FIRST job is finishing the on-body artwork for the CD version of the new album. I also send the cover artwork to Help Musicians for them to check their logo use and placement.
Then it’s time to get on the bike and cycle to the dentist in the village. I had my checkup a few weeks ago and Sandy – my dentist – was concerned about a raised ridge on my tongue. It’s no worse and I’ve to keep an eye on it. I also get a scale and polish.
After lunch I add ticket links to all the November shows then work on poster art.
There’s some progress reports and updates to do regarding the new album project, then it’s time for a Zoom guitar session with one of my students. This one is usually but we made it later this week because of my dentist appointment.
Margaret’s getting the shopping…and making a mince and sweet potato dish to take to Betty and Joe for dinner. I brown the mince and prep the ingredients we have to give her a start.
We have a nice evening with our pals then watch some telly before bed.
First job is checking in and getting a quote from the CD manufacturer I’m using for the album. I need to sort a barcode and some other stuff before I can finish the artwork.
Also, I need to chase Help Musicians for a logo to include…I’ve emailed a few times and my contact is normally really good at getting back quick. I’m concerned my emails are getting lost along the way. I call and speak to someone who asks me to forward the email form the same address…it doesn’t arrive either. I try sending from a different address and…success! My contact gets back to me in. less than ten minutes.
The postie brings the magnets I need to finish the outstanding stock for the village shop but I have to get on the bike to the doc for a blood test before I can do the merch.
When I get back I finish the merch and take it to the shop.
After lunch I sort some photos and then get on with the album package and on-body CD art.
Having not released anything in a physical format for about five years, I’d forgotten how time-intensive album packaging artwork can be…it’s nearly 9pm by the time I stop for the day.
AFTER a Zoom session with one of my guitar students I get busy collating and creating ticket links for the November tour dates so I can give Wildcats‘ first dibs before the links are made more widely available.
I also make the dates/venue live online, but without ticket links for the time being. I wanna try and get some traction before we make the ticket links live. Also, I wanna do some tour shirts, make them available in advance and see if we can sort some ticket/t-shirt bundles.
There’s some stuff to be dropped off in the next village so I take a walk along there and back then make a pizza for lunch when I get home.
After lunch I wander along to see Betty and joe – Betty has some stuff she wants to chat about and I can maybe help with some things.
Then it’s back to the gig listings and a t-shirt visual so I can run it past the Wildcats in the livestream later.
I do some prep for the livestream then we’re live….it goes well (at a technical level) for a change!
AMAZINGLY none of us are too burst this morning! We have breakfast and chat for a while then John and Maggi head for home.
There’s some tidying up still to do outside before lunch…then a wee nap!
I have an online order for a set of four leather holders for Apple airtags and need to come up with custom art for them. The whole process takes a while, but I’m well pleased with the result.
Once the rest of the gear is carted back to the studio I do a bit of tidying up then light charcoal for the grill…Margaret’s got pork marinading for pinchitos 🙂
JonZip kicks of proceedings at our garden concert…
WE’RE up early and have breakfast with Ruben and Alison, chat a while then they hit the road.
There’s one more gazebo to get up for this afternoon’s garden concert. We get that sorted and all the other preparations – luckily the forecast heavy rain all day still hasn’t hit us.
JonZip and Maggi arrive just after 12.30pm and once we’ve had a sandwich help with the final prep. We both manage a quick soundcheck and then I get the livestream set up as folk start to arrive.
The garden is full by the time I introduce JonZip at 3pm and he plays a stormer of a 45-minute set.
Next up, it’s myself, and I too have a blast. There’s plenty time once the music’s finished for everyone to mingle, chat and have a few drinks.
Everyone’s gone soon after 6pm when JonZip and Maggi help us with some of the clear up then we go indoors and have some snacks while the pizza dough I balled up earlier gets to room temperature.
We go back outside for pizza, chat and beer then back inside for a few drams. Grand day/evening.
Great to have our pals Ruben and Alison from Maryland visit 🙂
THE weather forecast for tomorrow afternoon and the garden concert isn’t great so i spend most of the morning putting up gazebos and getting as much prep done as I can in case it’s bucketting rain tomorrow!
Margaret goes to look after the gandkids for the afternoon, I make some pizza dough for tomorrow and prepare the smoker for tonight then our pals form Maryland – Ruben and Alison – who are on a campervan tour in the UK rock up. They’re parking up at ours for the night.
We go for a walk up the lochside then sit and drink beer in the garden. Margaret gets back just after 6pm thne when the pork is ready we head indoors and eat. Great time catching up!
