AFTER a bit of a lie in we have breakfast then I go outside and so some work on the pins and necklaces I’ve cast to replenish some of the merch stock for Spain.
We drive to Doune to see Catriona and the kids. Aaron’s acting up a bit so we take Freya to the park and Catriona brings Aaron to meet us once’s calmed down a bit.
After a nice afternoon we head home and I doing a little more work on the merch before we wander along to Betty’s for a drink before dinner.
Back home, we have some of last night’s brisket and watch our pal Billy’s livestream…from Australia. He and Dorothy are on a big trip for a few months but Bill’s determined to keep to his programme of monthly livestreams.
THE ALARM goes off at 6am. I need to eat the smoker fired up and brisket on if there’s gonna be any chance of ti being ready for our dinner guests tonight.
A slather with mustard and sprinkling of alt, pepper and garlic granules while the pit gets up to temperature and stabilised around 225 degrees and we’re good.
I make a coffee and go back to bed to check emails and deal with my socials before jumping in the shower.
The success of ‘doming’ yesterday’s batch of acrylic guitar earrings has a downside – Margaret thinks I should do to the existing stock as well. She takes the ‘hardware’ off and I set about the epoxy job.
Rather than heading tot he studio or out on a. wander I stay close to the smoker and spend some time dye-subbing some more cookies and testing a couple of stainless steel bar blades which turn out quite nice.
By early afternoon the brisket has hit 165 degrees. I wrap it in butcher paper and stick it back in the smoker. We’re only halfway through the cook!
I nip down to the village to get some bits and bobs then cast some more guitar pins and a another stylised guitar necklace for a multicolour fill.
Margaret’s made an apple pie, mac’n’cheese and some BBQ sauce for later. I make some cornbread.
Our guests – Duncan and Irene – arrive at 7.30pm. The brisket has only another few degrees to reach 203 degrees internal then it has to rest for a while.
Well worth the wait tho’ – this is easiest the best brisket I’ve done. A combination, I think, of a good piece of meat from Mathiesons in Edinburgh (see yesterday’s blog!) and strict attention to temperature in the pit…
After some experimentation I find a way to up the game with the acrylic guitar earrings 🙂
THE diary’s pretty clear today so I take advantage of having time to make some merch for the upcoming Spain tour.
One of the things we’re running short of is acrylic resonator guitar earrings, particularly the black/gold ones.
Normally I cut and engrave them, fill the engraving with jewellers’ paste, sand off the excess paste and then spray a protective polyurethane coat on top.
A brainwave make me try creating a clear resin dome instead of using the polyurethane spray. It’s fiddly, but it works and makes them look (and feel) a wee bit more premium.
That ‘success’ leads me to try some other metallic silver acrylic that I’d tested before but discounted as it was too thin and cheap-looking. The resin dome works a treat on them, so I get busy with a batch of both.
We’ve friends coming for dinner tomorrow (Saturday) and I wanna try something. special. I ordered the meat online and it was sent yesterday (Thursday) for delivery today.
The post has been and gone so I contact the butcher – Mathiesons in Edinburgh – who tell me should’ve been delivered by Royal Mail and ask me to give them a few minuets to check. Turns out Royal Mail has fucked up – but the butcher is offering to either deliver a replacement himself this evening…or send his apprentice over to deliver by 9am in the morning.
Unfortunately 9am is too late for my recipe so not only does the butcher personally deliver a replacement at 6.30pm, but includes some of his new line pork pies and tells us just to keep the original order should it turn up before it goes bad. Now that is absolutely fucking amazing service!
We’re of to Fiona’s for dinner and have a lovely meal and a grand evening…gonna be an early start in the morning for yours truly…..
I SPEND a good part of the morning experimenting with strobe lighting and selfies in the studio.
A break in the photo shenanigans lets me phone the optician and arrange an eye test. Margaret’s been on my case to call since I started noticing changes in sight my right eye. My eye hospital consultation every six months don’t take vision into account, so I keep forgetting I still need ‘normal’ eye tests.
In our bid to save some money and do our bit for the environment we’re furthering our heat pump procurement and also preparing to have our old wood stove taken out. I take some photos and gather some info before putting it online for sale when the time comes.
We’re looking at ways we could run a bottleneck/fingerstyle guitar workshop/masterclass event early in the new year. Margaret’s already spoken to the folks at the Oak Tree Inn and we go down for another chat and look at the spaces we could use.
Back home I pull together an outline for a two night workshop event.
An email comes in with some of the info from the heat pump folks with the steps we need to go through to start the grant and loan process. I spend a good half hour on the phone with the energy folks who do an initial assessment and make a referral to the grant scheme.
There’s still enough light left for a walk. I wander up to Milarrochy, do a couple fo livestreams then arrive back home in the dark. I’m on beef taco duty tonight….
A BIT of a rush to get into the studio for my first – and only – online guitar session of the day.
Back to the house for breakfast and I realise I haven’t put the school session in the dairy. I’d told Dan at Jimmy Egypt’s workshop that I’d be in town tomorrow (Thursday) thinking I’d go after my school session…. but I realise my day has been Wednesday (ie: today!) for the last few weeks.
I message the school and find they are expecting me today! A call to Dan and he tells me I can pick the guitar up later today.Phew. However – he can’t find any issues that might be causing the intermittent dropouts.
After a good session at the school in Balloch I head into Glasgow, pickup the guitar, then some shopping and home…
THERE’S a couple of phone calls scheduled for this morning – one about an website/online strategy for a local business and another about an upcoming photo job.
In between I post the quick video test I did using Come With Me on my Youtube channel.
