AFTER getting the routine tasks out the way I get busy with some promo for next year’s shows.
Margaret heads into town for some shopping and I hit the office. Loads of stuff to be made for `Sunday’s craft market at the Christmas lights switch on.
I realize that I don’t have the blanks I need for some custom orders so get online and order up a bunch of stuff then start trying to work out what I need – and don’t need – for Sunday.
In the studio I set up to take photos of some stuff to show on a video loop that I’ll either project on the wall behind my table or show on an iPad.
I’ve got the fire going when Margaret comes back from town and her local meeting on the way home. We put the shopping away then I have a nap for ten minutes.
I SLEEP through the alarm then have a panic getting my shit together for ann online songwriting session with Elaine.
We’re re-visiting a song idea we worked on a while back that slipped down the priority list for both of us.
After lunch I send an email out to my list with a 24-hour flash Christmas discount code then take a wander up the lochside.
Margaret’s got the fire on when I get home and once I get out my wet clothes I fall asleep on the couch for a wee while. I’m woken by the guys from the garage bringing the car back…£600-odd to get the front parking sensors sorted. A known VW fault. Mmmm…this has been a shite month for expenses – kitchen tap, cooker hood, car sensors….
In the office I make up some merch orders that have come in following my email out then do soem work on ideas for my table at Sunday’s Christmas light switch on and craft market.
AN EARLY start for an online guitar session followed by an in-person lesson.
The car’s still at the garage in Killlearn and I have a session with the kids at the school in Balloch. The bus times are pretty crap so I have over an hour to kill when I get to Balloch so I stop for a sandwich then wander up to the school.
By co-incidence there’s a merch order from someone who lives close to the school so once I’m through with the kids I drop it off then go for the bus home.
I’m puggled when I get home and have a nap on the couch then hit the office to get some work done before we go to Betty’s for dinner.
My 3D design and print mini pedalboard works out great 🙂
I WAKE up and check Margaret put the car key in the car for the folks from the garage could take out away early. She slept through her alarm – and it looks like they came, checked the car, tried our front door handle then went away. Why they didn’t ring the door bell or phone is a bit of a mystery!
Margaret calls the garage and arranges for us to take the car…we borrow Betty’s car, do the needful and are home by 10am.
After breakfast I get busy designing a wee pedalboard for the Valeton GP5 pedal and radio receiver using Shapr3D on the iPad. It’s a bit of a learning experience but I get there eventually and by lunchtime I have a 3D design to send to the printer. It’ll take about three hours to print.
In the studio I mess with some guitar ideas and get some poster artwork done for the March gigs down south
I get out a walk but don’t go far as the rain starts and it’s getting dark already.
The pedalboard has printed when I get back so I take it to the studio and start making up the connector cables and stuff. Some of its a bit fiddly but it all works and although no it a work of art, it’s functional and practical.
WHILE the sourdough cools I go out for a quick paddle. It’s cold and grey but there’s some light trying to get through the low blanket of cloud clinging to the water.
A quick shower then breakfast and I get on with the day. First up, a session with one of my online guitar students then I start editing some video footage for tonight’s livestream.
My afternoon student has called off – no bad thing, really, ‘cos I’ve got lots of stuff to be getting on with.
A courier drops off a the wee junction box I ordered online to let me power the wee Valeton GP5 pedal and a wireless receiver from a single USB power bank. It’s tiny and I’m skeptical it can work but, to my surprise, it all works a treat.
I do some rough sketches for some kinda wee mounting board to keep it all together. If I have time tomorrow I’ll knock up a 3D design and see if I can print something.
Then it’s back onto the video and prep for the Wildcats’ livestream on Facebook. All goes to plan and soon after 9pm I’m back in the house enjoying Margaret’s spaghetti carbonara.
WE’RE sitting in bed with a coffee when Catriona calls – we’re going to Doune later to look after the kids but she’s asking us to go now as they have to go out and are expecting a delivery. Major panic this end.
We ‘relieve’ Joyce from looking after the kids and hang out in the house for a while before taking them to the park in Stirling. It’s beautiful – but freezing cold – day.
Next stop McDonalds then back home in time for Catriona and WIll getting back from their shopping trip.
We’re back home by 7pm and I get some work done in the office before dinner, a film then bed….
Quite a sunset over the bay when I get back my walk…
A LONG lie, coffee and Saturday Kitchen…then we get up and start the day. Late.
I do a little work in the office then hit the studio and try recording a very rough version of the song Elaine and I have been collaborating on for the last week while.
It’s been fits and starts and I realise that I need to do something a bit different with the arrangement.
I go a walk up the lochside. The loch is calmer than I thought it would be and I coulda maybe gone for a paddle instead. Ah well, maybe tomorrow.
We head off to the village hall for the annual ‘mince and tatties’ ceilidh and have a grand evening although I get a big dose of heartburn…
WE SLEEP through the alarm and wake up (extremely!) late. Too embarrassing to say the time!
After the resulting brunch I finish off one of the test Christmas baubles and make some design decisions. I’d quite like to have some on show at the Christmas lights switch-on makers’ market.
I’m waiting on a wee splitter box to allow me to power the wee Valeton GP-P5 pedal and a wireless receiver from a USB power bank….I’ll design and 3D print a wee mini pedal board and the lot will hopefully serve as a backup in case the Quad Cortex goes down…or just as knockabout system.
Anyway, it was meant to come today but seems it’s still at the Evri hub. No fucking surprise there!
It’s a horrible wet, dreich day so I decide to stay put in the office and do some final finishing work on the penguin paperweight I cast a while back. It’s a little rough still but I have to make the best of it and if there’s a few wee flaws so be it.
I also need some brass stuff for the makers’ market…most of it is custom, though, so I try and work up designs for a brass coin and smaller pin featuring our local church – it’s been closed and there’s a community buyout project underway, so some folks might be attracted to it 😉
MY USUAL Wednesday morning student is coming today (Thursday) this week. We have a good session an and when she’s finished I get on with some stuff in the office.
In the studio I mess a little more with the latest version of the co-write song Elaine sent me.
While I like the challenge of doing something outwith my usual style I’m not sure I can do much with this other than add a guitar part…which kinda defeats the purpose.
I decide to try stripping it right back and rejigging the arrangement to fit closer to something I might do myself…but keep the main vibe of what Elaine’s done. Maybe this is what co-writing is all about – I dunno – never done it before!
In the office I work on some Christmas baubles – trying to get a decent photo engraved on ’em is proving a bit of a challenge but I think I may have cracked it but the time Betty arrives for dinner and Margaret calls me in.
AN online guitar session first thing then I get through the day’s admin chores.
A message comes in to say there’s no point in going to the school today as most of my class is off sick…and half the staff. Seems large is abound.
Instead I decide to make use of the time for a Costco visit. As well as some stuff for ourselves there’s a couple things for Betty…and I decide to pick up a new chair for the studio.
I’ve never had a decent chair – they’ve always had dodgy castors and bits coming loose and/or falling off.
I’m home in time for a late lunch then hit the studio to do some work on a co-write project that’s been stuttering on for longer than I care to think.
Sam comes to drop off a USB stick for the raw video and audio files from Eva’s audition filming then I take Betty’s stuff along before tackling the chair assembly in the studio.
