Despite the multiple issues of the last day or two I make it to Tampere!
I’M AWAKE a few times during the night – I think it’s when the nurses come to change my drips etc. The vomitting and pain has gone. The opiate injection seems to have done a good job!
AT 7am a doctor comes to check me out and tells me I can be discharged. They call me a cab and I’m taken to the apart-hotel in Tikkurila – about 10k out of Helsinki. Margaret meets me at the door and we make a plan.
A late checkout of 1pm lets us get the train into Helsinki airport and collect the guitars, gear, bags etc from Finnair. Easy peasy – the staff have been amazing throughout.
We’re back in Tikkurila by 10am, set an alarm for just after midday and go to sleep.
At 1.30pm we jump on a train to Tampere and I doze most of the 2-½ our journey. Once there it’s a ten minute walk to Paapan Kapakka. We load in and have space to chill while we wait for Ismo.
After soundcheck we go to a local pizza place. Margaret and Ismo eat – I have a glass of coke. I effectively haven’t eaten anything since Sunday morning. Hope I can get through the show!
As it turns out the show goes well…a marathon stint for both Ismo and I who alternate half-hour sets for the duration.
We’re loaded out by 1am and then Ismo drives an hour-and-a-half to Lahti and drops us at the apartment in the centre of town.
MIRACULOUSLY feeling a lot better when I wake up. Phew. I don’t feel much like eating but mange some fruit and overnight oats.
Then it’s straight to the studio to prep and pack the gear. All stuff that would have normally been done yesterday…along with a rehearsal of some songs at least.
There’s a bunch of other stuff to catch up on while Margaret finishes off some of the other packing then we hit the road to the airport.
We are good time and I pick a salad while Margaret has a more adventurous meal before we wait at the gate. I start to feel a bit ‘not right’ before we board but there’s no way I’m giving up now.
Come take off, though, I can’t hold it anymore and fill a number of spew bags…Margaret buzzes and attendant who brings more and moves us to the vacant back row on the plane. Things go from bad to worse and it’s a pretty traumatic two-and-a-half hours.
I was aware of an announcement from the flight deck asking if there’s a doctor on board. Turns out there is and the flight staff are amazing. I get checked over, an injection in my arse and an ambulance is arranged to meet us at the plane. Fuck sake.
I’ve lost it a bit when we land but seems fire and rescue got me off the plane where border patrol, police and medics met us before were transferred to an ambulance on the tarmac. I’m hooked up to various machines, given IV fentanyl and we’re sped off to the hospital.
The fentanyl didn’t seem to work much. But there’s no waiting around at the hospital. Transferred to a bed, drips, bloods, doctor all within (I think) half an hour. Margaret has our hand luggage – Finnair is taking care of the guitars and checked bags – and the staff organised a cab to take her to our hotel. I think it’s around 1am.
Shortly after the nurse comes back with more IV anti-nausea and gives me an injection of some kind of opioid – half an hour later I’ve drifted off.
FIRST job of the day it to make up set lists for the Finland and Estonia dates.
Next on the list Is a bunch of stuff for my pal Kevin in prep for his new single which lands on 15 May – with being away the next fortnight I wanna make sure we have our ducks in a row.
In the office there’s a bunch of guitar pins to be finished off for the merch case. Cutting it fine time-wise but they’ll be ready just in time!
We go to the local pub for dinner with Betty and have a lovely evening until...I get that feeling…the pre-cursor to the mystery vomitting thing. I excuse myself and head home, closely followed by Margaret.
We debate if I should use the injections I have and decide there’s nothing to lose. I jab myself but fifteen minutes later I’m being sick. I can give myself another injection in an hour if I’m not better. I have the second injection. Doesn’t help. And so it begins…this is not good timing,
MAIN job for today is to try a test cut of the audio point info board using a router and circle guide on a piece of scrap wood.
