The best layed plans

Oh dear, Oh dear, Oh dear, yes the best laid plans of mice and men come to naught. I refer of course to my total inability to keep this blog up to date. I see I promised to make at least one post each week, and have failed miserably. However I refuse to be disheartened and will carry on, whether anyone is reading this or not (please let me know if you are)

I have had some very bad news over the last weekend, an old friend has passed away, I'm not sure of his exact age but he could not be much over 50 if indeed that old. He was a very talented, but underrated tuba player who lived life to the full. I lost touch with him a few years ago, and now feel guilty as well as sad, I can't help wondering if we had not lost touch if I could have done something to help him. As well as sadness for my friend, when people younger than yourself die, it is a reminder of one's own mortality, as well as a reminder not to lose touch with any more friends. That having been said there is only so much time available, and as musicians we can spread ourselves pretty thinly. At the moment I am exceptionally busy and am finding it hard to put much time in with my own family, and surely this should be the priority.

There are a couple of concerts coming up, Proms Praise with the All Souls Orchestra http://www.allsoulsorchestra.org/Events/2011-04-02/Prom-Praise-London-2011/ and a centenary concert with Croydon Brass Band http://croydonband.webs.com/news.htm . As conductor & MD this is taking a lot more effort and input from me than I had appreciated, but I am looking forward to both of these events.

In the mean time we have a family outing on Sunday - we're going to Brands Hatch for the Truck Racing

A Funny old week

Well my week has been rather mixed, with no major events to report just very much the usual cycle of rehearsals and work. I have started putting in a new patio for one of my regular customers, but due to other work commitments and poor weather have not managed to progress as much as I would have liked.

Of course there are always things going on in the family, my daughter is in a show later this month and preparations and rehearsals for that are gaining pace, this is not the place to publicise it, this is http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100000777333945

Having to ferry her around for rehearsal etc. now makes me appreciate what my parents went through while I was learning. In addition to that we have just bought her a new electric guitar, now twangy things are a bit a mystery to me, but I do have say that this guitar is pretty cool. I will add a photo soon.

Just for fun

Here's a little bonus, I know I'm going to be very busy this week so there is unlikely to be anything else here until next weekend now.

I love 9 Chickweed Lane, found it by accident but have followed it everyday for quite a few months now, so I can recommend it highly.

More on Last weekend

I mentioned Mike Ray, a super musician and good friend, well now he can add photographer to his CV, he sent me through these pics he took last Saturday night. Of these six reprobates I'm the only one who might not be described as a professional tuba player anymore, I think we all have at least two instruments, some of us more, yet we all choose to take a Besson EEb admittedly 5 different models, but I think you can still see that they are all basically pretty much the same. I do know that my little Besson is the oldest of the bunch since the others were all manufactured in concert pitch and mine is a sharp pitch conversion, sound wise though it held it's own against it's much newer brothers.

One of the things we enjoyed most about being at Expo '92 was the fireworks. Every evening, not long after we had finished our set there was a big display of fireworks and holograms over the central lake of the show ground.

We were both really struck by the music, but like so much about this Expo the whole show was something very special. See what you think follow this link to see someone's home video on facebook..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y2Y3ST-URI&feature=related

Great Weekend

What great weekend, I travelled down to Bournemouth on Saturday for an "End of an Era" party. A professional German band I used to play in over a period of about 25 years packed up last year. After years of declining bookings due to venues being too mean to pay for a full pro band the band leader finally bit the bullet, sold the kit and wrapped up the trading company. Very sad for all of us, but none the less inevitable.

The good thing was that one of the last members of the band and a good friend to the band leader decided to mark the event with a surprise party! Musicians, and families came from across the UK to reminisce, play a few tunes and meet old friends. Personally it was a special pleasure to meet up with Mike Ray, the accordionist who worked with me in Seville at Expo '92. This was a pivotal time in my life as during that year, I got engaged, my father died, my wife's best friend died, and oh yes we got married. During the party lots of people were taking photos and videos, I think actually everyone except me, so as soon as I get copies of some of these I will put them, in the mean time this one was taken at Expo '92 outside the bar we were working in. There is now a lot less hair, we both shave now, and what hair is left is a lot greyer.

A Drive Finnished

I have just completed a job more or less on time. When I say more or less it is in fact a week behind schedule, but by recent standards this is pretty good. Because I am busy with maintenance work through out most of Spring Summer and Autumn I like to do my landscaping during the winter, previous years I have got away with this, but this year I am very behind. Of the three jobs I had in the book one is now complete, one half done - now just waiting for warmer weather to complete the deck and the planting; and the one that was originally scheduled to have been completed this coming week, not yet started.

These are some shots of the drive just after we had started, I always seem to forget to get proper before shots, just to keen to get stuck in I suppose. In this case it does mean that the shots include both Sue and Gloria - there are no prizes for working out which is which.







And these are the after shots. I am really pleased with this job, I have been undertaking maintenance at this garden for several years now, and have wanted to redo this drive since I started. The gravel had got bedded into soil, leaves had rotted down into it and the levels had long been lost.

There were big dips and mounds where vehicle tyres had kicked up the gravel and then bedded it in, paving slabs had been put in up to the garage but most of them had broken, in all this gave the whole house a bit of an unloved demeanour. Now it all looks a lot more kempt and loved, and I cam in within budget! all in all I am pretty pleased.

The house is a fantastic Edwardian Family House near Beckenham Junction, it is the last of these houses in the area that is still in single family occupancy, all the rest have been knocked into flats, or turned over for commercial use of one form or another, so we have been trying to keep as much of the original character as possible, with a period style of rockery gravel drive and a lavender hedge under the bay window. I replanted this hedge a couple of years ago, so the this coming year I hope it will put on some serious growth and start to look more like a hedge.

Late resoltions

There are a few blogs that I follow, and look forward to their comments on the world they observe. I am a little in awe of these people who manage to put up a new post just about every day, sometimes more than one a day. Anyone who has read this blog will know that I am a serial non poster. It must now be around a month since my last post, although this is partly down to initially being down because of the weather, and then being too busy, because of the weather I think it is largely lack of commitment.

Well back to the title of this post, I have resolved that I will make at least one post each week, usually on the Saturday. I know this is not much but if I set my sights on an easily obtainable target then I hope I may not just succeed but also exceed my my aim. So to all my readers, (or maybe that is now both my readers) a very happy 2011.