I dye-subbed some drinks cookies last week but it was challenging to get a print with out any ghosting. It dawns on me I could maybe laser engrave them but a rather time-consuming set up and test yield poor results. Not very clean and a bit smelly!
A guy from Greener Energy Group comes to give us the low-down on heat pumps and have a look to see if our house is suitable and if we’d be eligible for a grant and interest-free loan. Seems we are…so looks like we might go for it.
In the studio I spend some more time messing with he new camera and external flashes to try and get myself familiar with a new system – Sony over my Nikon muscle memory!
Devil’s Left Hand from the Borders Blues Club show on Friday
ALL my usual online/Zoom guitar sessions today have been rescheduled for a number of reasons, so after breakfast I get straight onto editing the live video from Friday night’s show.
Once done, I decide to do a quick’n’dirty one microphone video recording to see how the new camera performs. Set up is easy and I’m quite pleased with the results…although my memory cards are a bit slow which makes the video file transfer a bit laborious. I order some new cards from Amazon.
After my afternoon in-person guitar student I take a walk up the lochside then do the prep for my Wildcats’ livestream.
Despite my prep and having time on my side, a few technical issues raise their heads just before (and during!) the livestream…but it still goes well 🙂
MAIN job today is editing up some video from Friday night’s show.
Margaret caught three songs on my phone but I only have GoPro footage of one of them as the GoPro crapped outafter about 20 minutes despite being plugged into power and having loads of SD card space. Not sure why it’s so flaky, Shame, really, as it’s a great wee camera otherwise.
Anyway, I have two ‘angles’ of Devil May Care so get busy editing that one.
It’s kinda grey and damp outside but I manage to persuade Margaret to come a walk and we talk the new camera out to see how it fares. I’m quite pleased with the results 🙂
WE have a (very) long lie – I check out all the photos and posts from last night’s show and make up a wee reel with some of my favourites.
Breakfast is not even brunch, it’s lunch and after I get some of the routine stuff out the way I call Jimmy Egypt in Glasgow in the hope that either he or one of his more-than-able crew can take a look at the signature guitar. It’s been cutting out very briefly and intermittently over the last few shows.
I tried to replicate the issue during the week – shaking pulling, switching – but all seemed fine. On last night’s gig there were a couple of very brief dropouts from the guitar. We’re off to Spain for a few shows and I need peace of mind that the guitar isn’t gonna flake out.
Anyway, they guys ask if I can drop the guitar off asap so today’s to-do list is out the window and I head into Glasgow, leave the guitar then go into Wex Photo in Bath Street.
My trusty old DSLR is showing its age and I’ve been thinking of going mirrorless for a while. Do I stay with Nikon or look to Sony? That’s been the question – along with how many of the ;’latest features’ I actually need.
Having researched the topic and watched hours of YouTube videos I realised I really need to get hands on and see for myself. And ask the opinion of an expert in-person.
I’d bought online from Wex in the past but never knew they had a store in Glasgow. And what a place it is. Miles ahead of places like Jessops and the staff are nothing short of excellent. We chatted a good while and I explained that while I have a photography website – lochlomondstudios.com – and did a lot of commercial photography in the past, I no longer pursue photo jobs and only do a few a year if they crop up and I fancy/have time to take them on. I do, however, need to be able to produce good quality promo photos and videos for my music.
I come out the shop happy, with a Sony A7iv and a maxed out credit card….
Next stop is Costco and Tesco before finally pulling up home after darkness has fallen!
Fantastic time at Borders Blues Club…thanks for the pic Davie Sargent 🙂
AFTER breakfast I get busy printing some gig listing postcards to put round the tables at the Vale Club in Innerleithen where I’m playing tonight (Friday).
A guitar player from down south, Geoff, and his wife Maggie are in Scotland for a holiday. He was in touch to see if I was around for a wee guitar session and we arranged for this morning.
We have a grand blether and session the they head off and I get busy putting together the gear for tonight’s show. Margaret sorts all the merch.
Get in is 5pm and we rollup right on time. The Andy Taylor Group is sound checking and organiser Paul helps us in with the gear. The band soundcheck quickly then it’s my turn and Ian is on top of the sound in a flash.
There’s time to nip out for some grub and we find a wee pizza place – Out Out Gastro pub – a few hundred yards away.
On arrival we’re told they’re fully booked…and we could order take out, but we’d have to order online. A bit odd, but nevermind, I go on the website and order and we hang out for the 20 minutes or so until the pizzas are due to be ready.
While we’re waiting, our pals from the other act playing show up. They don’t have booking either but are shown to a table! This is pretty bad form. Our order is likely to be ready soon and I don’t wanna create a scene so stay schtoom. Saving grace is that our pizzas are very good and good value too.
In another twist of ‘weirdness’ we’re not allowed to eat our pizza in the venue because “you’ll stink the place out”! So we have to take ’em outside into the cold. This is from the venue staff – not the blues club folks I hasten to add…but not a great way to treat artists who have been travelling and need to eat before a show!
I guess you get the venues that look after artists – offer coffee, a drink of water or whatever after load in/during set up; a meal and some complimentary refreshments etc – and the others that have no idea. Again, this is down to the Vale Club, not the blues club folks.
Anyway, there’s a good crowd in, sound is great and everyone has a grand time….and my pal Davie Sargent is there with his camera and grabs some nice shots.
We’ve a fair distance home and an early start in the morning so we only catch the first half of the band’s set before we have to hit the road…
Margaret with her nicely organised merch table 🙂The Andy Taylor Group from Orkney…fantastic.
