tube journey into central London up in the ticket hall. "Don't worry," said the LU staff member, "the tube will not depart until everyone is on board and I raise my hand at the driver..." The children were over-excited, there were hundreds of them, and I imagined the near hell of sitting on the tube as 300 screaming terrors bundled themselves into my carriage. I literally ran down the escalators onto the platform. There was no way on earth I was going to get involved in that crap!

We've had another day of "off-camera" rehearsals on the White City Estate today with Michelle and various people who'll be featuring in our film. 

We started with Danny, who was bleary-eyed and barely awake, before moving on to Mostafa in his Egyptian cafe, which was undoubtedly the highlight of the day. He seemed to love the music, and was incredibly proud of the way he'd performed on the recording. We blocked out a fairly intricate set of moves which will take viewers on a tour of his bizarre and wondrous cafe. He is so infectiously young at heart. He says he left Egypt as a young man and has never grown up as a result! 

From Egypt House we went to John's house. John talked about black magic, people planting pumpkins in his feet and various dreams he'd had about the dark arts. It was quite some conversation, which culminated in him doing a full-scale healing on me to sort out the shoulder pain which seemed to come on as I entered his flat! It did the trick. Don't knock the dark arts, particularly when they are practised by a Indo-Trinidadian! 

The evening ended in something of a mix-up, with Penny and I looking at locations in the wrong blinkin' hospital! It was undoubtedly a bit of a bummer, but at least we got the opportunity to catch up and talk through the filming days in as much detail as possible. It's vital to be on the same page with all these things. 

I was thrilled to read in the Standard tonight that a six-year study in America has revealed that the mortality rate amongst vegetarians is 12% lower than it is in omnivores and that veggies are a whopping 30% less likely to develop heart disease. It could be that my 7 year-old self made at least one good decision! Come to think of it, the same 7 year-old also decided it would be a good idea to learn the 'cello! Wise lad, that young Benjamin Till!

I'm currently listening to the final mixes of Four Colours. I have much fresher ears and can reveal Blue, at least, to be one of my best ever compositions! Jodie Prenger, the Rebel Chorus and all musicians sound extraordinary. What a relief!