All Go

The pace is starting to pick up now (and I wasn't exactly standing still to begin with!) Am now booked on Tom McConville's fiddle workshop (I honestly don't know why I bother considering stuff since, the second they enter my mind, I'm pretty much certainly going to them! Impulse control, I seem to lack it...) and have booked for Shepley Spring Festival (didn't actually mean to do that at that particular point but, since the early bird prices stop at the end of February, glad I did.) The Festival plan is now, IVFDF, DERT, Bristol, Oxford Folk Weekend (being put on by Ian Giles as a stopgap for the actual festival. I do like Ian Giles!), Holmfirth, Shepley, steward at Ely, Sidmouth and Shrewsbury. May consider Bromyard depending on who's on and what I feel like. Fortunately my cheque from British Gas came through which will cover the costs nicely provided I remember to put it in the bank. Should probably do that tomorrow.

Am also actively in the process of finding a fiddle teacher so that's something at least. At least I'm still practicing. Am also working through the Folkworks tune books I got at Whitby. scary how many of them I recognise. Completely unsurprised at the fact that I still can't remember the names of any of them.

Have been looking at the programme for IVFDF. As pre usual, most of the stuff I want to do clashes but, so far, the plan is to switch between the French Dance and the ceilidh on Friday night, (May venture in to see Jim Moray if there's room), then Irish Step, Contra, Step Clog and Rapper workshops on Saturday followed by the Contra evening dance before I slip away to the Tickled Pink ceilidh and then Border, North West Morris and Melodeon on the Sunday. As I say, that's the plan and I have never followed a plan in my life. Must remember to take my melodeon anyway so that I can get the straps attached.

Got told at work that I seemed in a particularly sunny mood today. That'll be what listening to Belshazzar's Feast all morning will do to you. Definitely still enjoying the job, the fact that I can listen to my headphones while doing it is just a happy little bonus.

At some point I will tidy my room. Probably just in time to move out of it at the end of the year...

Coach Fatigue

Spent this weekend (well, the Saturday anyway) in Edinburgh with Mons Meg in order to get out one and only rehearsal for DERT (yes, we're taking it ultra-seriously this year...). Caught the national express coach up on the Friday night and it was packed to the gills so by the time I got up to Edinburgh (having passed through snow in Northumberland, not that that worried me at all, oh no!), I'd concertina'd up nicely. Add to that the fact that I'd had no sleep at all due to personal space defence (and I think my personal space is getting larger as I get older. At this rate, by the time I'm 50, I'll have to go and live on a deserted island.) and I was heading for silly mode the minute I got into the city.
Had a lovely Saturday. It was great to see Mons Meg again and to dance in The Village. We made the most of our practice time and I think we've got a respectable (if not precisely prize-winning) dance and our borrowed Monkey dancer fitted in just fine. The pub tour was also great fun (although the audiences were a bit odd. They cheered us at the end, fair enough and we wound up with plenty of money in the hat but very few cheers for the tumbles which is unusual. Never mind) I thin the stand out pub (for possibly the wrong reasons) was the Southsider. We walked in just as a live band were doing their soundcheck. On questioning, they said they were going to just try one song for the soundcheck and then we were fine to dance. They actually did 2 songs which were...not my cup of tea precisely but, heigh ho and then we went on to dance. We had a hairy moment when Mary Ann went a bit haywire and we ended up with our new number 3 on the wrong side of the sword for his first tumble. He managed to fix this by jumping over the sword while it was still at thigh height and then doing his backward tumble. We were all suitably impressed, the audience seemed harder to please. Far more annoting was, the whole time we were dancing, the drummer putting beats in. I'm not entirely sure whether he was just trying to join in (in which case, that band need a new drummer because I don't think he managed to hit a beat during the whole dance) or whether he was trying to put us off in which case he failed (I suspect our cock-up was us putting ourselves off as per usual) because he was up against a melodeon and, while he was amped, melodeons really don't need to be and they come with the beat built in, so to speak. We finished the night with 2 good dances, one at Doctors (the site of Trina's former bloodbath. Well, one of them anyway) and the second at the party of one of Dot's friend where the audience were super receptive and I think we did our best dance of the night. We all ended back at Trina's (with the usual suspicious cocktails) and just had a great evening. I was really sad I had to leave so early on Sunday morning (and incredibly grateful that I still seem to be immune when it comes to hangovers), I'd have loved to stick around and go round Edinburgh with everyone else but the coach called again. And what a hellish trip. Another packed coach with people encroaching on my little bit of space from all sides and a heater that they couldn't turn off again so we were all roasting for 10 hours. I think that irritation and access to twitter may be a bad combination for me since I think I moaned on it all the way down so apologies to anyone who had to put up with that. I managed to grab a rather nice steak sandwich in a pub while I was waiting for my last connection which turned out to be far less crowded and a much nicer experience altogether (Huzzah for the Oxford Tube) so I was almost calm again by the time I got back to Oxford. However, I have spent today with a particularly quizzical tilt to my head thanks to the kink in my neck from my travels. Have decided that I need to set up a train fund, especially as I'm heading back up to Scotland for a Borderers event mid March (and I don't want to miss it , particularly after my dismal showing last year!)

Still, all worth it for rapper and DERT. Only 2 weeks left now! Little bit excited, just a little bit...

Have booked my coach tickets for IVFDF (I know, I know but this journey 's only a couple of hours so nowhere near as bad!) next weekend so looking forward to that and am contemplating going to Tom McConville's fiddle workshop in Lewes on March 12th. Have had a look at the music and it may be a bit of a stretch but I love his style and I can usually pick up something, even from difficult workshops, to have a go at (The one with Matt Cranitch being a case in point) besides which, I still haven't found a fiddle teacher and I'm desperate for some form of tuition. Yep, I think I'll give it a go. Now just have to find my chequebook. Just let me go and get my rope and climbing harness....

But still, DERY, DERT, DERT!!!

