The day after the bank holiday BBQ

What with it being a time of birthdays in my house, I had a BBQ yesterday on the bank holiday Monday. Even though the food menu seldom changes whenever I do a BBQ, there always seems to be lots to think about, especially for the first one of the summer season. I switched into list mode but I find now that I am retired I'm not as efficient as I used to be when I was working full-time. Sometimes a stare at the list and think ‘I can't be bothered with all that... I think I'll go and have a nap!’ Anyway, I did more or less get everything prepared. Because we were having about 20 guests I decided to put up my patio table. I designed and made this about 15 years ago. It takes me 20 minutes to assemble it. Here are a few pics as it took shape, yesterday. The frame has more or less been assembled in the first picture on the left, and the fully-assembled table is shown next to it. There are numerous joints in the frame and it is necessary to get the right bits of wood to meet up at the correct places. I have labelled most of the joints so that I can easily get the two bits of wood together in at the correct locations (the names of the intersections are completely arbitrary). I picture two examples: one is called ‘Eggs’ and the other is called ‘Arthur’. I think I have one called ‘Ermyntrude’ somewhere.

As for the food, I did both vegetarian and beef saussages but I think the best item was tandoori marinaded chicken breasts. For some reason I forgot to take any more pics once people started to arrive, so I don't have any photographs of the food on the BBQ. Once the food had been eaten I got out my acoustic guitar and played a few songs in the garden and my friends Tom Young and Tony Machin also took several turns in the hot seat. In fact I think they played more than I did. I'd probably had a glass of wine too many to play at my best, but everyone seemed to enjoy the session as a whole. My daughter's friend James played a song that he had written, too. After the guests had gone, I crashed out for a long nap in the evening.

Today I played a little guitar and some piano but nothing too serious. Tomorrow I shall be meeting up with my friend Tom for the full English breakfast and I expect we will decide when next to play out at a real life buskers night.

I have no gigs in SL until Thursday when I play my regular shows at C&K Mall and Sailors Cove. It is good to have a few days rest from playing on the internet. One needs to recharge the batteries, I feel.

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