Palace Tonight!

Ok so I'm gonna head down to The Palace Bar tonight (the place where I am playing next week!) and see what the local competition is like...

I need to see what everyone else is doing before I decide what I want to do... I'll be playing 2 songs - so I thought one of my own to start and then a cover song to leave them with - that should be cool! But we'll see...

Best not get too wrecked tonight - I need to remember what I've seen! lol

First gig booked in over 2 years!

Ok so I'm not ready to start gigging again but this is just a one off show! There's a competition running in Ireland called Stars of Our Bars and it's in Athlone as well so I thought I'd have a go...

I'm playing at the Palace Bar, Athlone town centre on Friday 5th March!


http://www.last.fm/event/1430373+Stars+of+our+Bars

Now all I have to do is decide what the hell I'm going to perform... Guitar? Keyboard? Congo's? Will I use the laptop as accompanyment? Or shall I get one of those foot pedals that you can loop to make layered sounds? Hmmmmm.

Ok well I have 1 week to prepare!

Eeeep!

Cover Versions on Demand!

One of my friends (who is also a musician!) had an idea that we should both choose 3 songs and the other person has to choose one of those songs and cover it!

So he gave me the option of these 3:
Otis Redding - Try a little tenderness
Imogen Heap - Half life
Joe Cocker - My father's son

I know other songs from all 3 artists but don't know the actual songs at all, so I got home last night and downloaded them from iTunes... I was really tempted to cover Half Life because I like Imogen Heap, but then I thought that My Father's Son was quite a simple song and I would be able to do more stuff to it to make it my own but in the end I chose Try a Little Tenderness, simply because I loved the vibe to it - think I need to invest in a bit more of Otis Redding... So last night I started practicing... The bloody chords were wrong on all the internet sites (I think they just copy from one another so if the first ones wrong, then they all are!), so first I had to work out the correct chords. It went quite well, but I need to practice it more yet...

The 3 songs I picked are:
Joni Mitchell (obviously!) - Carey
Whitney Houston (obviously haha!) - Saving All My Love For You
Billie Holiday - These Foolish Things

So I'm waiting to find out which one he is going to cover now! Woo!

Sunrise

I love dawn. You start to think about all the things the day could have in store for you. More so, I think you believe in yourself more at dawn than any other time of the day - it makes you feel like anything is possible if you just put your mind to it.

:-)

Love Nest

I've had a good few days but today I kinda crumbled when I got home...

Got a little tune out of it though at least...

Download free mp3: http://freedownloads.last.fm/download/384979610/Love%2BNest.mp3

Today i thought
About you all day
As usual
My heart is full
And I miss you
Oh so much

I'm watching the sunset over the marina
We've watched many times together

I'm fighting off the urge to say i love you
Yes, I still refrain
I hope you're ok

I'm fighting off the urge to say i love you
Yes, I still refrain
But I think I'm gonna be ok

YouTube Covers - Tear In Your Hand / Redemtpion Song

Recorded a couple of YouTube videos on Friday night...

A cover of Tori Amos' "Tear In Your Hand":

A cover of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song":

Aftermath

One of the worst things about someone breaking up with you...

...is that they have realised that their life will be better without you, than if they were with you. And then it's up to you to find ways to make your life better without them too. And it's kind of a hurtful thing to think and its difficult to get your head around - it's like you're trying to make the transition from being "one" in your relationship, to being completely your own person again both in heart and mind.

So, moving on.... Healthwise I had a terrible time last week. I ate a lot of junk food, I didn't go to the gym once and I was smoking. I was going to the gym twice a day in January and I think I was just really upset that after 4 weeks, I hadn't lost *any* weight.

So now this week, I'm starting again, but this time I will be following the same regime as I did last year when I lost a stone - except this year I will be weight training too. So I'll be having All Bran and an apple for breakfast, soup for lunch and then vegetables and some kind of meat for dinner. And I won't be eating any bread. I'll be getting my 5-a-day fruit and veg and drinking my usual copious amounts of water. So I'll be doing 30 minutes cardio Monday to Friday in the morning before work and then after work on Mondday to Thursday, I'll be going to the gym to do 45 minutes of weight training.

That's the plan for now until 29th March. I've got 7 full weeks to lose 14 pounds.

Fingers crossed.