'ere we go / earwig oh!

In contrast to the previous day Sunday was almost too leisurely- with an afternoon flight the chance to catch up on some much needed sleep was universally appreciated although going for a walk after breakfast revealed our hotel to be in what I'm sure is one of the less tourist-orientated parts of Zurich i.e. an industrial estate. Not long after 1 o'clock we caught the shuttle bus to the airport for the customary hurry-up-and-wait for our flight (on time this time) which got us back to London City Airport around 4.30 p.m.- I almost expected to arrive at Heathrow... or Gatwick... or...

I didn't have too much time back at home as Sunday was the first of 'my' nights at The Load of Hay in Uxbridge; given the title 'Acts Less Ordinary' by Grant the landlord and featuring acoustic music booked by your humble narrator they're going to get off the ground properly in the new year but I've put a couple of evenings together to try it out before then. This one had local singer/songwriter (and my occasional dep in the CBB band) Joe Card next to slide guitarman Garry Smith and went pretty well for a first attempt 'though we could have had a few more people in- then again I guess any venue could always have a few more people in? Tonight it's the turn of the splendidly-named 2-acoustic-guitar-duo Donut, then there's a break until the middle of January- more news as and when I have it, as they say.

This week the shop's alternated between being frantically busy and almost desolate, with not much in between. Friday night saw the annual Ickenham Festival where all the shops in the village stay open until 9 p.m. and hundreds of people appear from nowhere expecting something BIG to happen. I'm not sure that it ever really does but an atmosphere of general jollity prevailed- the hot chocolate stand outside our shop gave us all free drinks all in exchange for us providing them with electricity for the night, American Tom and Charlotte (Paul the guv'nor's daughter) were spotted dancing on a street corner to The Vyners Swing Band and they served mince pies and mulled wine in the funeral parlour, which I think you'll agree is something that you don't see every day of the week. I left the shop just after 9.30 p.m. and arrived back around 12 hours later to open up for the busiest day of the season so far, 'though I suspect there's busier to come.
After finishing our chores at 'We Will Rock You' on Thursday Stuart the guitar repair man and myself walked over to 'The Jersey Boys' at The Prince Edward Theatre to re-string yet more guitars including a 12-string Fender Stratocaster; now there's another thing that you don't see everyday of the week although given the time it took for me to get it up and running again this may not be a bad thing.

Talking of jollity I've been boring everyone senseless with the Swiss promoter's website (see the link from last month's 'Brewhouse Blues' posting) which reveals more madness everytime I look at it. The description of Tom Jones may well have the funniest opening line that I've ever seen, and I'm convinced that Elton John will attempt to close the entire internet down if he ever reads what it says about him. I'm reliably informed by my internet-savvy buddies that it's all the result of an automatic translation program and that much as I'd like to think that it's supposed to say what it says in English, the original German is probably fairly sensible. Shame... however East has managed to work out why it keeps mentioning earwigs- check out http://andrewhammel.typepad.com/german_joys/2005/04/german_word_of__1.html for the full story, 'though that doesn't explain the dancing bears or being pristine and tempo loaded. Then again I'm not sure that anything can!

This week there's more days in the shop, another day at the theatre, 2 CBB gigs and then I'm off to see The Who. Busy times...