I do some more tree trimming out the back until the chainsaw battery runs out then have lunch.
Later on when the battery’s charged up I go back out and do same…until it runs out again. All the major stuff’s done now…just a bit of s baller stuff to finish sometime over the next few days.
In the studio I edit some vertical and square format videos for a couple of the upcoming England shows…Barnoldswick and Oxford. Brecon is sold out and Newcastle looks good. They’ll be in. the main./general ad and promo video, but the Oxford show is only just booked and Barnoldswick is a little slow so I’ll do specific ads/video for them.
Wee take a wander along to see Betty before Donner then have veggie haggis, neeps and fatties when we get home 🙂
Smoked beef short rib tacos…salsa, manchego, avocado sauce and a wee squeeze of lime!
MY morning guitar student isn’t well so I hit the studio after breakfast.
First job of the day is to make some video promos for the upcoming series of England dates. After posting vertical and square versions on my social, I’ll use the content to create targetted ads.
It’s nice day and I’d like a quick paddle, but a wander down to the bay puts paid to that idea. The bay’s frozen over.
Betty’s coming for dinner tonight and I’m making smoked beef short rib tacos. I go back to the house to get the smoker fired up…but it’s frozen shut and it takes me half an hour with a heat gun to get it freed up!
Once the short ribs are on we have lunch then I venture out on another tree trimming session. More progress, but the chainsaw battery runs out before I’m done so looks like it’ll be another day or two before I’m done.
In lieu of a paddle I go a wander up the lochside. Back home I check progress in the smoker then finish off some video edits in the studio. While the videos are ‘processing’ I play some guitar. Still need to do individual show video/ads but that can wait.
Betty calls to say she’s not been well and won’t make it for dinner. That’s a shame…’cos the smoke beef shortrib tacos turn out great…and the homemade avocado sauce and salsa toppings set the beef off nicely.
After dinner I spend time on gig promo and some other admin stuff…
IT’S bloody cold when I take out the rubbish and chop some wood before breakfast.
I have a fair bit of email, social media and other admin stuff to get through over the course of the morning.
Another trek over the fence to cut back some of the trees and other growth. I make pretty good progress…one more session should hopefully see the job done.
After lunch I head to the studio and mess with the guitar until my young guitar student arrives for his lesson.
There’s four England shows coming up in early February. I got a lot of the online listing stuff done last night but I need to make up Facebook cover art for my profile and page.
Once that’s done I’d done I start work on landing page for my website. Always a bit of a challenge putting something together that’ll work on desktop, tablet and phone screens.
After dinner I prep some beef short ribs to go in the smoker in the morning. Smoked short rib tacos for dinner tomorrow. Oh yes!
I SLEEP in and forget about my sourdough, so it’s later than usual going into the oven and I have to wait ’til after my first Zoom guitar student of the day before I have breakfast!
Back in the studio I start editing up video from the weekend so I can use it in tonight’s Wildcats’ livestream on Facebook.
After a late lunch I venture out to trim back some trees. It’s been a few years since I’ve done it and the regrowth been obscuring our view for the last coupla summers. Best to do the trimming now while there’s no leaves.
The chain comes off the chainsaw tho’ and I have guitar student arriving so I give up for the day.
After the guitar lesson I head back to the studio and prep for tonight’s Wildcats’ livestream and deal with a bunch of emails and other stuff.
Another Zoom student then into the livestreamm..the first in ages that hasn’t been peppered with technical (or other!) clusterfucks!
After dinner we sort out ticketing and stuff for an upcoming show in Oxford and I get it – and some other shows – listed online.
UP and down to breakfast at the hotel early(-ish!)...Seamus, our driver, is picking us up at 9.45am to take us to the airport.
Seamus also happens to be the director of Belfast Blues Festival and is keen to get me back to play the festival in June. Magic!
Although we flew into Belfast City airport, our return is from Belfast international. Go figure! Anyway, the place is quiet and we’re checked in and through security in no time. The guy at the scanner, though, is a grumpy cunt…and pretty rude. Given the ‘aggression or rudeness to our staff won’t be tolerated’ signs everywhere I find this pretty ironic and Margaret has to persuade me not to post/Tweet/whatever to share my thoughts!
We’re back in Glasgow and on our way to Costco early afternoon. It takes us lounger to get through the roadwork and diversion into St Rollox retail park than it did to get from Belfast to Glasgow!
We grab a late lunch in a crowded Costco, pick up some ore shopping in Tesco then head for home.
After unloading the car and putting the shopping away I chop some wood, get the fire on then head to the studio to dump video footage from the show onto the computer. While the video’s transferring I put away the gear from the trip and tidy up a little.
