html

I am going to do an html experiment...

















Now then, has it worked...

Note to self...

Croissants are not a great bedtime snack.



Far too crumby.

A Minor Illness

My lack of voice has turned from being slightly husky and feeling pleasantly used, to the much less glamorous feeling of just being raw and inflamed.

I've been instructed not to talk too much and definitely not to sing. That could prove difficult, especially as both of those things are not only essentially my job, but also things I like to do most of the time anyway...

So I'll do my best, Minor Illnesses Nurse Lady.



On a different note, whilst calling it a "minor illness" is probably the most accurate description, it does make me feel a little fraudulent for taking the day off. Or just like a massive wimp.


But it really hurts!

I promise.

Swear down.

Etc...

weekEND

I heart weekends.

Like, really heart them.

"to heart" is not a verb.

I don't care.



So last week was not fun. Not in any way.

For the most part, I felt like I was drowning in lack-of-free-time-and-breathing-space and being suffocated by (in)explicable melancholy. My ears hurt when I'm sad. I mean, it feels like there is actual tangible melancholy pressing into my eardrums.
Is that weird?
It is a bit.
Never mind.



BUT then...

The glorious golden weekend arrived in all its glittering beauty, and my oh my was it a goodun.


On Friday eve, we had a gig in Northampton. I have never played in Northampton, and to be fair, we have definitely sounded better. (To be fairer, we did not sound terrible. Not entirely, anyway. We have just sounded better... Anyway...). It was a good evening!

A couple of wonderful friends came to watch, and after a bit of shoulder twitching, toe-tapping and beer drinking, we headed dance-wards for a bit of a (loud) Northampton-based boogie.

It was wicked. Especially if you ignore the fact my shoes and hair got covered in other people's beverages. (Put them in the wash, they'll be grand.)


So rough-voiced and a little bleary-eyed, the next morning (/afternoon) the Wonderful Friends and I replenished all the calories we had burnt off through our boogying (and perhaps added a few extra ones) with a hearty meat-based breakfast/brunch, whilst being serenaded by a local bagpipe band. As to be expected on a sunny Saturday morning/afternoon in Northampton...

Rarely has tea tasted so delicious.


We meandered around N-town a little, taste-tested a selection of choice orange juices, and headed home for another cup of tea.


After a fleeting return to Ketters, I was swiftly back in the Other Side of Northants for a practice followed by more calorie replacing. I definitely should have danced more vigorously.


And then today, I have lazily life-laundered (and, incidentally, actual-laundered) and am now settling down to get some half-decent lessons sorted for my definitely-decent students tomorrow. Mondays are my best days, lesson-wise - I also heart year 10 and year 12.


Anyway, now my jaw aches from too much saxophoning, and my fingertips ache from too much guitaring, and I have no voice from too much singing.


Wouldn't have it any other way.


Roll on next weekend!

Heavy Boots

Reasoning

Actual Reasons Why People Don't Text Back:

1. They are busy doing Very Important Things (like work and meetings)
2. They are in the shower
3. They are eating dinner
4. They are sleeping
5. They are driving
6. They are travelling, and signal has cut out
7. They are without signal in general
8. They have run out of credit/free texts
9. They are having a real conversation with someone else, and realise it's rude to text and talk
10. Their phone has run out of battery

Reasons In My Head Why People Don't Text Back:

1. I have said something so mundane, it's not worth replying to
2. I have said something a bit weird, and they are too weirded out to reply
3. I have accidentally said something that has angered them beyond belief
4. They are having far too much fun elsewhere and it would be far too dull to reply
5. They have been mugged
6. They are in mortal peril
7. They are dead in a ditch
8. They are far too busy and important to reply; replying is a huge inconvenience to them and I should probably just leave them alone
9. They are slowly phasing me out of their life
10. Replying is for plebs. Cool people don't bother.

In other news:

• I smashed my car into the school gates today
• Smashed is a very emotive word
• I scraped the side of my car on the school gates today
• My car is ok
• Mumford & Sons released their second album yesterday, and I love it
• I'm not ashamed that I love the Mumford & Sons second album, despite relatively negative reception among my colleagues
• The heating is on
• I'm wearing almost entirely mint green
• I don't particularly like the colour mint green
• Today I ate a Freddo. It was delicious.

A World of Meh

So the last few weeks have been excellent.

I mean - going back to work has actually been ok, we've had a couple of wicked gigs, I've met some brilliant new people; life has been peachy.



This week, however, I feel completely and totally rubbish.



It's as if everything I've tried to do or say this week has come out not quite right, and I seem to have run out of resilience.

Weary.




In other news, I've been writing songs for Alice in Wonderland - so far, I have approx 10 and 2 halves. They're ace.

Well, I've enjoyed writing them, anyway.


Also, this term, we have started running a funk/soul band. So far we've mostly been singing Brown Eyed Girl, which I don't really class as either funk or soul, but it's what the guitar teacher had the chords for, and it's sounding pretty good. Next week, let's get onto some Aretha, please. Or some Stevie.

(Although at present, the wind section is two saxes, one of whom is me. We clash with brass ensemble, and I've been expressly told I'm not allowed to use any brass players (/told off for even suggesting it))



Right, anyway. I feel like poo, so am going to go to Tesco and find some Dairy Milk and maybe some wine. Then I'm going to buy lots of both, and consume all of it. Maybe.



Meh.