Day 8: cheese whizz. more driving. and the big little gig...

my bro and i stayed at the illustrious Amsterdam Inn in Quispamsis last night... now, if you knew exactly how tiny and insignificant Quispamsis is, you'd know how rare it is to find a hotel in a place like that.  hey had a decent breakfast buffet - but on the side we found tiny hotel portions of cheese whizz.  for those who don't know, cheese whizz is an entirely artificial, bright orange 'cheese' that usually comes in an aerosol can!  it is vile.  it should be studied in a lab, NOT consumed.  especially not on decent bagels.  oh canada!

so, today's stop was Sackville, NB - home to Mt. Allison university, a couple thousand people, a lotta groundhogs, and my mum.  a little town that just happened to put on a BIG show.  the vene, Joey's, was packed (thanks to mum!), and i had a great laugh with the audience - they even demanded the orgasm song - bless ;-)

and thanks to this gig my iPad is now nearly paid off, and i can afford to pay for the tattoo i`m getting tomorrow!

i feel like i`m cheating on my tattooist, Erik... and i suppose i am - but this lassie has come highly recommended.  i am getting a convolvulus vine tattooed along my right collar bone. dig.

tomorrow we head 4 hours south east to Canso for The Stan Rogers Folk Festival!  it`ll be a no-wifi weekend, so i`ll catch you on the flipside, muthafuckas!

`BOOMìngly yours, O.

Day 7: cross country. record store busking. and hitting hampton...

today we hit saint john... a wee record store called Backstreet Records to be precise. I even had a special sign out front ;-)


I played a wee set outside, and played mostly to the tourists off the visiting cruise ship - it was the American dollar note that ended up in my guitar case that gave it away ;-)


thanks to Gordie for hosting me at Backstreet Records!


after a burger and sweet potato fries, which can only be described as fuckin' incredible, we headed to our hotel in quispamsis. my brother is currently playing roadie and chauffeur. tres cool.

I love the cars here - they are huge and gaudy and probably are partly do blame for the fuel crisis - but oh so sexy...


gig no.5 was at Shiretown Pub in Hampton and was a last minute arrangement thanks to a double booking - it was a little slow and scary to begin with - but the audience were just fuckin' great - and if any of you guys read this, thank you so much for making it a great night. thanks to Ed and Brendon for their hospitality - small town Canada is cool. this pic sums up my day pretty well... a little hungover, a little smarmy, with a dash of mischief thrown in ;-)


there is one thing that Canada does really well - amusing names for things - check out this candy ;-)


I was pleased to also find that our breakfast diner was fittingly called 'Hannah's Breakfast' ;-) ...


small things amuse small minds n' all that ;-)

anyway. I'm fuckin' exhausted. one more gig in Sackville before a 'day off'. by 'day off' I mean that I don't have a gig, but we'll be driving to a gig, so I don't know how much of a day off it'll be!

onwards, comrades!

despicably yours, O.

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Day 5 & 6: reconnecting. stanfest. and an alien audience...

family time. not something I'm very used to. but seeing my brother's family after nearly 3 years has been great. the kids and I have been making up songs about being weirdos (their idea!) and a wee star wars ditty - coming up with a catchy melody for the chorus of 'help me obi wan kenobi, you're my only hope' has been a bit of a curse, as it's now stuck in my head!

we went to the park for a picnic today (in the 30 degree heat ;-)) - I am not quite used to it yet, and am certainly not dressed for it most of the time - but I fuckin' dig not being cold! their dog, Mia, is the polar opposite of Moose - she is quiet, well behaved, and shy... but so so sweet...





i got an email this morning telling me that I had been successful in the competition to play the Stan Rogers Folk Festival this weekend! OMG! I'd given up hope of playing, so now I have to figure out how to get there - it's 4.5hrs drive from my mum's house ($130 petrol), so for only a couple of songs, it's a long way to travel, but it will be great exposure. it's gonna be ace!

so, I've gotta say, touring in another country is hard... I'm finding the Canadian audiences very different from UK ones... and it is making me feel a bit alien. weirdly though, even though I'm not feeling the love whilst playing, they are buying my CDs and complimenting me afterwards... so perhaps it's just that they aren't the rowdy clapping types? gah, I dunno... it's a huge learning curve and i am just a little unnerved by it at this juncture. hopefully by the end of the tour I will have mastered it... just in time to un-learn it again for the UK audiences! it's a bit scary when your tried and tested banter falls on it's face and you have to speed read an audience to try to gauge a good level for them in a matter of songs, before losing them to the dark side. tiring. good for me.

thanks to Richard Gloade and Wilsers Room, Fredericton, for having me tonight. tomorrow I do my first 'in-store' at Backstreet Records in Saint John at midday, then play Hampton, NB in the evening. big day. mmm, hangover.






contemplatively yours, O.

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Day 4 (26th June): the day of tourism, misogyny and heat...

I wrote a whole big blog during the day, but in a huge technological fail both on my part (I forgot to save the first draft), and cos my blogger app choked, I lost it all... a number of times. If this version doesn't work I may well kill someone...

Day 4: Toronto -
So, I hit town and sat about in gardens listening to jazz and digging the heat (25 degrees)... Saw the CN tower (didn't go up cos it cost $54), but took the obligatory ominous shot...



And then perved at the Rogers Centre (home of the Bluejays - yay for baseball!)



