MARGARET’s off into Glasgow for a CT scan early doors…I get busy in the studio.
There’s a couple of things I need to source for the PA. First up, I recall seeing shorter connector section to go between the bass/amp unit and the high speaker which would make the thing more useful in the studio as well as any places with a low roof or high stage.
The other thing I need is a latching foot switch with some kind of LED indicator. The cheapo one I bought doesn’t have an indicator and it’s hard to hear from the stage if I’ve muted the reverb when talking between songs (or switched it back on after). I find both and get ’em ordered.
There it’s onto main job of the day – a web and online presence proposal and health-check for a local business. The directors came to me last week to discuss a website revamp and I suggested that a re-think of the businesses’ entire online presence/strategy would be just as important.
I take a break when my afternoon guitar student arrives, then finish it all int time to prep dinner.
For some reason I decide to livestream the making of tonight’s jambalaya…
I MANAGE to get the routine admin – socials, emails, shower, breakfast etc – all out the way before my morning guitar student arrives. We have a really good session and she’s doing really well.
There’s a few financial things to be sorted out – including payment for the new PA system I bought a couple of months ago on a deferred payment. It needs paid for. The credit card’s a mess and a loan needs cleared.
That all takes the rest of the morning but I think I get things into some state of order. Still gotta tackle my accounts tho’. Another day!
After lunch I get busy writing news releases and contacting local and regional media about the upcoming festival shows at Dewsbury (Saturday 14 September) and Darlington (Sunday 15 September).
I get a wander up the lochside then spend some time working on a ‘digital consultation’ for a nearby business.
I GET a few things done after breakfast then we head for Glasgow for a day out.
My birthday gift to Margaret was tickets for A Play, a Pie and a Pint – a lunchtime production that runs at Oran More in Glasgow’s west end. The play she chose – Poker Alice – started this week.
We make good time and pick our respective pints – lager for Margaret and Pepsi Max for me – and our pies (well, we opt for vegan sausage rolls which are really good!) and settle for the play. It’s a one-woman show featuring Annie Grace as Poker Alice and we both really enjoy it.
By co-incidence it’s 20 years since PP&P was launched and one of the first productions was Poker Alice with Annie Grace. After the play there’s a panel session with the artistic director, original director Dave Anderson, production manager and Grace herself. It’s an interesting half hour and I enjoy it even more than the play.
Parking’s expensive so once we’re done we head for some shopping, Margaret gets a look around TK Maxx and spends some vouchers I was ‘awarded’ a year ago then back to the west end for dinner at the Hanoi Bike Shop. One of our favourites and this visit is courtesy of our pals Alastair and Karen who gave me a voucher for my birthday.
We’ve not been for a while and last time was a little disappointing but tonight we have the best meal ever 🙂
I CALL the dentist as soon as it opens to see if I can get my broken tooth looked at. Luckily I get an appointment mid-afternoon 🙂
That means I have to re-schecdule some of my online guitar students. All are amenable and I pack ’em all into the morning!
The dentist repairs my tooth quickly and easily – hopefully the it’ll last…then back home for a late lunch and my afternoon guitar student.
A call from my local web client lets me know they’re happy. Just a couple of wee tweaks – which I do while we’re chatting – and we’re good to go.
I gather some archive video to spin into my Wildcats’ livestream. We’ve only a few more ‘instrument focus’ episodes and this week it’s the turn of the signature guitar form National Reso-Phonic.
THE KIDS have us awake just before 8am…Margaret gets up and gives them breakfast and we have a coffee.
I make breakfast burritos then hit the studio – I have a website to finish for a local client and really want them to have something to look at by tomorrow (Monday) morning).
Catriona and the kids head off early afternoon and we go to Lambert to visit Betty who’s recovering from her hip operation after last week’s fall.
It’s after 6pm when we get home and I get back on the website work until dinner’s ready just after 10pm.
AFTER a bit of a long lie I go outside and inflate the paddleboard…then back into the house to make breakfast burritos.
