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...

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!

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.

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!

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.

Things to Come

Well, first to start off with this morning's really annoying incident. Was standing on the traffic island waiting to cross the rest of the road (normal lane and bus lane) when man in a range rover stopped and waved me across. All very nice, except I'd seen the taxi zooming up beside him in the bus lane so I stayed on the island while I waited to see what the taxi did (since I couldn't see it behind the range rover and it was going a fair speed). Within 10 seconds, the stopped driver went from exaggerated gesticulating to really swearing at me for not crossing. As it was, the taxi did shoot past and, if I'd gone with his gesticulations, I'd be a bit of a mess on the road by now but that didn't seem to phase him in the least. It's quite common for drivers to stop there to let people across and just not register that there's traffic in the lane beside them (mainly because if one driver stops, the drivers behind often decide to undertake them in the bus lane!) but I've never seen them get so mad at people for not crossing when they say, never mind so quickly.



Needless to say I was a little annoyed when I got into work this morning and I'm now thinking of taking Mouldy the Mole back out with me to wave at people who annoy me thereby relieving my frustration by causing confusion and worry in others!



Anyhow, fiddle practice tonight. Quite pleased with how my fiddle playing is coming along and, when I've upped my knowledge of scottish tunes (my current repertoire tends heavily towards the english at the moment), I'll head back to the slow session again because I enjoyed it when I went along last time (Just wasn't familiar with most of the tunes.)



We have a rapper dem at a ceilidh (and probably a little tourette) this weekend which I had forgotten all about. Have had no rapper practice for 3 weeks so I might be a little rusty. Should probably do a bit more stepping practice tonight. Also off to practice melodeon (and I have a nice new Hohner Pokerwork melodeon (well, to me, anyway) since Ellie let me try her melodeon at Bromyard and I haven't been able to play my cheap Stephenelli since!) with others of Mon Meg on Saturday.



Lots of concerts and workshops coming up. I'm down in Witney first for the Melodeons at Witney Workshop which I'm really looking forward to but really nervous about at the same time, then I have tickets for 2 Bellowhead gigs for the new tour (London and Sheffield, same weekend), then I have to catch one of Belshazzar's Feast's Christmas gigs (They're playing a few up in Cumbria so I may have to hire a car for an evening) followed by Phil Cunningham's Christmas gig in Edinburgh and closing out at New Year (hopefully, if I can get tickets) with Bellowhead's New Year's Event at the Southbank. Then, come the New Year, I've booked for the 'Learn Smallpipes in 1 Day' workshop at Celtic Connections and the Spiers & Boden and Saltfishforty gig. Plus there's the Spiers & Boden Birthday gig in May at the Shepherds Bush Empire. Lots of stuff to look forward to.

In the meantime, I am taking advantage of the fact that I really feel like me for the first time in a fair few years and the fact that I always get a little restless in the Autumn, to sort myself out. Am currently applying for jobs like a little jobfinding fiend while, at the same time getting in touch with my Postgrad Dean to find out what I can do next in the medicine line. Whichever happens, I'm getting out of my current job, whatever it takes. Will also be looking for a new flat when I've worked out where I'm going to be. Want to move on in all ways.

Ooops! Catch-up.

Oops, have neglected this shamefully this year. Mostly due to having way too much fun stuff to do and being either far too knackered or off to write anything inbetweentimes.

Shall try to recap.

Festivals I Have Been To.

Holmfirth - Great fun. Spent most of it hanging around with Stone Monkey Rapper who are lovely and saw, amongst others, Belshazzar's Feast, Rachel McShane and Pete Coe who were all brilliant. Got hugged by a morris dancer who was dancing on (took me a second to work out who it was!) and had a great evening in the session at the Cricket Club.
The Big Session - Just as awesome as last yeareven with the pouring rain on the Friday. Oysterband were brilliant in both their gigs, Chopper's solo stuff is lovely, Alan's stuff was great fun again. Saw the Proclaimers and realised a lifetime ambition I never knew I had (to hear them sing '500 Miles' live), really enjoyed Cara Dillon's set (which was a surprise since I can usually take or leave her stuff), loved Kerfuffle, enjoyed dancing to Whapweasel and discovered Megson and the Moulettes.
Ely Folk Festival - Blazingly hot weather, lovely little festival. Thoroughly enjoyed myself. Oysterband, Faustus, Demon Barbers, The Woodshed, Beckleberry, Chris Sherburn and Denny Bartley, Colvin Quarmby and John Tams and Barry Coope were all amazing. Met loads of people I knew, had fun at the French dance workshop and got thoroughly freaked out by how flat the land is there. Awesome weekend.
Whitby Folk Week - Amazing week. Hung around with Snark Rapper, played my fiddle in the beginners' sessions, learnt some cool new rapper figures, danced my socks off, loved the Dance Challenge between Chiltern Hundreds and Snark rapper, had an awesome night with all the sword dancers at Beck Hole, got to watch sam Sweeney and Hannah James while stewarding and had a really good time at the Northumbrian Ceilidh.
Shrewsbury - So much fun. Saw and loved Bellowhead, Belshazzar's Feast, Kerfuffle (last gig!), The Young 'Uns, The Wilsons, Kerr and Fagan (with and without Rob Habron), Fay Hield, Karen Matheson, Tickled Pink. All brilliant! Managed to play my fiddle through the Beginners' Session and loved John Kirkpatrick's 'Playing for Dancing' workshop.
Bromyard - Fun despite the rain. Belshazzar's Feast and Mike Wilson and Damien Barber were probably my favourites (both time both bands played) but Show of Hands, James Findlay, Fay Hield and Tri were also great fun. Whapweasel's ceilidh was lovely and I took my melodeon out for the first time for Issey Emney's workshop.

