A HYDRO Society board meeting first thing lasts the whole morning and is mostly productive.
After lunch I take the bus to the village to pick up a prescription and start walking back. I only get about 1/3-way home before the rain comes. Big style. I call Margaret and get a lift home.
There’s a few issues with Apple IDs, billing set up and family sharing so we spend a good while sorting it out with help from someone at Apple. The support is pretty good.
In the studio I carry on with my idea of compiling a load of live clips of Still Friends into one video. I wanna keep the original sound from each video rather than just use the images and edit to the studio version.
I get it pretty much done but for some reason there’s an issue trying to export the final movie.
No time to mess around any more tho’ as we’re going along to Betty’s to take down her kitchen curtains and pre-dinner aperitifs.
THE phone rings while I’m in the shower…it’s Forth Valley Hospital offering me a cancellation appointment at 11am.
My dentist referred me a few months ago ’cos they’ve been concerned about a ‘thing’ on my tongue for the last few years.
I have an online guitar student at 9am but nothing else in the diary for the rest of the morning. My usual in-person student can’t come this week.
Margaret drives to the hospital and I’m seen by a specialist who reckons all’s fine and nothing to worry about. Just keep an eye on it (my tongue, that is!).
The oil light’s coming on in the car just a month after a service and a very expensive oil leak fix. We call onto Arnold Clark in Stirling where they top up the oil and book the car in for a ‘software update’ next week.
Back home I cut the grass, do some trimming then continue video editing in the studio until an occasional student arrives for a session.
After the lesson I work on a new idea for a social media ad for live shows. I wanna get an ad up and running for September’s show at The Met in Bury.
AFTER breakfast I finish off a wee keyring I’ve made for Freya’s swimming locker.
In the studio I back up my daily blog posts and pix then start looking out live videos of Still Friends. I’ve had a notion to try editing together loadsa live clips and see how it looks.
A courier delivers an Anker (C1000X) solar generator that I ordered from Costco at a bargain price. It’ll be good for our summer festival camping…and indispensable during our frequent power cuts.
I’m keen to see if it’ll power our PA system and the Quad Cortex so I take it to the studio and try it out. No problem. And it looks like it could power the entire rig for 14 or 15 hours. And unlike a petroleum generator it’s silent.
I can see us getting hold of some solar panels to charge it!
After my late afternoon guitar student leaves I get out for a wander up the lochside.
Margaret comes home with some shopping which we put away then tackle some of the Still Friends video clips in the studio. It’s gonna be a bit of a fuddle but looks like it might work 🙂
I MANAGE to get a few jobs out the way before we jump in the car and head for Doune.
We stop to exchange an empty gas canister for a full one at Deanston garage then on to Catriona’s for a a coffee before we go to the gala day.
There’s loads going on in the park for the kids and we have a grand afternoon out.
Back at Catriona’s neighbours Tom and Nina come over and we get the grill going. Margaret and I cook up some grub and we sit outside and chat. Freya’s wee pal Alice and her mum Laura join us too.
AFTER a bit of a long lie I get busy in the studio.
First task is making some reels from the live video of Still Friends from last week’s show at The Glad Cafe. I post one of them around and keep one back for tomorrow.
Next, I have some stuff to do for the local hydro society to promote a survey we’re running to gauge interest in a local energy club.
While we have some decent weather I get the tent from the attic and we put it updraft to check all’s OK before festival season.
Just as well ’cos not only has the cord snapped in the pole I repaired after our last outing, the replacement ‘ends’ won’t fit on the tent pins!
Margaret finds a section of pole with a ferrule at each end and we make up a new pole. All good.
I order some spare ferrules and shock cord in case we have a disaster.
Still Friends from last week’s show at The Glad Cafe
A FAIRLY light day according to the diary so after breakfast I decide to take a bike ride to the village and pick up my prescription.
It’s a nice day and I get a little work done after lunch then go a paddle with Fiona. The longest paddle in while – out past Inchcailloch and round Torrinch – pretty pulled by the time we get back and sit in the garden with a cold drink.
In the office I do some stuff for the local hydro society then we wander along to Betty’s for an aperitif.
We’re back home soon after 9pm and I get some charcoal lit for the grill – my first attempt at smash burgers which turn out pretty good 🙂
The presentation coin I made for Walter’s ‘retirement’
WEDNESDAY has become my ‘busy day’…first online guitar session at 9am.
It’s followed immediately by another session – in-person this time – then I deal with the routine stuff in the office and final site artwork for posters and flutters for gigs later in the year.
The morning closes with another online lesson then lunch.
Next job is to start the edit on Walk the Walk – the next (third) single from the forthcoming album which lands on 11 July. Wanna have my ducks in a row.
After my evening guitar student has left I make a batch of pasta dough then go a walk for half and hour while it rests….
THERE’S some merch mail outs to be sorted…and Walter’s ‘retirement’ coin to be finished off so he can be given it at tonight’s community trust AGM.
We head off to Balloch and drop into the school where I do some sessions for the summer BBQ. Nice to see everyone and meet some of the kids’ parents.
It’s a flying visit before we stop at the post office on the way home.
There’s poster and flyer art to be done for the rest of this year’s gigs then it’s time to go to the village hall for the local community trust (ELLCT) annual general meeting.
Betty comes back to ours for some pulled pork and we chill the rest for the evening.
