Jump! Part 1

I wanted to blog about this as soon as I could. I've just returned home from a week of gigging in the south of France - hence I haven't blogged for a little while (Sorry about that if you've wasted time checking - I know I hate that myself...)

What a fantastic week! I've not really enjoyed France like I did this week - I suppose that's partly due to making some great friends during the week - both English and French people... To be honest we didn't have too intense a week at all - 2 sessions leading worship and a gig one night were the only work commitments we had to fulfill - the rest was leisure time for us!

So we found outselves at a beautiful, clean river in the village nearby (that's how we knew we weren't in Essex anymore) - and promptly started chucking ourselves into it from rocks. See the piccy:


I gradually gained confidence throughout the week - starting off on little jumps on the waters edge. The sheer awe of emerging without any latex sausages on my fingers encouraged me to carry on and up the anti a bit... I progressed to a 3 footer (wooo!) then 10 feet high (woooooo!) then 20 feet high (steady on!)...then we changed venues to a different river where I knew at once that the gauntlet had been placed before me! The picture above is a snap shot of me doing a little jump at the second riverside venue...

If you look really carefully you can see my life flashing before my eyes...

Jump! Part 2

It's almost possible to get a bit religious about this - things are so different with context afterall... so without further ado here is the bigger picture!

Those cliffs are about 80 feet high and I jumped from about 55 feet, or something like that. It is officially one of the scariest things I have done to myself...


Unfortunately I landed a bit badly and duffed in my back - so I've been grimmacing every time I get up ever since the jump (yesterday afternoon!) but apparently there's nothing too wrong with me and I should be up and at 'em again really soon... and I know I would be disappointed if I hadn't done it at all. I just hope that when I shut my eyes tonight I don't keep seeing a video replay of falling through mid air into the dark blue abyss! It was terrifying and fantastic all at the same time!

Thing is people were jumping from the top as well, the fools! Now I don't feel such a hardman afterall...

Grape Expectations - update

Ok, so fair enough I've been a bit lapse with the whole vine check thing again. Very sorry - in an effort to redeem myself I have taken this photo this evening on my return from France (see other posts for more info on France...)

Hopefully you will enjoy the picture below - it wasn't actually dark when I took the picture but the flash went off and made the sky look darker than it was...


The grapes are growing nicely - a couple of weeks back I gave them a good prune with Roland and Joan (Chell's Mum and Dad) and it seems to have done the trick. You've got to be cruel to be kind to these bad vino boys and girls! The grapes in the picture are about the size of my middle fingernail - so, those of you who know my fingernails well will have a great idea of scale now.

Sorry I've not blogged in a while peeps - there was no internet connection over in France. However, I've got loads of blog ideas now so I hope I can find time to get them all down!

Bad Night

I had a nightmare last night; in the old fashioned sense of the word. Can't really remember what it was about in detail but it certainly included some kind of werewolves or big nasty dogs. So, I woke up and laid there wide awake for a little while whilst I got myself back together.

Next a fly woke me up by landing in my ear. So I tried to kill it and missed...so he kept waking me up periodically throughout the rest of the night.

And then I woke up before my alarm because the sun shone through my window and tried to cook me in my quilt.

All in all - it was a bad night.

About music...

I've decided to conduct an experiment. Normally when I write a blog I am very careful and measured about what I say (and don't say) - but I thought it would be interesting to write a blog as-I-think-it! Thinking out loud so to speak. So I thought I would write it on music - which is one of my greatest loves and favourite talking points...here goes...

Why do I like music? I don't know. I know I like a good groove - well, I like music with a fat beat. Like Chemical Brothers in the olden days - or Propellerheads. But then I also like music with no beat - like, The Planets by Holst and loads of stuff by Tchaikovsky and Bach... to be honest music is really confusing in general. What is the attraction for us?

Have you ever really thought about what music is? Why does it connect with us so well? Why is it so immotive? Isn't it just a string of notes and chords and rhythms? Why is Dm the saddest key? Why does an F maj7 sound so lush? (Well, I think it does) Why does 4/4 keep cropping up again and again?

I love to play guitar - I love turing up my amps and gain and letting it ring and resonate and feedback on forever. Little licks that just have that certain something; it's not about looking good in front of people but just allowing the music to come to life. I suppose that's a defining factor of music...it's art, alive... Music as art needs time for it to make sense - otherwise there's no music; just an overblown orchestra hit of every note coming and spanking you in the face at once. Very uncomfortable!

By the questions still remain - why do I like it? Why do believe in music? I don't know - I'm never going to know. But that doesn't change the fact that music makes my heart race and my hands sweat; music makes me cry on the M25; music makes me furious and inspires me and calls me on.

Life would be monochrome without a soundtrack...

A review...

Just a quick blog 'cos I really need to go to bed - but if you have five minutes to spare please check this out - and if you have a further 5 minutes please do write a comment (at the bottom of the article) to back us up again!

Obviously it's great to read some positive reviews of the 'E=' album; we need more and more of them, so if you have any ideas on how we can get other decent media streams to review us (CCM or mainstream) that'd be great. Let me know where to chase... or chase for me if you would be so kind as to want to support the band in a practical way!

If you do have time to write a comment it would really benefit us as a band if people (such as CR) know that we have a 'fan base' behind us all the way. It helps us to gain momentum!

Thank you for all your help and support! 

Muso Loso

I hate it when people do things just to try and impress you. Like, when I went I started college to do Music and Theology we had these orientation sessions. We went round the room and introduced ourselves. Thankfully, now I have the gift of hindsight, I KNOW that there were people in that room DESPERATE to impress - reeling off instrument after instrument. One girl said she could play piano, guitar, flute, violin, cello, drums, bass guitar, sax and trumpet. Well, I can say that I did the course with her and she was lying. I knew at the time she was lying...just because you can sit with drum sticks in your hands doesn't mean you can play the things! In fact, she would have been much more accurate to say I 'mainly' play the piano or something...

Lack of punctuation indicates grumpiness whilst typing this blog...