Usual breakfast then spent a useless two hours, first at a pharmacy where I was told the pills I used for IBS could not be got over the counter. So went to a ‘Walk-in’ clinic where I waited for ¾ of an hour to be seen by a doctor who recommended the pill mainly used for slimming, which stops food being absorbed. I said I would rather have an American version of the one I had in UK. He looked it up and wrote a prescription for it. I paid $40 and went back to the pharmacy to be told that this particular product was not available anywhere in the USA. So could I have something similar, I asked? ‘Not without a prescription”, he said. So I asked him to phone up the doctor and ask him for a US product. When he did that the doctor recommended something that would have done the opposite of what I needed it to do. So two frustrating hours and $40 dollars down and nothing to see for it. By now the surgery had closed. Luckily, spirits were lifted by going to see the daughter of a close friend in the UK. Ktenia had married Will, an American and settled down in Bristol, where they had 3 small children. We had lunch and a good couple of hours with them before the show, which this time was the Narrows Art Centre in Falls River. Turned out to be a lovely arty place – part theatre, part gallery with some craft shops. The sound check was quickly over and the audience mikes set as the show was being recorded for MVY radio. I think they are releasing clips of it while Neil is touring, broadcasting the whole thing when he gets back to the UK. The gig went really well and Neil had a good time on stage, which is always a bonus. Oh and there is the other thing about Fall River – it was the home of Lizzie Borden who in the 19th century is thought to have murdered her father and step mother with an axe.

Lizzie Borden took an axe,
And gave her mother forty whacks,
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.

Hmmmmmm…