The meanderings of a Manx musician on and off the road.General travelogue and memory prodder for said muso.;-)
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Nuptial Blogging and other adventures
It's hard to believe eight months of this year have already flown by. I really need to get a grip!Look, here's proof of New year Kiwi fireworks and snow ... and a little daftness:
For those of you with the time and inclination there are various photos I took of the Isle of Man in Winter here
The cornucopia of adventures I am able to share with you this Blogging session is overwhelmingly bountiful! It might be that we separate the adventuresome nature of my life into easily digestible nuggets but I have to start somewhere and where best to begin than on a high point.
The most fun filled and exciting adventure of my life – so far – happened on February 13th at Gretna Green, where Bob and I finally took the plunge and tied the knot! Jo and Mike – now my step-daughter and son-in-law!- were our only guests and witnesses. We stayed at a favourite place of ours in Troutbeck near Windermere in the Lake District, an hour away from Gretna - The Queens Head - where we enjoyed amazing hospitality, sumptuous accommodation and fabulous food. A few weeks before our great big nuptial adventure, the country had been gripped by a snowstorm frenzy and many roads, villages and towns were seriously cut-off and though much of the seriousness had lessened, we wondered if we'd be able to a) get to the hotel at all and then b) drive to Gretna and back without being snowed under!
Thankfully everything went even better than planned and it was a joyous and delightful occasion. Lucky for us Jo and Mike did a brilliant job of capturing the whole event in a mass of lovely photos and Flip video which I am very happy to share here with you. Don't worry … you don't have to watch HOURS of it just a modestly edited version which lasts all of 10 minutes – I promise it will make you laugh out loud … really! ;-)
At the same time as planning our small but perfectly formed nuptials, Bob's wonderful artist Corinne Bailey Rae was launching her second and truly masterful album “The Sea”. So Bob was ridiculously busy right up to the event itself and immediately after. It all added to the excitement and was our excuse to “honeymoon” in Paris where CBR and her band were performing for promotional purposes in the city centre the following Tuesday afternoon.
We flew to Paris on Sunday evening Feb 14th (oh hang on isn't that Valentine's day?!) and stayed near The Champs Elysee. Though I managed to get food poisoning that night and felt less than wonderful the following day we still had a marvelous time. I made a valiant effort and rallied late Monday afternoon, so we braved the vagaries of the ridiculously complicated Metro system and the bitter bone-numbing cold, to view the Eiffel tower ... well that was our intention. The queues were far too long to stay out in the freezing temperatures the length of time it would take to actually get in a lift, so we carried on walking and ended up at the Louvre which was just shutting as we arrived!
Tuesday was glorious and though still cold, was a much lovelier day. We viewed Notre Dame in the morning and meandered through beautiful Parisienne streets to finally meet up with CBR at her appearance in a city centre music store. We were met with a flurry of applause and congratulations from herself, band members and the crew. Ah.
Bob and I returned to the UK in style on board Eurostar and managed to get a great deal including a 3 course meal in first class - oo la la! Oh we know how to do things right. The whole experience, from the Lake District to Gretna Green to Paris and back was truly wonderful, memorable and joyously lovely. We are blessed!
Corinne's album was receiving amazing reviews around the globe and there were many trips to the USA, Europe and the UK purely promoting the album's release which Bob was often a part of. So I didn't see my husband (ha, ha, ha!) very much the first month of our marriage. We've made up for it since! Once the bulk of promotional tv/radio/etc was done, work began on touring proper … and so to the first few CBR shows which I was privileged to see.
Leeds was March 27th and a wholly exciting affair with a full house totally enraptured by Corinne's beautiful and mesmerising performance. At one point a guy shouted from the back … I think I have to change my opinion of you … you might be a genius!We don't know what his opinion had been before that comment of course but I agree with him! This album is full of genius moments of inspiration.
We skipped the gig in Edinburgh to spend a day with our lovely friends Diane and Bryan Ansell so we could celebrate our nuptials once again,in high style at their beautiful home, before catching up with CBR in Leamington Spa.
From there we flew to LA and took up honeymooning where Paris left off … but this time no food poisoning! I think I'll stop this first batch of memories with the first CBR show in LA; a wonderful concert for KCRW in a fabulous old Church called Vibiana in Downtown Los Angeles.
I'll continue with our amazing American adventures very soon … watch this space! It's still possible to watch the full KCRW internet broadcast here - well worth it!
Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again in a week or so with more musings on my fairytale life ;-)
Keeping up with my retro nature, I'm only now writing about my time in Australia and New Zealand … at the end of 2009. You couldn't accuse me of being speedy when it comes to my Blogging life! Hey ho and here we go:
Bob and I flew out to Australia together on October 15th – ah – and spent the first 4 or 5 days at the very first One WorldMusexpo Asia Pacific conference and Festival in Perth. It was a wonderful experience and a great opportunity to meet musicians,writers, producers and performers alongside promoters and business people alike, all in one great big user friendly and very well organised place, situated in the heart of this delightful and bustling city.
