The acoustic version of Loch Lomond (Home) drops next Friday…
MARGARET’S away early to a rural housing event in Dunkeld…but I can’t laze about too much as there’s loads to get through today.
There’s a special leather key fob I’ve made to say thanks to a pal in Finland that needs to get sent off and while I;m out I pop into he village shop to see if they need any West Highland Way Gifts’ stock. They need fridge magnets.
Back home I start fridge magnet production then it the studio.
After collating all the video from Finland and pulling the stuff I might use into Final Cut I take a break and do some promo for the new acoustic arrangement of Loch Lomond (Home) that officially drops on all the services next week…folks can listen/download in a dance via my Bandcamp page 🙂
The fridge magnet production line continues and I manage to get out for a walk up the lochside where I do a quick livestream update on things in general.
UP in plenty of time to get a load of work done and some merchandise in the postbox before my regular Thursday morning guitar student arrives.
After a good session I head back to the studio for a wee while then head to the school in Balloch where I have a two-hour session with some of the kids. En route I add some ‘new date’ banners to the gig posters on various local notice boards. Some have come down so I’ll get new posters up asap.
I’m back home with about five minutes to spare before another guitar student arrives.
Once we’re done I’m pretty exhausted. Still not firing on all cylinders I guess..and I have a nap on the sofa in front of the fire.
THE MORNING is spent ‘sorting shit out’…first up is a call to Three to get our business account onto a SIM-only deal as our handsets are now out of contract. That goes well.
Next, Spamarrest. I’ve been using the email spam service onone of my main email accounts for more than ten years. It started at $49 a year and went up to $69. Then last year the renewal was for six month rather than year and latterly monthly…at $30 a month. No way to change it, online support useless and zero response to emails from customer service. I’ve had enough. A price hike from $69 to $360 with no notifications and zero customer service. Fuck them, I cancel.
Of course that means some email disruption – albeit only to one account – and a good hour or two fixing things.
In between times a pal calls…he’s been neglecting his website since I put it together in 2012 which resulted in some serious server security breaches a month or two ago. Having read him the riot act about keeping things in order he still hadn’t; made any attempt and it took a text message to get him to take notice. Problem is, he can’t seem to get online, let alone logged into his website.
There’s a much longer story, but we arrange for him to drop by later.
I create some artwork and start the process of making a leather keyring for a pal in Finland who really helped us out while I was in hospital the start collating and gathering various bits of video footage from the trip. I wanna make a wee vlog of the travel and shows.
With the Memorial Hall re-scheduled for 11 March I update poster art and replace the ‘old’ poster nailed on the oak tree in the village. I’m only just going for a walk when my pal calls to say he’ll drop by in half-an-hour. I have a short walk and make sure I’m home in time.
We spend a good hour or so on website stuff, Margaret comes home with he shopping and our pal heads off.
First up, a new Zoom guitar student early doors. The lesson goes well and we book another session for next week.
I manage to get a bunch of things of the to-do list before my mid-morning Zoom student then get some merch orders that came in while we were away packed up and into the postbox.
After lunch I work my way through a load of outstanding tasks and take a wee break when Betty drops by for a coffee.
The rest of the afternoon is spent on some outstanding web jobs and setting up a meeting for a potential show in Edinburgh sometime over the coming months.
Another displaced Zoom session with a guitar student early evening then I go back to the house and we have a light dinner and an early night.
THANKFULLY I’m still OK (-ish) when we wake up and get all our gear downstairs in the hotel.
At breakfast I stick to yoghurt, watermelon and a little bread and cheese. I need to eat, but I’m terrified to push things and get sick again.
We’re on the 9am shuttle bus to the airport. Our flight isn’t ’til late afternoon, but this is the last outgoing shuttle bus so we just have to hang out at the airport. Lots of facilities and stuff so it’s all good.
We’re on a direct flight back to Edinburgh which is good and when we eventually get back to the car we head for home, stopping at a supermarket to pick up some supplies.
All this evening’s guitar lessons and my Wildcats’ livestream were cancelled as we’re not back ’til 10pm…gonna be a busy few days of re-scheduling and catching up….
