Givers & Takers from this week’s Wildcats’ livestream…
UP at the crack of dawn to put the sourdough in the oven. A coffee and emails in bed then I get the sourdough out to cool and start tackling some of the day’s jobs.
First thing on the list is sorting the speaker cables in the living/dining room after Margaret’s decorating. The connections are all easy but hiding and tacking the cables top the wall is fiddly and annoying. Eventually we get it done.
After breakfast I have a Zoom session with one of my guitar students then I finish off the artwork for the new Wildcats’ (exclusive!) t-shirts and hoodies and get it to our merch pal Kenny along with the pre-order quantities/sizes of each.
Then it’s time for another online guitar student. Once I’m done I head back to the house – the sun’s shining and there’s a light breeze to keep the midges at bay so I take advantage of the time to plant a raspberry cutting and some herbs our pal Diana brought last week.
I’m just finishing up when Violet arrives for her guitar lesson. We sit outside in the sunshine and enjoy a good wee session.
Back in the studio I edit some video footage from Saturday’s trip to Eden Festival and get it done in time to spin into my Wildcats’ livestream on Facebook…
WE’RE both pretty burst this morning and have a good lie in. I’m covered in midge bites – Margaret has less but much angrier and itchy than mine. I’m aching all over. A month since my last live show so I guess I’m just not match fit!
It’s lunchtime before new have breakfast then Catriona, Will and the kids rock up with fathers’ day cards and a gift for your truly…. and cake 🙂
We chat over coffee and cake then they all head off.
There’s a few domestic ‘tasks’ I’d hoped to get done…the speaker cables need reconnected and tacked up/hidden after Margaret’s wallpapering and there’s quite a few things needing planted or re-potted outside. But it’s drizzly and midgie and we both have more bites than we can handle for one weekend.
Instead I hit the office and spend a few hours creating proper vector art from my earlier Wildcat sketches. I need decent artwork that will scale up for the new t-shirts.
Next job is cleaning the mud off all the gear from last night’s show. Everything – not just the cases/bags, but the contents too – is caked in mud. Most of it, thankfully, has dried off a bit so the cleanup isn’t quite as messy as it might have been.
After catching up one mails and socials I set up a private Facebook event for our August garden concert then back to the house for a late dinner, some telly and ….bed.
Awesome time at Eden Festival – despite the mud and midges!
OFF to the borders for my slot at Eden Festival later– it’s not too long a drive tho’, so we don’t have to rush.
After a lazy morning we pack the car and head south, arriving at the festival site just at the rain starts. The marshals are all friendly, but not very clued up about the site and layout. First we’re sent down a track that eventually takes us to a spot behind the main stage.
We park up, get into the main arena area and wade through ankle deep mud to a big covered area to get our bearings. it’s now absolutely tipping it down, I have no jacket and am bursting for a piss. Margaret, who has a rain jacket goes to in out where my stage is. Seems to be a good ten minutes walk away and there’s no chance of getting the gear through the people, mud and rain.
Margaret goes back to get the car and I nip through a space between some of the catering tents to meet her on the track.
We have to make our way round the perimeter of the site. We call our pal Stephen who’s stage manager for my stage and he gives us directions. We get loaded in backstage and relax for a while before going to check out some of the other acts.
I’m not on ’til 9.30pm and there’s a good 20 minute changeover time. Soundman Stewart and his team do a great job and I have a great time playing despite the midge attack. It’s just after 11pm by the time we load out and get off site…and home by 1.30am…
First paddle in a fortnight….Clairinch looking towards Balmaha…
PLANS for as morning paddle are changed after I get a call to chat on Stephen Jardine’s Friday morning show on BBC Radio Scotland.
The topic, though, isn’t music – it’s my tomatillo plants!
It’s midday before I get out for a paddle. My first in a fortnight. It’s a wee bit blowy when I get out the relative calmness of the bay but I manage to do a couple livestreams without taking a dip and stop on Clairinch for a break before heading back to dry land.
After lunch I get he smoker fired up for some chicken I need for tonight. Betty’s coming for dinner and I’m on jambalaya.
UP EARLY and for once I don’t have to rush to get to the school in Balloch on time.
After my session with a good bunch of kids I pick up some shopping on the way home.
