We’ve just had the best part of a week staying on some friends’ boat which is moored in Auxerre where they’ve spent the winter. It’s a lovely boat – a Dutch Barge replica with good heating and well-proportioned living space.

It was really cold in Auxerre though – I was expecting France to be warmer but it was colder than the UK!

I’ve spent most of the week sorting out all the replacement bank cards, driving licence etc for the bag snatch last week but at last it’s nearly done. Any of you whose mobile number I had who hasn’t yet private messaged it to me please do as I lost my mobile phone as well!

We’re back to Gambia next week to help with the two festivals in Kartong and Dombondir so exciting times!

I’m not sure what to write today – I seem to have got out of the habit of regular blogging for a while and then when I do it’s not really about my feelings as such but about what I’ve been doing, where I’ve been and some nice photos!

Nothing wrong with that of course and I’ve been to some beautiful places and done loads of wonderful things this year.

In fact I’m just back from nearly a week in France on a dutch barge while P was doing some work on the engine I just mainly lazed about and enjoyed the water and the views, good food, good company and card playing. Without wishing to boast – I did keep winning ha ha.

I’m now spending a few days in Bristol catching up with friends.

My problem is that I seem to have lost my musical inspiration at the moment – it’s a year since I wrote a decent song and where we live now I don’t know any local musicians to get together and play with. I know this will change and that it takes time but my confidence (musically) is seeping away a bit at the moment. I find it hard to promote my album  – I need someone to help me sell it – it’s hard work trying to promote oneself and very difficult to get anywhere with it.

Anyway – just wanted to get that off my chest – I know I can turn it around and I’m very happy in my day to day life but I don’t want to lose my music mojo – there must be an answer *scratches head*…………..

Just back from a great couple of days with the van at Halesowen – just south of Birmingham. We went to play drums for their evening party and we had an all day workshop at the same venue beforehand.

We had the same teachers we’d had at  ABC so it was brilliant.

The evening party was great -though unusually for me – I got very sloshed. Everyone let their hair down and danced their socks off to a load of 80’s music after our drumming and a live band.

The only hitch was my van got stuck in the mud getting out and luckily, just when I thought we’d have to get towed, I managed to get her out somehow.

P’s just gone off to London working till Friday and I’m going to use the time to finally set up my music studio here which I still haven’t done since moving in May! I hope I’ll feel inspired to write some new songs and get recording again!

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I don’t know where to start trying to write up the ABC event which is now finished.

A small group of us has been involved in organising it for a few months and at last the time came for the actual event to happen. We got to the site on the Sunday and the participants were going to start arriving on the Tuesday afternoon so they could set up camp, get sorted into the right level groups for drumming and start workshops on the Wednesday morning.

There were about 150 people booked in and it was an enormous amount of organising – the site, toilets, put up shower curtains, mark out fire lanes (had to have a 25′ access way round the whole site in case emergency vehicles were needed), programmes and schedule, crew schedule, put up an outside sink and tap, caterers, sort out the African artists’ camping arrangements, information tent/reception area, car park field next door, rubbish and re-cylcing, you’d never believe how much toilet paper 200 people need for a week,  warn the neighbours about the noise and invite them, evening entertainment and running order – just to get started – oh and not to forget TO HAVE A BRILLIANT TIME!!!!! The organising team (about 7 of us) and the crew were brilliant. The workshops were brilliant. The evening performances were – yes you guessed it – BRILLIANT.

The drumming, dance and song workshops were two days on, one day off, two days on with three or four a day you could attend. The camp was for intermediate and advanced drummers only (no beginners) so the standard was exceptional.

We had the cream of the cream of African teachers – world class performers and on the last night all the teachers got together to do a joint performance that I’ll never forget till I die!

On the day off we had demonstrations of African cooking, drum-skinning etc and it was good to have a more relaxed day in the middle.

I’ve put up photos on Facebook and there are link to some wonderful albums for those who are on Facebook they’re well worth looking at.

Really, this is only a snapshot of the week – it was such a good experience though I’m exhausted. I’ve been working on feedback forms and there are some things we’d have to change a bit if we do it next year but nearly 90% said they’d come back and had a wonderful time!