Cheltenham and Other Festivals

Spent last weekend at Chetlenham Folk Festival. Obviously I ended up stewarding during the thing I really wanted to see (which would be Jon Boden and the Remnant Kings) and, it being on the Friday night, I didn't have time to swap with anyone but it turned out well since the person I was on the doors with didnt like them so let me do all the inside stuf so I caught mosy of them and they were brilliant. Loved all the different mixtures of instruments (although have to say that Paul Sartin looks terrified of holding the melodeon, never mind using it) and the mix of songs from the album (greatly added to by the sound of the oboe, I felt) and from the Folk Song a Day project were great. Gorgeous rendition of 'Rigs of the Time' all on strings and really liked Sportsman's Hornpipe (at least, that's what I think it was) leading into 'Penny for the Preacher. Also really liked the song about Francis Drake (whose title I just can't remember). I was off duty in time for the singaround afterwards which was great fun. We all sang along to 'Butter and Cheese and All' which was being recorded for the dollowing day's podcast and The Bailey Sisters treated us to a lovely rendition of 'The Cuckoo' before Paul Sartin brought the house down as well as not so much lowering the tone as boring a hole in the bottom and scuttling it with the hilarious 'Cock-a-doodle-doo'. Just a really nice end to the evening and I hope it catches on.
Saturday included, Jackie Oates, The Askew Sisters, Freya Abbott Ferguson, Hannah James and Sam Sweeney (introduced as Hannah and James by a slightly confused Pete Grasby which resulted in ahuge cry of 'Sam' from the audience which apparently made Sam Sweeney, backstage, wonder what on earth he'd done!), Pete Coe, The Crucible Trio and Kerr and Fagan who were just brilliant. Also managed to buy some fingerless gloves and some new melodeon straps (which was a little more involved than I suspected since the original Pokerwork strap fittings won't take the nice new straps so I'll have to get new fittings which PJ sadly didn't have with him at the weekend. He has, however promised to bring them to IVFDF and fit them for me and, in the process of all this, found that my current fitting was hanging by a thread so he fixed that so that my melodeon won't fall off the current straps in the meantime so disaster narrowly averted there). Also bought the new Blowzabella CD, 'Dance' which is just great!
On Sunday I managed to catch Mike Wilson and Damien Barber and their song to talk ratio is improving (although not by much! Doesn't matter though. Could listen to them do either all day). Went to Simon Care's melodeon workshop and he really is lovely. Didn't really teach us anything new but spent the whole session just reassuring us that what we were all doing was absolutley fine which was actually really, really helpful. I'm booked on one of his workshops at Squeezing Shropshire later in the year and I'm really looking forward to it. Finally managed to see most of The Melrose Quartet's set (and they were very, very good) before having to head for the train. Which was cancelled so they put us on a bus which didn't quite make it in time for my connection (although we were treated to a highly exciting 3 point turn in some incredibly narrow streets) so I had to wait an hour for the next train. Still I got back in one piece and it was still less time travelling than any festival I've managed from Edinburgh. Travel notwithstatnding, I had a great weekend with some lovely people and some fantastic music (and even ran into a Mons Megger. We turn up everywhere you know!) and Cheltenham has now been added to my list of likely festivals.

On Monday, I got to see The Remnant Kings again at the O'Reilly Theatre in Oxford (and, oh, the novelty of a gig I can get to with a short bus ride...). They were even better (possibly because I wasn't having to keep ushering people through doors during it). Was absolutely fascinated by the workings of the phonographs (one of which was right in front of me) and I also now have some slight urgings to have a go at the concertina after watching Rob Harbron. He really is a bit good. Anna, who I was at with, apparently fancies the double base, but I'd never be able to see over one!). We had a bit of a mad dash for beer during the interval since the bar was apparently in another building which made it interesting to find and it took them ages to serve us. (We were quite calm until we'd noticed that the band had just been served and were heading back. Panic set in a little then. The sing around was great fun again. This time we got to join in on 'Cupid's Garden' for the podcast. Lovely rendition of 'Don't Go Out Tonight Dear Father' by Jon Boden with slightly hilarious backing vocal antics from Messers Sweeney, Harbron and Sartin and we got a couple of numbers from Ian Giles to join in with. I do like him. He always seems to be so surprised to be talking to people. And, of course, Mr Sartin managed to get 'Cock-a-doodle-doo in again to general merriment.
Lovely evening with good company and good music.

Festival-wise this year, I'm definately going to IVFDF, Bristol, Shrewsbury, Holmfirth and Sidmouth. I was planning on the the Oxford Folk Festival and The Big Session but the Big Session is reduced to one day at the 'Beautiful Days Festival' which I can't make while they look for a new venue now that they'll not be using the DeMontfod Hall anymore and Oxford has just had to cancel due to economic difficulties. Fingers crossed that both of these manage to get off the ground again in 2012 because they're both great festivals and I shall really miss them this year. Anyhow, am currently considering Sheppley, Beverley and Ely. Sheppley's looking pretty good at the moment (list includes Bellowhead and Belshazzars Feast) and I really enjoyed Ely last year (may volunteer as a steward this year). Will have to see.

In the meantime, this weekend, I'll be heading back up to Edinburgh for a DERT pratice (and, hopefully, a pub tour) with Mons Meg. It'll be nice to dance some rapper again (rapper withdrawal is a bit severe currently since the Mables are busy trying to organise DERT so aren't really dancing at the moment) and it'll be lovely to see Mons Meg again too. I have missed them!

Also, at some point, I shall get round to sorting out my room since it is ridiculous to need a climbing harness in order to find clothes!

Becoming a Southerner

Well things have been a bit hectic recently what with one thing and another.

Move down south has been accomplished and I am now installed in new room although I still haven't had any time to actually sort out any of my stuff so it's still all sat in a big heap (currently known as Mount Stuff!) and I occasionally rifle through it in search of important items. Thus has lead to least one impressive case of subsidence and I reckon I'm going to have to take a couple of days off to get it sorted since I appear to have no free weekends ever again.

Speaking of which, I spent my 1st weekend down here in Witney (well, I commuted just for the novelty value) at the Hands On Fiddle weekend. Due to the move, the sheet music didn't catch up with me until the night before which meant I ended up winging it in the 'Developing Irish Fiddle Class' with Matt Cranitch. Although this was aimed at Basic and Intermediate, those of us at the bottom end agreed that he might have missed the 'Basic' part. We'd be (in my case attempting) playing the tunes at some silly speed and then he'd say, quite seriously, 'well, now that we've run through it slowly...'. Still, picked up some tips which I can take away to work on and I still enjoyed it. The concert on Saturday evening was lovely and I've decided I really like Peter Cooper (even aside from the fact that he really reminds me of Eric Morcombe). Sunday's workshop was a bit easier. It was 'Developing Shetland style' with Catriona MacDonald and we were all learning the tunes by ear so I wasn't quite as put off by lack of practice. Lots of things to practice from this one and I really enjoyed it. (Even though I spent the next 2 days with my left hand cramped in fiddle playing position. May need to increase my practice time... ) Still need to find a teacher down here as well. Must look into that.

Work has been great. Working with some lovely people in a job that I can do (and I'm finding a use for my medical knowledge. My German may be rusty but most of the medical stuff is roughly the same so I can translate about 70% of written German without having to resort to Google) Am actually happy to go to work and everything seems so much lighter. Didn't realise just how much stress the lack of any real job in Edinburgh was causing. Think I was right to get out and should have done it so much sooner.
Walking to work at the moment (mostly because the keys to my bicycle lock are somewhere at the base of Mount Stuff and I've yet to locate them). It's about a 40 minute walk (when I don't stop to help little old ladies who fall over in the street. Well, I didn't get much choice after she practically fell on me) so not too bad and the buses here actually give change which is another huge novelty. Plus the local library is set in gorgeous old building in a lovely park (sadly, it's also one of the ones under threat of closure. Fingers crossed it makes it.) and I walk past a shark in someone's roof every day (this has yet to stop being hilarious). Have even managed to practice the melodeon and fiddle with no complaints from my flatmates who seem very nice if a bit bemused (that said, I did pick up a heavy duty mute for the fiddle at Witney, just to be nice.)

