January 2006

History, neither mine personally nor the planet’s generally, does not record when I first went to the Dr Folk open mic night up at Upwey for the first time. If I had to guess (and I do) I think it was shortly after September 2001 when the whole live music scene went into decline and Tim thought Dr Folk might just close up.

And in the years in between I probably played on that stage no more than a dozen times. However the atmosphere was always friendly and encouraging and the sound was mostly really well done. It certainly didn’t hurt that it was a chance to see and also play with Wily Tim Hackett which is always a terrific experience.

So I was a little say when I got an email tonight. Normally it would be the one telling me when Dr Folk was on but this time it said that there would be no Dr Folk this year.

Lesson for the day - there are not many doctors I would miss but this is one of them.

Nicky found an ad for a car which seemed to be a very good match for what we wanted. Our criteria were pretty much as follows.

My replacement iPod Shuffle arrived today in the mail. They said it might be a repaired one but it looks all shiny and new to me which is more than we can say for the one I am sending back. Aside from its brain not working the outside shows the many dog walks and car trips it has been on with me.

I notice that this one is only under warranty for another ninety days but that seems reasonable enough since it is a year since I bought the original product.

Although Apple have a reputation for good products they also have one for slack and arrogant customer service. In this case however they have been great and I couldn’t be more pleased.

Lesson for the day - experience counts for more than reputation.

Ben runs the open mic and as folk do he plays often to open the night. Unlike the million folk or blues acts I have seen hosts do in the past he plays keyboard and plays upbeat, bouncy and tremedously funny songs.

Last night I finally got around to working out the actual chords of the songs I was going to play and he joined me on keyboard for Lucky, April Fool and Slow Motion. All of this added a certain musical quality to the proceedings but most of all in April Fool where ben played keyboards and I just sang.

I might not be the most objective judge but I felt like it went really well and I certainly enjoyed the song a great deal.

Lesson for the day - the presence of a musician can really help a song.

I am only a few chapters into Jennifer Weiner’s Goodnight Nobody but so far I am really enjoying it. Much as murder mysteries are a just-so-lowbrow I quite enjoy reading them when they are this well written.

Lesson for the day - a book in the hand is worth two in some other place which isn’t a hand I guess.

Although the youngster is still not entirely himself he is very much on the mend. He is eating a little which is close to the almost enough he normally eats and his mood has improved to the point of doing dances for especially good things on telly.

It’s nice to have the lovely little fella back.

Lesson for the day - I don’t care what the propoganda says, healthy toddlers are more fun.

I shot a look of annoyance at the shower head, just within my unaided sight, so that it knew just how irritated I was about it’s sharp edge colliding with my balding head. It did not respond.

Lesson for the day - looks are not always something we can control.

The plan was for us to take puppies and Finn down for a few day on Dr. Bean’s farm to relax and rewind. And it was a fine plan. However it just seemed like a long drive with a grouchy boy so we decided to holiday at home so Finn could have his proper bed, his mountain of DVDs and mountains of toys.

Also with Tim’s birthday being only a few weeks away we will be down in the corner of paradise soon enough. With any luck Nicky will have finished up at work by then so we could easily make a long weekend of it. I am just picky but when it takes two hours to put up a tent I like to leave it in place for more than a night.

Lesson for the day - it is good to know that a slice of heaven will wait for you to get there.

I have been checking my webhost to see the stats for that last podcast but they haven’t been updated in about four days so I don’t have any figures to obsess over. This is probably good for my mental state generally.

However I did confidently predict that inspite of my plea for listeners to email and tell me they were listening I would only get three responses and those would be from people I know. And I will be the first to admit that I was wrong. Well half wrong. I got four people saying and they were Kristen, Sarah, Joanna and Chantelle so a big hello to all four listeners even if I do know you all.

It makes absolute sense that they would all be people I know. Just speaking for myself I only listen to a handful of podcasts and all of them are quite professional products made with real effort and time put in. None of them are quite so homemade and rough like mine. There might be other people making hokey little podcasts like mine that I would enjoy but I really can’t be bothered looking as hard as I would need to in order to find them.

But four people listening beats the hell out of none at all and makes much more sense that the notion of hundreds of strangers listening to my dulcent tones droning on about stuff.

Lesson for the day - it’s nice to know why people are here.

Finn is lying in bed squarking at the moment but not necessarily awake which does make it a little tricky to know what to do. Sometimes he settles and goes back to sleep and sometimes he wakes up properly and needs to get out of bed if only for a little while.

All the same it is difficult to just listen to him being so obviously unhappy but there isn’t a whole lot else I can do at the moment. He has had his medicine and we’re getting every bit of food and drink into him we can.

I take considerable comfort in knowing that in just a few days he will be fighting fit again.

And, for anyone wondering, as I finish this entry he has gone quiet and I would guess is back asleep.

Lesson for the day - sleep is good.