Davy Knowlesand Back Door Slam were invited to play at several stages over the weekend and made – as I'm sure you've all come to expect – a great impression. Bob was also asked to take part in one of the many and never less than interesting, business panels as a guest speaker. I was so proud!!! He was great … and more than kept his own in some pretty illustrious company!
The weather was unseasonably SCORCHIO over the weekend and made for some interesting lethargicly jet-lagged moments … none of which I can relate but believe me they were very strange at the time!
Bob left to continue his ever productive managerial life, organising the run-up to Corinne's second album launch and Davy's onward musical march on the world. Which left me – in between writing and editing – to visit my brother Paul and his gorgeous family. A rare and unmissable experience! Mum and dad flew out a few days after Bob left and the 3 of us settled down to some serious familial catching up!
Sadly, Rebecca my sister-in-law, had to fly back to the Isle of Man for her father's funeral just as we all arrived. Her dad was Clinton Ford of Music Hall fame … and a huge influence on his children's lives and is of course, very sadly missed. It meant that for the first 10 days or so of our stay we became an essential part of family life, taking Poppy and Oscar to and from school each day while Paul got on with training to become a Policeman!
To mark their Grandad's passing, on the day of his funeral, we all went down to the local beach about the time of the ceremony taking place back on the Isle of Man and Poppy, Oscar and their older brother Bailey took a few moments on their own to think about him. As a symbol of their goodbyes, they each threw flowers into the Ocean. It was a beautifully simple and very poignant experience.
Hanging out with Poppy and Oscar was an absolute delight. We had a great time at the cinema … mum and dad enjoying the amazing 3D effects of the brilliant Pixar animation “Up!” for the first time … me, Poppy and Oscar for the 2nd! Hurrah!We had a few days out too …shell collecting on the beach and a wonderful evening at the wonderful Gingin Observatory about 50 kilometres outside of Perth where we were able to view ridiculously distant Galaxies through the various assembled huge telescopes, made available for visitors like ourselves to use … a truly awe inspiring experience! We also saw on numerous occasions, kangaroos, koalas and any number of colourful bird-life … along the way.
Once Rebecca was back and family life returned to some kind of normalcy, mum, dad and myself went for a weeks adventures a couple of hundred miles further south of Perth, in what we thought was the Margaret River region. Let me explain: my mum's name is Margaret and she had wanted to visit the wine region of her namesake ever since their first visit to Perth 3 years previously. So I … being the helpful daughter … searched the internet for places to stay in the Margaret River area. This took quite some time but eventually we all agreed on a delightful looking 2 bed wrap around verandah type cottage in it's own grounds. Lovely! Just before we left I thought I'd better get directions so we wouldn't get lost trying to find it, only to realise that our home for the next 7 days was in fact … 100 miles away from where we thought we were going to stay! Oops!
As it turned out we were exactly where we'd have the most fun and memorable experience … and we all loved our little house with it's own huge pond full of black swans, ibis, ducks and kookaburras. Not to mention the big black angus beef cattle that roamed freely about the place.We were staying in the grounds Diamond Tree Farm Stay, Pemberton Western Australia.
We visited several vineyards on our trip, including Lost Lakesand Silkwood both serving delicious food too.We also discovered many a vertiginous gum tree plus, we got to “walk in the sky” in the Valley of the Giants; take a trip on an old train through beautiful forests and had a wild time getting lost in another forest looking for a walk-through gum tree! All in all a handful of wonderful adventures.
The second night in our little cottage we had a power cut which lasted till mid morning the following day and proved an interesting event to say the least. For one thing (many actually!) the entire water system used by the place was totally dependent on electrical pumps … so once the electricity went off we had no water! Eek! We had plenty of bottled water (and wine) to drink but no water to wash … ourselves or dishes … or to flush the one and only loo ...you can imagine I'm sure!
Lucky for us the farm manager Bruce (yes really) was a sweetheart and tried to make the situation as bearable as possible.The electricity board fixed the break pretty quickly all things considered. What made the event all the more exciting was the fact that we had to drive 5 miles to get a phone signal, which meant getting in touch with the owners - who were thousands of miles away in Victoria anyway - to alert them to the situation, was a mini adventure in and of itself! All was well in the end and it only added to the general excitement of our visit. There a several video clips to illustrate our experiences. My favourite one is of the immense thunder storm on our last night. Enjoy.
Back in Perth we resumed our fun-filled family excursions with the kids and Paul and Rebecca but all too soon our time together came to an end. On December 1st Mum and Dad flew back to the Isle of Man and I flew onto Melbourne” Victoria where I met up with my lovely friend Terry Crockett – originally from the UK - who now lives an hour or so outside of Melbourne only 7 minutes from The Great Ocean Road. Terry has lived in Australia for over 40 years and somehow has hardly a trace of an Ozzy accent. She's amazing!
I spent a wonderful few days in her energising company and was treated to several fabulous Bush Walks, complete with her excellent Bird Watching skills and expertise alonside wild Koala spotting! All brilliant and exhillerating experiences and I hope to repeat them all as soon as humanly possible.
