Friday 23rd October 2015

Mum's birthday, all with a tinge of sadness as we know this is very likely to be the last one that dad can be here for. He still did well - despite being pretty much unable to move he managed to order her a load of nice presents online. Dad's been doing his research - the legs swelling, the cough...it's all part of 'Endgame' - he's reaching the end, it's getting quicker, we can all see that. Mum is just exhausted. 

After taking her into town to pick up Dad's medication, I had to dash, missing her birthday lunch, which made me sad, but I'm a professional musician and that's the nature of the work, I guess.

The drive to Wigan for Lucy's gig was long; 7 hours. I was 2 hours late for soundcheck due to the M6 being crap. Unprofessional? Maybe, but the rest of the band were just as late, having also been sat in the same traffic. Because of the delays, we barely had a soundcheck, so not only was this the first time I'd met the band but I'd not even had time to run through the tracks. 

The band themselves, especially Lucy, were lovely - so grateful that I'd stepped in, I was dubbed "our saviour" several times during the show. Sam the bassist was great at prompting me, the gig flew by without any issues at all. I'm quite good at this drumming thing, you know.

4 hour drive back; was going swimmingly well until they closed the M6. That fucking road. I found myself driving around Wolverhampton at 1am feeling more than a bit angry. Home by 4am. Long day.