And look, I found a street just for Duncan - he'd better come claim it before some other pesky Duncan gets there first ;-)


Tucking into the biggest salad in the world in the beer garden of the wonderful Black Bull Tavern (a good pub in every country it seems!), I came across a table of arseholes so arseholish that I coulda sworn they were British - although at least the brits are a little more honest about their misogyny - these guys were being cunts and then telling everyone to shut up when their girlfriends called to make sure they weren't caught out.



But my salad, sweet potato fries, and this cute statue cheered me up...



I suppose I was just shocked cos I was under the impression that all Canadians were awesome and lovely... Then again I'd never been to Toronto!

However my second gig at the TRANZAC was lovely AND awesome! Thank you to Sara Kamin and Amy Campbell for playing too. Utter pleasure.



Wistfully yours, O.

P.s. I LOATHE the fact that my iPad has decided to capitalize for me... Must fix this at once!

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Day 3: let the holiday (tour) commence...

beginning the day by getting a pedicure is more of an indulgence than I expected, but my longterm Internet penpal, Cheryl, decided to treat me. j'adore! see, Cheryl and I have been pen-friends for 16yrs... my brother has met her, but until yesterday I had not met her in person. it was fuckin' ace to finally get the chance. it was actually not a shock to the system - I mean, after 16yrs, it's hard not to feel comfortable with someone ;-)

I will post pics of us once I get them from other cameras! in the meantime, here is her dog, Charlie, again!



a wee bout of shoe shopping, and an iPad shopping experience (which wasn't all I was hoping it would be, but I have my iPad, so I can't complain), and I have discovered that this country is severely backward in it's mobile technology and data plans. so, anyone in the UK complaining - stop it right now! these guys don't even have unlimited data packages on their mobiles, OR interprovincial messaging that doesn't cost the earth. seriously retarded.

so, my plan to be a mobile rocumentary genius has been stifled somewhat! bah!

here is pic of the drunken bum outside my sheraton.... big cities, huh!?



view from my hotel window...


Sheraton- 'you belong' .... erm, I don't think so ;-)


my first gig was at graffiti in chinatown, Toronto. mad crazy. I felt a little disillusioned at first cos I didn't immediately 'feel the love', but hey, I knew it wouldn't be a walk in the park. one down, many to go. hurdles? I squish thee!



they survived 'stiletto'! but only just ;-)



so I sold some CDs, drank a few jacks, and scared a few Canadians - all in all, a soul-shifting experience. thank you to Russell Leon and Graffiti for breaking me in...

i am back off to my hotel now via china town and hopefully some kind of kebab!

remarkably still yours, O.

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Day 2: the day of bread...

day 2 looks to be the longest of them all - travelling and a lot of waiting. but by starting in France it means French bread, and lots of it!


the lone travellers view. um, awesome... yeah?


fuckin' dig the French budget breakfast! proper baguettes and French butter. hellz yes!




I fuckin' dig terminal 1 at Charles de Gaulle too - big circular concrete beast - too cool. filled with these excellent conveyor belts for weary travellers like me ;-)

^ that first part was written in early afternoon when i was still quite cheery... but after the 3hrs to Iceland, then the 6hrs to Toronto my cheer had mostly gone. clearing customs without my guitar raising questions turned out to be not so hard. I was too tired to care by that stage.

I am now in my friend Cheryl's guest bedroom in her house in Mississauga. was so thankful to have someone to pick me up at the airport after my terrifying shuttle experience!


i am in a daze... I think it's about 3am in the uk, but I don't know what fuckin' day it is let alone what time. all I know is that I'm getting up early to go get a pedicure. vacation, bitches.

hugs with Cheryl and Kevin's puppy Charlie will also feature highly ;-)


then to buy an iPad and hit downtown Toronto for my first gig! BOOM!

I'm off to take vitamins cos airplanes give me cooties. bleugh!

exhaustedly yours, O.

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Day 1: the most traumatic of transfers...

there was this moment in the car on the way to the airport, when the rare edinburgh sun shone on me, and I felt ok, almost good. my unease over leaving moose for a month was gone (Andy the dog walker is great), and Duncan was kind enough to drive me to the airport.

I had a brief 1950s moment on the stairs of the airplane - remove the easyjet sign and put an outrageous hat on my head and I could be a 1950s housewife yet...







after passing out on the plane, as I always do, I was most happy to see my lovely Paris again... that was until I had to get to my hotel. an easy enough concept, no? 1.5hrs later, 1 missed shuttle due to overcrowding, 1 terrifying journey on another overcrowded and ill-fitted shuttle bus, and then a problem finding my booking, I am sitting in a putrid green hotel Etap room... cursing the lack of money that stopped me booking the fucking hilton. one foot in the door of my room and I was sobbing. fail.







I had a wee moment (as you do when you travel alone), as we landed at sunset and the sun streamed through the plane window... that it would've been nice to share that moment with someone. I get that when i travel alone though - so, blog, you are my travel companion. suck it.

I will take spacey reflective self-portraits and bore you with my need to lay a history down where ever I go. I will drive you mad...







never have I appreciated a Lidl cereal bar more than I just did - having missed the dinner service thanks to the fucking shuttle. Lidl, I love you.

and so now I sit cross-legged and write some music... cos that is what empty ugly green hotel rooms are for. tomorrow I head to canada. phew.







distinctly yours, O.

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