25 - 31 July 2011

After a 13 year hiatus from Dartington, Justine returned to the Summer School this week to do a one week stint as office manager. Absence has made her heart fonder, and her brain too, but in the original sense of the word, and it was given a bit of a workout keeping track of which harpsichords were in which rooms and at what pitch. Much has changed but beloved constants remain and just to make Justine feel right at home, a trog crashed the car on the first day!

11 - 17 July 2011

The obscenely rich Catholic church is after our money. The church tax in Austria, 1.1% of annual income, is compulsary for all Catholics. Since Simon directs the church choir and Caspar and Mary are regularly robed up and in attendance to the priest, then one could be mistaken for thinking that we were catholic, and a letter welcoming us to the church and demanding money was received when we registered our new address. If a catholic chooses not to pay, perhaps, for example, because they consider the catholic church to be utterly corrupt, then the pope, Christ's vicar on earth, will excommunicate them. Since we are not Catholic, we do not have to pay for our salvation.