It's still a bit surreal being down here. It's quite different to living in the North but, for the life of me, I couldn't tell you why. On top of all this, have bought a new mobile phone which has all sorts of features such as access to Twitter which I'm actually finding a great deal of fun. (not least when listening to the folk awards, while drinking gin and twittering with friends. Very funny indeed.) Even better, it can do google maps so I don't have to panic about getting lost. Slightly worried about the amount of times the instructions mention that it might explode....Given my track record that does not bode well. Still, lets hope it makes it to the end of the year...

Don't Panic, Don't Panic!

Rapper workshop went very well. We had 5 and a half sets who all seemed to have fun and then we carted them all off to Bennets where we had a pretty good dance (and a very strange discussion about the shipping forecast and the possibilities of a monopoly type game based on it) and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. We seem to have gained 2 dancers and a fiddler (who, last night, turned out to be a pretty good dancer too) so things are looking hopeful on the Mons Meg front.

I've had the flat confirmed, which is a huge relief but have yet to start packing (mostly cause I'm in panic mode where I run around like a mad thing, picking stuff up and putting it back down and getting precisely nowhere.) Meanwhile, hating the post and whoever put the lock on the main door of the stair since I've been having to run back and forth to the depot (which isn't close!) on the say-so of cards that are themselves 10 days late to collect normal letters. So looking forward to having a main door address.

The pipe workshop at Celtic Connections was great fun. I even managed to get a tune (using the broadist definition of the word) out of them by the end of the day. Would actually consider adding them to my current instrument collection if I could afford them but I can't which is probably a good thing. Should try and achieve a playable level with the melodeon and the fiddle before I attempt anything else (so that could be a good long while).
The concert on the Sunday was also good fun. Not sure about the Cairngorm piece they opened with. all very good musicians but the tune would barely have stretched to 4 minutes, never mind the half hour it lasted! (Plus one of the fiddlers looked like he was ducking bullets the whole time he was playing). Interestingly (for me at least) the lead fiddler was the younger sister of one of my university dancy friends. Saltfishforty and Spiers and Boden were both excellent (although Saltfishforty are slightly weaker on their songs) and together they were absolutely brilliant. Sounded like there was far more than 4 of them.

Had my last proper rapper practice with Mons Meg last night. It was a good fun night with trying to put three beginners through the dance (and a dog I got to make friends with!). Plus Trina produced a cake for me (topped with a set of bellows with a face...wonder what that could possibly represent) and I got a framed collage of rapper photos and a T-shirt with the picture of us on the steps at Holmfirth on it (plus the contract that apparently hands me over to Mabel Gubbins which I find mildly suspect...). Am very, very sad to be leaving Mons Meg but glad I still get to dance with them at things like DERT and Holmfirth. (And we're booked for Holmfirth again this year. Looks like there's a good number of us going and we're all camping. Huzzah, Mons Meg encampment!)

Have notified all who need to be notified that I'm leaving; twice in the case of British Gas who, I forgot, did both my gas and electricity. Liked the poor lad on the end of the phone who clicked to it long before I did and pointed out that I may have just spoken to him...

Have booked for the fiddle workshop at Witney, the weekend next so am just waiting to hear back about that, then it's stewarding at the Cheltenham Folk Festival the weekend after that, back up to Edinburgh for a Mons Meg DERT practice the weekend after that, IFVDF, the weekend after that and then DERT and it's not looking like it'll ease up through the summer. Huzzah!

Rapper, Rapper and More Rapper

Had our first tour of the year on the 8th (and in fact out first time dancing out in quite some time given all the cancellations due to snow!)
Because of the threatened snow, we decided to hold it in Leith as opposed to Glasgow as originally planned. We started off in Mathers on Broughton Street to a very good reception despite out distinctly shoddy footwork (although, to be honest, we were just greatful taht we all remembered the dance!). Then we set off down Leith Walk and let me just sat that smooth soled rapper shoes, polished sheet ice on the pavements and copious amounts of alcohol make for a somewhat exciting tour. For the life of me I can't remember where we danced but we got a good reception everywhere we went. I got recognised as being from The Council by one of the bouncers outside Priscilla's which threw me for a moment until he reminded me that he used to work in the newsagents along the road and I did like the other bouncer telling us that we could leave our swords with the DJ while we were dancing. Took us 3 goes to tell him that we actually needed them during the dance! Saw an amazing dancer in Priscilla's who was dancing to 'All That Jazz' and she seemed to be really interested in coming along to have a go at rapper. She seemed to be worried as to whether she would be good enough and she's right to be. It's a long way down to our standard from where she's at!
We started getting free Aquavit when we hit the run of Swedish bars halfway down the road which actually seemed to help with balancing on the ice. We got approached by a very enthusiastic fiddle player in one of them who was asking if she could come and play for us so we were only too happy to give her our card. Itwas also in one of these pubs where we discovered that it might have been a bit too long since we danced in a really tight space as we found it really hard going. We got through but it was probably the weakest dance of the evening (even including the one at the end where Trina lost her shoe!)
Anyhow, then it was back to Trina's and Rapper Central for Suspicious Slivovitz and Vimto cocktails, lasagne and crumble (not together!).
Absolutely brilliant evening and I'm going to miss Mons Meg soooo much!

Monday's practice was good fun since we had a new lad along who's just moved up from Oxford (we seem to be doing an exchange programme!) and, while he's not danced rapper before, he seems to have done a lot of Cotswold so he picked things up very quickly. I hope he comes back.

We've got our first workshop on Friday at Tollcross Community Centre at 7pm. No idea how many people will turn up but am a little nervous as I can suddenly no longer remember how to do any of our figures which, I suspect, will not help anyone. Must remember not to be too enthusiastic at people in case I scare them...again...

