Post cataract op – not quite the pirate look I was hoping for!
WE’RE UP early and no time for breakfast before we head to Vale of Leven hospital day surgery to check in for my cataract op.
There’s five folks ahead of me so I have to wait a good couple hours before I’m taken – but the nurses are good craic.
The procedure itself only takes about 20 minutes and whilst it was a bit freaky it was pain-free and not traumatic in any way. The doc and all the theatre folks were very pleasant and efficient.
I’m having a cup of coffee and a couple biscuits whilst getting my post-op care instruction when Margaret comes to collect me.
Back home I swallow some paracetamol, have something to eat then have a sleep.
I’ve to keep the plastic eye thing on ‘til tomorrow and start my rigid regime of drops. A little more complex than the usual to minimise the potential for a uveitis flare up.
I’M STILL knackered when I wake up…no idea why…too much to do to laze about tho’.
Top of today’s list is to make a Spotify canvas – a short vertical looping video that displays when a track is played – for the upcoming MacPherson’s Lament release (26 September).
Once the canvas is uploaded I pitch the song to Spotify’;s editorial playlists.
I take a break and try and learn a little more about 3D sculpting and modelling on the iPad then get back onto promo stuff for the single.
Once the news release is written I add links for private streaming/download previews and also a link to an assets folder with .mp3 and .wav versions of the track, cover art, the news release and a lo-res preview version of the official video.
The rain’s off so I go for a walk, stopping in at Betty’s to help out with a couple wee things.
After dinner I try and have an early night. Eye surgery – cataract – at 8.30am in the morning….
THREE guitar students back to back this morning. The first online, next in-person then back online.
I have an hour or so to get through my routine stuff before an online insiders’ forum with Help Musicians then a late lunch.
My pal Duncan calls to see if I’d be available for a meeting at the Black Bull in Gartmore at 5pm to throw in one ideas for promotion of the venue’s winter music season. I’m playing their January show.
I get some more stuff done before it’s tie to head to Gartmore. When I get back home I write up my proposal then smoke some salmon for tonight’s pasta. Betty’s coming for dinner….
The obligatory ‘Benchy’ first 3D print test. It worked!
THERE’S some email accounts to be sorted for the local community trust which then need to be configured on various devices.
Then it’s back on to the office clear out and tidy. Sometimes you wish you hadn’t started something…
A message comes in from a pal whose website I revamped a while back. They can’t get logged in and want to drop by with their laptop.
I can’t find any problem and we get logged in successfully so helpfully problem solved. We’re just done when David arrives so I can set up his ‘treasurer’ email on his phone.
In the office I get to point where there’s a clean space for the 3D printer – a Bambu Labs 1 Mini – which has been waiting patiently in its box for a week.
The build and set up is pretty straightforward then I successfully mange to print the obligatory test ‘Benchy’. Everything seems to be working fine 🙂
An initial attempt to see if Still Friends could work on guitar…mmm…maybe needs a little work!
USUAL early start to get the sourdough in the oven and breakfast out the way before a session with my regular Monday morning Zoom guitar student.
I’m not lying finished when I get a call from the eye hospital…there’s been a cancellation and I can get my cataract op on Friday! Yippee. I was concerned that it would come before a gig/s and I’d have to play a mild mannered sit down show to avoid any ‘exersion’.
Main task of the day is editing the video for the next single from the album, MacPherson’s Lament. It doesn’t drop ‘til 26 September but I can’t start the advance press/radio/media promo until the video is finished.
I’m pretty much done when my afternoon guitar student arrives it’s her mum then I start prep for to night’s Wildcats’ livestream on Facebook.
There’s even time for a walk up the lochside before the livestream.
All goes fine when I go live and I take a notion to try playing Still Friends on the guitar rather than banjo…it kinda works…
Community picnic on Inchailloch with Louise and Ileana
UP EARLY to get everything ready for the community picnic Margaret has organised on behalf of the local community trust.
Boat rides have been arranged from the boatyard to take folks to the near side of Inchcailloch but the ‘picnic’ is at Port Bawn at the far end of the island.