Concerts

Belshazzar's Feast - Saw them in Settle. Absolutely brilliant and so funny.
Spiers and Boden and Saltfishforty - Saw them in St Andrews. Enjoyed both of them as duos and they all played together really well in spite of the differing styles.
Mozart Festival Orchestra - Saw them in The Royal Albert Hall. Music was fantastic and the costumes were lovely. Might have accidently threatened to kill (and it was an honest accident) some german tourists beside me who would not stop talking (well, they did afterwards)
Bellowhead - Got an invite to the launch of Bellowhead's new album 'Hedonism' down in London. It was brilliant! They were so good in such a small space (and it was scary just how much of the audience I knew!) The new album is brilliant and they played it all the way through.
Spiers and Boden - saw them in Berwick. Really lovely weekend (got stared at by the seals off the pier) and the music was lovely and hilarious.

Rapper

Been a bit of a quiet year for rapper since DERT. We had one tour down Rose Street in the summer (fun but the football was on which dampened things a little.) We danced at the Anstruther Lifeboat Gala and then finished with a tourette in St Andrews which was good fun. We had a good day of practice for the DART team at The Village where I had another go at tumbling. Still not quite there but getting closer and I'm not giving up. We also had another soiree at The Village. Little more subdued for some reason than the previous one but still fun before we ended up at Trina's for mystery cocktails (which, is suspected, mostly consisted of vimto and slivovitz!). Apparently our team went down well in america at DART and I'm not jealous, not jealous at all.


In other areas, have got rid of Roger. There was too much too fix and parking was becoming an absolute nightmare. In one way it's incredibly annoying since I now really have to think hard before I want to go places again but in another way, it's a huge load off my mind. I managed before I got him, I'll manage again.
Attended the wedding of some reenactment friends at Craigmillar Castle. Lovely day, they both looked lovely in their medieval gear (ashamed to say I was in civvies since none of the kit I have is fit to be seen in nice places and I haven't had a chance to do any sewing this year), the company was good and there was a barn owl to drop off the rings.
Only managed one re-enactment event this year but it was a fun event in Inverness (where I managed to get quite a nasty sunburn despite linen coverings and factor 50 suncream!), multiperiod event at Fort George. Lovely to see the other time periods and nice to see the rest of the group as well.
Spent 2 weekends with Freaks in the Peaks. One was a normal dance weekend with blazing hot weather, and some fantastic sessions and the other was the canal trip which was wonderful. I ended up on the boat with Triskele rapper and we had a huge amount of fun on the gin slum as our boat became known. Some good fun dances (including the somewhat drunk gentleman who ran through the middle of a set with no trousers and only his hand to hide his modesty (as was pointed out later, he didn't really need the whole hand...) and some lovely scenery.

Lots of stuff coming as well. Will actually try to keep this thing up to date from now on.

Oxford Folk Festival 2010 (Sunday)

On Sunday, I decided to try a couple of workshops which started off with the Hands On Workshop at the Bate Museum where we got to handle and (attempt) to play some of the instruments. We had great fun and some folks managed to get some tunes out of the various instruments (although not, apparently, the hurdy gurdy!). I was really taken with one of the crumhorns. It had a really nice sound and was surprisingly easy to get a scale out of and I now sort of want one...
After that I went along to the harp workshop which was also very good. I also want a harp!
After this, I went back to the Town Hall to visit the craft fair again and succumbed to the lure of the bowler hats. I am now the owner of a very nice hat with jewels along the hatband and some feathers. I must now make a new tatter coat to match the hat (although my current one will probably go well enough for now). The lassie who was selling them seemed very surprised that poeple wanted to buy them which was fairly funny.
I then headed back to the Far From the Madding Crowd for the french session which had some great tunes and a little bit of dancing. After a couple of drinks, I met up with some of the BFP's and went to see Karen Tweed and Paul Hutchinson. Underrehearsed and chaotic would be one way to describe them as they occasionally found themselves playing the wrong parts or had to search frantically for sheet music that was on the stand all the time, but they were so funny and the music was lovely that I thoroughly enjoyed it. I particularly liked the suggestion that, since they didn't have a CD out together, that we could play one each of their CD's at the same time, followed by the susggestion that we could run up and down the hallway for a doppler effect.

