I HAVE a guitar student coming to the house first thing.
Once we’re through, I finish of some custom luggage tag art in the office and fire off some visuals for approval before start making the tags.
Lunch is arancini mad with leftover asparagus risotto from last night. It’s good, but our verdict is that mushroom risotto makes better arancini!
In the studio I get some more work done until my 4pm guitar student arrives..then I finish off my letter to the local council about some things that are, let’s say, ‘boiling ma piss’.
By the time I’m finished Betty has arrived and I start dinner….
Lunchtime paddle to Port Bawn at the far end of Inchailloch
I SPEND the morning re-creating artwork for some custom leather luggage tags. The customer has sent images, but they’re in colour – which isn’t any good – and very low resolution.
It’s a time intensive but therapeutic job for me and I’m happy with the results.
David B arrives just as I finish making my lunch wraps…we’re going for a paddle to the island for lunch.
I’m back in time for a quick shower before Fiona arrives for a website tutorial – she’s started looking after the local village hall website.
Back in the office I carry on with custom luggage tags then hit the studio to mess with the guitar for a while.
Margaret has a meeting about a local initiative – Maggi comes to the house and the other participants are online. Once they’re done with the meeting we sit and blether over a drink. It’s after when I have the asparagus risotto ready!
AFTER making a batch of egg bites for the next few days’ breakfasts I hit the office to work on some art for a couple of custom leather luggage tags that have been ordered.
I take a clip of the cover version – Big River – from last night’s Wildcats’ livestream, edit it and post it round my socials and make a vertical TikTok post too.
A break to make a pizza for lunch then back to the computer to work my way through some stuff I’m gonna write to the local council about. Long story!
After spending longer than I should on ‘the letter’ I take a walk up the lochside.
Margaret’s back when I get home and we take a drive to deliver a CD order. My first time driving the ‘new’ car….
Welcome to the flight deck…our new used car is a bit of a tech upgrade from our clapped out old banger!
AFTER setting some more video footage to render in the studio I nip back to the house for breakfast..then back to the studio for a session with one of my Zoom guitar students.
Next on the list is a trip into Glasgow to check out a car Margaret identified online as a contender for to replace our aging banger. Arnold Clark has a load of different dealerships in the business park we arrive at and we eventually find the right one…not much time though – I need to be back home for a photo job this afternoon.
Salesperson Kaitlyn is fantastic – she shows the car, tells us about it, makes an exceptional offer on our existing car and calculates the payments. Bottom line is we’re gonna need to make (more) changes to be able to afford it, but it’s too good a deal to pass and we agree to buy!
Time is tight tho’ – and I’ve already messaged Sam and Eva to put our photo session back half an hour. We need to go back to pick up the other key for our car, all the dox and arrange insurance cover.
We get back just in time and by the time I’ve finished the photo session Margaret’s leaving to go and pick up the new (to us) car…a VW Golf estate.
Meantime, I prep soem video for tonight’s Facebook live-stream into my Wildcats’ group then another Zoom guitar session with a regular Monday evening student who’s coming on leaps and bounds.
Then it’s straight into the livestream and when I finish Margaret;’s back with the car and I get a chance for a proper look. Pretty cool machine if I say so myself…just hope we can find a way to pay for it!
Everyone else is going to the swimming and I’m heading out on the paddleboard. In the rain.
I take a tripod and phone mount with the plan of doing a livestream as I paddle back. I stop on Torinch and get stuff set up as best I can. Everything’s a bit precarious though and as soon as I start to stand up the wobble of the board send my phone and the tripod into the water!
I try again and manage to get going but when I get home the whole middle section of the livestream seems to have gone missing. Weird. No matter – it’ll give folks a laugh.
Everyone’s back when I get home and we chill for a while before Catriona and the kids head off.
Margaret and I have a snack then I fall asleep on the sofa for more than an hour!
In the studio I sort out some video render problems – one piece of video was caught in an endless rendering loop, so I delete all the Final Cut preferences which seems to sort out the problem.
