The body clock kicked in with the regular 4:30 wake-up, and I was out of bed looking forward to the prospects on offer feeling good. Predictably a spanner was immediately lodged in the works.
With the laptop powered up, I was about to start on Our Journey So Far when I checked the email. When I did, I was hit with a flurry of messages with subjects like R.I.P. Richie Hayward.
It wasn't entirely unexpected news.
Liver cancer, pneumonia, and reports that the case was too severe to risk moving the patient to a larger hospital meant I wasn't confident he'd be back in the drummer's seat for Little Feat.
Still, even when developments don't give you much hope, hope you do.
With the email scanned, I started a preliminary draft of the R.I.P. section of The Music Pages. I sent off part of it to the Hoy Hoy mailing list while Madam showered, then took my turn in the Rain Room before we set out on a time-killing expedition.
The train wasn't departing until 2:55, so it made sense to cut the next six hours into chunks on either side of checking out of the accommodation.