After getting on the road yesterday from Norwich ,where my dad lives,not having driven for 4 years, Adam lead us to a 'Short cut' to get to the ferry through lovely country lanes. We obviously then got stuck behind a lorry for many miles and arrived at the Ferry 2 minutes before they stopped letting people on board. This is such a cliche of a situation. i then remember how many people have told me this exact same story and feel quite ashamed that it happened. I thought that the stress was over after experiencing such high levels of stress, but the moment we slammed Scarlets doors (the little red van) having taken Adams guitar out of the van, visualizing a peaceful plonk (jam), we got accosted by an over eager, jumpingly enthusiatic creature of a woman telling us we should create some sort of a jamming party on the boat all the way to the hook of Holland together like one big happy family who have known eachother since before we were born..i don't think these were her exact words but that's how i interpreted her bubbly behaviour.
I have to say, I did feel a little sceptical. Cindy introduced us to her boyfriend Hans who happens to be a sax player before he left for a nap. We sat and spent a lot of time with Cindy who tured out to be one of the nicest people we have met. Her honesty and passion in telling the stories of her past are second to none. It turns out she had been a musician for many years before settling down in Holland and having twins.
The fact she had so much experience in touring herself reassured us and her advice was very well received.
i could talk about her for hours but i will stop here. We hope to visit her on our way back.
We had no map, both Hans and Cindy guided out and headed us in the right direction.
We got lost..many...many times and getting into Brussels was a nightmare, even once we had finally bought a map. Our faithful friend Stuuuu, a contradictive, ex army, ongoing hippy, exciting character i had once lived with in a house of 38 people had got us in touch with a friend of his. We were told we were welcome to come sleep on his couch. After arriving 4 hours late, around 12 midnight at Harry's apartment, we then realized we didn't know the number of his flat and couldn't get a hold of him on his phone. After ringing shamelessly all the buzzers, a strange shape appeared from behind the tainted glass door. this shape was trying to open the door. we looked through the letter box to find a man in his boxers walking into walls and the door or spinning in circles. After 25 minuted we found out this was harry having pre-celebration drinks for gay pride day. Once we were upstairs (we got let in by another young chap living above Harry) we realized we had interupted something and Harry was too drunk to know who we were or why we were there.
It did all fall into place though after a couple of hours. We had a nice sleep, lovely shower and went on our way. We are now in cafe and going to head to our first gig of the tour in Mechelen.
I'll never forget yesterday!
I have to say, I did feel a little sceptical. Cindy introduced us to her boyfriend Hans who happens to be a sax player before he left for a nap. We sat and spent a lot of time with Cindy who tured out to be one of the nicest people we have met. Her honesty and passion in telling the stories of her past are second to none. It turns out she had been a musician for many years before settling down in Holland and having twins.
The fact she had so much experience in touring herself reassured us and her advice was very well received.
i could talk about her for hours but i will stop here. We hope to visit her on our way back.
We had no map, both Hans and Cindy guided out and headed us in the right direction.
We got lost..many...many times and getting into Brussels was a nightmare, even once we had finally bought a map. Our faithful friend Stuuuu, a contradictive, ex army, ongoing hippy, exciting character i had once lived with in a house of 38 people had got us in touch with a friend of his. We were told we were welcome to come sleep on his couch. After arriving 4 hours late, around 12 midnight at Harry's apartment, we then realized we didn't know the number of his flat and couldn't get a hold of him on his phone. After ringing shamelessly all the buzzers, a strange shape appeared from behind the tainted glass door. this shape was trying to open the door. we looked through the letter box to find a man in his boxers walking into walls and the door or spinning in circles. After 25 minuted we found out this was harry having pre-celebration drinks for gay pride day. Once we were upstairs (we got let in by another young chap living above Harry) we realized we had interupted something and Harry was too drunk to know who we were or why we were there.
It did all fall into place though after a couple of hours. We had a nice sleep, lovely shower and went on our way. We are now in cafe and going to head to our first gig of the tour in Mechelen.
I'll never forget yesterday!