Dublin

A flying visit to the Dublin office for more meetings. The picture is of the Finnstown Country House Hotel, which is where us out-of-towners stay when in Ireland. Its almost like a second home to some of us. You can tell that you have become a regular when the staff start calling you by your first name. A bit like the Major in Faulty Towers!

Amsterdam

Well, not actually Amsterdam, more Schipol Airport. A short trip to pitch our new product to i-conX favourite customer (pictured). No time to go into town on this trip, but still able to fit in a quick beer at our hotel before heading on to Dublin.

Get Rocking, Rehearsal #3

Your looking at 4/5ths of Crossroads - the band that's set to get the world rocking later this month. (I'm the other 1/5th) And what a fine bunch of musicians they are, with (from left to right) Ken holding us together on drums, Dave on lead guitar (and tuition - for me), Paul on bass and our singer and fine harmonica player, Trevor. I do my best on rhythm guitar and keyboards.

Rehearsals are going surprisingly well so far, now that Trevor has joined us. (We were without a lead vocalist for our first rehearsal) Personally, I am finding it very difficult to get to grips with doing funk, which is rather a drawback since 3 of our 6 songs are of this genre. But the whole thing is as much fun as I thought it would be and its great to get out of the bedroom studio and actually start playing with real people again for the first time in almost 40 years.

Only one more rehearsal next week, before our début gig at the Boileroom, Guildford on 7th July. Be there!

Qatar again

Back in Qatar again for the second time this year to run a workshop for Vodafone. A very fleeting visit as I am off to Dublin later this evening. Currently sitting by the hotel pool in 40 deg heat, cursing the fact that I forgot to bring my swimming shorts. But it looks like there will be plenty of opportunities this year to get it right, with the next trip out here probably only a month away.

The Big Lunch, St Margarets

From Big Lunch 2011

I joined Alison and her neighbours for this al frecso dining event. Certainly a very sociable crowd and loads of community spirit in evidence. Predictably, after 3 months of virtually continuous dry weather, the clouds that had been threatening all morning finally gave up the struggle to hold back, and the heavens opened. Luckily we had by that time finished the eating part of the Big Lunch and were well on to the drinking part, so a quick dash to the church for plan B was in order. This turned out to be well worthwhile as Alison won first price with her raffle ticket - a meal out at a local restaurant in St Margaret's. Not a fix honestly (Alison is a member of the residents' committee that organised the event).