Ready to leave the hospital in Helsinki…fair amount snow out there!
WHEN I wake there’s another tray of ‘food’ beside the bed. The only thing I mange to get over my neck is the yoghurt…and the coffee and orange juice are the highlight!
During the morning there’s a couple fo routine blood pressure, blood sugar, pulse and temperature checks as well as more blood taken. The nurse thinks I might get discharged today, but it’ll be a few hours before the blood results are back and at the doc comes round.
Margaret’s had to check out the apartment she was in last night. No point in booking another night there as we don’t know what’s likely to happen…and all the main bags/gear are in storage at the hotel near the airport.
When the doctor comes round she says I can go home! I quiz her about the vomiting (which took me to the hospital in the first place) and the diverticularitis flare up which has kept me there. She is adamant there’s no connection. Funny that – this pattern has happened twice now. I’ll be on the blower to the doc back home first thing in the morning for another appointment and rattle some cages. We can’t keep going on like this – every trip will be a game of Russian roulette.
Margaret gets to the hospital mid-afternoon. I’m dressed, packed and waiting and we go into the lounge so Margaret cans peak to the insurance company re flights home and what we should do for accommodation tonight. We get dirt flights tomorrow (Monday) and we’re given the go-ahead to return to the airport hotel for the night.
Meantime our pal Leif comes to pick us up from the hospital and take us to the hotel which is a good half hour away – saves us three bus changes and god knows how much farting about to try and get their under our own steam.
Late afternoon I’m allowed some ‘food’…jeez – I don’t mean to seem ungrateful but this is fucking revolting!
I MANAGE a few hours sleep and am woken by a nurse who’s come to take blood. And another to do the regular blood pressure, pulse, temperature and blood sugar tests.
There’s also been a lot of intravenous stuff replaced and changed.
The doctors come round mid-morning and look at my blood results and the CT scan on a fancy machine. They’re reasonably happy and hopeful I might get discharged tomorrow (Sunday). Meantime, I’m gonna be allowed drinks and ‘soft food’. Uh-oh!!
Margaret arrives late morning. She’s been able to leave most of our gear in the luggage room at the airport hotel and has booked a place to stay for tonight nearer the hospital in Espoo. She can’t go ‘til 4pm and there’s been a lot of snow. The snow here, though, is taken in everyone’s stride – at home there would be shutdown!
Margaret has a laugh at my expense when my evening ‘meal’ comes…some kind of soup that seems like it’s still condensed and is pretty horrible; a bowl of some kind of milk and oatmeal that I can’t get over my neck..and a kinda yogurt thing that’s not much better but I force myself to eat!
After I’ve ‘eaten’ Margaret gets a taxi to the place she’s staying and I spend the rest of the evening apologising to folks on my socials for having to postpone tonight’s show. Hopefully we’ll announce a new date very soon.
I also do a final push for votes in the UK Blues Awards…voting closes midnight tomorrow (Sunday) UK time…still time to vote !
AFTER a good night’s sleep we go down for breakfast…there’s a good selection of stuff.
But when we get back up to our room I start feeling crap…and ten minutes later I’m sick. This ain’t good.
Things get worse and half an hour later I’m in an ambulance to hospital.
I’m sick all day despite all sort of intravenous meds and get sent for a CT scan…meantime, Margaret’s having to get back onto the insurance, cancel flights and all sorts. She also has to postpone tomorrow’s show 🙁
The results of the CT scan show another flare up of diverticularitis and I’m to be transferred to another hospital for assessment.
Meantime, I’m still vomiting…then fall asleep for half an hour. I’m woken by the ambulance folks and – thankfully – feel a lot better.
I’m settled in the new hospital just after midnight….
WE’RE on our way to the airport when we get a text saying our flights have been cancelled!
On arrival at the airport webfindout all Lufthansa flights are cancelled due to a global computer/systems issue.
After waiting i queue to find out the latest we hang about the airport for a good five or six hours then go back to find we’ve been booked onto early flights tomorrow (Thursday) and have bene put in a hotel for the night.
We get to the hotel, have dinner…then I start to feel ill…uh-oh.
Half an hour later I’m in an ambulance to the hospital….
