Had a wild day today… Sue and I ‘did’ London, setting off early, catching a train to Victoria to get a head start on the day.

 

After finishing off a song en route we grabbed a couple of Starbucks and boarded a tour bus. It took us all around Westminster and the City of London telling us about historical stuff ancient and modern. From Medieval sewers to Madonna’s apartment, from Victoria Station to Queen Victoria’s crown in the Tower of London, from the Battle of Waterloo to the battle Bridget Jones had in finding a good man, and from the shop where the Great Fire of London started in 1666 to the shop where they make the Queen’s knickers in 2006.

 

We travelled on trains, boats and busses. We enjoyed designer soup at a trendy City restaurant and traditional afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason. We browsed cool shops along Piccadilly and ended up at the Virgin Megastore on Piccadilly Circus where we found a CD that Sue had written a song on. How cool is that?

 

We got home at about 9.00ish, having kicked around a few more song ideas on the train back. Here’s my pics. I know Sue has more.

 

Yours not wanting to see the inside of another ancient building for a while now,

 

S.

 

 

Ross signed onto his instant messenger tonight as “R-expense reports suck”. He’s so funny. And so right.

 

My first ever investment banking boss also thought they sucked. He once ran up a backlog of travel expenses totalling £31,000 (c$50k) for roadshows he’d been on over a period of two years. It was totally outrageous. But what was more outrageous was that at only 30 years old he was able to absorb the hit to his personal ‘working capital’ without really noticing. 
 
Yours convinced my iTunes play counter is wrong after listening to the song Sue and I wrote today too many times,

 

S.

Every time I walk through the heavy corner door into the writing rooms at Brentwood Benson I encounter something extraordinary. There’s a vibe that comes with the smell of percolated coffee, subdued lighting, the dark carpet and the sparkle of gold discs all moving to the sound of Barry editing a track in the demo studios.

 

But it’s not just cosmetic… there’s something about the space that’s uniquely creative, inspiring and cool. A fragile sense of expectation and excitement, like standing in line for a favourite ride at Disneyland. But it’s also something to do with connecting all those creative people that write together in one space.

 

Well, yesterday that vibe came to my writing room here in England. Not long after Sue and I sat down to write a song the whole crew connected with us… it started with Chad, Brian (Copeland), Holly, Ross and Barry. And then the Tennessean sunshine from Dave Clark’s living room reflected via video onto my desk here in Felpham. Gosh. I knew that technology was going to change this funny little seaside cottage but this was unreal. And the place now feels different.

 

It’s wonderful that Sue has come to visit with us. She’d already spoilt each of us by arriving with some cool gifts. But my writing room now has the Brentwood Benson vibe and that’s very special.

 

Yours hoping the children weren’t too noisy this morning,

 

S.

Just a quick blog to say Sue arrived safe and sound from America yesterday. Had a fun day sightseeing in London before coming down to the coast. I’ll post some more when I get a mo.

 

We’ll be writing today and maybe taking in some history later on. Arundel Castle is open from noon. So tempting.

 

Yours thinking how privileged we are to have her with us,

 

S.

I started cutting an over grown hedge in our back garden yesterday evening. It was fun but it turned out to be a bigger job than I anticipated.

 

“No problem” I thought, “I’ll finish it off tomorrow”.

 

Well it’s pouring with rain today. And we have Sue arriving tomorrow. So I’m balancing these two risks:

 

1. Electrocuting myself by using the hedge trimmer in the rain
2. Sue seeing our garden in a mess

 

If you don’t hear from me again you know I chose the wrong one.

 

Yours wondering how I’m going to get through all the other little jobs I wanted to get done before Sue comes,

 

S.

Introducing… SimieCam

 

Ta da!

 

I’ve been playing with the idea of having a live video feed to my blog site and yesterday I figured out how to do it. So if you are a windows user you can click on the windows media player to the left of this message. If you are a Mac user you can click on this…

 

Click here for SimieCam
 
… and you are welcome to tune in.

 

For the time being it will feed from the house, the studio, the writing room and if I can work out how to do it from my phone a shot or two from wherever I might be. There will be times I just won't be able to have it on. But it's a bit of fun.

 

The only thing I can guarantee is that it’s unlikely to be prime time quality TV. But I wanted to play with it to see

 

(a) if it can be done

(b) if anyone can see it from America, and

(c) if I can watch the daily routine at home from my room in Nashville. I’ll have to wait a few weeks for that.

 

Yours wondering what happens when I turn out all the lights tonight,

 

S.

Just booked my next Nashville trip, flight, car and accommodation. Still knocked out that I can do it without talking to a single soul and in half an hour. Got the flight for £408 in the end, so my ‘Price Drop TV’ strategy paid off. The extra £92 will buy me a lot of ice cream at Marble Slab during my 2 weeks from 15th May. Here’s the math:

 

£92 x 1.60 = $147.2
$147.2 ÷ 14 days = $10.51 I can spend on ice cream each day from playing Price Drop.

Yum.