Some Photos

Hi all – just back from a few days working at the Cropredy Festival – it’s been going for 40 years or more and Fairport Convention play there EVERY year – mmmmmm……well………

It was very friendly but I found it so weird after the usual festivals I go to – it’s enormous with nearly 20,000 punters but there’s only one stage so no choice of music. I couldn’t stand most of it but I really enjoyed seeing Steve Winwood and Dreadzone. Some of the rest was dreary folk music (of course this is only MY opinion ha ha).

I was working on a stall called Goodies From the Gambia which sells lovely African clothing and fabrics – I’d never done this kind of work before and it was tiring but really fun.

Here’s a picture of me, Peter and Pa outside the stall:

I’m wearing one of the dresses we were selling and I think they’re lovely and each one is slightly different as they’re all hand-dyed and hand made.

Now we’ve got a couple of days at home then we’re off to help organise the main event of the summer – a five day drumming summer school in Somerset – we’ll be there for about 10 days in the van and a couple of days in Bristol first. Will be loads of work but should be fun.

More photos! Here

Well dear friends – life is feeling better again – apart from an achey shoulder and a bit of the jitters, I’m more over the accident now. The insurance have made an offer and I have a courtesy car for now. My car is completely written off.

We’ve just had a couple of days in London. P was working on a barge at Battersea and I spent time whizzing up and down the Thames on the Clipper Ferry as the tubes were on strike. This was a great way to see London. On the second day, I went to the Globe by the Tate Modern and accidentally managed to go and see Romeo and Juliet! I hadn’t planned it but they had tickets due to people not being able to get there due to the strike – here’s a link to loads of lovely photos from London on Facebook.

LINK TO PHOTOS

Today we had a drumming workshop near Birmingham and on the way back we popped into Leamington Peace Festival and saw Rory McLeod playing – brilliant.

P’s working on a barge on the Burgundy Canal all of this coming week so I’m going along for the ride – hope to get some good pictures of that too.

Thanks for all your lovely messages of support about the accident – it really was wonderful knowing how many people out there in the virtual world do care!

Bye for now.

I’m in the middle of moving so don’t have time to do a proper post but here’s some photos on how to make Baobab juice

PHOTO LINK

Another quick update. We’ve just returned yesterday from a four-day trip to Senegal sussing out another festival to see how they do things there and what we can learn from them.

The journey there was over quite rough terrain and untarmacced roads so very hot and dusty but great fun! We spent four nights at a friend’s compound in the outskirts of Abene, about half an hour from Kafountine.

The festival at Kafountine was really lively and we saw some good traditional African bands. I’m putting some photos up on my Facebook if there’s enough bandwidth.

We’re now starting to organise the festival at Kartong properly and have a meeting on Sunday with the members of the local Festival Committee and are starting to make contact with artists etc.

Last night we spent at Safari Gardens a small hotel with a hot shower (what a luxury!!!) though I don’t mind washing with a bucket of water from the well which is fine too.

So….. that’s it for now. I hope this uploads ok. Bye for now.

MORE PHOTOS

Hi guys – I’m in an internet cafe in Fajaro – a biggish town in the Gambia where we came to pick up a visa for a friend visiting the UK in March.

We’ve started preparations for the Kartong Festival which runs from the 26th to 29th March inclusive and will have music, drumming, dance, cultural activities, wrestling and more! We’ve been working with the local school to get the children involved and a UK musician will be working with a local teacher to write a song with the children to perform at the festival about Kartong. Other children who are not singing will make costumes for the performers to wear.

Everything here takes at least three times longer to achieve and you have to be very patient – it’s hot and a tremendous lack of resources but people are enthusiastic although there is also sometimes jealousy if people think some are benefiting and they aren’t! All par for the course and it will all smooth out in the end (hopefully!)

We are staying in a very lovely lodge with a friend and eating well. It’s wonderfully hot and sunny and we are quite near the beach though haven’t had time to go there really!

I’ll try and upload a photo of the local town.