Normality is underrated
I had already prepared my fortnightly article which is a technical piece about the building of my new pedalboard, but a visit to our local town - Samora Correia - changed my direction.
I had already prepared my fortnightly article which is a technical piece about the building of my new pedalboard to the recent Starlite & Campbell UK tour and beyond but a visit to our local town - Samora Correia - changed my mind as something disturbing happened.
As full time artists, Suzy and I have a pretty bizarre lifestyle. Working when others are sleeping, sleeping when others are working and unless on tour - and even that is by no means certain - it’s unusual to have a ‘normal’ day where you end up doing exactly what you expected to do.
I really struggle with this as my brian demands order and perfection. Our work is the definition of entropy and the travel, touring, large crowds are enormously stressful to me, hilarious - in a black humour kind of way - considering my profession.
I clearly have an undiagnosed condition which prompted me to do a little research and through the wonders of the internet discovered its certainly Obsessive–compulsive personality disorder (ODPD) with a side order of Autism. I can’t believe at 66 that I had never looked into this before. Poor Starlite.
Preoccupation with details (I have been found out)
Perfectionism interfering with task completion (Ahhhhh)
Rigidity and stubbornness (certainly)
Reluctance to delegate (most of the time)
Excessive conscientiousness and pedantry - excessive concern with minor details and rules (certainly)
Workaholic behaviour (indubitably)
Miserliness - excessive desire to save money (absolutely)
Inability to discard worn-out or worthless objects (oh shit, look in my underpants drawer)
Wikipedia tells us that it is the most common personality disorder in the United States and present in 3-8% of us. At least I am not alone.
Normality is underrated
Routine is good for me and sometimes envy those that have a regular day job where life is predicable and ordered.
During our recent tour we met a surgeon who was bored living a very predictable, mundane lifestyle and he was envious of us living our passion. The grass is always greener ehh.
We attend our gym three times a week - Monday, Wednesday and Friday - and on the intervening days take our two Labradors for a long walk to keep up the exercise. The open space, calm and fresh air does my head a lot of good. We publish one article and one podcast per week.
Studio work suits me as work can be undertaken in a predetermined order and the recording process is mostly methodical and scientific.
What and how you record is generally chaotic as this is the nature of the creative process, but at least there is some regularity and the pattern that settles me.
I don’t cope with change very well and over the past twelve months our local supermarket Continente moved location and in response Pingo Doce closed and refurbished and its taken me a while to adjust to the new regime. Also two of our favourite restaurants for ‘prato do dia’ have closed.
I mourn these old places and route and routine; strange I know.
So what’s the point?
This week is carnival in Samora Correia.
For the pious, it’s the last time to eat and drink without a nasty bout of Catholic induced guilt before the 40 day fast to Easter.
2023 was the first time we attended as the in previous couple of years it had been cancelled due to COVID restrictions. It’s a very merry affair with dancers, carnival floats, food stalls and lots of people.
On Saturday night everyone dons fancy dress, eats out then go down to the party in ARCAS until the early hours. The big day is Tuesday, where all the serious carnival action happens.
Our friend Dani asked if we would like to go to dinner, have a few drinks then go on to ARCAS. Tables were booked at Taverna Ribatejana one of our regular haunts in Samora Correia. The food is excellent as is the service and the price! We were all set.
On Wednesday we bumped into the the maître d' of said restuarant and he mentioned that Bar do Concelho - our favourite bar in Portugal - was still closed due to delay in refurbishment work which led to its closure for the whole of January.
This bar is the hub of the town, adjacent to the Taverna and owned by the colourful and charismatic Joe Martini, who ever since we moved to the locale during the COVID lockdown, has been a source of information and assistance.
It’s been our ‘go to’ place where we have met new friends and had some great evenings. Back in 2021 I wrote an article about him, the bar and his ability to fix things for us.
So last night we went out to the restuarant and as predicted, found no lights on at Joe’s. No throngs of people in fancy dress laughing, no rock n’ roll music roaring out of the bar, no bar staff pulling Tom Cruse shapes from the movie Cocktail, just a cement mixer and a pile of sand on the terrace where we had played gigs, met people who are now good friends, drunk wine, beer and Gin & Tonic’s. It did upset us both as one of the rocks of our life here.
Normality is under rated.
Great article. Structure and reliability and routine are like comfort food. They help you feel grounded in the unpredictability of the world. I, on the other hand am pure change. Too much predictability and routine and sameness drives me crazy. I think I’m ADD. 🤣 you are awesome 🤩 love your work.
Excellent read, for two reasons.
1) it's always good to get an honest, interesting and sometimes personal piece from someone who is open (and articulate) enough to do so and 2) I found myself nodding in agreement with a lot of it, but then I suspect a lot of folks, once past 60 (probably even a lot earlier in life) would.
I don't believe any of us are 'normal,' certainly in the sense of what a normal human being (in terms of mental, physical, emotional facets and intelligence quotient etc) is even supposed to be.
Equally, the more intelligent, out-the-box creatives and those we cite as having true genius (no matter the century) are all more than likely on that colourful spectrum somewhere.
"extensive travelling... Large crowds... enormously stressful..."
My wife (who also doesn't like change, and I'm not far behind) and I are much the same, but it was a later development, having loved travelling when a good couple of decades younger -- and I only now attend/ cover/ enjoy the club touring circuit or smaller venues, where there is usually Zero danger of seeing a "large crowd" (more kinda black humour, but sadly accurate).
I also think most of us who put time & effort into what we do, or ensure we do it well, carry the ODPD gene to lesser or larger degrees).
Oh, and I did try normal once; hated it. Never went back.