It is lovely to be (semi) on vacation. I still spent the whole day doing work of various kinds, but I did it more slowly, taking time to breathe and to enjoy myself and all those things that I don�t take the time to do when I�m overworked, even though it would help me enormously if I did!

I�ve been practising for the upcoming film sessions (some pretty demanding semiquaver arpeggios at crotchet = 140). Any flexing movement in the fingers, when repeated over and over (as in several minutes of fast arpeggios without stopping) causes the hand and arm to seize up very quickly. Frequent breaks are essential to allow the muscles time to relengthen themselves. Vivien Mackie puts it much better than me, in her recent book about life, the cello, Pablo Casals, and the Alexander Technique:

"It is important for us to know that movements are made by contraction of muscle, and that the contraction is virtually instantaneous, whereas the decontraction, which restores the muscle to its normal resting length, takes about ten times as long. This means that movements performed repeatedly at very short interval � as in a trill, for instance � will involve a progressive shortening of the muscles concerned, since there simply is not time for full decontraction to take place. Each repeat of the movement therefore requires more contraction than the last. This also applies, on a grander scale, to a long bout of practice. (This is why it is important to take frequent breaks, so that the muscles we have been using can return to their resting length.) Unfortunately it is possible for a much-used muscle to �forget� its resting length, and fail to decontract as fully as it should; so we may get a permanent shortening of certain muscle groups, which shows as round shoulders, when the chest is over-contracted for instance, or in hands which refuse to open fully. We shape ourselves by what we do.

Frequent or prolonged anxiety will impose its pattern by the same process. Furthermore, the anxiety pattern includes the chemical component; that is to say, the postural pattern itself makes us feel anxious. A vicious circle, indeed."

I�ve also been working on my passport application. As of 8 days ago, I�ve become British! I�m now a dual national. After fifteen years of living in England, I decided it was about time. It�s useful, for various reasons, to have British citizenship.

I don't feel any different....