After a quick break to the icecream place for (in my case anyway) a Freeze (sorbet and lemonade. Lovely!) we went back to the Town Hall to see Maqam (Giles Lewin and others playing arabic music). They were very good but hit just at the wrong part of the day as I was a little drowsy and the music was very lulling. Managed not to fall asleep but it was a near run thing.
We then headed to the Cornbury stage to listen to (and sing along with) Ian Giles. This was really good fun with some really funny songs we could join in with. The Festival finished with What's Up Folk, a (large) group of kids from John Spiers' old school that he's done some work with in the past. Some very good performances (although we weren't too sure about them doing Kafoozalum. At least they didn't sing the words.) The lassie who sang solo was very good (although a slightly diconcerting choice of song for someone her age) and the 3 lads (one of which was also the trombonist who was really going for it!) who sang were also good.

We then headed off for tea before folks set off home. Since 2 of us were staying till the Monday, we headed off to The Bird and Baby (which I'm fairly sure is a nickname but I can't remember what it's real name is) where we drank green beer for the sheer novelty and just chatted before I finally headed back.

The coach trip back was a bit of a nightmare since it got delayed so it took over 10 hours and I was close to a kid who would not shut up whining. I got through 3 books (have just started reading Patricia Briggs who I'm quite enjoying) and listened to a lot of Bellowhead on the i-pod to get through it.
Still, totally worth it. I'm already trying to work out which of Bellowhead's November tour dates I can make it to and very much looking forward to Holmfirth where I'm going to see Rachel McShane and Belshazzar's Feast. It was also really lovely to meet so many people from the forum. Everyone was so friendly and it was really nice to have a group of people that I could just randomly meet up with when I felt like it and do stuff with. Will hopefully be running into them again at various festivals through the year.

Am now seriously starting to consider moving down south. Most of the stuff I want to do is down that way and I would save myself so much time and money taken up by travel. It would have to be somewhere with a rapper side and a strong folk scene. Am going to have to sit myself down at some point and have a very serious think.

Last night I was supposed to go over to a friend's for tea and DVD's. Instead I ended up helping her pull up the bathroom carpet in her old flat due to a leak. Still, it was nice to see her and we had pizza and a chat afterwards.

Still waiting to hear what is happening with Falkirk. Hope we cans till do it.

Extra Bounce and Needle Attacks!

Spent last night trying to get the hallway clear and I succeeded but only because everything is now in the sitting room!. Never mind, it means that the meter reading whatsit can get to the meter (and he had better come tonight!).

Tonight I will mostly be packing for Oxford since I'm getting the coach on Thursday night. Will also be reinforcing the bottom of the soft bag I bought at IVFDF since it always tends to go in bags like that and it's useful and I would like it to last.

Very, very excited. Have printed off all my booking things (campsite, coach and festival ticket) and the venues map and have been listening to Bellowhead CD's and DVD at all opportunities.

Have also booked bits and bobs for Holmfirth (These would be camping and tickets to go and see Belshazzar's Feast and Rachel McShane) so excited about that too. Add to that the fact that the Freaks in the Peaks Canal trip is sneaking up on me and I am a bouncy little gremlin indeed.

Got a little bit of the bounce knocked out of me last night when I managed to bring my hand down hard on the blunt end of a needle (well I will use the settee arm as a pincushion). It went pretty deep and I now have a slightly swolled and reddened puncture wound in the centre of my left hand. Will have to keep an eye on that (boom, boom!) Anyhow...

Looking around at stuff last night, I really, really need to have a big clear out (not just a big tidy!) The chest of drawers in the hall can certainly go (especially since I think the only thing keeping it upright is the stuff inside it!) and I can replace it with a cheap basket stand thing from Ikea or some such cause most of the stuff inside it can be binned too. All the books are sacrosanct, as are the CD's but there's a lot of DVD's I can see if I can sell to one of those second hand DVD shops. There's also a lot of reenactment kit I just don't use any more, mostly because it's rubbish so it'll be a case of binning rather than selling on. There's also the electronic items graveyard (hoovers, kettles, irons, heaters etc) that I seem to be hanging on to for unknown reasons. They can definitely go.