After lunch I record some chorus backing vocals for the forthcoming NHS charity fundraiser single and send the audio files to the producers down south. I also capture the session on video in case they need it for the video accompanying the release. I already filmed some guitar ‘bits’ along the lochside.
UP EARLY – I need to get the studio tidied up and ready for my pal Diana who’s coming this morning tor record a song.
I’m sorted just in time and we have a good few hours recording and chatting. I’ve got a guitar lesson later so once the recording’s done I undertake to do some work not he recording later and send a mix when I can.
My guitar student is progressing well then I hit the office, pack some merch and get it to the postbox. All small packets so I deport; need the post to collect.
Back in the studio I prepare a set list for Saturday night’s show at the Eden Festival then spend some time on a mix for Diana.
Margaret’s making crispy pork belly and it turns out really good….
The prototypes evolve and..I think…improve with an epoxy infill….
WE have a bit of a lie in then I get busy with the routine tasks.
My plan is to go for a paddle after an 11am phone consultation with the mental health nurse from our doctor’s surgery. When 11am comes I wish to finish my first attempt at making paneer…but no call. I finish the process, tidy up then go out to the office to try out an epoxy infill on the Wildcats’ prototype merch I cast yesterday,
The postie picks up some merch and delivers an Apple USB-c charging cable for the MacBook I use in the house. A replacement for the one delivered yesterday that didn’t work…the MacBook stopped charging after, I think, someone maybe tripped over the cable and pulled it to the ground damaging the cable plug at the computer end.
Anyway, the new Apple cable doesn’t work either.I checked the fuse in the plug and all sorts yesterday – now, I think, the problem may be with the MacBook itself. Half an hour of numerous restarts and holding down various key combinations and I do something right…it works 🙂
Before I know it my afternoon guitar student arrives. After his lesson I finish off the Wildcats’ merch infill and am pleased with the results.
Another guitar student – online this time – then it’s time to head along to the village hall for the ,local community trust AGM. We’re back home soon after 9pm and get the pizza oven fired up….
I do some prototyping for what could become very limited edition Wildcats’ merch…
MY USUAL Monday routine kicks off with an online guitar student…then I hit the office to work on an idea I have for some exclusive limited edition Wildcats’ merch.
If they work out, these pins and pendants will be a premium piece of merch – just five of each. Signed and numbered on the back.
Back in the studio I prepare some video to spin into to night’s Wildcats’ livestream on Facebook. My early afternoon online guitar student has moved to evening for one week only.
I have a young guitar student and her mum later in the afternoon then I finish off the raw prototype pendants and pins. The first attempts were poor so it was back to the drawing board. there revised design etc come out good. I might fill them with epoxy or leave them raw metal…we’ll see what the Wildcats folks think later on 😉
CATRIONA and the kids are coming so I nip over to the studio to get some stuff done before they get here.
Best laid plans…the computer gets stuck in a ‘restart after login’ loop then the screen goes blank. Fuck sake.
Instead of getting an early start and laid of stuff done, I’ve got nothing done and spend the rest of the morning troubleshooting to try and get back up and running.
Eventually I get things going but none of the external drives are mounting. I take a break and chill with everyone and get back on the case after they’ve gone.
I finally get everything sorted and reward myself with a walk in the woods then start on tonight’s enchiladas.
WE have a bit of long lie. When we get up, Sandy has dropped off some plants and veg 🙂
There’s some merch orders to be packed up and postage printed. Some, though, have Wildcats’ hoodie and t-shirt pre-orers, so they’ll have to wait until they’re ready.
Before I can tackle the pleats Sandy left I need to get some more tomatillos out the hydroponics and potted. The tomatillos that are already in ‘the greenhouse’ are looking strong and have lots of flowers but I’ma little concerned that they’re not showing much sign of fruiting. I’ve been cross pollinating every time I go past them…maybe it’s too cold or the plants are all the same sex. Fuck nows. We’ll just have to wait and see.
W have a (very) early evening meal then go to Balloch for some shopping before arriving at Kilmaronock Old kirk where our pals Marion and Phil are playing a show.
We have a grand evening and not too late home where we watch the final episode in the end Rebus series…a bit of a disappointing ‘leave it to your imagination’ ending…
