happy birthday mum…
Little did I know when I named this blog the Transcontinental Shuffle how apposite the title would turn out to be – these past 2 months have turned me into a spinning top… 2 weeks in new york, 2 weeks upstate, 3 weeks in new york, 2 weeks in cotherstone, and so far 2 weeks in menorca – it’s enough to make anybody’s head spin… it wasn’t meant to be like this, honest…
We did Gertrude proud up at The Mill – a fierce and original piece of work, performed outside, inside, up, down, in rain and hot sun, in all its glory… mazaltov, Karin, and many thanks to david gersten and the wonderful crew up there, and to the cooks for the wonderful feasts… here’s hoping the piece has a future…
I came back to the city and signed papers, played a wonderful “welcome home” gig at Barbes with all (or most) of my favourite musicians, packed up and moved to Westbeth – and then my uncle died. As he was the pater familias (dad’s elder brother) and cousin David had been so good being my back-up, I felt the least I could do was go back for the funeral and be there for him in turn… so 3 days after moving I left town again. Back to Cotherstone – not exactly a hardship, other than the funeral itself, which is never fun – but we had a good family reunion, including a splendid session that night at the Rose & Crown , from which we got thrown out for singing (!) and moved en masse across the road to the Kirk where we finished the night in fine style – thank you Paul for your hospitality… I think Bill (and Freddie) would have been proud.
And from thence to Menorca, by means of an insanely cheap ticket (£24 from Newcastle direct to Mahon), to help sis winterize the house for her all-season habitation… I would have been very happy staying in new york and settling back in, but it was important to go to the funeral, and it was important to come out here with Diana and start this new chapter together. I will return to NY early November, and in the meantime am relishing what I think is probably the best month of the year here. The weather is variable, but for the most part so far has been idyllic – hot sunny days, cool nights, still warm sea (relatively, if you’re a polar bear) and no tourists – heaven… there have been a few cold, grey, wet days, but we have taken delivery of a massive load of good firewood – seasoned, dry ullastre – so we are prepared. I have moved into mum’s room, which altho’ beautifully proportioned, turns out to be rather dark and damp (it is lower than the rest of the house and on the north-east corner, with only one window) so we bought a de-humidifier, at which point it turned really hot and we have been swimming… go figure… meanwhile I have set up the piano and play scales and work on Monteverdi to stop me turning into a pumpkin. It’s hard to carve out time for the music, there is so much to be done around the finca, but then that is why I’m here…