Blog:
30 November 2005
November ramblings
November must win the month for having the highest number of birthdays …hmm… must be that Valentine romance! So, for our family it feels like it’s been a whole month of celebrating. No bad thing!
Had an amazing experience this month working at Yorkhill Hospital, Glasgow as part of 4 Word, a creative writing group. The idea behind the sessions of which I’m doing three, is to work with teenage patients to encourage them to express themselves through writing and to perhaps be part of the healing process. So kitted out with my guitar, a mini disc and some ‘fridge poetry’ (those wee magnetic words!) I started at Schiehallion ward. Yorkhill is a curious place. It is bright and welcoming when you go in and has an air of almost ‘fun’ about it and yet it is sad to think that for some young people and their family’s this is their everyday experience.
I met with some great young people and we had a lot of fun exploring words and melody and writing songs. Fantastic results! Going home after each session I have been on a complete ‘high’, perhaps just due to the creative process but more than that, perhaps because of the complete sense that this makes to me; to use art to inspire and help people when they are going through tough times.Yeah…makes sense to me!
STV also paid us a visit to film the workshops so look out for my television debut in the New Year (ha!).
Had the privilege of singing at the dedication of our God-daughter, Katie Dunsmore. DL and I wrote a song for her. Such a hard thing to do for someone so precious…nothing seemed good enough!
Gorebridge gig was interesting! Fantastic people over there. They held an auction during the night ranging from a counselling session to a four poster bed which was erected in the sanctuary. You may laugh but they raised just under £2000 for an African project.
The Brel gig seemed to be on the calendar for so long that it began to breed dread in my wee heart. But I had no need to fear! It was a great success. Wonderful crowd of people turned out. Thanks all for comin’! Really enjoyed playing with the band. We missed Neil Alton but we were so grateful to have Ross Hamilton play. Amazing to have so many talented friends!
For once we managed to get through to Edinburgh on time for the Starbucks gig until we got to Costorphine and realised that the crowds of the Scotland v New Zealand game were pouring out onto the streets. Argghh! It took us 45 minutes to get to the city centre. Great night though and even met some fans from Aberdeen!
Looking forward to supporting Michael Mara next month!