Well, this is a new one for me. I have blogged from various locations before now, but this is my first attempt to write something coherent using predictive text on my mobile.

I would just like to say that I am an idiot. Taking a half day off in the middle of a very very stressful work week in order to fly up and down the country is not the best idea I ever had. Ok, it wasn't quite that clear to me when I booked it, but I still knew it would be tight, but I went for it anyway. That's me folks.

However. Today's shenanigans are only half of it. As I sit here, following a hurried journey here, waiting to board my delayed flight in an every second counts sort of a mood, I must think back to the extreme stupidity of yesterday.

I was due to close a gig in a place near Blackpool that I can't be bothered to hammer the name of with this predictive text (Poulton-le-Fylde - added later). I set off from work at a moment where I knew that my code was about to work, but I couldn't stay around to prove it, kept it didn't. It was about ten past four.

I carefully primed my sat-nav and filled my ears with the radio and cd player. I grinned inanely from ear to ear during "Just a Minute", and ramped my car up to ludicrous speeds on the M6 toll road. It was a 250 mile journey and I had to be there by 8.30. I could have arrived later, but I wanted to have time for my sound check, and I like to watch the whole show. I was to be closing. So far, the only silly bit is the contrast of this fun on a school night with the busy workload, or perhaps the proximity of the trip to my flying around being an arse.

Well, folks, I arrived early. Approximately 30 minutes and 3 days earlier than required. I had copied the date incorrectly into my diary. The first time in 42 months of gigging that this had happened, and it chose to happen this week.

I like to think that things in life happen for a reason. I think in this case, the reason is that I'm an idiot!

Faced with the poster showing me that the closed venue would be reopening on Thursday for the gig, I did the only thing that could be expected under the circumstances. I pissed myself. It was pretty funny. Then I went for a walk to stretch my legs and buy something reasonably healthy to eat. I ate my apples on the way back to the car.

News just in, the flight is further delayed. Oh dear.

So, back in the car I was able to return whence I had come with my mp3 player for company. I don't use this on the way to gigs in order to preserve its battery for recording the gig. While returning unperformed, I listened to Queen, The Divine Comedy and a Bill Bailey gig. I enjoyed the listening time. Shame I had to waste all that petrol, and the time.

However, returning home before midnight had the fringe benefit of allowing me to get to sleep in time to get to work earlier than usual this morning. My colleague had been left instructions to send the work I'd finished to the integration computer this morning when he came in. If it integrated without errors, then over a week's work was a success and we could move on. If not, I'd get the monkey. I didn't want the monkey.

I didn't get it.