tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37853652036060030202024-03-05T10:34:42.030+01:00A bitch about Brittanycross country ramblingsRosiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12211663940952195703noreply@blogger.comBlogger343125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3785365203606003020.post-1051662559881549952012-12-07T22:54:00.005+01:002012-12-07T22:54:38.930+01:00kool drum on French Tv
Kool drums and us on French tv, FR3, last Saturday.
Rosiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12211663940952195703noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3785365203606003020.post-21544895956424801912012-09-27T17:35:00.000+02:002012-09-27T17:36:17.265+02:00Not ill, but busy and very happy
It has been a long summer, and although the sun has not shone often, things are much brighter.
Mysweet has his driving licence.
My health is just great.
We are making lots of kool drums and lots of music.
Here is a recent concert in Brittany at the Briqueterie in St Brieuc.
Singing Steel - Concert à La Briqueterie de... par guyomdeSinope
Rosiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12211663940952195703noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3785365203606003020.post-31447884737844728362012-07-12T10:39:00.000+02:002012-07-12T10:39:54.536+02:00Eeyore and Mrs Liverish
Things have
not been great chez Porridge recently.
I have been
suffering continuing symptoms after a bout of hepatitis caused by an antibiotic
allergy. I won’t bore you with the complete catalogue, but fussy eating,
exhaustion, a bit of confusion and a lot of grumpy bad temper, are right up at
the top of the list. This is coupled with a real sense of bereavement in the
knowledge that my Rosiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12211663940952195703noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3785365203606003020.post-6475536231388348002012-06-16T22:13:00.001+02:002012-06-16T22:13:49.608+02:00Beach Time means Bath Time
I really enjoyed that run on the beach. Especially when I rolled in that smelly seaweed. I don't think that they noticed when I sneaked off.
Oh dear, something is up. She doesn't usually tie me up here, and when she does...
it's not good news.
I knew it. All that lovely perfume, going, going...
gone...
And you can stop sitting there Rosiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12211663940952195703noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3785365203606003020.post-36019731216124282432012-05-28T19:28:00.000+02:002012-05-28T19:28:51.576+02:00A song for the ChaosSome places are just special. And it is hard to explain why. I have tried your patience for a while now, keeping on about this particular place. I have tried to get it out of my system by writing a song about it and performing it on video, but I make no promises. I expect it will be cropping up again from time to time...
Rosiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12211663940952195703noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3785365203606003020.post-70252101777338007922012-05-25T21:31:00.000+02:002012-05-25T21:31:26.535+02:00Les chaos du Gouët
We went down to the Chaos today to video a song of mine.
We got there early in the morning and everything was shrouded in mist.
And then the sun burnt it off and it became so hot that the hand pan went out of tune the moment a shaft of sunlight touched it. It was precarious at times on the narrow pathways and the slippery mossy rocks and I wondered whether we, the instruments and the equipmentRosiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12211663940952195703noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3785365203606003020.post-35018132343169266932012-05-17T13:15:00.000+02:002012-05-17T13:15:18.133+02:00Porridge time for Porridge
When is she going to feed me? I don't think she is ever going to finish her breakfast.
And he is probably on Facebook again.
I know, I'll do that thing with my ears on the armchairs again.
They like that and they're bound to look at me and remember my BREAKFAST.
Anyway it feels quite nice...
No one seems to be looking at me though. It is hard toRosiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12211663940952195703noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3785365203606003020.post-7153897176807786762012-05-12T21:46:00.001+02:002012-05-12T21:46:47.635+02:00I don't think I am dead...
There was a
time when Mysweet would say to children “That’s enough! You have been on
Facebook for at least 24 hours…It’s time to eat/sleep/do homework…”
He did have
a Facebook account, but rarely used it
But now,
all is changed.
It is down to this photograph of him posted on my page by an old touring friend of his. This attracted the comment “A dam fine man! RIP!” by another of the Rosiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12211663940952195703noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3785365203606003020.post-34223338445362080752012-05-04T09:30:00.000+02:002012-05-04T09:30:24.747+02:00My favourite walkI have lived in Brittany for over 20 years now.
In the winter, it can be difficult to cope with grey skies and rain and I long for the city...any city.