Anyhow, while not loking forward to another overnight coach journey (and the fact that I arrive in Oxford at around 07.45 but can't get in to the campsite till 12.00), I am definitely having problems containing the bounce being generated by this weekend. I've never been to Oxford before and am quite keen to see round it (please let the weather be nice!) and, as well as Bellowhead, I'm really looking forward to seeing MacLaine Colston and Saul Rose, The Demon Barber Road Show, Paul Hutchinson and Karen Tweed (I think they are going to win out over the northumbrian pipes workshop) and going to the workshops (I'm aiming for the singing and harp playing ones and possibly some morris) and, of course I will be keeping my eyes peeled for rapper since I think Black Adder will be there.

Festival Plans

Rapper was fun but exhausting (it always is when there's not many dancers). Our musician has just proved himself a true folk dancing musician due to managing to fall in his garden, break 3 ribs, puncture a lung, drive himself to hospital and he was still playing for our practice last night. The words 'impressive' and 'nuts' come to mind.

We seem to have a fair bit of stuff coming up. Provisionally, we seem to be dancing in Falkirk for St Georges Day, Anstruther for the Lifeboat gala day, a latino scottish ceilidh in Edinburgh and, of course there's the workshop/St Andrews tour this coming Saturday leading to DERT itself. Lots of rapper can not be a bad thing.

Have decided that I am definitely going to head down for the Holmfirth Folk Festival so need to send off my camping application. Ian has very nicely put me in touch with the organisers to book Belshazzer's Feast tickets and I'm swithering between the ceilidh and Rachel McShane on Saturday night. I think I can probably do both and so will probably book to see Rachel McShane at the picturedrome.

Oxford is looming large on the horizon and the only reason I'm not all over the place bouncing about is that DERT is first and I'm too busy bouncing about that. At some point I should get my tent out and see how it is. Hasn't been used since Whitby but it did get put away dry so fingers crossed.
Still waiting to find out whether I can steward at Whitby. They said to get back in touch if I hadn't heard anything by a couple of weeks and it has now been a couple of weeks so I should probably e-mail them

Productive Weekend (Relatively)

Spring may have occurred on Saturday. The weather was warm and dry and I quickly took the opportunity to put my washing out for the first time this year (what I hadn't taken into account was that it was also windy and I promptly got wrapped in a sheet and bashed into a wall! And so starts my washing's year long assault on me.) Having been nicely bruised, I decided to venture into town, mainly to look for rapper shoes but this was foiled by my not being able to remember where the Army and Navy store was and thus not being able to find it. No matter, I went on to find a nice wedding hat which I can wear for next weekend's sudden wedding (by which I mean that I've suddenly found out I'm going, not that the wedding is sudden) and I may have a acquired a cheap melodeon. This is probably not helpful and it's not like I don't have enough instruments to learn (although I got in a very good practice with both fiddle and clarinet this weekend.) but the idea of an instrument that doesn't rely on breathing control, finger placement, bow technique and mouth shape to produce an on-key note is very attractive and they just look really fun to play. It's a very cheap, never been used, D/G 2 row affair and, having, checked around, should I decide it's not for me, I should be able to sell it on with no loss. I suspect the reason it was being offered so cheaply was due to the preference in scottish music being for B/C tuning (and the fact that it's a cheap make) but I want to play morris tunes which suits me just fine. Huzzah for gumtree is all I can say.
One very odd occurrence while I was shopping in one of the pound saver shops (I was looking for pegs. My washing seems to eat them!). I was happily wandering along with my headphones on when this woman stops in front of me and tries to ask me something. I obligingly took out my headphones and she asked, in a somewhat irritated tone, where the *some weird item that I can't remember* was! I said I didn't know and she told me that that was appalling customer service. I pointed out that I didn't work there and she told me I looked as if I did and flounced off. I was in no way dressed like the staff and was not even wearing similar colours so I have no idea how to take that. Ah well.
Sunday, I actually did some tidying! I only read 2 books and did one puzzle book and I can now see most of the floor in the sitting room. The bed is still 'here be dragons' territory but, I feel I'm on a roll now and could be using it again as early as June!
The soundtrack to all this has been Belshazzer's Feast's 'Food of Love' CD which arrived on Saturday. The main CD is lovely with a really beautiful version of Mark Knoppfler's 'Cal' (and the CD notes are hilarious) but the main gem is the extra live CD which had me in giggles (which got me some funny looks while walking down Prince's Street, I can tell you!) most of the weekend. Can't wait to see them live.

Anyhow, rapper tonight and I'm in a particularly bouncy mood so that should be fun.