winter walks

The entryway of the Shipwright Arms yesterday afternoon. Bit muddy out there!

I'm dreaming of a soggy christmas....

In 15 minutes I have to go out of doors, out of the dry, warm, deliciously-gingerbread-scented (Felix and I have been baking) house into the cold, wet, dark, did I mention wet? marketplace and play Christmas carols (again) on my trombone. So what if hundreds of Faversham people also come out and everyone sings together and loads of people say it's their favourite Faversham event of the year? There's wine, and whiskey in the house - did I mention that?  And some really lovely nibbles. If I did actually want to go out (!!!!!) I could go to Helen and James' where there is also wine and whiskey and a roaring fire too. And undoubtedly more good nibbles.

There is no wine, no whiskey in the darkness ahead. Just rain, and a driving wind that slinks water into all the gaps in your outerwear.

THE THINGS I DO FOR CHRISTMAS (stomps off to find band rain coat)...

And sew it goes

I've been working through the gigantic pile of clothing that needs something - holes in pockets, knees, elbows, toes, missing buttons - that sort of thing. Part of it is cost-saving - new clothes are expensive-  but a large part of it is trying to reduce our consumption and use what we already have. I'm not a very good sewer (Sewer? I suddenly see why the word seamstress was used - ok I just looked it up and apparently the two most used words are sewer (circa 14th c) and sewist, which sounds like someone who is against sewing. Considering my skill level, sewer is probably uncannily accurate). This week so far I have successfully replaced a set of jean pockets as well as two patches on another pair. This isn't so bad, I thought. Maybe I'm getting better at this. I just need to take my time and go slowly.

Well tonight I took my time and slowly and carefully patched a jeans leg right through to the back of the other leg. I am not getting better at this. I have put it slowly and carefully to one side, in the cold silence you employ whilst you decide whether to scream or cry or possibly both. I turned off the machine, walked to the fridge, and poured a large glass of wine. I don't know if I can even unpick it all without wrecking the remaining knee. Maybe these are sacrificial jeans.

Perhaps sewing needs to be a morning activity for me, not an after-a-rather-trying-workday-in-london activity.

Other than that, it was our Christmas Lights turn on in Faversham last Saturday and it was everything you'd expect it to be. There's a stage in the marketplace and school children perform in choirs all day which is adorable. The brass band starts playing around 430, Santa comes out at 5, and they countdown to the lights turn on which never turn on the first time. Some of them come on for the second countdown and then, to the soundtrack of Neal's drum rolls and an awful lot of excited squealing children, they all light up on the third countdown. Every year. It's one of those fundamentals that you can count on in a world of change. We play a few more songs, then the night market kicks in - loads of stalls selling food and drinks, and another band. It's great. I love our lights. In Faversham, we have the Christmas Lights Charity which raises money all year for the lights, and puts them all up. It's all volunteers, and I don't think they get much funding from anywhere else. Lately they've been doing a "buy-a-bulb" scheme, and when you do, you get to personalise it with a marker. West Street is full of people looking up going - is that one mine?

I even got my picture taken with Santa:

Someone did a lovely video - I don't think I can embed it - but here's the link: https://www.facebook.com/deadeye.eu/videos/2501489596834406/

I have a gig with the big band on Monday, then the Brass Band Christmas concert on Thursday. Then it's just carolling with the Brass Band a few weekend mornings and we're done for the year. 

Whoooosh. Just like that.

And out the other side...

I just found this in my drafts folder from a month ago -

We're having a party on Saturday. In what universe I thought I would have enough time to organise, clean, and cook for a party I have no idea, but it is clearly an optimistic one with a very elastic time-space continuum. I'm up to my eyeballs in work, the house is - uh - let's go with rustic (feral? immune-system boosting? Curiosity-inspiring - as in "I wonder why I'm sticking to the kitchen floor again?"), and I have 3 gigs in the next 4 weeks none of which I've put in enough practise for.

That about sums up the last 4 weeks. Mayhem, with amazing bits. The party was great (although Neal and I collapsed on the sofa about an hour before the first guests were due to arrive, looked at each other and solemnly promised never ever to do this again). It wasn't a party for anything - we just felt like the summer was so busy that we didn't get to hang out with many of our local friends so it would be fun to have a party for no particular reason. And it was fun. We figured we'd light a fire outside and have mulled cider and roast marshmallows - but it POURED with rain all day and night (of course it did) so we all crammed indoors. Everyone brought food and drinks (oh - the CAKE!) and of course we will do it again :)

The gigs all went surprisingly well too - the first was with the big band, a vintage swing dance. Considering that the singer had a different set list right up to about 10 minutes before we started, it really went very well indeed. We had a dep drummer who was amazing and the encore of Sing Sing Sing made all my music dreams come true. I kept thinking - my god - I'm playing this - RIGHT NOW!