In the summer, it is quite stunningly beautiful. All that rain creates a lush green landscape and when the clouds clear it sparkles in the sunlight.
Even in the depths of winter there is one place that I go to, very close to where I live, which Rosiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12211663940952195703noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3785365203606003020.post-9155262464233793692012-04-22T23:39:00.000+02:002012-04-22T23:39:08.617+02:00A foreign countryIt has been a mixed pleasure walking down memory lane this week, as I assembled the elements for my new personal website. I have been singing professionally for 35 years, so putting a biography together has been challenging. What to put in and what to leave out has mostly been determined by what I could find in dusty drawers. There are lots of videos on you tube showing me in places that I didnt Rosiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12211663940952195703noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3785365203606003020.post-9627246652826500872012-04-15T19:56:00.003+02:002012-04-15T21:21:08.547+02:00Restaurant Le JAVANAISWhen I lived in London, I was a great fan of Indonisian food. So it was with delight that we accepted an invitation from some friends to take a day off from our internet toiling and visit St Malo for lunch at a Javanese restauraunt. Our friends are French but unusually adventurous when it comes to spices...At this time of year, the medieval town of St Malo is full of tourists from just about Rosiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12211663940952195703noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3785365203606003020.post-69869866178464357302012-04-05T22:05:00.004+02:002012-04-05T22:37:04.855+02:00Off into the big bad worldMaybe I was just tired.So emotions always get more intense, don't they?Drummer boy is off into the world. We drive to the airport, and I go through the long list of things that could go wrong in my mind. We sing to his favourite tracks and hope that his small midi keyboard won't get crushed in the ryan air hold.He is going to Aberdeen for a 10 week internship. We have tried to disguise a 6 ft 4 Rosiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12211663940952195703noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3785365203606003020.post-74762250295920136332012-04-02T15:51:00.005+02:002012-04-02T17:33:53.857+02:00how to keep coolWe have been working a bit too hard lately, so we decided to take a break on Sunday, and get Porridge to work instead. We showed her a stick and reminded her that a retriever's job is to... retrieve.Her diet is working well, and it was a newly svelte shape that slid into the water. She is a lot lighter on her feet. This doesn't change the danger of her running behind the backs of your knees Rosiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12211663940952195703noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3785365203606003020.post-47883391414368025392012-03-23T14:05:00.006+01:002012-03-23T14:37:17.823+01:00Hurrah for a weekend in LondonThe sun is shining and my spirits are as high as can be.I am escaping to London to spend some quality time with fairy godmother (to my kids) and best friend in all the world .I have finished the intensive work of completely overhauling the kool drum website. I have to say that I am proud of it. Mysweet's paint work on the new drum type, the nova, is absolutely beautiful.It should be, because he Rosiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12211663940952195703noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3785365203606003020.post-15786237302031443442012-03-10T21:38:00.003+01:002012-03-10T21:58:34.601+01:00A nice comfy cushion pleaseThis Tuesday night found me in the unusual situation of bending over a toilet seat with lowered trousers while the piano teacher from the room downstairs closely examined my inner thigh from the back brandishing a big spraycan.Well it was like this; I arrived for work heavily burdened with music books, laptop etc, and saw a woman of a certain age (mine) pushing her broken down car outside the Rosiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12211663940952195703noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3785365203606003020.post-75025192285593085472012-02-24T19:00:00.002+01:002012-02-24T19:26:23.303+01:00Oh no! Not the lampshade!Retrievers are rightly famous for their ability to eat just about anything. I should have been suspicious yesterday afternoon when Porridge started desperately trying to snatch at grass in the garden. The dressing on her operation wound seemed to be loosening and some of the compresses were hanging out. So I snipped off the excess and hoped for the best. We are talking about an enormous dressingRosiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12211663940952195703noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3785365203606003020.post-45575719601890328872012-02-21T19:04:00.008+01:002012-02-22T21:40:55.953+01:00Last Day of Freedom (of movement...)On Sunday, we decided to go to the beach to enjoy Porridge's last walk before her operation. The wind whipped up white horses on the waves and we all ran about and did gymnastics...well some of us did. There was synchronised crab impersonation, a