Merry Christmas!

Many thanks to you all for your patience over the last few weeks whilst I took a break and made use of the time by having my computer repaired. (Many thanks Pete!!)
I hope that you have enjoyed looking back over the archives in my absence.

December has been a particularly busy time for Robin, and consequently for me, and he spent the grand total of 18 hours at home during the entire month.
He has been to 15 countries and performed 6 concerts, all of which went extremely well.

Robin should have been home for a whole day, but there was an unfortunate, and worrying situation on his flight from Philadelphia.
Mid Atlantic the plane developed a problem and had to return to the US.
After an anxious time, and much delay circling Philadelphia to burn off and dump surplus fuel, the plane, thankfully, landed safely, all the passengers were transferred to another aircraft, and they set off once again. Later in the flight Robin, who is a veteran of 100s and 100s of flights, asked one of the stewardesses how common this kind of procedure was in her experience. She replied that she had been a stewardess for 26 years and had never ever had to turn back during a flight before.

For most of this time away Robin has been in the Caribbean, so he has returned today with a rather pleasant suntan.

However, home he is, and back just in time to celebrate with the family over the festive period.
As you can imagine we are all delighted.
Whether Robin will be quite so happy about 5 o'clock tomorrow morning when we are woken by two hyper excited children, and he has to drag himself out of a jet lagged sleep, remains to be seen....

But for now, we all hope that you have a wonderful Christmas, wherever you are.

Last Day at Sea and a New CD...

Apparently there were great celebrations yesterday as the QE2 left Fort Lauderdale, as it will be the last time she leaves the port, before retiring.
As yet, I don't have any further news or pictures, but I will add some if, and when, they arrive.
Today she is cruising the Atlantic, on her way to New York, and tonight is Robin's third, and final concert, before he makes the long journey home.
Whilst he prepares for that, I have been busy here.
I have just had news that the latest CD to be released, 'Arrival', will be ready in the next few days.
So there will be more on that, probably next week.

Today though, I have many things to do in preparation for this event, so I will direct you to Izzy Cooper's blog, where you can read all about her impressions of performing Rodrigo's Adagio with Robin the other night.
Enjoy!

Birthday Blues and the Daily News

The weather has improved and the sea sickness gone, but, that has been replaced by a bout of homesickness.
Robin always misses the family when he is away but today is the 5th birthday of son number two.
No parent wants to be away from home at such a time but sometimes they have to be.
Robin emailed an icard last night which I dutifully printed out and gave to the birthday boy this morning. He was delighted as it was a picture of a frog wearing a birthday cake as a hat!
We had a few family members over for tea, but I have saved the official party with friends until Robin returns.
I'm not so mad that I would attempt to entertain 18 four and five year olds on my own....

Meanwhile, out in the Atlantic, practise is going well for the concert tonight.
Robin was featured on the front page of the 'Daily News', with a caption, 'The guitar like you've never heard it before.'
I trust they are meaning that in a positive way...

The Not-So-Glamorous Side of the Travelling Musician

Yesterday I had some rather unhappy e mails from a seasick musician. It isn't often that this happens and highlights just how rough the sea must have been.
Mind you, we suffered gales here in the North of England yesterday, and the South had a series of mini tornado's. So I can imagine what the Atlantic must have been like.
As always, Robin's main concern was that he felt too unwell to practise, and as the first recital is tonight, this wasn't really a position he wanted to be in.
The situation was made worse by the hatches being well and truly battened down, and consequently, there was no natural light in his room.
Robin is an outdoor type, so, this was particularly difficult.

However, a new day dawned and the weary musician emerged feeling much better, and immediately got down to some serious guitar practise.
His sense of humour also returned, as he informed me that although the weather had improved at the moment, worse was to come in the next two days. There's a tropical storm in the East Atlantic, that as yet, hadn't become a hurricane...!

After practising on and off all day, and taking time out for the sound check, he booked himself a session on an exercise bike, and rattled off 10 miles, which will have helped with any pre concert build up of adrenaline.

As the time difference is changing every day, it will be tomorrow before I have any news of the concert, so you'll just have to wait - like me.