It’s always enjoyable but you are never quite sure what Open Mic Night at Kilvert’s is going to be like.
In the depths of winter you might get a couple of the regulars and that is it, sweet and small. Then you get nights like last night when fifty people cram the place and nine performers which stretched the evening out till midnight.
I had an utterly wonderful night, the music was brilliant and so diverse – particularly with Peter Keyse playing the Bouzouki. And a very kind Mike Trowell who played and sang a couple of Crowded House songs for this kiwi girl.
When we all were finally kicked out of the pub some of the musicians continued playing around at Mike’s flat where the standout for me was Chris Bradshaw doing the bestest, bestest version of Pulp’s Common People and I wended my way home at two in the morning – wired and happy it was another hour before I felt like going to bed, hence my previous blog post.
Tim the Gardener who is a stalwart of the Open Mic Night issued a newsletter about last night in which he lists everyone who played and then ends with the following :
“All in all a very full, convivial nights entertainment. Hay Open Mic Night is not about EGO, its about SELF SUFFICIENCY and is in the spirit of RICHARD BOOTH when he declared Hay an independent KINGDOM – Kilverts 8.30pm Tuesdays”
If you are in town on the night – do drop in, it’s well worth it and the BEER is GREAT.
So many lovely comments on my previous post – thank you all so much, I really appreciated them.
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We are having a week off together. In other words, Mr T has a week off from doing stupid hours at work and I am having a week off from my usual week. Which is nice. We have bugger all money so are taking our pleasure locally – doing a few walks and going for a few drives.
The point to having this particular week together is that I have a new job which I am starting next week. Thankfully it is not a huge job, just ten hours a week over two days as admin assistant for Hay Community Support. I say thankfully because over the last month I have been afflicted by huge amounts of fatigue which muddles my brain and makes thinking difficult to say the least. I am of the opinion, putting two and two together, that what I am now suffering from is the beginnings of the (I’ll say this very quietly, so as not to offend the sensitive) …MENOPAUSE!!!! HA, HA!
So – now that the depression seems to have quietly sloped off for a bit, my body has decided to go all hormonial on me – fun.
Stuff I have done lately –
Made biscuits – Melting Moments, worked out a treat and made me realise that I havent made a biscuit in the last twenty years. Must make more 🙂
Held a bloody good house warming party (even if I say so myself). Lots of food and drink and really good company. Just thank the Lady that all the people I invited didn’t come, as I have a horrible habit of asking anybody I like that I come across over a period of about a month, without making a note and then when someone asks how many people I have invited and I start to count I realise that if they all come our house will explode.
Eaten far to many chips with garlic aioli and drunk far too much hot chocolate at the new restaurant in Booth’s Books. If you are ever in town you must visit and eat food there – real, proper interesting food at decent prices, and the hot chocolate is the REAL DEAL – like drinking liquid chocolate mousse.
Watched the incredibly beautiful British countryside merge into proper spring – love it. Also watching the streets of Hay start to swell with visitors. Kilvert’s front garden bar is beginning to hum with company again, instead of just me and Simon and Jenny wrapped like mummies huddling under the heaters with our fags and booze, flicking icicles off our eyelashes.
Crocheted thirty four flowers for a shawl which I am starting to sew together now – Ta-Dah! photos to come.
Signed up to Lovefilm so that I can watch my current American sit-com love The Big Bang Theory and continue catching up with The Wire
I have also read many and varied books – a package from my lovely friend Robin in North Carolina arrived in the post the other day. It contained the following: Simple Times- Crafts for Poor People by Amy Sedaris and Firmin by Sam Savage. I have had a chance now to flick through the latter and can confirm that it is quite, quite mad – utterly bonkers and truly wonderful in a very strange way. Totally unPC by the way – you really do have to bring a robust sense of humour with you.
Crafty Candle Salad from Simple Times
I have also been totally enthralled by the discovery of the Falco books – a detective series by Lyndsey Davis set in Roman times. The first book is called The Silver Pigs (the name for silver ingots) and I loved it – enough to do a little research into the period so that I could understand it a bit more and many thanks to my friend Leslie for introducing me. She has very kindly just lent me another three book omnibus to get stuck into, absolute heaven 🙂
Gratuitous photos of spring like things coming up –
From our walk on the Gospel Pass
The end of the Dingle road (with a small blue gnome on the side)
I know it has been a long time because looking back only a couple of posts I can see the one where I wished everyone a happy Imbolg – and now it is nearly the Spring Equinox.
And it is quite obviously that time of year here. It seems like everything that can is budding, building or busting out all over the place.
While it is blatently obvious that many plants and creatures are feeling the force. It is equally obvious what hasn’t made it through what has been a hard winter weather wise. Just take a look at the Ceonothus planted by the front door that once blessed the residents of our new house with a blast of unholy blue.
New house and dead shrubShould look more like this 😦
Oh well – can’t winnim all. I was thinking of digging it out and replacing it but an alternative was suggested – strip the leaves off, thin it out a bit and paint it different colours. Or maybe I could yarn bomb it?
Our house is not so new now either – we have been here long enough to have paid a months rent. Which seems crazy to me – how could time have fled so fast? The move went as smoothly as it possibly could and we even had some help in the form of our friend Mike who lent himself and his van for an hour to help move the big stuff. But however smooth it can be it is never free of stress and I have to admit to being utterly exhausted for the week afterwards.
The downstairs rooms – lounge, kitchen and bathroom are not huge so that meant we had to unpack and sort pretty much as soon as we got stuff here, otherwise we would not have been able to move. This was good in that it made the house look homely almost immediately.
I have to say that I do love it here and it was well worth the move. Not only do we have more space it is also a lot quieter. Very much like being in the country – lots of birds, neighbours chooks, sheep in the paddocks around, just out of Hay enough that the stars are brighter.
We have lovely neighbours which is a huge bonus. Most of them have been living here for many years and they have been very welcoming. As a bonus, the neighbours on our left have two small, extremely cute Jack Russell x dogs, one of which came into our house through the back door yesterday and lept on to my lap and gave my face a good clean.
I would have posted a photo of them but I managed to break our camera the other day and am waiting for a new one to arrive.
The other wonderful thing about our new house, apart from the bath (THE BATH!), is the sun. Our previous house got no direct sun at all in the living room – this house faces directly into it and at this time of year it shines straight through the lounge window and also through the windows of our bedroom on the floor above. Therefore creating one of the most pleasurable situations I know of – going for an afternoon doze on the bed in a huge, golden warm pool of sunlight.
Note Ros's crochet couch right in front of the big ass television and so close she doesn't need to wear her glasses. One day when we are a little bit wealthier we will invest in one of those groovy little flat screen jobs. Wood burner works well by the way 🙂Note stone flags on floor - nice touch but fricking freezing
Here are a couple of snaps taken last weekend when we went for a walk up our dingle 🙂
The DingleI expect this window give you a nice view of The Ankles
Watching The Wheels 