A whole week ago.....

Well, I've been in Scotland, doing the mad Scottish Dancing thing and stuffing my face with food in Crieff with my entire family to celebrate McMum's birthday (which has a fantastic sweetie shop where I bought Floral Gums (ah! the aroma of clean disposable nappies!), sugared almonds, blackjacks, fruit salads, rose and violent creams, and more than I can metion of other things. I went quad biking and didn't fall off, although almost everybody else did; and I actually read a book (by Donna Leon, and it was a pile of poo but at least I read a book).
And I've been in Ireland too, in Dundalk, playing at the wonderful Number 32 Restaurant, unplugged, been driven around by cabdriver Hozein from Algeria with his stories about the Northern Irish Police and the Southern Irish police each saying that it's the others' responsibility when he and his Algerian cabdriver friends are being threatened by violent and drunken passengers, getting a 'flat wheel', learning English from Billy Connolly videos, and the deadly throat-grabbing wolves of Algeria (you have to climb a tree as fast as you can, otherwise they kill you. No trees, and you're a goner). And the poor Italian roadbuilders who made the mistake of killing a baby boar for lunch. only to be slaughtered by mummy boar when she found out what they'd done!
On the way to Stansted to catch the flight to Dublin, the traffic on the M25 drew to a standstill. I peered over the minicab driver's shoulder to see what was going on. An articulated lorry had stopped, and its driver was out on the road with a huge swan- I could see it's wings flapping. A girl got out of the car in front and got a blanket from the boot. Three lines of traffic had stopped for the swan, which had been hit as it tried to descend to the river below the bridge we'd been driving over; alas, we started up again after five minutes, for there was the swan, folded up at the side of the road, where it had died. It was strangely heartening that everybody had stopped to respect such a extraordinary and beautiful creature.

FInally... I have been organising the choir to sing on my Swedish Christmas track. I'm delighted that Lester Square is coming along to do it, and pehaps even Paul the Girl, and various other interesting people... Let's hope they all turn up for their lollipops!