Monday, December 31, 2007

End of an amazing year - here's to 2008

I've had the most amazing year - too many things to list here and regular readers already know about them.

It's been a mix of tragedies and achievements, losses and gains, ups and downs.

Mostly though - it's been amazing and I feel I'm a very lucky person in this life.

In 2008 I want to continue focussing on my creative life, especially my music. I'm terrified but looking forward to my first big gig on February 1st to launch the album then I want to sell it online and get it out to people who'd like to listen to it, improve my live performance, work with new musicians, record the rest of my songs and write some more if the inspiration comes.

I'd like to do a tour round to meet as many of you as I can in "real" life at some point though that might have to be 2009!

I'm very, very lucky to be blessed with great health and tons of energy, a wonderful family and brilliant friends both on and off line.

Thanks to everyone for being there for me through thick and thin.

So here's to a great 2008 to you and yours!

Cheers! *clink clink*

Friday, December 28, 2007

Jamming






Jamming in my living room with my good friend Alphonse today.

This evening I went to Hush Hush with my son and some friends to see DJ Derek - an old white Jamaican guy who plays mainly reggae. A good time was had by all. Just off to bed now so night night!

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Boxing Day

Hi Guys - I had a lovely Christmas with my family - good company, nice food and a chilled out time.

We played cards, chatted and watched a bit of TV which makes a change for me. We watched that old faithful film The African Queen with Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart - great stuff.

Today my nephew left and went back to London and my son arrived from London and I had open house and at least 30 friends and neighbours turned up and and came and went till latish this evening - I'm now in bed with Mac doing this quickly before crashing out - I'm quite tired now.

The place is a tip but never mind - I'll sort it all out tomorrow!

So, good night for now - hope you're all well!

Monday, December 24, 2007

Happy Christmas and Thankyou for being there!




To all my dear blog friends

A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Whatever you're doing this holiday, whoever you spend it with, I hope you have a peaceful and happy time.

You are all very special to me and I appreciate your friendship and support more than you can imagine.

Thanks for a great year here at Efx2blogs - especially those behind the scenes who've kept it going.

Bye for now - with love Chandra

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Happy Holiday - *tongue in cheek*

I copied this shamelessly from someone's Myspace but couldn't resist it!

I wanted to send some sort of holiday greeting to everyone, but it is so difficult in today's world to know exactly what to say without offending someone. So I met with my lawyer yesterday, and on his advice I wish to say the following:

Please accept with no obligation,implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter holiday, practiced with the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make our country great (not to imply that the UK is necessarily greater than any other country) and not without regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting the following terms:

This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

Disclaimer: No trees were harmed in the sending of th

Friday, December 21, 2007

Shopping Madness

Phew - well I survived some grocery shopping today! This morning I went to a wonderful shop we have here in Bristol called the Sweet Mart. It's an Asian shop which (as the name implies) started life as an Indian sweet shop but now sells just about everything exotic you can imagine - plantains, fresh spices, popadums, organic vegetables and bread, sauces from everywhere in the world, weird and wonderful juices, sacks of every kind of rice, beans and lentils. The very smell of the shop makes my mouth water!

I then braved the queues in Tesco (shudder) and bought the other stuff like beers, wines etc, boring things like toilet paper blah blah.

It took an hour to get out with the huge queues of people with achingly full trolleys - anyone would think we were stocking up for the end of the world not a few days' holiday. Mind you, it was the same for me as I have a house full of people arriving starting tomorrow till nearly New Year so of course much food etc IS required.

I bought all sorts of naughty yummy things I don't usually buy like cream, and cakes, and bikkies, and cakes, and puddings mmmmmm cakes!

Tonight I'm supposed to be going to an open mic night but guess what folks - f**k it - I'm going to open one of the bottles I bought, tuck into some goodies and enjoy my last quiet evening in for some time!

*cheers folks*

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Poster

Today I actually did some of the dreaded Christmas shopping - I don't know what possesses me but I just want to go home and give up before I even start!

Tonight I'm going to a Rozabella (Patrick Duff's young band)'s gig on The Thekla (floating club in Bristol).

Here's the poster for a gig I've been asked to do in Weston Super Mare on January 3rd. Three people will do a 30 minute set of original music solo each and before each person they play half an hour of songs of our choice to show what music has influenced our writing and music.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Dad and Gig!

I've had a great couple of days. Yesterday, my dad and his a wife arrived for a night's visit and they left after lunch today. Last night, I cooked a nice veggie lasagne for them and today we had a pub lunch together. It was lovely to see them as they live quite a long way away so I don't get to seem them too often! Here's my dad playing my piano in my hallway!

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This afternoon I practiced a bit for tonight's gig at the Demi Lune. I played four songs for the first time with Paddy the new guy I've got playing with me - he's very good and plays keyboards, whistles, fiddle and percussion. Today I played one song on piano with him playing whistle and then three guitar songs with him playing keyboards. It felt so different playing with someone else but it went really well for a first go and everyone seemed to enjoy it!

There are no photos of me but here are some of the other artists who played tonight:

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Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Tomorrow, I'll do some housework, practice some more and then I'm seeing a girlfriend in the evening.

Hope you all have a great weekend!