Great to get out on the water – been missing this!
AFTER breakfast I get deal with emails and stuff then get ready to go for a paddle. I’m meeting Fiona and David out on the water at 10am.
The weather’s perfect when I launch at the bay and meet the others just off the near end of the island. We paddle on to Port Bawn at the other end of Inchcallioch and stop on the beach for a while.
When I get back I jump in the shower then we go up to the farm for the ministerial opening of the Buchanan Community Hydro Scheme turbine house which is both interesting and a nice wee community event.
I spend the afternoon sorting tickets for a couple of the November tour dates and then create a graphic to put on the Wildcats’ Facebook group to give members a heads up on the dates. Expect to announce properly on Monday (5 September).
Back at the house we move and stack three big bags of wood into the woodshed. It’s hard going, but with two of us it’s a lot easier! Glad it;s done.
CREEPING back to feeling 100%…still not quite there yet tho’.
Still some finishing work to be done on all the West Highland Way Gifts stock for the village shop. I’ll get it delivered today minus the stuff that’s waiting for magnets.
After a session with one of my Zoom guitar students I have lunch and catch up on some of the day-to-day admin stuff.
I call a promoter in Hull to see if I we can sort a show to replace what is looking like a defunct Liverpool date. Margaret’s been trying to make contact for months and not had any luck but I manage to speakto him and we sort a show! Great!
The support tickets/requests I lodged with the MCPS helpdesk for licencing my new album have had no answer so there’s not much i can do there. Instead I deliver the merch to the shop then make up a setlist for Saturday’s garden concert.
When Margaret gets home with the shopping I get some chicken breasts in to sous vide – we’re taking dinner to Betty and Joe’s later and get some more work done while it ‘cooks’ before making a pepper sauce and mash.
We have a lovely evening…when we get back Margaret watches telly and I have a wee dram and an early night. Hoping to get out on the paddle board for a wee while in the morning….
STILL not back to full strength but getting there!
The West Highland Way Gifts’ order for the village shop is needing to be completed and I spend the morning getting stuff made. I’ve not got enough magnets tho’ and put in an order. It’ll be Monday before they get here 🙁
In the studio I continue the paperwork etc for the new album and single releases. Some of the stuff is pretty onerous – made even mores by the clumsy websites and portals for some of the regulators.
There’s also to be some stuff cleared up with the local council that had fallen by the wayside because of ‘lost’ emails.
There’s not much time left for anything other than a 10-minute walk before a session with one of my Zoom guitar students re-scheduled from yesterday.
Margaret has a meeting early evening and I prepare some dinner while she’s away. After we’ve eaten we tackle the November tour dates – we’ve been let down by one of the venues down south and it’s now all hands on deck to find a replacement venue….
HAVING been continually spewing I’ve had no sleep when the phone rings at 5.30am. It’s NHS24 calling to apologise that they couldn’t get a doctor and asking us to go to A&E at Forth Valley Royal Hospital near Larbert.
We’re straight in the car for 60-odd minute drive and I’m booked in and seen by triage pretty quick. But it’s a 5-½ hour wait for a doctor. And I have to wait in the main waiting area, spewing and groaning in public. I’m sure folks must think I’m some kind of drunken junkie or something.
After about three hours I’m still vomiting and a huge big splurge of blood-laced spew makes Margaret go back to reception and I’m called back into triage for my second round of blood pressure, pulse, temperature and blood sugar. This time, though, I’m sent through the back to a much more comfortable and private waiting area – I think they realised my vomiting wasn’t a great spectacle for the poor folks around me in the waiting area! Margaret’s not allowed to come with me tho’ 🙁
Ironically, by the time I get there I’m feeling a little better – that last big vomit musta cleared things – and I have a much more comfortable hour waiting for the doctor.
The doctor that sees me – Ruth – is really nice and wants to hear the full story. Not just this episode, but the history too. This is the first time I’ve been seen in a lucid condition so it appears the lengthy wait has turned out to be a good thing as we have a long conversation. She reckons that I may be having a reaction to a combination of things…a difficult thing to work out but recommend that next time I start to be sick we go straight to A&E – not bothering with NHS 24 – and tell reception that I may be having an allergic reaction and have been told by the doctor that I need a tryplase test done immediately. Apparently this blood test – if carried out within 90-minutes of a reaction starting – can give some clues as to what might be going on.
She also gives me some tablets and other stuff to help. We’re off home!
Of course the day’s guitar lessons and my Monday night livestream are all burst and have to be re-organised/scheduled. I crash out when we get home.