New Flat

Went down to Oxford to go flat hunting just after New Year. Found 2 which I liked, one was a very large room (larger than my current flat pretty much) right on the edge of Oxford and the other was in the gorgeous little village of Waterstock. I have to say that I loved the cottage in Waterstock and could quite happily have lived there but the room was very small and I have a lot of stuff (even after culling it severely) so I decided to be sensible and go for the Oxford one since I'll save in travel and can fit all my stuff in.
The trip itself was fairly uneventful except for some slight problems with my national express tickets on the way down. When I got my pre-christmas tickets for the bus that got cancelled amended, I was given a code and assured again and again that that was all I needed, despite my being very sceptical. Apparently I was right to be so since the first bus driver was incredibly reluctant to accept my ticket and only conceded because the bus was mostly empty (I didn't even attempt it for the Milton Keynes to Oxford stage but just bought a ticket. Fortunately it's the cheapest bit of the journey!). I called in to the National Express office in Oxford when I got down there and they very nicely printed me out some proper tickets so at least the journey back wasn't a problem. On the plus side, they've built a very nice new interchange at Milton Keynes which was a nice change from freezing to death in front of the old collection of portacabins for an hour or so like I've been doing for most of last year! Journey back was very crowded as well so I had a very uncomfortable night with no sleep and had to go straight to a full days work in that condidtion. Still, that's my own fault for having used up all my holidays on interviews and being too short for the seats. The Youth Hostel wasn't bad either (I tried the YHA next to the train station this time which, despite being right next to the railway line, still managed to be quieter than the one I stayed in last time!)
Anyhow, time since then has been spent on tenterhooks while waiting to see if the contract would go through alright and trying to tidy my current flat so that it didn't look cluttered when my landlady shows future residents round. (She was apparently a bit concerned with the 'clutter' when she came round last week, despite the flat being clean and tidy. She said she thought it made the flat look small. I refrained from telling her that it's the fact that the flat is small that's making it look small!). Anyhow, Trina has been kind enough to temporarily adopt some of my bulkier items (and all the moles) which freed up some space and I've managed to shoehorn the rest into cupboards. I now have to manage to live without leaving a trace for the next 2 and a half weeks! I've already taken some stuff to charity shops: all but 2 of my ball dresses, an old wedding hat, some old shoes that I no longer wear and some of my better made reenactment kit and a wierd bit of exercise eqipment that my mam gave to me (for a laugh, I think!) which I've never managed to work out how to use. Have got rid of all my old jigsaw puzzles that I no longer do due to lack of time. Have sorted out which DVD's I want to get rid of and will hopefully get them along to cash converters next weekend (and may possibly take along my video recorder since I don't watch american videos any more, it's over complicated and I have a much simpler video player as part of the TV that I can use to watch PAL videos). Have even contemplated getting rid of all my Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler books since, if you've read one, you've read them all and they take up a lot of space. All my old, useless reenactment kit is heading to charity shops or the bin in the next week so that too should free up room.
Anyhow, contract for new flat came through today (albeit with my name wrong on the first try but we've corrected that now) so at least I know I have somewhere to live which is actually a huge relief. Have booked a medium sized van for the last weekend (mostly cause the stuff I have is too bulky for a little van), arranged to pick up keys and booked a train back from Edinburgh for the 31st (for less than it would have cost me on the coach which I found fairly impressive!)
Then it's starting the new job on the 1st! Not nervous, not nervous at all...

New year with Bellowhead

What an amazing New Year's Eve! Having got the train down to London, I met up with a friend and we spent a couple of hours browsing round the shops before heading off to find the Youth Hostel. This would be the point we got ourselves very lost by getting the bus in the wrong direction before we managed to get ourselves orientated. Finally made it to the Youth Hostel at the same time as the other friend we were sharing with who had still been on the train when we set off. Anyhow, we got changed into our gear (for me this would be, hat, ruff, ears and tail which I finally managed to get finished the night before. And trousers and top cause it would have been chilly and disturbing else) and set off to meet everyone else at a Dim Sun restaurant beside the Southbank Centre called Ping Pong. Food was very nice but I still have no idea of what it actually was I ate. Anyhow, I quickly gave myself a black doggy nose with eyeliner (hadn't wanted to before I ate in case it made everything taste of make-up!) and off we went to queue to get in. A couple of our group did a bit of morris dancing to a melodeon while we were waiting which seemed to amuse everyone a great deal.

The first act was the Baghdaddies who were pretty good (their calypso/reggae version of 'Keep Your Feet Still Geordie Hinny' made me laugh a lot) but got a bit of a subdued reaction just, I think, cause they were the first on and everyone was waiting for Bellowhead. I think the audience warmed to thema lot more later in the evening. Then Bellowhead came on and everything really took off. Their first set was great fun and I finally got to hear 'If You Will Not Have Me' live. Worth the ticket price alone, in my opinion. The songs were also interspersed with short circus acts which were fun. After Bellowhead's first set, I wombled upstairs to see the session which was being hosted by Mike Wilson and Damien Barber. Got to hear them do 2 songs (1 of which was 'Shiney-O' which I love) and got to sing a long to a few songs before headingdown to the silent disco where I got to dance to 'All Around My Hat' and 'The Floral Dance' (another ambition I never knew I had until I accomplished it). After this, it was back to see Bellowhead and, after having said they wouldn't do a covers set due to lack of practice time, this is precisely what they did. This time they were all dressed up as clowns for the most part and it was hilarious to see them playing 'Amsterdam' so seriously. We also got versions of 'Take on Me' and 'Baggy Trousers' from Mr Spiers, 'Mack the Knife' and 'Close to You' (complete with very dodgy wig) from Mr Sartin and 'Foxy Lady' by Mr Kirkpatrick, made all the more memorable by the 2 comperes who came on as a huntsman and a fox whereupon the 'fox' started to strip until he was down to his tail and a thong. Bad enough really until the other lad made one of his socks disappear and then whipped away the thong to reveal where the sock had gone, shortly before whipping the sock away as well. The most disturbing bit in all this was that he was still wearing the fox's tail. Really, really glad that I wasn't right at the front and that I'm quite short (although a lot of the band's expressions were priceless!). I also liked the acrobat dressed as a rabbit (and the very odd but good accompanying music from Bellowhead). Very effective and just slightly bizarre. I think my favourites in this set were 'Baggy Trousers' and 'Mack the Knife'.
We managed to get up to see O'Hooley and Tidow do a couple of numbers which was lovely before we headed out onto the balcony to watch the fireworks which were pretty impressive (and chilly). Then it was back in for Bellowhead's last set and they pulled out all the stops with some of the new songs and a lot of old favourites and we all bounced our socks off. Just a brilliant, brilliant night and I hope they do it again next year (although where they got the energy from I have no idea!)
We did get a little lost on the way back to the Youth Hostel but we sorted ourselves out and I managed to make it back to Edinburgh the next day with only a minor problem with temporary loss of power on the train just past Berwick.
Great fun all round really.

Stuff and Nonsense Again

Unsurprisingly didn't really get anything done over the long weekend. This was partly due to my lack of sleep catching up with me and partly due to me getting my hands on Seasons 1 and 2 of Riptide (american 80's action adventure series. Same creators as the A-Team. Very silly but an old favourite). I did manage to de-mould the bathroom (and how impressed with the de-mould spray am I! Admittedly, I think you're only supposed to spray the mould patches rather than drown them like I did but it was amazing watching them just dissolve. Should probably worry about what it's doing to me since I'm fairly sure that's where a fair bit of it ended up given that I now smell distinctly of chlorine but I seem to have survived) so that's something.

Must make my ears and tail tonight for NYE. Nothing like leaving it till the last moment. Very excited about the whole thing. Well, somewhat less exicted about having to get the train at 05.00 in the morning but, still, it's the train rather than an overnight trip on Megabus which is a huge point in it's favour. However, Bellowhead for New Years Eve!!! Yup, just a little excited. Really looking forward to seeing everyone and going for tea beforehand too.