I get a little bit of work done then go out for a quick paddle. Not too much time as we’re gonna nip along to the flower show.
The loch’s pretty busy and I take a break from paddling, sit down and let myself drift for a while. While trying to sort myself out on the board with out landing in the water I manage to twist my left knee.
It’s so sore I end up lying on my face on the board for ten minutes until I feel I can get up and cary on.
Back home I have a shower then rub some ibuprofen ointment on my knee and look out an old elastic knee support.
At the flower show I find out my Conic Hill pendant has landed first prize in the handicrafts category. We hang out and chat with folks then I walk home – keen not to let my knee stiffen up.
Catriona and the kids roll up late afternoon and once the kids are asleep we go outside for pizza….
I make two entries for the handicrafts section of the local flower show…inly to find I can only enter one!
AFTER breakfast I find the Stirling Observer has used my hydro society news release – a nice half-page feature on page three.
I send a scan to my fellow directors then use it as social media content for a load of posts.
Next job is to finish a Ben Lomond plaque I’m making to enter the handicrafts section for tomorrow’s local flower show. I paint the various layers and decide to re-make the top layer as the first effort wasn’t;t to my liking.
There’s an order in for a custom ‘Alvin the Cat Who Couldn’t Cat’ pendant. I made a couple of one-off’s for the author a month or son go and he’s now ordered one for the illustrator. No pressure!
I cast one up and get initial sanding and tidying done before Margaret runs me to the village for an appointment with the doc. No results from my recent MRI scan yet…but I have a wee spot-like thing on my face that has ‘changed’ recently. As first I thought it was pluke….then we thought maybe an ingrown hair…but it’s mutated a bit. The doc has a look and decides it’s best to refer me to a dermatologist…a potential rodent ulcer (nope, I don’t know either!).
I enjoy the walk home then finish the plaque of flower show and look out a Conic Hill pendant I made before taking both along to the village hall. I pay my dues then find I’m only allowed to enter one item into the handicrafts category. I take the plaque back home!
OFF early doors for a session with the kids at school in Balloch.
I’m home in time for lunch then my pal Duncan brings some folks to chat over a website and social media project.
They’re just ;having when my first in-person guitar student of the day arrives. We have a really good session – I’m keen he’s got as many tools and techniques under his belt before he heads off to uni in a few weeks.
In the office I start an item I want to make and enter the local flower show which has a crafts and various ‘non-flower’ categories.
Next, into the kitchen. Some poolish for a batch of pizza dough then salsa and some avocado sauce for tonight’s tacos.
A bit more work on the flower show entry then my final guitar student of the day arrives….
MARGARET’s off early for the second and final day of her community development conference in Glasgow.
I manage to finish of a news release for the community hydro society before my guitar student arrives.
After the lesson start work on updating a logo and planning a new website for a local client
A quick break for lunch then I do a little more work, some vertical video edits for TikTok and social reels, make up a shopping list and meal plan for the coming week and head into Glasgow to meet Margaret.
The traffic is nuts but we still have time to hit Costco for some supplies and fuel before a special event at the Scottish Music Centre.
MARGARET’S off to a community development conference in Glasgow – I have a full diary, but mostly phone calls and a flexible to-do list.
I’m not long finished breakfast when Fiona drops by with a gift for Margaret. We have a blether and a coffee, she heads off and I hit the studio for the first of my ‘telephone’ meetings which takes me up to lunch time.
I’ve a bit of prep for my Thursday morning music session at the school in Balloch then may first afternoon guitar student arrives. Not just my first, as it turns out, also my last of the day as I get a cancellation message from the father and daughter lesson scheduled for later on.
I sometimes think I should charge a cancellation fee or something then remind myself that all my students – online and in-person – are so flexible and accommodating with any changes I need to make that I bin the notion.
In the kitchen I prep some Italian sausage sugo for pasta later then walk along to the village hall for a newly-organised ‘pain’ seminar with a physio team from Glasgow.
