Dinner parties, movie readings and the good folk of Ely

Being self-employed is a tricky one, isn't it? I go from "help, I don't have enough work!" (because in one of my schools, 12 out of the 17 students are in year 6 so they're about to leave) to suddenly "help, I've got so much work coming in I can't breathe" which is where I am right now. Which is probably a good thing, apart from the lack of breathing, obviously, because fringe accommodation costs waaaayyy too much but I have no choice but to pay it and my car is making so many rattling scraping sounds people are actually looking out of their windows at me. 

But it also means I'm massively late in updating this, and I have some good times to write about - mostly about last weekend. This all came after a fun script reading of my very new show with Izzy and Alan, and a much needed catch-up with Esther, the first time we've seen each other since the fun/many arguments of the Brighton Fringe; no arguments this time, just two excited people with lots of ideas. 

On Friday it was the final student open mic of the term, with my young students nailing it and giving it absolutely everything, as they have done all term. That came after Thursdays drumming assembly where my bunch there were all also amazing. I'm very proud, this job can be exhausting at times but it's worthwhile when you get them onstage. 

After 7 hours of teaching on Saturday, I hosted my first of what will be a monthly thing: dinner parties. I'm trying to learn to cook, so why not tie in with a social? For dinner party number 1, my guests were Edd (old friend, former landlord, bassist), Liz (old friend, former Blue Peter presenter, actress), Michael (Liz's husband), Marcus (old friend, former landlord, bassist) and Leigh (Marcus' girlfriend). Isn't it weird that both of my former landlords are bass players? Probably even weirder that we're friends, but we really are. And wifey was there, too, of course, to help. Mostly pain-free, apart from not draining the juice from the kidney beans, but nobody seemed to mind. A lovely evening in great company. 

Hungover, because Marcus brought over strong wine, the next morning I was up painfully early for a reading of a film script by a chap called David, who I met in Essex at a film festival a few months and he's cast me in his new movie, which is nice. The script is great, filming dates in the diary, looking forward to it. 

From there, myself and my rattling car set off to the Ely Folk. An amazing festival; got a bit lost trying to find the stage but driving around it I bumped into (not literally) old friends Pete, Booga, Juliet and then backstage got chatting to my old chum, Tim, and after the show caught up with my guitarist pal, Lester. We (FH) played the mainstage, the sound was brilliant, audience up for it and it's the best we've played in a long time. Top, top day, that, loved every second of it. 

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