Managed to get my cancelled National Express tickets from the 7th amended and I'm now heading down to Oxford for the 4th and 5th to view flats. Have a selection to view so will hopefully find something to at least give me breathing space to hunt for something more suitable.
Staying overnight at the Youth Hostel I haven't stayed in before so that should be interesting and I get to spend some time in wandering in Oxford which is always nice, even if I am making overnight trips. (At least it's National Express and not Megabus!)
Bit nervous about the whole flat hunting thing to be honest. Having handed in my letter of resignation at work and given my notice to my landlady (who's been very nice about it.) I think it's all starting to hit home. I know it'll be alright, it's not like I haven't done the whole uproot life thing all before (although admittedly not at this distance) and I'll find a way to manage regardless (plus, I've never been this organised before. It's not like me at all!) but it's still, not scary but unsettling. It's also possibly due to being proactive after such a long stint of being reactive. Anyhow, think I'll settle a bit if I know I have to somewhere to live when I get there.

Have booked my tickets for IVFDF so that's out of the way. Will decide whether to offer to steward or not when more of the Workshop programme comes out. May also have booked to go and see Bellowhead at Warwick on the 29th April. My exuse is that I have not yet been to see a seated Bellowhead gig and I'm curious. The reality is that being within such easy reach of concerts is a huge novelty and may take some time to wear off...

Lots of stuff to look forward to in the New Year as well. A Mons Meg workshop and tour before I go (and, of course, DERT), lots of festivals, new dance sides to join. Smallpipes workshop to attend, new fiddle classes to find (may actually have to splash out on individual lessons if I can't find a group class. Could be a good thing) and hopefully get more done with the melodeon.

Kings and Things

We had 2 fire alarms yesterday! 2 of them! We were getting used to having a fire alarm every day but 2 is a bit much! (This happened last year, apparently a problem with the alarm reacting to the change in temperatue between outside and the canteen. Think they need a new alarm system!)

Anyhow, went to see Carols by Candlelight with the Mozart Festival Orchestra at the Usher Hall last night. Loved the music (especially the unaccompanied version of We Three Kings by the choir. Very atmospheric.), enjoyed singing the carols and enjoyed myself ogling the C18th costumes. (Still wish they'd teach their sopranos to move properly in their Robes a la Francais but she had a very good voice so they're forgiven.)

Declutterisation begins tonight. The aim is to reduce my stuff to the point that it will all fit in a small van (mostly cause it's cheaper to hire than a medium and partly because I keep reminding myself of the likelihood of having to fit it all into one room at the other end! The stuff, that is, not the van) over the next 4 days. I suspect I have a lot of very rubbish reenactment kit that is taking up unneccessary room and I know I have a huge amount of DVD's that can definitely go. Books are safe, most of my CD's are safe, musical instruments are definitely safe. Not sure about bookcases. My 2 smaller bookcase I really want to keep but it'll depend on how much room there is at the other end. The 2 bigger ones I'll only take if there'll be room and a need for extra storage. Obviously my mole collection is sacrosanct as is all my dance kit but I suspect I can winnow down my clothes. There's a lot of skirts that I don't really wear and, since stopping Scottish Country, I don't really wear ball-dresses anymore. (May keep 1 of them just in case). May be able to get rid of some of the more commercial sewing patterns and the fabric mountain can possibly be reduced in size by vaccuum bags rather than actually getting rid of any of it. This may deal with the spare downey and pillows too. My camping gear takes up a fair bit of room but I can't really see me getting rid of any of this since it does get used a lot
I may be able to get rid of my video player since I don't really use it any more. The big picture of Lindisfarne Castle will have to have room found for it because there's no way I' giving it up and Maud will have to have room found for her too because she's essential to making kit that fits me! (And I do intend to keep doing reenactment too.)

Then I have to think of all the things I have to cancel. So far I have rent, electricity, gas, telephone, council tax, cinema card, broadband, comic subscription. Will need to change address (when I get a new one) for the bank and amazon (have forgotten to that before, caused no end of trouble!) So much to do! Thank the gods for winter bank holidays.

Good Things!

Things have been a bit busy lately, mostly because that job I thought I definitely hadn't got? I did! This means I'm moving down to Oxford at the end of January and have been trying to sort myself out.
Obviously I did the most important thing first which was to contact Mabel Gubbins and ask if it was Ok if I came along to their rapper practices and they said yes, provided I like cake and gin. I do not see this being a problem so that was sorted fairly easily. Am now in the process of carrying out the second most important thing about moving which would be trying to find somewhere to live. Have resigned myself to a flat-share, at least at first, so need to have a major declutter over Christmas (a major, major declutter! Not getting rid of any books though. Never again!). Have never tried to flat hunt for somewhere over 3 hours away so that's interesting (even leaving aside all the restrictions the weather is causing!), never mind never having lived south of the Wansbeck! All a bit exciting really.

Going to be very, very sad to leave Mons Meg (although since I hope to keep dancing with them at festivals and whatnot when I can, it's not really leaving, more, not being able to make practices) and will miss the cinema outings with the usual crowd. On the other hand, not having to make so many long distance trips can only be a good thing!

Speaking of long trips, went down to Manchester last weekend for a friend's birthday. Megabus trip down wasn't too bad, only half an hour late despite snow (although those buses do not get any more comfortable!) but coming back...! Bus was supposed to leave at 19.30 on Sunday. We'd checked the information on the website and learned that the service was starting from Manchester instead of London due to the weather and yet, somehow, it managed to break down in Wolverhampton for 2 hours and the only reason we knew that was becuase my friend contacted their main office. I realise the station wasn't manned at that time of night but surely they could have passed a message on through one of the drivers of their other services? Have to say I've reported one of those drivers as well. While we were waiting for the Edinburgh bus, another megabus pulled up so we, obviously, assumed it was the one for Edinburgh. When we politely asked the driver, not only did he tell us it was actually for Leeds, he then proceeded to call us stupid. Possibly he didn't realise that his display was frosted over so no-one could read his destination but there was no need to be insulting. I usually can't be bothered with those kind of things but I was not in a good mood by this time anyway so reported he gets! Of course, when our bus finally turned up, it was having problems with it's brake lights so they had to call for a replacement when the mechanic called couldn't fix it so we were stuck there for another 2 hours. To be fair, this driver was lovely, keeping the engine running occasionally so we were warm and keeping us informed of what was going on so at least there's that. The replacement coach finally set off and we got into edinburgh at around 6 in the morning, 5 hours and 20 minutes after we were supposed to arrive. Fair enough, these things happen and the weather was bad but the lack of information while we waiting at Manchester really wasn't great. Just to add insult to injury, I suspect there may be a small leak in the toilet plumbing system over the luggage hold because my bag smelt fairly strongly of urine when I got it out of the hold. That got well and truly scrubbed when I got it home!
Manchester itself was fun, lovely to see old friends again and I came back with blackberry gin (yummy!) , a microwaveable elephant and a microwaveable clanger. (Felt like I was lavender animal smuggling as I came back up north. Fortunately, bag was pretty waterproof so they were unaffected by their trip under the possible leak!). Have microwaved the clanger since I've been back but haven't yet worked up the cruelty to microwave the elephant. He's just too cute and fluffy!