 

Got an email from Sue this morning to say she’s on her way. We’re so looking forward to having her come and stay. I’ve a draft schedule that includes a lot of history, writing and loads of traditional English stuff. We’re also down to go to London for a couple of days to see some of the touristy stuff as well as some things off the beaten track. Although down here on the coast is nice, it would be tragic if that’s all she saw. In one way a week seems a long time but after travel, a couple of days out in London and a few days writing here, there isn’t much change left. I know it will go like a flash.

 

In the run up to that I’ve a bunch of ideas to sort out. I’ll do my best to get it done before she comes.

 

Today I’m beginning to feel human again. Last night I went to bed really early and slept through to our morning wake up call - the door swinging open bashing the radiator and Poppy bounding into our bedroom declaring ‘MY STAR LIGHT IS ON!!’ A while back I set up a star-shaped wall light to come on in her room using a time switch so she knows when it’s time to come out of her bedroom (except for trips to the bathroom). It has worked wonderfully except now Sandra and I tend to rely on her bounding in to wake us up. She’s only overslept a couple of times. And today it wouldn’t have been a disaster if she had. So I’m feeling that ‘I had a nice sleep’ glow today.

 

Yours thinking I’ve got an appointment today that's not listed in my schedule but I can't remember what it is,

 

S.

I’m playing chicken with my flights to Nashville. I’ve gone to book them several times and every time the cost has been so high I just think it MUST come down a little. It’s like a TV program we get here on satellite called ‘Price Drop TV’ where buyers hang on until the very lowest price is offered and then, all of a sudden, everyone jumps in.

 

Trouble is I don’t want to gamble too much... I can’t let everyone jump in before me. Is £500 too much to pay for a ticket to Nashville? It was only £320 in February. Same flight. Maybe it’s more expensive because it’s near a bank holiday? Maybe it’s the cost of oil? Don’t know. Reading about Sue getting ready for her flight over here is making me feel like I should just jump in now.

 

This week I’m also playing catch up. Catching up on my sleep (my aching muscles still ache), my to-do list – it went nuts while I was away in France, my cowrites (I have four very patient cowriters I owe stuff to, thank you for bearing with me!). And a pile of paper work as high as the ceiling.

 

I’m also playing with some very cool ideas that I’ve got to get down. One of the things I’ve learnt about having time out from writing is that the ideas still come and inevitably they come at the moment you are least able to do anything with them. Like in the middle of mopping up water in the kitchen of our French house. Or in the middle of the night when my laptop’s plugged in to the socket next to my bed and in order to get it unplugged Sandra will probably wake up. It’s like my creative brain is not just creative but also very naughty.

 

I think I’m winning. Maybe.

 

Yours wondering if last week I shifted myself into a permanent state of exhaustion,

 

S.

Isn't Easter great. I now hate chocolate forever.

 

Brian was asking what BBMP writing rooms were like. Here's some pics. Just about to book my next trip. Can't wait.

 

Yours looking forward to getting back into the studio,

 

S.

 

5.43 Friday morning, in bed in my gite in South West France.

 

Sorry for the radio silence... there's no internet over here.

 

Today we do our 7 hour drive from Charente to Cherbourg and sail home to Felpham. It’s the end of 3 days working 6.00-6.00 opening up our French house. Every muscle in my body aches.

 

Angela, my co-worker (and mother-in-law), has the energy of an excitable teenager and the determination of a rottweiler when it comes to this stuff. I honestly don’t know how she does it.

 

But this week has been such fun. And it’s satisfying looking back on what we’ve got done. All but one of our rooms are now de-spidered, de-cobwebbed, dusted, cleaned, painted,  polished, varnished and heated. We have electricity and water, sleeping and eating quarters and the external safety risks are being dealt with. So it really does look like I can bring Sa and the children some time soon.

 

This week I’ve thrown armchairs out of second floor windows, painted walls until both arms don’t work, sanded floors with industrial sanders (never again), scrubbed ceilings, and washed windows. I’ve almost set the whole house on fire, dealt with water flooding through the kitchen and investigated bad electrical wiring. I’ve encountered bats, rats, mice, flies in swarms, a couple of hundred spiders of all shapes and sizes, lizards, hornets, French neighbours, dodgy contractors, gruff shop keepers and unhelpful administrators.

 

All-time lows were:

Highlights were:

It’s been a fun time. Hard work but so rewarding. I hope I don’t have to do this again though. It will be lovely to show the pics and tell the stories to Sandra and the children. I must find them something to bring back with me.

 

Yours feeling like it’s time to go back to sleep rather than time to get up,

 

S.

I realised today we’ve a new term in the Hawkins household now… “bloggable offence”. And to prove it my Word spell checker has just asked me to add 'bloggable' to my custom dictionary. So what is a ‘bloggable offence’?

 

In the same way my songwriter’s ears are permanently on standby to catch that cool lyric line, title or song idea that floats past in conversation, my bloggers ears are now tuning into reality to catch stuff to jot down here. That’s obviously the ‘bloggable’ bit. I think the ‘offence’ part is a reference to Sandra’s career.

