I don't think I could have done more today unless I'd crammed in some DIY too. I did it all. I woke up on the Isle of Wight - there's a pretty major start to any day. Not only that, but I woke up early on the Isle of Wight. My alarm had gone and I'd been worried about missing it - we had an early ferry to get back to the mainland and I didn't want the hassle of nearly missing it which had dogged my journey to the Island.
It was lucky that I did wake up early as I was soon the recipient of a friendly emergency call. That's a call, which suggests a friend has an emergency, rather than a call suggesting there's a fire somewhere and it's cooked burgers for everyone and would I like to drop over. The caller had an urgent need to make me a coffee and I had no reason to deny them the chance of doing so, once I was near enough to drink it.
And so, I took my Isle of Wight host to the ferry and we sailed away to the mainland. It was a much quieter ferry journey than the outward one, and I even got some toast. I couldn't face the cooked breakfast, believing that perhaps I'd already exceeded my calorific intake for the weekend with the previous evening's eating.
On the mainland, I dropped off my passenger and hurried to see the other friend. Look at me, flitting between friends. I remembered to thank my host for the hospitality of the weekend. It had been a joyous weekend, indeed it may even have been the weekend of joy we'd planned it to be. We'd certainly painted various towns various shades of various colours.
My trip to my other friend was a quick one. This was due to the fact that I was due at a technical rehearsal in London during the afternoon. I had to learn the changes to the show which I had last teched a few weeks back. In addition, some of the sound effects needed changing. They had 3 hours in the theatre in which to go through these changes. I knew they didn't need me for the start. I also knew I couldn't just drop in for the last ten minutes.
Curtailing a trip to see a friend is never fun, but I had to leave when I did... I also had to hurry. I couldn't speed on the motorway - my licence won't take that. I cursed the speed limits, the distances and my own stupidity for not taking my laptop with me to the Isle of Wight, just in case... I had to go to London from Southampton, via Reading. This isn't the most efficient route. Still, I always plan when in a spot of bother and I asked another friend if they could run me to the station when I arrived in Reading.
Note: there are a lot of friends in this story. I must have friends. That's good.
Arriving in Reading I had time to pack some stuff I needed to pack and then I got a lift. Foolishly I forgot to change my jumper for something more convenient for gigging in. Oh, I forgot to mention I had a gig in London that night. I ended up lugging my guitar, my bag of tricks for rigging up guitars and technical things, and my laptop bag. Getting to London I hurried to the venue and was at the perfect moment to involve myself in the preparations. My friendly emergency hadn't cost my commitment to the show.
After we'd done our preparing, I went for a coffee with one of the people from the show. We chatted pleasantly and then returned to Paddington station, from where I needed to head to my evening's gig. I had told my coffee companion that the gig might be cancelled and that I wouldn't mind if it was. If it went ahead, I'd enjoy it. If it didn't, I'd get to go home. That's kind of how it can go with gigs in London and I'm ok with that.
As it was, I had a bitch of a job getting to the gig. Some of the tube system was closed, which required some clever line changing and jiggery pokery. Not that clever, but cleverer than I'd like to normally use. Anyway, I got to the gig. I had plenty of time to make some phone calls. I had time to buy seedless grapes from the grocer's. I had time to discover my seedless grapes had been mislabeled. I had time to invent a special de-pipping system, involving spitting into an empty bottle of ribena I'd just emptied.
The gig was cancelled as only three people turned up - someone's facebook friends. Someone should have had more facebook friends, methinks.
I cheerfully went back to the railway station via about 95 tube stations and called my lift-giving friend, who gave me a lift back home from the other end, via a co-op where calorific rewards (low calorific, mind) were purchased. We went back to my house where I showed off the DIY... the absence of much progress was visible to my friend where I had thought that it would seem more progressed. D'oh!
I slept feeling like I'd had a go at loads over the course of the day and that it had been a day where friendship meant something.
It was lucky that I did wake up early as I was soon the recipient of a friendly emergency call. That's a call, which suggests a friend has an emergency, rather than a call suggesting there's a fire somewhere and it's cooked burgers for everyone and would I like to drop over. The caller had an urgent need to make me a coffee and I had no reason to deny them the chance of doing so, once I was near enough to drink it.
And so, I took my Isle of Wight host to the ferry and we sailed away to the mainland. It was a much quieter ferry journey than the outward one, and I even got some toast. I couldn't face the cooked breakfast, believing that perhaps I'd already exceeded my calorific intake for the weekend with the previous evening's eating.
On the mainland, I dropped off my passenger and hurried to see the other friend. Look at me, flitting between friends. I remembered to thank my host for the hospitality of the weekend. It had been a joyous weekend, indeed it may even have been the weekend of joy we'd planned it to be. We'd certainly painted various towns various shades of various colours.
My trip to my other friend was a quick one. This was due to the fact that I was due at a technical rehearsal in London during the afternoon. I had to learn the changes to the show which I had last teched a few weeks back. In addition, some of the sound effects needed changing. They had 3 hours in the theatre in which to go through these changes. I knew they didn't need me for the start. I also knew I couldn't just drop in for the last ten minutes.
Curtailing a trip to see a friend is never fun, but I had to leave when I did... I also had to hurry. I couldn't speed on the motorway - my licence won't take that. I cursed the speed limits, the distances and my own stupidity for not taking my laptop with me to the Isle of Wight, just in case... I had to go to London from Southampton, via Reading. This isn't the most efficient route. Still, I always plan when in a spot of bother and I asked another friend if they could run me to the station when I arrived in Reading.
Note: there are a lot of friends in this story. I must have friends. That's good.
Arriving in Reading I had time to pack some stuff I needed to pack and then I got a lift. Foolishly I forgot to change my jumper for something more convenient for gigging in. Oh, I forgot to mention I had a gig in London that night. I ended up lugging my guitar, my bag of tricks for rigging up guitars and technical things, and my laptop bag. Getting to London I hurried to the venue and was at the perfect moment to involve myself in the preparations. My friendly emergency hadn't cost my commitment to the show.
After we'd done our preparing, I went for a coffee with one of the people from the show. We chatted pleasantly and then returned to Paddington station, from where I needed to head to my evening's gig. I had told my coffee companion that the gig might be cancelled and that I wouldn't mind if it was. If it went ahead, I'd enjoy it. If it didn't, I'd get to go home. That's kind of how it can go with gigs in London and I'm ok with that.
As it was, I had a bitch of a job getting to the gig. Some of the tube system was closed, which required some clever line changing and jiggery pokery. Not that clever, but cleverer than I'd like to normally use. Anyway, I got to the gig. I had plenty of time to make some phone calls. I had time to buy seedless grapes from the grocer's. I had time to discover my seedless grapes had been mislabeled. I had time to invent a special de-pipping system, involving spitting into an empty bottle of ribena I'd just emptied.
The gig was cancelled as only three people turned up - someone's facebook friends. Someone should have had more facebook friends, methinks.
I cheerfully went back to the railway station via about 95 tube stations and called my lift-giving friend, who gave me a lift back home from the other end, via a co-op where calorific rewards (low calorific, mind) were purchased. We went back to my house where I showed off the DIY... the absence of much progress was visible to my friend where I had thought that it would seem more progressed. D'oh!
I slept feeling like I'd had a go at loads over the course of the day and that it had been a day where friendship meant something.
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