The second was the party/soul band that was born out of that first panto two years ago. It was a birthday party at a rugby club for one of the band's friend's mother - paid too. No pressure. That could have been a complete train wreck but it turned out great. Nerve-wracking in the lead-up though. Best moment - the brass lines on Soul Man.

The third was last Saturday - a jazz small band comprised of bass, drums, keys, singer, alto sax, trumpet and yours truly on the bone. This one was hard work - I have never practised so much. I even played a solo. It really pushed me far out of my comfort zone. I love the music, really love it, but performing is hard for me. BUT - I don't think I visibly shook, and although I found the first set painful in the extreme, by the second set I remembered that this was supposed to be fun (I had forgotten entirely) and I relaxed a bit and I did have fun. The gig was in the ballroom of a stately home, I wore a black tasselled flapper dress, and again, I had to pinch myself. Playing this music, in these places - it's unbelievable.

(I followed all of this up with a big band rehearsal last night where I was so awful I wanted to quit on the spot, run away, and cry.  I didn't. Not yet anyways. The highs and the lows.)

Because life is like this, I have also been working up in London for the last three Saturdays. Crazy. Neal was gigging too on Saturday night with the folk band, and on Sunday morning it looked like a music bomb had gone off in the living room. Stacks of sheet music, all of Neal's drums, a few trombones, music stands, gig bags - all strewn across the floor and piled on every available surface.

Anyways here's a photo from Saturday's gig...

Now I'm going to go and drink a VERY large glass of wine and sleep for about 14 hours!

it worked!

It was so much fun! There were 16 of us in the end, parking was fine, the rain stopped as we started to set up, and the runners loved it.

All the prep was worth it...

We kept it a surprise - the race organisers knew of course, but the runners didn't. Their faces were so fun to watch as they came around the bend and saw a 16-piece brass band cheering them on. It was great. 

People were really helpful too - I emailed the man who owned the orchard - my friend from knitting knew him - and he answered - and I mean that wasn't exactly your typical email, to say the least. Even the National Fruit Farm were happy to let us use their parking lot. It makes you realise how much people will let you do if you just ask! 

This opens up a great deal of possibilities....

and so I'm back - from outer space

Didn't change the locks, didn't make me leave a key and here I am. Self-identifying with the villain in a song about women's empowerment. Nice. Classy.

So I couldn't get on with wordpress. I thought moving to a more open platform would encourage me to do more - design more, make more of an effort, but it turns out, I guess, I just want to write-and-run (a crime under any rational statute book). It also turns out that although it's easy to convert your blog from blogger to wordpress, it's really hard to convert it back. So. Whatever. There will be missing years. Quite apt, really.

It's Wednesday. I'm drinking a glass of wine and listening to this which is brilliant and I love it. I think this is the first all-woman jazz band I've ever heard. That I know of. And it matters. What is the phrase, you can't be what you can't see? Or something to that effect. When I first saw the video I felt a jolt of - OH - there's a woman! and anther one! and anther one! BLIMEY it's the whole band!!!! Neal asks me does it matter? And from the music end of things, no - of course not - but from the socio-political end of things, oh it matters, all right.

In other news I am trying my own hand at musician-wrangling this Sunday. It's the Faversham 10k running race, a race I have run a few times, and volunteered as a marshal last year. I was stationed at the bottom of Brogdale Hill, a rather steep hill almost 8km in, and the runners would see it around the bend and audibly groan. I started to think, wouldn't it be great to have a brass band down here to cheer them on? And here's the bit where I can really see what people mean when they say that your friends have a huge influence on your behaviour. Because when I mentioned this completely crazy un-thought-out idea , they said, duh - yes - that's great - you can, and should totally do that. Because many of them are music directors, band leaders, musicians, organisers, etc - it didn't sound at all crazy to them. So - I thought - how hard can it be?  I mean it's probably hard to do it well, for sure. But I just want to make runners laugh, which lowers the bar somewhat.

I'll keep you posted.