It's been a good break. Went out to the pub with Nikki and a couple of her friends on Christmas Eve and drank rather too much, as did the others. Nikki must've done, because she actually danced with me. I'm not normally allowed to dance if she's in the same county. Family over for Christmas Day, Nikki accidentally cremated the carrots in the oven but dinner was otherwise sublime.
Raced the Albacore with Amanda on Boxing Day. A ninety minute pursuit against about a dozen other boats, the sky was blue, the wind unusually steady, and we took 2nd place. Great sailing and great company. That evening we went over to Nik's mum and dad's for supper and caught up with my brother-in-law Jim and his lovely family.
The rest of the week saw me feeling somewhat sorry for myself; I'm pretty certain I caught whatever bug struck me down off of Jim, but it might be that I'm being a little unfair. He's a vicar and I play in a band, so we both get around a fair bit at this time of year. In any case, the bug left me with a nasty, dry cough and stripped away my voice for most of the week that followed.
Which was awkward and a little stressful, as we had a gig at one of my favourite Bristol pubs on New Years Eve. We were joined by an old friend, Danny, on drums. Dan's actually one of our ex-band members; he was with us for about five, joining us when our original drummer left, I'm guessing in about 93 or 94. He'd actually quit playing after his last band folded about three years ago, but we persuaded him to fetch his drum-kit back out of his attic, dust it off and tune it up for this one. We even got together with him for a practice or three in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
The venue had sold out quite early on at 150 tickets; the landlord Sam said he'd never had it so easy shifting them in the four years he'd been running the pub, which I thought was kind. We were playing to a home crowd, I don't think there was a face amongst them that I didn't recognise from a previous gig. The band were great, Danny in particular was awesome, but with my hoarse throat and horribly scratchy voice, it was far from my most polished performance. But the energy and enthusiasm of the crowd carried us. There are times when it's really driven home to me how lucky I am to be able to do this.
The following morning, which would've been yesterday, I felt ropy as hell. My voice was totally shot, barely able to croak more than a whisper, and the cough, which had been all but gone, has returned and become horribly sore and persistent. But it's all good. It's a bright new year, I don't have another gig now for two weeks so plenty of time to recover, and racing at the Club starts again with the Chilli Dogs series this coming Sunday.
So I knocked back a couple of paracetamol and another shot of Benylin and climbed the hill out the back of our house with Lottie. It was her first time to the top, and the first time I've been up there in a long while. The view is always worth it though, even if you have to make your way back down sliding in the mud through rain, sleet and hail as it turned out we had to yesterday.
I don't make New Year Resolutions, but I am resolved to climb that hill with Lottie more often this year.
Happy New Year everybody, peace and love to us all.
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