Back in the house I mix some sourdough dough then prepare black pepper tofu for dinner.
We watch our pal Bill’s monthly livestream from Florida while we eat.
Grand time at the Out to Lunch Festival in Belfast…
WE’RE a little later going down for breakfast than planned but still in good time.
A taxi ride to the BBC gets us there just after 10.30am and soon I’m getting set up and soundchecked. Some nice mics in that room!!!
The interview and session all goes well and the producer has a taxi waiting to whisk us to the venue for this afternoon’s Out to Lunch fest show.
The Deer’s Head Music Hall is a fantastic space with a great rig. Soundman Vic does a grand job with soundchecks then I head to the green room until showtime.
I have a grand time playing and chatting to folks after the show before getting the gear back to the hotel and having a drink with our pal Rachel.
Next stop, Common Market for tacos and quesadillas from Al Pastor (again!) – then on to Black Box to meet our pal Cara where we run into a bunch of other festival folks we know. Happy days 🙂
A nice walk up Craigie Fort on my way along the lochside as dusk approaches..
OFF to the school first thing for a session with some kids. Its goes well…then I stop to get some shopping on the way home.
On the way home I see work being done on the footpath between us and the next village. I grab the vcamera and go a walk to grab some photos.
It’s a nice day outside and I take the chance to tidy up some more stuff outside. The gazebo covers from the New Year garden show are still wet and cold and can’t be put away. I drape one over the rotary drier and another over the swing…if they dry a little I can move them into the office. Then there’s just two more to deal with.
In the studio I work on sounds and patches on the Quad Cortex. I’d seen some info on global input/output levels that are separate from individual patch inout and output. I go through them with the two guitars I’m taking to Belfast and adjust accordingly.
As dusk approaches it’s still lovely outside. Cold but nice. I take a wander up the lochside.
Next, my accounts…and tax return. I get focussed and finish it all up then submit my tax return. Phew! Not before time.
I do a little promo for my BBC Ulster interview and live session coming up on Saturday morning then back to the house for dinner…
MY MORNING guitar student isn’t well so she won’t be ’til next week so I get on with the to-do list.
First up is passport renewal. There’s a festival booking in Romania in April and although my passport tis valid ’til December 2024, it was issued in March 2014 and will be ‘more than ten years past issue date’. by April which means no entry to Romania!
Thanks to technology and the wonders of the web I can renew pretty easily online – but I need to take a selfie in the studio. I get it all done and paid for then package up my old passport to send off in snail mail.
After lunch I take a walk along the road to the next village to grab some photos of pavement clearance for the community trust – and maybe the upcoming. local place plan. Margaret’s been on at the council to do something about the state of the path for years and work has finally started today.
When I get back Julie and Maggi are in discussing the place plan. I have a coffee and chuck in my tuppence-worth before heading to the studio to get some work done on my accounts,
There’s a knock on the studio door just after 6pm. It’s Joel – he’s come to check the dog (Rosie) was OK in Maggi’s car, but she (the dog, that is!) is in the house in front of the fire! We chat and mess with guitars in the studio then go house for a coffee.
After everyone’s gone I make some tortillas from scratch using the directions from Masa Tortillas in Bristol…I’ve order more fresh ones from them, but they’re not here yet and we’re having tacos tonight. My newly amended recipe is a lot better than past efforts 🙂
WE SLEEP in a bit. Dunno why, but we’ve both woken early the last few weeks and then fallen back to sleep for an embarrassingly long time!
Main job of the day is to check the set list for Saturday’s show in Belfast and rehearse – it’s a big, sold out show so I wanna make sure I’m on my game!
I have a guitar student this afternoon who’s moving form acoustic to electric guitar so I decide to try and set up an patch on the Quad Cortex that we can both plug in at the same time and even jam a little at the end of lessons.
After an inordinate amount of time trying to work out why I can’t get any input signal from the second guitar when a mic works fine..there’s no apparent settings to change from mic to line level for the input, so I imagine it’s detected automatically…I stop farting about and get busy with some other stuff.
As it turns out may student got an amp for Christmas and has brought it along. I spend most of the lesson showing him how to use it and what al; the various effects do. And how to adjust them.
Back in the studio a bit of online research reveals a ‘secret’ screen not he Quad Cortex accessed by a swipe down on the touch screen. I’ve generally been using Cortex Control on the computer to change settings and this doesn’t seem to be available via the desktop software. Not that I can see anyway.
A simple on-screen setting and I get everything working!
Margaret’s busy negotiating a couple of shows – one in Oxford next month and a festival in Romania in April….