David F has offered to take a boat over with all the food, charcoal, drinks and other supplies and ferry over the folks that would struggle with the walk over the island.
I go on the paddle board and am first on the scene closely followed by Margaret and the first boatful of folks who’ve walked over from the ferry stop.
It’s not long before David arrives and we help his passengers alight and carry all the stuff to the beach.
The weather is perfect and everything goes great other than David and Jamie getting a ticking off from the Park folks for mooring their boats.
I paddle back and amn’t long out the shower when Margaret, our pal Tom and his kids arrive with ice cream which we enjoy in the garden before they head off.
I do a little more work tidying the office then make dinner and chill.
MARGARET’s birthday today. We have breakfast then she has to go into Glasgow for extra shopping…and not for us either.
It’s the community picnic on Inchcailloch tomorrow (Sunday) and despite having put out a last call for numbers on Thursday there’s been umpteen people popping up and asking if they can come.
The boat bookings can no doubt be amended accordingly, but there’s now not enough burgers and other food for the number of folks!
I need to make room in the office for the 3D printer that’s been sitting in its box untouched all week. The place is a bit of a shitshow anyway so I bite the bullet.
First job is to flush out the cooling system and laser tune on the CO2 laser. A time-consuming and fiddly job that’s probably a year overdue. Then I need to clan the mirrors and lens, clean everything out and oil the rails.
With that job out the way I start pulling the place apart and chucking as much as I can in the bin.
Other stuff gets put in plastic tubs to go in the attic and other materials cut to go in the filing cabinet etc….and so it goes…
I get the back of it broken and hopefully get finished by the end of tomorrow.
AFTER breakfast I get the Love Balmaha insulated cups in the online store and spread the word at a local level.
Next job is to create another version of the video ad for my upcoming show at The Met in Bury (27 September). The existing ad ‘expired’ last week and had been running a while so I thought I’d run another with a different song behind it.
I’m out of Dave Arcari postcards which we use for upcoming gig listings and also put into online orders so I knock up some artwork using the revamped logotype and get an order off to the printer.
We’ve been dragging our heels a bit with the idea of embroidered shirts/hoodies and I haven’t got back to the folks that we spoke to a few weeks ago. I create a mockup to work out size and email it over so we can start getting quotes/budget/plan together.
Eventually I free up some time and go for a wander up the lochside, stopping in at our pal Liz’s on the way back to pick up Margaret and stopping for a quick drink,
THERE’S an order for some Love Balmaha tote bags so after breakfast I get busy printing them up in the office.
Annoyingly I fuck up a couple of them and throw them on the ‘botched jobs’ pile. It’s amazing how many things can go wrong or adversely affect a seemingly simple process!
Big job today, though, is finishing my tax return which – for various reasons – is frying my brain. A long call to HMRC is really helpful tho’ and puts me on the right track.
I take a break when one of my guitar students rocks up for a lesson then get back on the tax return…and get it finished and submitted, Phew!
Back in the office I parcel up a. Big vinyl order to go to Finland then prototype a Love Balmaha insulated cup. Works out nice.
Betty’s coming for dinner and has arrived when I get back to the house and make some chicken fajitas.
AFTER an early online lesson with one of my guitar students I get back on my accounts.
Actually, the ‘accounts’ part is largely done, there’s a bunch of other stuff on the tax return that I can’t quite get my head around. I look out some files and try and bring some order to my mess.
After lunch we head into Glasgow and Margaret’s drops me at the eye hospital and goes to the supermarket. I’ve an eye assessment for a (not too long in the, I hope) future cataract op.
Once I’m done I walk along Great Western Road and meet Margaret then we head to Costco for supplies for Sunday’s community picnic on the island.
It’s nearly 8pm when we get home and I make some smash burgers on the Ninja Woodfire for the first time. I realized that it was time-consuming – and unnecessarily wasteful – lighting a chimney full of charcoal and using the grill, especially when a big griddle plate on the top eliminates any fallout/benefits of using charcoal.
I found a flat plate for the Woodfire and ordered last week. It works a treat 🙂
