Readers

Hello out there; I realise, by the power of google analytics that I have a steady stream of readers, dotted around the globe! who are you all? leave me a comment now and again, ask me questions, thanks for reading my blog...

The weekend's here

Oh how I love the weekend; as the week rolls by, I think this weekend, I'm going to really make the weekend really excellent and extract every last drop of life from it. A great start- just come back from tap, relaxing with 3/4 of my immediate family, glass of nice dry rose to hand - tomorrow's looking good, a visit to Putney to see Dad and just spend some time there, and have a nice time having lunch...where? decisions decisions.
A friend's birthday celebrations in the evening. A very yummy mummy of Brentford as it happens. Celebrating at Grounds coffee/wine bar in Brentford. Happy birthday yummy Jenny x
But what shall I wear?
Lots to look forward to, a work conference in Scarborough...aah, so close to Whitby. It will be very bracing by then, waves crashing against the sea wall, lovely crisp cold air. The following week, off to Dublin; here we come everybody, Sean (Dr Millar) and Phil might be doing some music together, it will be fantastic.

Facebook

Well, I'm on Facebook, too now. Great fun, and I'm sure to spend/waste many more hours on there. It seems a clever way of catching up with people, and I've yet to learn the knack of refining searches etc. It's nice and immediate though. Good thing they've blocked it at work though, otherwise no reports would get written.
Otherwise, went to a bellydancing class at Watermans arts centre today with Gerardine next door, and Sarah. All geared up for swirly hipped dancing, but it had been cancelled. Had a nice glass of wine and watched the river go by instead.

update

It's been a couple of weeks since I wrote, a bit of a whirlwind. Dad is getting frail and needs people around him a lot. This has had an upside in that my brothers have all rallied round to help. It's been weird and good. My three brothers are younger than me, and the only one I see with any regularity is my youngest brother, who lives in America. My next brother down is Barney of No Hit Records/Sounds that Swing - he lives in London and we may see each other once a year or so, and the middle one is Matt, the concert pianist, who I almost never saw. So strange seeing Barn and Matt, and looking for similarities and differences between me and them. So great to have a ready familiarity between us. Such a project to work on together, such complex arrangements. It takes all our energy, and work is just an unfocused blur at present, nothing getting done. Nice all meeting up in Putney together.
Phil and I made the pilgrimage to Pete Cooper again last week, and he said I could play something with Phil at his fiddle party at Cecil Sharp House at Christmasstime. Wow! Nervewracking. My new violin is very beautiful though and I am pushing myself to work hard at things I find difficult. It's very hard though, but will be worth it. If I look back to this time last year, or even December, and how I've moved on, there has clearly been some progress. A long way to go, but I may well be session-ready by the time we go to Whitby next year.

dancing in ealing

All returning to normal, went to tap on Friday, to be greeted by Rose in a t-shirt bearing the legend 'Rock'n Tinkabell', you may remember I called her a Rock 'n' Roll Tinkerbell in a previous post. Tap was great, so good to get back into it - the grown-ups might also be putting on a show, and I might take part...more nights to find time for though.
Decided a good thing, before Whitby next summer, might be to go to some folk/country damceclasses, or join a group ro something, so have discovered Ealing Country Dance Club. Wierdly this is also in Pitshanger LAne. Phil and I went last night, it was brilliant. Everyone was superfriendly, and tolerant and patient with us, there were no sour faces when we didn't do things properly, and we are learning to refine some of our moves. We knew it would be fun, but we had an even better time than we thought we would. One lovely moment was when we saw someone who had been at Whitby Folk Week; that was really special, seeing someone who had only caught glimpses of in the massive ceilidhs there, just locally in Pitshanger Lane. He is great and we had a lovely time talking to him. He goes to Pete Cooper's classes at Cecil Sharpe House sometimes. Our bus came just as we were really getting into our chat. Sadly these dances are on Monday night, clashing with the tap show rehearsals. Wow, I love dancing, it is so all encompassing and joyous. Particularly in a way when folk dancing is going well, and you are really with other people enjoying the music.