Been loo...

Been looking for listings for the green book we're putting together.Never quite realised just how many vegetarian and organic guesthouses there are out there.Now, if I can just persuade Nick...

*yawn*

Well, the gigs are over.I'd love to say that they both went alright, but the truth is only one of them did.Don't get me wrong, Saturday was a great day, apart from the rain, and it was a great venue and everything, and we all had a lovely time. We just got on stage and...something didn't click. Louis blames his guitar, which cut out for about half of the first track, and meant that we all spent the first track worrying when we should have been relaxing with the audience. The result was that no-one spoke practically at all, and we didn't bounce or involve the audience. Technically we played very well - but it wasn't enough. We couldn't win over the audience, and I'm not used to doing that. Everyone we talked to said they enjoyed it though - and despite that being what everyone says when you get off stage - it's a good sign. The rest of the bands weren't all that folkie after us, so I suspect the type of audience had something to do with it. Tim Van Eyken - can I just say "yum!" (I will always tend to go for the tall and skinny ones) - was phenomenal, and the Rags were brillant too - all flashing lights and power chords. I just couldn't cope though - all the music was great, but I couldn't stay in the hall. All I wanted to do was curl up in a corner and go to sleep, but there just wasn't the opportunity. And the exhaustion was doing funny things to me - I was wandering around acting drunk when I wasn't, and I'm sure I had various confusing conversations with people, and I can't remember what I said at all. Odd experience.Then yesterday it was amazing. We got on stage, and it was suddenly alright again. We got into the "inntinn zone" where we're able to charm audiences and bounce off each other. And it worked. We impressed an awful lot of people, and networked with even more. Felt loads better. Wish we could have stayed longer too but with the workload the way it is at the moment I couldn't afford to really.There is very much a sense of being "on show" at these things, and as the local journalist I need to talk to the right people and be seen at just about everything that's on. And while that's fun, I'm just not firing on all cylinders at the moment and can't possibly live up to everyones expectations, let alone my own.

grrrrrrrr

I come home with my hair in dual buns, all ready to do the "Princess Leia in a Gold Bikini" thing. To find himself asleep on the sofa.Now I've taken the hair down, and I've got a mass of curls and look like Shirley-fucking-Temple.Can't win, can I!?

Question of the day...

Why has someone left half a jar of pickled beetroot in the staff toilets?

This time ...

This time tomorrow we'll be on our way to the first gig of the weekend.My stomach is all in knots, and I'm half excited, half very apprehensive.I soooooo want it to go alright.If it was just friends and family I think I'd relax a bit more, after all it's only a gig and I never get stagefright anymore - busking for days in Edinburgh got rid of that for me.It's just - these are very prestigious events. If we do well at these and impress the people in the know, we could really step up a gear in terms of the music business.Of course, I'm not expecting record deals or anything - I'm not that unrealistic. But for me the real achievement would be for after this weekend, some of the bigger folk musicians to be saying "Oh yes, Inntinn, they're pretty good - could be quite big someday. Go along and see them" and to be invited to do more prestigious gigs with them - support slots with people, or something similar.I KNOW we can do it. We are perfectly capable. Our ideas are innovative, we're great musicians, we're adequate singers...but will people see us that way?Aaaarrrgggghh. Sometimes I wish I could take Elspeth's attitude and be totally unconcerned with all of this. It would certainly make life easier - but if I didn't worry about it, who would?

*sigh*

I feel a bit better today. I'm not sure quite why - I've had just as little sleep, and my workload is just as big. I just feel somehow a bit calmer and I don't feel the urge to nash my teeth.I managed to finish one article yesterday, which should have helped, but hasn't really made much difference to the work load, and I spent the morning up in the wilds of Maesteg - which is a dump and a half really but at least wasn't the same old computer screen all morning.So, maybe a bit better, maybe a little more able to cope.And, for anyone out there watching, there's a new Inntinn community - find it through your user screens as I don't know how to set up links in html yet. Come and join and talk about the band online!

*fanfare*!!!!!!!!!

Ahem. Ladies and Gentlemen, could I have your attention please?Would the real Slim....*snip*Enough of that. I just wanted to announce that the celebrated young (apart from Louis) Cardiff folk band Inntinn will be playing two dates in South Wales this weekend.On Saturday at 4pm you can catch us at Pontardawe Arts Centre as part of the Pontardawe Village Festival. The programme also includes Tim Van Eyken and Rag Foundation.On Sunday at 1.30pm you can find us at the Brunell Hotel in Pontyclun, near Llantrisant (opposite the railway station), playing as part of the littleBIGone festival, in aid of the recovery of Mick Tems. That programme also includes Rag Foundation and Boys From The Hill. Both festivals continue all weekend.We'd love to see you all there.

St...

Started crying over something completely stupid last night, and then found I couldn't stop!Think I'm just over tired.Don't know how much longer I can keep this up - but there's no end in sight and I"m living in hourly dread that someone will want me to write an advertorial too...

Whoopie!!!

It's half past seven!!!I'm still in work!!!Ain't life grand.Even better, it turns out the beloved might lose his job at the end of this month. Now isn't that just the perfect ending to a shit day?

...

I should have been learning law tonight.Ho hum.I cooked, then spent an hour or so lying on the sofa reading Marion Zimmer Bradley.I have no willpower.Or brain power actually. I think it's short circuiting.Still, I was managing about half a minute of 110 wpm shorthand today, which was a bonus. A shining beacon to carry held aloft into the future. Or a minor plus point. Can't decide.I'll write tonight off I think. Call it my surrogate weekend.