AFTER breakfast I head straight to the studio to get on with mixing tracks for the new album.
Will drops the kids off late morning – they’re here for the night so he and Catriona can celebrate Catriona’s birthday with a night in Glasgow – then we make our way to the village hall for the community lunch.
I walk back and listen to some of the mixes on my earbuds. Have to say they’re sounding pretty good. I need to check the mix on earbuds, hifi and anything else I can find as well as in the studio.
I take a break from mixing to make a wee gift for Catriona then Joel rocks up with wee Rosie the Jack Russell…Freya is obsessed with dogs. Joel goes off and leaves Margaret and the kids to take the dog a walk and I get some more work done in the studio.
I go back to the house to say goodnight to the kids then make some avocado sauce then mix some tortilla dough for our pulled pork tacos….
UP EARLY – Margaret’s off to Dundee to help Mikey with some bank stuff and my pal Elaine’s coming to spend some time working on a song.
I manage to get the studio tidied a little before Elaine arrives and we spend a couple of hours tweaking a song we’ve been working on.
After a quick stop for lunch I wash out my winter wetsuit, clean the smoker then get back to the studio for an online meeting about our local hydro society website.
Next it’s onto the batch of spurtle pins I cast the other day. The need sanded and properly shaped.
It’s a messy job that I need to do outside due to the amount of dust. It’s also time-consuming as it has to be done by hand. Any power tools will destroy my carefully crafted pins.
I get the main sanding done and decide to leave final polishing, marking/engraving and attaching the pins ‘til tomorrow.
There’s time to get some work done in the studio before Margaret gets home then we chill and enjoy paella for dinner.
The new, improved version of the spurtle pin….bigger than actual size!
UP early to get the sourdough in the oven then straight into the studio to try and finish the recordings for the new album.
By lunchtime I’m done. I think. I hope.
With the recordings in the bag I can get on with mixing and mastering this week.
After lunch I sand, polish and finish one of the new, improved spurtle casts and send a pic to John. He likes it, so I’ll finish the rest over the next couple of days.
My afternoon guitar student arrives with her mum and we have a good wee session then it’s back to the studio to edit some video and prepare for this week’s Wildcats’ livestream on Facebook.
Despite having everything working perfectly, Facebook decides not to let me stream and keeps throwing a stream key error back at me. Eventually I submit and resort to doing this week’s livestream using my phone.
After a late dinner I finish making a batch of kimchi..then time to crash.
AFTER breakfast I discover – by accident – that my Buzz website is down.
It takes me an hour of deleting and replacing files and messing about on the server to get it back up and running.
I’ve redesigned the protoype spurtle I made the other day and start casting some. It’s not an exact science and, for what is essentially a simple process, pretty time consuming. I need to have ten finished by the end of the week.
I take a break to get the smoker fired up and tonight’s bacon-wrapped pork loin on – Betty and Liz are coming for dinner.
It’s late afternoon by the time the spurtles are cast. I have 12 – a couple that only just made the grade and, if necessary can be used for other areas of experimentation in the finishing process.
There’s a considerable amount of cutting, sanding, polishing and engraving to be done – and pins to be attached. A busy week coming up, so I’m gonna have to juggle things.
The pork is done and into a faux cambro an hour before our guests arrive so I have a little time in studio trying to get things organised for the week ahead.
AFTER a leisurely breakfast at Alastair and Karen’s we jump in the car to Glasgow, stopping at a Yodel pick-up point in Helensburgh to drop off a couple of DrinkMate cylinders for pickup.
Next stop Ikea where I wanna find monitor stand to raise the monitor in the studio a bit. Needless to say Margaret picks up a few extra bits and bobs.
Then onto Costco – where we have a snack after picking up some supplies – and Tesco. We have pals from the ‘States coming to stay tomorrow (Sunday).
It’s later than we expect when we get home. I prepare a pork loin with a rub and a bacon weave ready for the smoker tomorrow then spend a little time in the studio, then the office before I spot a message from our US pals.
Their travel pains are scuppered as they didn’t realise the trains they need to get here don’t run on Sundays…so they’re not coming. We rearrange their visit for a couple weeks’ time.
Back in the house I make some fresh pasta and follow up later by using it for a simple cherry tomato, garlic and basil pasta dish.
I’ve made it a couple times before, but this is the best yet, partly due to me making the pasta a little thicker and more al dente.
Karen puts a message on the table before putting all the charcuterie on the board 🙂
I’M about to head to the studio when I get a message from a local film guy I met last weekend.
He has a film premiering in Copenhagen next week and wondered if I can make some ‘spurtle’ pins. Long story.
I delay going to the studio for an hour or so while I make a prototype, get a test cast done and finished and send him a photo.
In the studio I get another couple of songs down then spit a message from John saying he likes the spurtle. I suggest he drops by to see it ‘for real’.
He does and we have a coffee, plan a short run of shuttle pins then he heads off and we go to Helensburgh where we’re spending the night with our pals Alastair and Karen.
ONCE I get the decks cleared with routine stuff there’s an online meeting about a local community project.
The wind and weather forecast is good for the rest of the day so I decide on a quick pre-lunch paddle.
When I get to the bay, though, it’s a lot windier and choppier than I expect so I only venture as far as the island, do a couple of quick livestreams then paddle back for lunch.
After lunch I finish cutting back some of the trees then get back to work in the studio.
By close of play I feel I’ve made some progress on the recordings. Watch this space….
