Drink and migrate

First things first, thanks to all of you who left your good wishes for Dad. I passed them on and I think he was chuffed to think that people from all round the world were thinking of him. He is back at home now, and Mum is happy although she has even more of a caring job to do now (with our help when we can). In the end I am not sure precisely what Dad's problems were(are) and I am left with the impression that his body just got confused with the seemingly constant mix of pills he has been prescribed over recent years and said “enough!” That and his advanced years of course. Anyway the doctors conferred, and it was a split decision, but he has made it home with a fresh collection of pills and potions to take – no doubt with a fresh collection of side effects. Excuse me if I sound a bit cynical but in the end I wonder whether all these drugs really do any good. One thing that has deteriorated a lot in recent weeks is his sight – effectively he can no longer watch TV, nor read it seems. Hey, it’s a b*gger getting old!

My work took me to Hungary again the weekend before last. Prepare yourself for a bit of jargon. The project I’ve been working on – with many colleagues – was a computer system replacement, and it reached its climax – the ‘go live’ over the summer solstice weekend. A ‘go live’ incorporates the moving and validating of all the data from the existing system to the new one. This is known in the trade as ‘data migration’. The various stages of this migration required us to work, repeatedly, well into the night. So little time for r and r (= drinking) you may think. But no, we managed to fit that in too. “Drink and migrate” was our mantra. It just so happened there was a wine festival in town that went on well into the night. For three nights running we left the office after midnight and got a taxi straight to the festival, and three nights running a few of us returned to our hotel with the sun rising and the birds singing. I didn’t know I could still do that! (In fact flushed with the realisation I could still go to bed almost after I got up the next day and still function I did it again this weekend when the wife and I went to an old friend’s wedding reception at the weekend. This could become a habit!).

Anyway, returning to Blighty after a long weekend of ‘data migration’ I turn on the radio in the hire car and what should I hear? – a program discussing trends in migration of birds and insects! (It included the cuckoo, which I always think provides one of the quintessential sounds of an English spring and early summer, although the birds we hear in England in fact come from Africa).

This coincidence of migrations must be cue for a track on Feel It I thought to myself. (It’s now a week after this coincidence occurred but I’ve finally got round to it). But what to play? Tracks with migration as a subject are pretty thin on the ground, at least in my collection, but I have settled on a track that at least hints at it in the title. It’s from the 1979 Azymuth album “Light As A Feather”, which also featured the storming and irresistible “Jazz Carnival”.

The normal beat of posts may return now. Unless, of course, by some slim chance, the famously elusive British summer suddenly decides to make a prolonged appearance!

Azymuth – Fly Over The Horizon (mp3) 1979