Scotland in a day. Plus other stuff.

Part 1 - Coach to Scotland - Saturday night 

This week all got a bit out of hand to be honest. Off the back of doing the Blaydon Races festival last year (hee hee, the street costume in that post is hilarious!) I was booked again by Chris Cross this time to travel up to Scotland to do my show. The initial idea was to travel up to Edinburgh on Tuesday with Gary and help him rig the Edinburgh Meadows Festival which I've been meaning to check out for ages, then maybe busk in Edinburgh on the way back. 

Cue the combination of my Sister moving house this week (with the bulk of the stuff being done yesterday - Friday) and Hazel and I being asked to perform in Newport on Sunday meaning I'm on an overnight coach now and another tomorrow night. Woo.

I did get a bit of time in Cardiff to relax after Troyfest, which was lovely. Then I did a double-header of weddings. Good weddings. Really good weddings of some of my favourite people. These weddings involved pool parties, 65mph winds, 13 people in my caravan at once, chandeliers and a drive from Devon to Lancaster.

I also played live music on my own for the first time in a long time. I mean, I've been tinkering about for a year or so now at home and played a couple of times in Porter's (which you should all go to. It's awesome) but this was a proper set of music that I'd chosen (partly) and I had a timeslot and stuff. It went well. I'm looking forward to doing more.

Photo by Simon Pinder

That week made me feel lucky to be alive. For all of the stupid things I do and all of the effort I put into living life to the full, it really does only ever come down to the people you surround yourself with and the past few years have been full of weddings. Weddings, and their various guises, appear to have taken the place of parties in being the way I get to remember how cool my friends are. In that sense, they're a follow-on from the partying bit - you build the relationships at the parties then you get invited to the weddings. More often than not I get to be a part of the wedding coming together in one way or another, and that's awesome too. They're like the festivals of middle age - people put on their best, show their best and put loads of effort into making awesome memories. I love them.

Did stilts for the football at Wembley again last week. Always a good laugh doing these but it feels very corporate and the fans all kicking the shit out of each other cutting the gig short didn't help. Still, here's a pic:

I managed a few days in Covent Garden this week too, and actually had a much better time than the last few London escapades overall. My friend Paul popped in to take some pictures on Thursday - here's one:

Part 2 - Coach back down.

I'm not gonna lie, I'm tired. Tired enough that I really did nearly just punch the guy behind me. I asked him politely to stop talking loudly on his mobile phone at half past midnight so that I could sleep and he decided to wag his finger in my face and threaten to, and I quote, "fuck my arse" when we got to Newcastle. Lovely. Fortunately, the bit of me that knows people like that will make their own bed in life rather than the bit of me that wants to put them in it by force won out so I (after a few choice words) sat down again and turned up my headphones. 

But I had a lovely gig. A really lovely gig. Myself and a guy called Sideshow Stevie (whom I know from Edinburgh a couple of years back) were booked to do some shows at a food festival up near Aberdeen. Stevie was good enough to drive up there and back from Edinburgh which was a bit of a blessing - not sure how else I'd have actually got there. We also hooked up with a performer called Nathan whom I know from being one member of the live circus music act Slamboree. Keep an eye out for them at festivals, it's one hell of a show and he's one hell of a hat juggler.

Anyway, I got to do 2 lovely shows, hang out with Stevie and his awesome kid, saw a castle, had a giant and elaborate ice-cream and even time for a coke (I've been off the alcohol to all intents and purposes since New Year) in the City Cafe for memory's sake. I really do need to get my arse back to Edinburgh. What a city. Even for an hour. And I genuinely feel like I made a new good friend today. A lovely feeling.

Part 3 - Newport

If I was the sentimental type, I'd see this as coming full circle. The Big Splash Festival here is a gig Hazel and I have been doing since we started out. They fill the theatre foyer and field over the river with stuff. Including us. We do juggling and clowning and a small circle show. It's lovely to get back into the old routines with Hazel and explore that relationship when we've both been off doing other stuff and if I'm honest, I think it's still better overall than anything I've done solo since. We always have a blast and the audiences are lovely too. We're booked by a lovely chap called James of Citrus Arts who are doing very exciting things all the time. If you see one advertised, go to it.

This week coming sees me heading back to Cardiff to do a casting for a movie and a clearout of our new storage unit. Myself and 3 friends have happened upon a disused coach house that's full of crap. We all need storage and all we have to do is empty it. Result. On Friday it'll be time to go back to London for a stag party and to finally pick up my new motorbike (hence the storage). 

Yup, that's right. I'm now the proud owner of this:

My good friend Custard is making sure everything's tickety boo with it and fitting some new tyres n stuff then it's all mine. Cue getting around the country much more easily and having a lot of fun.

So yeah, stuff. More to come.