Guinness zero alcohol. Pretty good…and more than ten weeks off the bevvy for me 🙂
CATRIONA and the kids arrive just after we finish breakfast.
They take Margaret into Glasgow for a shopping trip in Catriona’s new car and I get on with some work.
First job is to finish the wee promo video for my cousins husband Paul. I get it finished and fire off a link.
Back in the studio after lunch I start rendering some more video footage Fram last month’s gig at the village hall and play some guitar.
I’m out for a walk when they all get back and I meet them at the bay to feed the ducks…yhen back home for a bedtime snack.
Once the kids are asleep we have pizzas outside then back in the house for a bother. I try out some zero alcohol Guinness which is surprisingly good…more than ten weeks without alcohol. A record for me!
WE have a bit of a long lie…then I get busy in the studio working on the audio and video footage I recorded with Paul yesterday. It’s pretty raw and gonna need some creativity to turn it into something.
There’s three sets of leather coasters to be dyed and finished so they’re ready for delivery tonight and a few other things needing done.
After lunch I tale some time out to play guitar and go through a bunch of stuff so I can get used to the ‘collabsible’ guitar. Sounds good, but I guess I need to programme a specific set of patches on the Quad Cortex.
I make more progress on the video editing then finish off the leather coaster.
We have an early dinner so we can get to the quiz night at the village hall on time…
MY THURSDAY morning guitar student is coming a little earlier today…and once we’re done I head to the studio to tidy up and prepare for my cousin and her husband coming up later.
The good folks at Newtone Strings have sent me a load of my signature guitar strings and some electric strings too so I wanna make them some new testimonial videos so they can share them on their socials. I knock up a few options.
As it turns out my cousin and her husband are delayed by heavy traffic and then they get lost and end up on the other side of the loch. That means they’re nearly two hours late which is gonna make it a challenge to get some recording, video and photos done for some promo for Paul.
Add to that a computer flake out and a bust plug socket on buy preferred for filming and we’re really up against it.
Anyway, somehow I manage to get enough content in the bag before they leave and can hopefully turn it into something useful over the next few days.
I have leather coasters to make for an order that’s to be collected tomorrow (Friday) night. The materials were ordered nearly a fortnight ago and opal;y arrived this morning.
Betty comes along for some dinner and I run her home later on. A grand evening 🙂
AFTER taking a West Highland Way Gifts’ order to the village shop I prepare for a video podcast recording with my pal Cindy Douglas. She’s starting a new podcast series and has asked me to be her guest on episode two.
We have a good session on video using riverside.fm – a nice online studio collaborative tool.
Once done I go back to the house and make up some lunch to take on the paddleboard. David B arrives and we get out on the water with a lunch stop at Port Bawn on the far end of Inchcailloch.
Back home I have a quick shower and get on with some work in the studio.
We have an early dinner – chicken enchiladas – then head to the village hall for the local community trust AGM which goes smoothly. Martyn comes back to the house for a blether and a zero alcohol beer. Ten weeks today I’ve been off the bevvy!
I GET batch of egg bites – feta, sun-dried tomato and basil – on the go then jump into the shower. By the time I’m sorted they’re ready for breakfast.
There’s a bunch of orders come in for the two CD offer – I get them packed up and labelled along with a West Highland Way Gifts’ order and dash down to the postbox in the village. Last post pickup is midday,
The fridge magnets I made yesterday need packed fo the shop and I need to knock up a bunch of ‘I climbed Conic Hill’ badges too. The dye sub process can be a bit temperamental but I get there in the end.
Somehow the day passes in a flash and it’s time for a Zoom session with one of my guitar students. Normally a Monday evening session, it was moved to today this week as I had a meeting that I couldn’t move last night.
I get some prep done for a video podcast recording I;m gusting on tomorrow (Wednesday) then go back to the house and make dinner.
I’d planned an early night, but there’s work to be done on a new t-shirt design…