I caught the train back to Melbourneto meet with a very dear friend from Canada Angela Hryniuk, who was getting married to her long time beau Steven Seaton in Noosa on the east coast, a few hours north of Brisbanewhere they now live, the following week. Turns out I was her “best woman”! Yeh.
Angela's mum and brother had flown out from Canada to Melbourne the week before her ceremony, in order to go to a very special convention there: Council for a Parliament of the World's religions. Both Angela and Michael her brother, live spiritually well-informed lives – she's a practising Tibetan Bhuddist, qualified to teach meditation and a fully honoured Celebrant able to legally marry people of all faiths; while Michael works within the Christian community, also teaching, writing and leading weekends in contemplation and meditation. They're all together an amazing family.
We had a wonderful few days reconnecting and catching up on each others lives before flying on to Brisbane and the exciting run-up to Angela and Steve's nuptials!While in Brisbane I took full advantage of the situation, basically enjoying the hospitality and generosity of my friends in their gorgeous home in the suburbs of Brisbane.
I drove off to Noosa a day ahead of the wedding party and thoroughly enjoyed the drive up the Gold Coast. Noosa itself is a lovely one street tourist resort with beautiful beaches and warm, crystal blue waters (complete with sharks!!) and any number of great restaurants and up market shops to indulge in. I had a great room in a small hotel at the end Hastings Street overlooking the river – blissful.
There was of course a rehearsal of the, personally designed, wedding ceremony in Hidden Grove just off the beach, the day before the BIG day, when the wind was so forceful we thought everything might simply blow away! Thankfully, when it came down to it, there wasn't a breath of wind and the usually scorching heat was at a delightfully warm simmer. Rehearsal was followed by the rehearsal dinner of course … an amazing feast at the most exquisite Thai Style restaurant I've ever experienced, in it's own beautiful gardens centred round a small but perfectly formed lake.
The day of the wedding itself was spent in girlie excitement as Angela was pampered and prepared. She looked absolutely stunning and I had fun capturing it all on camera. Angela and Steven had asked me to sing a lovely Eric Bibb song as part of the ceremony … Dance Me To The End of Love … so I had to put my camera down and be in the moment. It was all beautiful and quite lovely.
A few days later it was time for me to fly off to New Zealand and the final leg of my Antipodean adventure and more importantly … meet back up with Bob … yeh! Dec 16th had me getting up at 4am in order to get to the airport … 3 and a half hours drive down the coast … and onto Aukland where Bob and I were happily reunited. We'd been apart for 2 whole months! It was sooo good to see him. Bless!
We'd not stayed in Aukland before so decided rather than head straight for Mount Maunganui and the pre-Christmas family frenzy … we'd acclimatise ourselves there and have a good look around. We loved it! Got a great deal online at a 4 star Hotel right in the centre of the city and explored every which way we could. Watching Avatar in 3D, going to the top of the Sky Towerwas amazing and wandering the wonderful halls of the City Museum were all high-lights. Plus we managed to find some great places to eat … always a joy!
Mount Maunganui and all things family was – as ever -fabulous. We feel right at home there these days. Indulging in walks round the mount, sessions at the Hot Pools, massages, great food, family connections and a while lotta fun. We are surely blessed!!
Unfortunately ... due to technical cock-ups and the fragility of external hard drives all data has been lost from our lovely Christmas Kiwi excursions ... I'm still trying to recapture my photos and flip clips but so far no joy ... ho hum. They are still delightful memories of course but a little harder to "share" with you all.
Thanks as ever for your fortitude, patience and forgiveness! All very much appreciated. I will endeavour to be a bit quicker off the mark with my next installment which will include a little nuptial experience of my own! Promise!!!
I have been singing my whole life and lucky enough to be able to say I've been doing it professionally for 27 years this November(2010). Eek!My influences are far too many and varied to mention fully but a short list would include:10cc,David Bowie,Bonnie Raitt,Jackson Browne,Steeley Dan,Kate Bush,Karen Carpenter,Elbow,Sting,Annie Lennox,Dusty Springfield,Joni Mitchel,Tom Waits,Fleet Foxes,Helen Watson,The Eagles,Richard Thompson,John Martyn,John Mayer,Randy Newman,Smokey Robinson,Arvo Paart, Corinne Bailey Rae ... too many like I said.
I was born and raised on the tiny Celtic nation of The Isle Of Man and 3 years ago, after 25 years of living in the UK, returned to live there once more.It's a brilliant and powerful place and feeds my melancholic soul with it's wild and lovely landscape.Not to mention that 6 of the 9 nephews I love and adore live here still, while 3 now reside in Perth Australia with my one and only niece!
I found true love fairly late in my life ... 10 years ago I met and fell in love with an extraordinary man:Bob Miller ... he is my soul mate ;-) Ah ... XX We were married Feb 13th 2010 at the old Blacksmith's workshop in Gretna Green! Hurrah!XX ;-)