Not s straightforward, of course, as it should be. First, the bit of chipboard needs cut to side and the clamps I need are nowhere to be seen in the ‘recently tidied’ shed. It’s great Margaret tidies the shed every so often…the problem is the things that need to be access quickly sometimes end up out of sight requiring the shed to be blurry emptied to find them. Also, things that go together like the jigsaw, its accessory tools and blades are separated and ‘tidied’ giving rise to the same problem.
It takes an hour to find the stuff I need and 30 seconds to make the cut.
Cutting the circular hole with the router is easier than I excepted but there’s some irregularities in the geometry of the audio point that I need to accommodate and that’s not quite some straightforward meaning I have to re-think my design idea. I get there eventually. The real info board is gonna have to wait tho’.
I’d hoped for a walk. But I have some urgent video and web stuff to do for my pal Kevin…then new promo videos with an additional show need to be edited up for the Estonia section of the tour.
Suddenly it’s after 9pm and Margaret’s calling me for dinner….
AFTER breakfast with Fred we sit and chat a while then I drive her back home.
There’s some bits and bobs of shopping to pick up on the way back. After a late lunch and getting my emails, socials, this blog and stuff done I’m feeling a bit under the weather.
I had sore throat last night and now I’m all blocked up, sneezing and fading fast so I take a nap on the couch. For four hours!
As a result I get next to no work done. Ah well, there’s always tomorrow…
STILL not feeling right but there’s brass guitar pins to be made. My first attempt at using the brass jig I made fails. Not because of the jig but because of a stupid setup mistake that I don’t spot until the job’s nearly finished running.
I make amends then start again and things look a bit better.
In the afternoon Margaret goes to get some shopping in Glasgow and bring my cousin Fred back for the night. She had to give up driving because of eyesight issues a few years ago.
I have a young guitar student at the studio where we have a good session and I even have time for a quick walk and some fresh air before tidying the house a bit and setting the dinner table before Margaret and Fred get here.
FEELING a lot better this morning and even want to eat something. Overnight oats and fruit it is.
Margaret takes Matty and the kids for a swim and I reluctantly get on with my accounts and tax return.
They all have lunch out and I hang out a little with the kids when they come back. Matty takes them back to Catriona’s late afternoon and we have the place to ourselves for the first time since Friday.
In the studio I get my tax return submitted. Phew. Good to get that out the way.
Next job it to start making a jig for embossing brass guitar pins. This is a fiddly and time-consuming job, but if I manage to pull it off it’ll save loads of time in the future.
MARGARET’S turn to be sick now…but by morning she’s feeling a little better. I’m not feeling 100% but get up and do some work.
I decide to go for a swim and see if that perks me up a bit. It does and I feel fine after…until I get home.
Hoping I’m not gonna get sick but stomach cramps, aching all over and a temperature don’t feel too promising.I go for a lie down. Then it’s the skits. Uh-oh. Luckily the vomitting doesn’t follow but I’m in no shape for a guitar student coming later….I get Maragret to message my student apologizing and saying I’ll be in touch to re-arrange asap.Probably a good idea to cancel tomorrow morning’s lesson too – my student has an operation scheduled soon and is probably better staying away from a house full of sickness bugs even if I am feeling better in the morning.
I sleep,doze, toss and turn. Matty’s still here and we’ve got the kids comign again for the night…but I’m ‘oot the game’…
THE KIDS have us awake early. When I go to the toilet there’s a hell of a mess everywhere…I ask the kids if they’ve been unwell? Nope. After Freya being sick yesterday afternoon seems it was Matty’s turn to be sick during the night.
Catriona and Will arrive just after 9am to pick up the kids and everyone goes back to bed except me. I have some breakfast then embark on my accounts. It’s my financial year end and I wanna be ready for all the ‘making tax digital’ changes coming…so best I get my stuff in order and my 2025/6 tax return submitted ASAP.
Margaret’s heating up some soup for lunch when I get back to the house. No sign of Matty who’s holed up in the spare room. Apparently feeling a lot better but knackered.
I get back to my accounts and make some progress then go out a walk up the lochside and do some promos for tonight’s Wildcats’ livestream on Facebook.
Back home I pack up some merch that have come in over the weekend then hit the studio and prepare for tonight’s livestream.
