Monday was a day of little luxuries and large pleasures. This involved a slice of the fruity tea brack I made at the weekend, two hot chocolate options sachets enjoyed from the amazing ‘I am not a paper cup’ beaker of dreams, some marshmallows, lip-salve, and further enjoyment of the woolly comforts that are my Maud, my hat, and my gloves.

Treats: Options sachet + mini marshmallows = 1 point.

I travelled to Oxford to the printing studio, to work on this,

…which I think you’ll agree has come on quite a bit since this.

I am really, really enjoying the process of developing the Sonic Tuck Shop book, especially in the context of thinking about food in general, and how to make and enjoy it inexpensively. I have also become totally fixated on the use of Sounds in The BBC’s A History of the world in 100 Objects series. What strikes me when listening to the programmes and the podcasts, is how often Neil MacGregor conjures up a sense of a bygone era by referring to, and describing, the soundscape of that time. He spoke in one episode about how the sound of stone-napping was once the soundtrack to life, and in another, about the role that bells played in peace-keeping times. This reminds me of the phrase ‘Sonic Archeology’ that was discussed last year in the sound-diaries conference, by my supervisor Paul Whitty, and by Pete Stollery, who described his fascination with saving or preserving near-extinct sounds.

On a related note, I have noticed that the London Sound Survey has recently featured the work of a Victorian Novelist called George Gissing whose descriptions of Victorian London involve many references to sound. In the light of the Sonic Tuck Shop project, I was especially delighted to find a reference to a firework display in this post, but there were no sound effects described for the Victorian fireworks; only a description of the admiring ‘ohs’ of the crowd.

In contrast, there will be many sound effects in the Sonic Tuck Shop zine of dreams.

Monday’s Numbers:

WW points consumed: 17.5
£s spent: £4.95 in railfare to Oxford Brookes
Miles walked: 4 (to and from rail station)

Menu: bagel with egg, mushrooms, ham and tomatoes for breakfast, yeast-pastry mushroom and spinach pie for lunch, hot chocolate and chicken soup for snacks (not together, obviously…) and soda-farl plus chunky veg soup for supper.

Sounds:

The soft silence of marshmallows melting (for inspiration, check out this amazing video by Jennifer Walshe entitled ‘The Softest Music in the World’)
The sound of the chinese bronze bell featured in the history of the world in 100 objects podcast series
The tiny clicks and rattles of wooden letters being assembled in the frame, for printing

The whirr of the roller passing over the letters and pressing the paper against the ink
The sharp, bright sound of the ink dappling as the roller passes over it
The beautiful clinks of ink-tins being opened and the brittle noise of the palette knife pushing through the dried ink to get to the wet stuff inside
The unutterable softness of sultanas in fruit cake and the rustle of the greaseproof paper wrapping