Last night, went to see Phil Cunningham's Christmas Songbook with Heather. Great fun evening. Lovely songs, hilarious banter (including Phil, after finally locating his glasses, hunting for his guitar tuner (apparently he has to buy a new one every year) then pausing before asking 'does anyone know what all the little glowy lights mean?') and truly, truly awful jokes. (My particular favourite being 'what do you call a man with one foot in his house and one foot outside? Hamish!')
Off to see the Mozart Festival Orchestra do Carols by Candlelight at the Usher Hall tonight so looking forward to that.

In other good news, found the 1957 recording of the Mikado on Amazon for £1.58. It was available for download so I did! Am now a happy gremlin. I already have the 1973 recording which is well enough in it's way, but the 1957 version has far better timing and also has Thomas Round and Ann Drummond-Grant who are far superior to Colin Wright and whoever was playing Katisha, whose name I can't remember at this moment in time.
I also watched the recent Phantom of the Opera movie on Youtube and confirmed that I really only like Andrew LLoyd Webber musicals for the dancing and the spectacle. Some interesting casting choices though. The lassie playing Christine had her voice dubbed by a very good singer but it was a shame that it didn't really match her speaking voice. Gerard Butler as the Phantom was hilarious. He really couldn't make the high notes (why did they not dub him too?)and was completely sung off the screen by the lad playing the other love interest (the Compte de something?). He had an amazing voice (same lad who was one of the villains in the recent A-Team movie apparently. Seems he was a musical actor before he went into films) so it just exaggerated how bad Butler was. Became unintentionally funny very quickly.

However, best news of all, Mons Meg is going to DERT! We have snaffled a Stonemonkey dancer and just have to rustle up a musician (which I'm currently in the process of doing). The fact that I'll have left Edinburgh by then is completely beside the point, I'll still be dancing with them, it'll just make pre-DERT practices a bit interesting. Huzzah!

Belshazzar's Feast in Brigham

Managed to see Belshazzar's Feast in Brigham thanks to the very timely thaw. Well worth the effort, they were absolutely brilliant. They played a lot of stuff from the new album which was lovely, including 'Home Lad, Home' which is possibly my favourite song at the moment. The vocals are measured and gorgeous and the accordion accompaniment is understated and so perfectly fitting. They also managed to get the audience involved in very silly, seated 'clog dancing' and a really daft version of Good King Wenceslas. Brilliant and hilarious evening and really glad I got to go.

Spent the rest of the weekend attemting to tidy in a somewhat desultory fashion. Did manage to fix the toilet seat and it's quite nice knowing that you don't have to maintain perfect balance in order not to drift slightly sidewards.
Watched the 2 Folk dance shows on i-player. The one with the Unthanks seemed more to be about dance forms associated with particular festivals and could have done with more rapper really (as could so many things) but it was easy enough viewing and the accents made me slightly homesick. I also watched the Christmas Sessions thing again. Wierd to think that that was the programme that got me into Belshazzar's Feast in the first place and I will love it for that if nothing else (although I really enjoyed most of it which seems to make me a bit of an oddity in the folk world) The Clogdancing programme on the following night was really quite good (although the presenter drove me up the wall. Why did they focus on him when the person he was interviewing was talking?!) I need to get my floor cleared and start working on my clogging again.

Hopefully we will have rapper practice tonight. Have really missed it.

Fire Alarms (Again!)

Second fire alarm in a row at work today. Looks like we're in for another stint of standing outside in the cold every day like we did last year. Apparently our fire alarm doesn't cope well in the cold! No snow bunnys or gremlins though. Feeling a little off today and didn't feel like doing it. Wierdly, the snowball fight steered well clear of me as well.

New toilet seat arrived last night so shall have a go at putting that on tonight. At last, shall not have to warn guests to 'balance' when they want to go!

No word from Oxford and I get the impression these things are decided fairly quickly so I shall have to keep job hunting. Minded now just to throw all my efforts into the chasing the whole medical thing up here instead of waiting until I get further south. Shall continue my efforts to declutter though.

Well, the weather seems to have eased off at any rate. If Belshazzar's Feast don't cancel for the gig in Ireleth tonight then they'll probably make Brigham and Haile tomorrow and Saturday. The Brigham gig might be slightly tight to make so Haile could be the better option even if it is slightly further.

Snow Journey

Been a bit of a busy few days.

The Stramash, unsurprisingly, was cancelled, which was a shame but so it goes.

I actually got some tidying done this weekend (which was a huge shock to the system, let me tell you!). I can now see the floor in the sitting room and some of the floor in the hallway. Now I've got a toehold (so to speak), I'm far more likely to keep going with it so shall hopefully finish the job this weekend. Also spent some time practicing the Plane Tree and the Schottische a Bethanie on the melodeon. Almost got the hang of them now although only at a very basic level.

Had a job interview down in Oxford yesterday. It hadn't snowed when I booked to go down so National Express seemed like the sensible option. They seemed to keep the majority of their buses running through the worst of the weather so I wasn't too worried. When, on Monday during the period of very heavy snow where all the local buses shut down, I rang them to check that the buses were still on, they said that yes, they were and continued to say that till just before I set out to catch it. Of course, by the time I got to the bus station, they'd decided to cancel it after all. I understand why they did it and I don't want them to risk their drivers any more than I want them to risk me but could they not have come to that decision a little earlier, especially since the weather hadn't changed between me calling and it being cancelled. I suspect they won't do refunds either but will only offer to amend the tickets to a different date which is not really a lot of use to me.
Anyhow, I quickly scampered across to Waverley to check the trains but there was nothing doing till the morning so back to the burrow I went where I promptly had a nosebleed. No idea why but at least I know how to stop the thing. More bloodstained clothes to wash.
After a quick check of the rail timetable, I found that there was a train that could possibly make it in time for the 12.30 appointment so decided to go for that since I'd kick myself if I just cancelled. Thus, 04.30 saw me leaving the burrow to walk through the ice and snow to the station, where I found that, although North East Rail were still running a service south, they were doing it at different times to usual meaning I wouldn't be able to get down till 12.40. I decided to go for it and ring on the way down to see if that would be OK and shelled out for a return ticket.
Have to say being on the train was so much nicer than the coach. Lovely scenery on the way down too. Northumberland and County Durham looked like someone had laid down an eiderdown with the trees standing out in dark contrast. Yorkshire and Birmingham, on the other hand had less snow but all their trees looked they'd been spun out of icing sugar. Very lovely.
Sadly, it was Birmingham where the trouble started. The folks at the end were very understanding about me being slightly later but then I got held up because Brimingham New Street Station had shut due to some incident with the platforms and we were stuck in a queue of trains. This resulted in increasingly frantic phone updates from me but the staff at the other end were lovely and let me interview when I got there an hour later than expected.
Don't think the interview went that well, mostly due to my poor interview ability (I'm working on it but it always seems to desert me the minute someone speaks to me) and my brain being so frazzled by the journey and the panic of the night before that it took one look at the after-interview test and said, 'You're on your own, mate' and went off for a nap. Never mind, I got through it and everyone was lovely and ordered me a taxi to get me back to the station in time for my train (probably making sure I left!). The taxi driver was very sweet when he warned me to be careful getting out of the car because they'd had a fair bit of snow and it might be slippy. I was a bit bemused as I stared down at a completely clear pavement but I'll admit my concept of 'a bit of snow' is possibly a bit skewed at the best of times and it was still nice of him to warn me.
The gentleman who I asked about trains back to Edinburgh also seemed very concerned about me and seemed very upset that he couldn't guarantee me past Newcastle. Had to explain that the rucksack I was carrying contained not only a change of nice warm clothes but also food and drink and emergency equipment and I was quite prepared to find a youth hostel if I got stuck in Newcastle. As it turned out, he needn't have worried. I made the change at Newcastle with no bother and was back in Edinburgh by 23.15. Was particularly impressed by Berwick station on the way past. At least I think it was Berwick Station. We might just have stopped to let people on at a random snowy bump!