new sport which surely will feature in the olympic games some day. The old favourite of throw a ball in the sea and get the dog wet wasRosiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12211663940952195703noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3785365203606003020.post-78195386093950642282012-02-16T20:59:00.002+01:002012-02-16T21:29:38.252+01:00Scarf EnvyLucy and Mol came round to escort the condemned dog (and owner) on a last good long walk before sterilisation (dog, not owner...).Porridge was , if anything, even bouncier than usual. I do hope her personality will not be changed by the operation. Shy and retiring just would not suit her, and neither would fat and lazy... I caught her eyeing up Mol's rather attractive scarf and wondering whether Rosiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12211663940952195703noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3785365203606003020.post-75919720396478990842012-02-12T09:57:00.004+01:002012-02-12T10:49:45.102+01:00Emile on the mendEmile is doing very nicely after her operation, but she is not happy being kept in the house. We have to keep the wound clean, so she has a special litter tray full of torn up magazines... no cat litter dust allowed. The trouble is, she doesnt know what the litter tray is for. We put her in there and she curls up and goes to sleep in it. Mysweet has just taken her out for a supervised stroll on Rosiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12211663940952195703noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3785365203606003020.post-15019079220679814662012-02-08T10:36:00.003+01:002012-02-08T10:57:21.748+01:00Night Nadgers UnwarrantedI think it is better to be tired and doing something exciting than comfortable and bored.It has been an exciting weekend!The concert in someone's living room was a real pleasure. There were about 15 people, most of them from just one family, and most of them came to see us again on Sunday, gluttons for punishment. The only uncomfortable part was the fact that they had cleared an area to act as a Rosiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12211663940952195703noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3785365203606003020.post-16828211704256002852012-02-02T05:47:00.002+01:002012-02-02T06:10:59.136+01:00Night NadgersIt is 5 am, and I am awake worrying about a performance we are to give tonight in someone's living room. It has been organised by a festival, and we dont know where it is or who they are!It is always easier, I find, to play to an audience who are nicely hidden in darkness in an auditorium, so you cant see them yawning. I remember in America long ago, Annie Lennox got very angry with a girl who Rosiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12211663940952195703noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3785365203606003020.post-29249754880174617142012-01-25T15:31:00.003+01:002012-01-25T15:35:52.554+01:00Cabin PressureFor those of you yet to discover the brilliant John Finnemore with his radio comedy series Cabin Pressure, here is a link to the radio 4 iplayer which can be heard around the world for the next week or so.All of the episodes are of a similar high standard.Rosiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12211663940952195703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3785365203606003020.post-70652829132209919262012-01-22T12:07:00.007+01:002012-01-22T13:07:25.748+01:00Hot news from the drum faceThe new kool drum prototypes waited patiently in the wings and large numbers of arty people, lots of the men wearing red scarves for some reason, accumulated downstairs wolfing down free arts council buns. Is there something I don't know about red scarves? We played in a hallway at the top of a stairwell, which gave us some space, but meant that every now and then there was a bit too much arty Rosiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12211663940952195703noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3785365203606003020.post-50863453322130388872012-01-20T12:46:00.004+01:002012-01-20T13:09:55.134+01:00First public show for Singing Steel.I have spent the last week updating websites, except this one, you will have noticed!That and tapping away at xylophones and kool drums.Oh yes, and muttering lyrics in public whilst walking anywhere at all, rather like an elderly vagrant...with a golden retriever.And snapping at close family in my stressed condition.All because Singing Steel are playing on Saturday afternoon at our equivalent ofRosiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12211663940952195703noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3785365203606003020.post-83682732922831680992012-01-15T19:26:00.004+01:002012-01-15T19:53:43.014+01:00Mysterious fear and loathing in the nightIt was 5 am and I awoke to the sounds of creatures in great pain. It must have been loud, because I was right upstairs in the studio in the loft. I turned over and relaunched the BBC iplayer, which is my usual way of dealing with insomnia. I don't sleep very much at this phase in my life, perhaps five hours a night in periods which are rarely longer than an hour, often much less. The noise died Rosiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12211663940952195703noreply@blogger.com2