Busy busy...

...busy

Since my return on Friday from the South I’ve been busying myself looking for some where to live and socialising. I viewed a property on Friday afternoon which was just what I had in mind but the owner wanted a twelve month rental agreement and at this stage I can only commit myself to a three month lease to see how I settle. I’m still in ‘tourist’ mode and at this stage I’m still not one hundred per cent sure at this stage if I will be staying?

On Saturday night I went to an open ‘mike’ night (Where musicians can bring along their instruments and jam with other musicians) at a pub/restaurant run by a British landlady and her Turkish husband. On the evening’s menu was Goulash so I had to give that a go. Anyone who knows me knows I’m not shy in coming forward so when I informed the landlady I was Hungarian born a worried look appeared on her face. Unfortunately the recipe used was missing the ‘secret’ (caraway seeds) ingredient that gives Goulash its distinctive taste and it was served with rice and salad! Apart from that it tasted ‘ok’ and the beef was tender but Goulash with rice and salad; I don’t think so!

I was soon on stage and played a couple of my own numbers on my twelve-string acoustic and I got what seemed a polite hand-clap so I asked the audience if there was anyone who knew the words to Hotel California. A young woman came bounding up but unfortunately after about the second verse she started to stutter and stopped singing so I finished it early. Then a youngster called Ed (Who seemed to be organising it all) got up with a right old looking rocker (Who looked as though he’d just been dug up!) and ‘played’ the bass but they had no drummer so naturally I offered to sit in until a drummer turned up. I bummed along as well as I could but trying to keep in time with the ‘walking dead’ took a lot of effort and experience, experience which I don’t possess, so it must have sounded dire (Well it did to me!) but the landlady at the end of the evening said it sounded fantastic and she meant it!

Before I left Ed, who is only eighteen who by the way is a legend in the making, said his band ‘The Outlaws’ were playing at a local hotel the following night and would I like to go and see them play? How could I refuse? I duly turned up on time but had to sit through the ‘warm-up’ act which left me cold as they were worse than awful! Ed earlier told me two of their band couldn’t make it but they had a bass player who was to stand in. The stand in was the ‘right old dug up walking dead rocker’ who was even worse than the night before! Embarrassingly at one point he stepped back and went arse over tit, either on a cable or more likely he’d had somewhat too much! At least he turned up, in mind if not body! Ed made the best of a bad job, a real pro in the making. They played mostly covers to suit the venue but I know Ed writes his own material as he performed a few the previous night. At this point I have to say a word about Ollie the bands drummer. He already is a legend in my eyes as his drumming was stupendous if sometimes a little too complex for the material. He is off to London in three weeks for a two year music scholarship.

The landlady kept bringing up the Goulash so I told her if she would allow me into her kitchen the next time she has Goulash on the menu, I would be more than happy to show her how to cook it. She said I was on. I then bade my farewells as I’d still not recovered from the previous night’s indulgences and the four am ‘finishing line.’ I also agreed to turn up next Saturday evening to ‘woo my adoring fans!’