Anyhow, don't think I got the job which is a shame because it would have suited me and everybody seemed so nice, but I'm still glad I made the effort to go down. I would have kicked myself for not knowing either way.

Walked back from the station last night and was slightly flabberghasted by the amount of people walking along the road. The pavements are just as clear as the road is so there's no reason to do it anyway but, just to make it even more stupid, most of these people were wearing black and walking with their backs to the traffic! How daft are they?! Not to mention all the people in the paper who were complaining about being stuck in the gridlock around Falkirk for 17 hours and being freezing and starving. Now, being stuck in a car for 17 hours is not fun, I agree, but there's information everywhere about not driving if you don't have to and, if you do, keeping the car full of fuel in case you have to keep the heater on and to take warm clothes and food with you for just such an emergency. So, yes, not pleasant, but people have been warned and surely common sense should play a small role here. Even as a child, without having to be told, I wouldn't venture out in bad weather without knowing I could cope if I got stuck. Maybe that's due to being bought up in the country were help isn't always close to hand but, still.

Anyhow, apparently the weather is supposed to improve slightly over the next couple of days so I'm still holding out to see Belshazzar's Feast on Friday. Fingers, toes and any other available extremeties crossed.

Surprise Wrens

Slightly dealyed into work this morning as I managed to reopen the cut on my lip before setting off and then had to change my t-shirt cause the original one now has blood all down it. Then set off to walk into work only for it to start hailing! After walking along for 5 more minutes accompanied by the steady litany of 'Ow, ouch, ouch, bloody ow!' I cracked and got the bus.



Have an interview on Tuesday next. It's in Oxford! Have booked seats down on National Express (who have footrests so I don't spend the whole journey slowly disappearing under the seat in front and they let you out to stretch your legs every so often, and while I'll admit I don't have that much leg to stretch, that is always appreciated, if only to get the chance to use a loo that doesn't rock!) but, checking the service updates, see that the only services running down from Scotland at the moment are from Glasgow. National Express say they'll change and adapt tickets free of charge and I can get across to Glasgow by train so that's OK but fingers crossed the weather doesn't worsen.

Nice thing was that they've already asked for references which meant my line manager, who I get along with really well, spent this morning trying to get me to help her fill it in, give her spellings and threatening to only do a good reference if I bribe her with cake. Have promised cake if I get the job (I'm probably safe).



Spent last night trying to get to grips with The Plane Tree and Schottische a Bethanie. Have worked up a very basic base line for both tunes (fairly easy cause they're roughly the same tune just played slightly differently) that I'm happy with. Once I've got to grips with cross-rowing (which is mostly OK provided I don't go into the upper octave. It gets more complicated up there) I'll set about seeing what I can do to liven up the bases.
Still not sure whether they'll be having the Stramash since the one on Tuesday was cancelled because the school was shut. Will have to wait and see, I suppose.

Have had a hankering recently to invest in a barbour wax jacket again. I practically used to live in mine when I worked at the farm and the stables, even when it had to be tied together with baling twine. Have had cheaper versions since but they barely last at all. Since proper barbours average around £200, I was going to save and hope for a sale but then I suddenly thought of e-bay. Have now won a lovely, green (my favourite) wax jacket for under £40. Will see what it's like when I get it but the photos and descriptions specify no rips or tears and the zip is in working order. Basically, if this is true, then a barbour wax jacket can come back from anything. I think I still have my jar of Barbour jacket wax somewhere so shall be able to use that. Even better, on my way back from buying the postal order to pay for it, I saw a wren! Haven't seen one for years and there it was, sat in a tree, large as life (so to speak). Am really, really happy to have seen it.

In other news, the little old lady in my stair who made life so interesting for us all by, ever so sweetly, clearing all the snow off our doorstop every morning. With a kettleful of boiling water!!! has started doing it again. She means well and, although I tried to explain to her why this was a bad plan last year, it didn't sink in then and it obviously hasn't yet. Will have to resign myself to making sure I have hold of the railings every time I leave the burrow. Oh well, adds excitement to the mornings I suppose.

Ouch!

Feel very silly now. Was wandering through the burrow last night while reading a book and drinking a cup of tea when I managed to walk into one of the doorframes. This resulted in me managing to split the inside of my lip on my mug and spill the contents of said mug all over me. Fortunately the book was unscathed (having been in the other hand) and the mug seemed to have survived intact (although this was proved wrong this morning when I picked it up and the handle fell off. Luckily it was just a common or garden mug, not a favourite.). Anyhow, had fun clearing up the resulting mess, washing the tea (again, fortunately warm, not hot) out of my hair and the blood out of my jumper and am now trying not to smile cause it hurts (and this is proving difficult because there's been a number of people getting stuck in the carpark again. Some of them react in very bizarre ways!). I look a bit peculiar at the moment as the cut (which is little but quite deep) is completely on the inside of my mouth so all that is visible from the outside is the swelling and it looks like I've got cotton wool tucked up underneath my top lip! Apparently multi-tasking is not for me!

Anyhow, as well as all that kerfuffle, I also had a go at learning 'The Plane Tree' and the Schottische that sounds a bit like it but which I can't remember the name of, last night on the melodeon. Had a good deal of fun playing around with crossrowing and I think I may be getting the hang of it. May try and add chords in tonight.

In rapper news, sadly, due to injuries and people being blocked in by snow, our 2 rapper events this week are cancelled which is a huge shame but probably sensible. In fact the whole of the Scott's Selkirk Festival has been cancelled which is a huge shame for them as well as us and I hope it doesn't hit them too heavily.

