Guitars and Life

Okay something a little different... It Came Upon a Midnight Clear God Rest you Merry Gentlemen A few other little classical pieces... two by Tarega, Lagrima and Adelita, and then the famous Spanish Ballard. Enjoy - have a happy Christmas all

As regular readers will know Son-of-Furtheron is residing at Aberystwyth uni these days. So we needed to get him back home for Christmas but with the weather... I originally planned to go Saturday but weather in Wales on Friday and at our place on Saturday made that a non-starter. I thought I'd wait until Monday. But Sunday morning I watched the weather and thought "I better go today I think". So 2 hours to dig out our drive, car and road - we'd had about 4 inches I suppose. I left about 11:30 and got through the slush to the motorway. All went well until I got to the M1 - first crash. Wasn't too long there. Then into the roadworks and frankly aweful road conditions near Newport Pagnell there was just packed ice that wasn't shifting. Two lanes only as the contraflow was shut and then a break down. Through that and carry on. My biggest problem was the washers gave up working about Shrewsbury. So I had to stop and clean the screen from time to time. I...

So Mrs F says - "Can you go up Tescos and get the Christmas food and stuff on Thursday?" Of course being I'm not working it is least I can do as she runs from school play to governors socials etc. "There is booze on the list you ok with that?" "I'll see how I am at the time" She still doesn't get a response like that, but given probably 2 years ago I would have instantly said no things are moving on - Alcohol is for the moment a past in my life if Alcoholism is still very much in the present. Anyway - I come back with the shopping - no pork pies and the wrong type of shortbread but overall a success. She pulls out the bottle of Baileys (her favourite). I said "That cost £15 - good job you only drink it at Christmas". She looks at me - "I only drink it at Christmas and it is only me in the family. Why did you get a 1 litre one, the smaller would have done." Ooops - I'd pick up the little one and thought "...

I am totally over the moon (as they say) that I have won the 2010 ROCK-TIL-YOU-DROP Outstanding Achievement award. Many thanks to Toby at ROCK-TIL-YOU-DROP, frankly without his encouragement and the support through the network he started I'd have never got off my backside and got out there doing what I've been doing for the last year i.e. writing, performing, recording etc. I have to thank everyone who voted for me in the awards as I also got nominations in both the Song of the Year with Let Me Love You Tonight and the CD of the Year category with Within, my début solo CD. The Award PODCAST is available at ROCK-TIL-YOU-DROP at the moment or directly off Divshare. Not often I say this but I'm a bit at a loss for words frankly!

Do you remember that I put a plea out for readers of this blog to vote for my in theROCK-TIL-YOU-DROP 2010 annual awards? Well at 6pm GMT tonight the winners will be announced in a special 2010 ROCK-TIL-YOU-DROP-AWARDS podcast, which will be available to listen to, or download from the ROCK-TIL-YOU-DROP blog Fingers crossed :-)

My statement and royalty cheque from PRS tells me so! Okay it isn't going to mean I have to contact a wealth management consultant but nothing can better the feeling that I have received money for the songs I have written. So this ties up this year nicely - last year I'd just started as a solo singer, I have had stuff played on the Internet (thanks Scooter Forums Radio and Dinners!), I've played gigs, I've written and recorded a CDs worth of material, I have sold that CD internationally and now I get royalties. Shame there are not enough 0s on the amounts I've earned or I could seriously think about not doing a proper job again and living the dream! :-)