 

Today’s bloggable offence came about like this: Sandra and Poppy went off to a real French market that just happened to be along the seafront from us. I know, it’s weird because

 

(a) I spent the day preparing for my trip over to France on Monday

(b) My brother and Sandra’s sister are in France with their children as I type (yes, my brother really did marry my sister-in-law), and
(c) Well, there’s a French market on the seafront.

 

Anyway, they came back with some wonderful French cheeses and Sandra had given Poppy her first lesson in how a lady eats various different cheeses, explaining that with some, you don’t have to eat the rind and some you can. Poppy instantly decided which was her favourite but generously left some to show me when I got back from the DIY store.

 

The bloggable offence was actually a double whammy. Poppy, in response to me asking what they'd been doing while I was out, said “We goed down to the French market and got these lovely cheeses… look… then Mommy cut off the ribe for me and this one’s my favourite”. Yes, for Poppy “goed” = “went” and “ribe” = “rind”. And I didn’t correct her. I just couldn’t.

 

Yours hoping her sweet mis-expressions carry on forever,

 

S.

PS Just realised maybe 'Bloggable' is just as legitimate as using words like 'Goed' and 'Ribe'

Had a great day yesterday – it was my birthday. Woke up and decided to give myself a day off to do anything I want. So I naturally disappeared off to the studio, albeit a little later than normal after opening all my cards.

 

When I got there I told myself again I could do anything I want – play with some technology, watch a movie in the cinema there (oh yeah, forgot to mention, I’ve a cinema at the studio now), dig the garden, walk by the sea, have a morning just playing the piano.

 

All of these appealed to me but I just wanted to write something. So that’s what I did. I had a couple of hours to get it done before disappearing for a birthday haircut in Chichester. Then it was home for my birthday tea with Sandra and the children - very sweet – they had all made my birthday cake in the morning. We played ‘pass the parcel’ (until Moo wouldn’t let go of it) and I opened lots of presents. I know I’m not an easy person to buy for because, well, if I want something I normally just go out and buy it. So I was really grateful for the effort they all had gone to.

 

After their tea bath and stories Sandra and I went out to a great restaurant, The Fat Olive, in a nearby seaside village called Emsworth (thanks for baby sitting Mum & Dad). We met up with some friends we’ve known since we lived in Holland and are now Poppy and Moo’s Godparents. I had seared scallops and big filet steak. Yum. When I got home I logged on to catch some late emails I was expecting and popped in to the WAJ discussion board to only find people had been kindly leaving birthday greetings for me there. Very touching. The community at WAJ is really very special.

 

So what did I write on my birthday? Well, I decided to play a ‘birthday writing game’… I could write anything, any style, any length. It could be a nursery rhyme, a hymn, a pop song or an opera piece. Not that I’d ever write opera. The only rules were:

 

1) It had to be meaningful on a personal level and
2) I had to totally complete whatever it was in the two hours I had available before my birthday haircut.

 

What fun. The result was a cool song called ‘You See’ and because Bev was so sweet to ask what I did on my birthday I’ve included it here:

 

 

And the lyric:

 

 

It’s early days but I think I like it. I’m off to France again next week so when I get back I’ll be able to listen to it more objectively then.

 

Yours feeling a lot younger than my new age,

 

S.

 

P.S. Happy Birthday Guy!

Every now and again I catch myself feeling unusually optimistic. Maybe it’s the blue sky and slight chill in our English seaside air? Maybe it’s a reaction to an unusually bad week? Maybe it’s spring coming with the promise of a long summer at the French house? Maybe it’s my birthday coming up and the promise of a 4 colour pen, a bunch of post-it notes and some manila envelopes to try out in my writing room?

 

But when I look at my schedule for the next few months there are so many cool things happening… people coming to stay, projects coming together, trips I’m making, courses I’m taking, stuff I’m doing with the studio… it’s difficult not to smile a little inside wondering if it's really going to happen.

 

But I guess life goes in cycles. There are certainly seasons when I know I’m totally at the opposite end of the cycle and just have to be a big boy. Like a red warning light comes on in my internal dashboard that says "shift down a gear, take a sip of energy drink, get ready to be strong about this".  There’s actually no alternative.  Like, my body hitting "the barrier" half way through a marathon. Or the moment in a project when I know I just have to deliver something spectacular. Or when I feel there’s nothing there to write (there always is, thankfully). Or when stuff just happens that I know I will never understand in this life.

 

But I guess it would be pretty rubbish if life were all one boring mediocre emotional plateau. So maybe having to be a big boy sometimes is cost of having the cool stuff?

 

Yours in a rambling-on-about-nothing mood today,

 

S.

Sunday night 1.09 a.m.

 

Last week was a week of all time firsts. Both highs and lows. Here’s the top 10:

 

Tonight I sat in our kitchen feeling totally grateful that our little family is healthy at last. That's more important than any of the other stuff.

 

Next week Sandra’s off to Cardiff for three days lawyer training. I’ve got a week in the studio. Two virtual cowrites and a third likely. Looking forward to getting back into the routine. Except I can’t see the week ending without a major studio reorganisation. Just too tempting.

 

Yours feeling like starting another Berklee course but I can’t find one I've not done,

 

S.