In burrow tidying news, I managed to get my tent stowed away last night thanks to some creative folding and interesting use of the bed. This makes the burrow look so much clearer (It's amazing how much room a 2-person tent can take up) which makes me feel a lot more inclined to tidy which has to be a step in the right direction.

Caught up with the latest episode of The Edwardian Farm last night too. Liked the way they went into all the detail about how they gpt the eggs from the fish for the fish farm and how it didn't hurt them etc. etc. and then just completely glossed over how they got the milt to mix with them. To me this would seem like the more complicated process. Still, great fun to watch as ever.

Snow and CD Players.

Attempted to hoover up the psychotic spider on Friday evening with the little hoover. Pointed it at the spider (who continued to sit there in a nonchalant manner), turned it on and the whole thing just went 'clunk'! Spider then took a leisurely walk up the wall to the ceiling to be smug while I had a little swearing episode. Have now decided to adopt him as a pet since he seems to be remarkably resistant to, well, pretty much everything. I shall name hime Boris for that is what I call all spiders.
To balance up the defunct hoover, my 5 disc CD player started working again after 2 year on Saturday. (It died a sad death when I accidently watered a plant over it...). Suddenly remembered where I might have left a CD I've been hunting for for a while and tried turning it on to look in the trays and the thing just worked! What's more it worked perfectly, even with the remote. Alright, it has a minor quirk in that, if you don't unplug it but just click the standby button on the machine (or the remote, they both work, she said smugly), it turns itself back on after 5 minutes but I can live with that. Spent the weekend listening to Kerfuffle's 'Lighten the Dark' , Waterson Carthy's 'Holy Heathens and the Old Green Man' and Belshazzar's Feast's 'Frost Bites' cause the inches thick snow outside the window was making me feel wintery for some reason.
Didn't get anything else done this weekend other than make a nest on the settee out of my currently unfurled tent (which is what's causing a lot of the problem at the moment since I haven't got room to do anything with the tent unfurled but I can't roll up the tent because I don't have room. Bit of a catch 22 situation there.) and the spare duvet and read the Robert Carey books again.

Getting a little worried about this snow now. Never mind our 2 rapper events for this week (we've enough problems trying to field a side due to injuries, never mind thinking about how to get across to Selkirk if this doesn't clear) but I want to see Belshazzar's Feast's Christmas tour and never mind me managing to make it across to Cumbria, they might not make it across to Cumbria (although, weirdly, they stand a better chance of managing it than I do). On the plus side, since I may be down south the following weekend so I may be able to go the Nettlebed gig (crosses fingers that the snow will clear before then!) will have to play it by ear.

Having a fun day at work watching folks trying to drive in the car park in the snow. Lots of people revving their engines and just skidding all the more and it's scary the amout of people clearing snow from around their back tyres when it's very obviously a frontwheel drive car...not to mention the overuse of brakes.
Am missing Roger (not that he was a 4 wheel drive but he was heavy enough that the snow saw him coming and just gave up the ghost there and then.). Really think the driving test should include something about driving in snow. (and people really have no excuse for not being able to drive in snow after last year!)

We also appear to have a small person in the office. Hope that this is not a situation that lasts!

Spider Update

Got back from fiddle to find the spider back in the bathroom. I know it's the same one cause it went for the toothbrush when I prodded it with it. Left it trying to kill the toothbrush while I got myself sorted out then went back in after it. It's a nippy little bugger, at any rate and it's now sat on the wall just of reach of my glass and card and now it's waving it's front legs around.
It's just a little house-spider, not even a very big one and no idea why it's so angry (well, I supposed it could be cause I keep prodding it with stuff...).
Anyhow, have declared the whole affair a draw and have left it to calm down while it, no doubt, sits there and plots world domination. I'm getting a sort of jack russell vibe from it in that it actually appears to be a very big spider crammed into the body of a little one in much the same that jack russells are actually very big dogs condensed.

Archenemy in the Making

The Burrow has been invaded again. This time by a particularly aggressive spider. I encountered it in the bathroom and, seeing as I was about to take a shower, got a cotton bud thing to gently prod it out of the way. Usually, in this situation, the spider will raise it's front legs and then scuttle like a scuttly thing for cover, but not this one, oh no! This one didn't even bother raising it's front legs but just went for the end of the cotton bud and clung to it while appearing to visciously attack it. I'm not sharing a bathroom with you in that mood, thinks I, and carried it to the door, still trying to mangle the end of the cotton bud (the spider, not me!). Took me 5 goes to dislodge the little bugger! I'm now faintly worried that it's in a bunker somewhere plotting its revenge.

Work is going very slowly today due to the fact that they're repainting the lines in the carpark outside and the whole process is absolutely fascinating. I always wondered how they did the numbers and the little stick figures you find on walkways. I always thought that there must be some kind of template but no, there's a bloke out there doing it all freehand and as fast as you can blink. Very impressed really.

Rapper stuff in the pipeline (although probably not actually in a pipeline since it might be difficult to dance) includes dancing for an AID's benefit thing at our usual practice pub, The Village, in Leith which should be fun. The staff are really friendly and supportive there and they've been trying to get us to dance for various events for ages but we haven't been able to due to prior bookings or unavailability of dancers so it's lovely to finally be able to dance for them. There's a possible tour in Glasgow in early January and the possibilty of our first teaching workshop at around the same time. In December, we are once again heading Selkirkwards to dance at the Scott's Selkirk Festival which was a lot of fun last year, so stuff to look forward to.

As to my new stretchy scarf, must remember not to knot it tight around my neck like my previous one since, on letting go of the ends, this one contracts...

Stramash Tune

My old scarf gave up the ghost last night and unravelled. Now have a nice, new, very cheap scarf which, I did not realise until today, is stretchy! This came in useful when I was leaving the newsagents at lunch and, as so often happens, snagged the end of my scarf on the door handle. This would normally result in me being yanked backwards as the door shuts before I realise what has happened but, with this scarf, as the door shut, the scarf stretched and I had time to realise I was hooked and detatch it before I became door furniture. Huzzah for the stretchy scarf!

We're playing 'Song of the Chanter' (or some title aproximating that) in fiddle at the moment. It's a reasonably nice tune and it's what our class will be playing at the stramash a week on Thursday so shall be practicing that tonight. At least I have this weekend free to practice and to work on the melodeon (plus I'm getting the urge to have another go at the clarinet). At some point I will tidy, if only because I can no longer find anything at all and it would be nice to have a flat surface upon which I can start making my New Year's outfit.

Getting slightly worried about the weather. Desperately want to go and see Belshazzar's Feast when they play at Brigham Memorial Hall in December but if the weather sets in the way it's supposed to, I may not be able to get out that way and I shall be royally miffed. Not quite worried about New Year's Eve yet since the bus goes down fairly major motorways but the little roads in Cumbria are a little more concerning. Oh well, fingers crossed.