This lockdown isn't massively affecting certain aspects of my life, really. I was already kinda semi-retired, but had still doing bits of graphic design for our business. I'd only been doing this from home, for the last few months. This arrangement had been in place until a few weeks ago, when I got furloughed. Fine. I also do graphic design for recreation too, anyway. Some of you might have seen bits on Instagram or wherever.
I've got a few canvases on the go now, having recently returned to my beloved abstract painting. More available time had already started to allow for this. The inspiration was always there and frankly not being able to make time or muster the wherewithal frustrated me. I've a few for sale online, now online.
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Music-wise, my gigs have dried up as have my much loved regular jam sessions with my band Delphini. I suppose that's where this lockdown has hit me most. My music was also a big part of my social thing too. And I was especially looking forward to what would have been my busiest Summer of festival gigs to date. Many promoters still haven't announced that they're scrapping their events for 2020, but I can't see any of them being allowed to happen now, really. So, from my shed, I'm mixing a few things I'd already recorded - and have even released some bits, as an EP, last month.
Also, along with Shaun, the guitarist of Delphini, I've been remotely recording for his other band Monkeytrial. He moved up to Northumberland about eighteen months ago, so was rarely able to actually be in the rehearsal space with either band, anyway. We'd been been getting him down for rehearsals a few days prior to important gigs to quickly brush up. In Monkeytrial, I only provide hand percussion - and some voice bits - so, we seem to be more geared up to home recording. We're therefore all plugged in and catching up on work started during a writing weekend we'd enjoyed at his place, back in the Autumn. We're getting arrangements sorted, as we record ourselves. There'll probably be an album out, eventually.
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I often used to tut to myself, when I saw that some cool band or show was on in Wolverhampton or Birmingham, as even despite being the nearest point of call for some bands or theatrical show, it was just that little bit too far to fire the enthusiasm, more often than not. I had gotten all excited that Henge were to have been visiting Telford, though. But, that was for late march and that was pulled, inevitably.
So, there's the garden and the housework. I have bursts of activity where I do a deep clean or attack a load of long neglected things that had self-seeded and been allowed to flourish for a few years. Actually, yesterday's bathroom deep-clean revealed a dead bat, suspended in cobwebs, behind a cupboard. It'd been there for at least a year and was totally dried out.
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So... to this weekend. Another actual weekend, in part of this loooong weekend. I'll probably take my jazz pipe up into the hills for a wonky walk, at some point - and I'll carry on with a painting I'm just getting started on. No doubt I'll also catch a few more episodes of 'Better Call Saul'. What about you?
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