how i spent my birthday.

i kicked off my birthday weekend with benign biopsy results. what a relief! i figured that deserved some celebratin'. so mom and i went out friday for some pints of bitter at a local welsh pub. and i pretended i was back in the UK.

then saturday morning....

mr donkey helped me open presents

then we drove to joe & linda's tater patch in rolla, mo

to see our friends the dirty 30s play
and i did my leprechaun-prince impression

then jason did his gene simmons impression

then i blew out the candles on my completely truthful cake


then choppy got irish

then amber did too (ew... choppy was just wearing that!)

day five thru 13.

ok, so i've been back from england for a month and i've only managed to document days 1-4. for some reason i'm seriously lacking pictures from days 5-12. i think this was right about the time skully hijacked the van and pete d was taken hostage. along with my camera. here's what i vaguely remember....

day 5 was chelmsford where we played the bassment club. bad news was the newspaper mis-advertised the show as being on wednesday not sunday which it was currently. promoter did a lovely job of drumming up people. it was an intimate crowd but still fun.

day 6 was back to london to play the 639 hostel. wild, wild times. great crowds. made lots of friends. drank sambuca. gringos inducted swedish groupies.

day 7 drove to lincoln. visited a gigantic church and made friends with the vicor's huge cat.

day 8 drove to hornscastle. did some serious shopping at a junk store that went on and on into another realm. fed ducks from my hand. played that night at old nick's tavern. the boys fell in love with the tavern owner's daughters.

day 9, ipswich. played the railway. strange little man who drinks bottles of amyl nitrate spoke of being sprayed with "the percy" from secret military aircraft in the hills. it made his skin smell of oranges and changed his sexuality. oh the horror. i'm never going back to ipswich.

day 10 was stepneys in newcastle. great club. unfortunately, the music venue section was soon to close. this was no fault of our fantastic promoter, spen. i'm sure he's working at another venue by now. he has great ideas and a big heart.

back to london on day 11. it was the last show of our tour. and what a send off it was. we played "what's cooking". steve, the show's promotor, hosts shows on wednesdays and saturdays upstairs at the sheepwalk. he personally goes into pub on those days and transforms the upstairs into a cosmic vintage ballroom. with gold lame curtains, paper lanterns, rows and rows of framed photos of musical legends, strings of plastic flowers and lights, and candlit tables. i really can't describe in words how gorgeous this room was. we played to a standing room only. after the show, the club was generous enough to let us stay there that night. we had the ball room all to ourselves. at midnight, we celebrated jason's birthday. kept celebrating til the break of day.

day 12 took equipment back to shrimpton & rental agency. returned big red to his rightful owner. wrestled some serious hangover demons. returned to wence we came.. hostel 639. rested up. said goodbye to gringos. tears fell. took tube to picadilly square for one last pint and a bite of dinner. returned to hostel. slept like kings.

day 13, said goodbye to skully. more tears fell. jason and sam took him to a secluded resting area. we will hopefully see him next year when we return. when the saga continues....

pete d sleeps this way by choice (or so skully would have you believe).

what's cookin decor.

after the show.

jason's antique birthday stein.
backstage in london.

the party's over.

day four.

the morning started late. got lost on our way back to accrington to pick up nick and matt. finally rolled into town at least 1/2 hour late. discovered a very sleepy and sheepish couple of gringos sitting on the curb. they hopped into van uttering not a word of their evening.

headed to bacup. along the way, in the rolling hills of lancaster, we spotted a gorgeous rest spot overlooking lush farmland sprinkled with cottages, sheep and ponies. sam and jason, being true hillbillies, got a wild hair to climb up a farm hill to see what lay beyond. when they got to the top of the hill, there in the midst of the moss and grass lay a beautiful sheep skull. they came running & grunting down the hill waving the skull over their heads like a couple of mad trolls. after we spent several minutes inspecting the treasure, we propped it up on the dash board and christened it "skully."

we arrived in bacup in the early afternoon. found the football club (where we were playing that eve) just in time to see the football players arrive for the game. we were lucky enough to be able to park ol' big red in the football club private lot. and were told we were welcome to watch the game later. but there was plenty of time. i wanted to check out bacup. so me, jason, ed and pete d ventured out into the center of town. we stopped at the YMCA charity shop where two kind ladies offered us directions to the pub to go to for a bite to eat. we walked a mile or so down the road to "the crown inn". it was like a fairy tale. a grand stone victorian inn, with gorgeous slate floors and a dreamy waterfall and stone bridge outside. i ate the best cheese and ploughman's pickle sandwich ever made in the history of time. and drank the local award winning hand drawn ale ,"celtic warrior".

on our way back to to football club we met up with jimmy or "jt" who was kind enough to be offering his house to stay at that evening. he said pizza, beer and showers were awaiting us before the show. and for us to stop by when convenient. we caught a bit of the game. grabbed our stuff from big red and headed for jt's. there are no words fit to describe the kindness and generosity of that man.

skip ahead to the show. met the local headliner, the freespirits. great guys who rock ! rock on you crazy freespirits! played a really fun show. drank loads of murphys stout. met mark, the charming stone mason. stole gringo peter's band jacket. made lots of friends. ended up back at "jt's" for an all night party. the rest is a blur.

big red and the moors.

finding skully.

skully, lead the way.

bacup football club.

the f.c.'s manager.

mark and jason discussing fence repair.

they love me, they really love me.

i have no idea what's going on in these pictures. i plead innocent on all counts.

day three.

glossop square.

day three began with a drive to the quaint town of glossop. purchased batteries & cables from woolworths. had some chips and cheese from a pukka pie stand. sat down in glossup square. ate lunch. fed ravenous birds.

drove to accrington where we were playing that night at the attic. arrived plenty early and decided to do some shopping. found a wonderful semi-outdoor market called "the arcade" where nick was shortly accosted by a wild rabbit. and i purchased my very own pair of UTB jeans. (the boys had been noticing a strange phenomenon: all the UK girls were sporting jeans where the back seam rides rather high, much like a thong, making the jeans go "up the butt". and the term UTB was coined). downed a few pints at the pub next to the arcade while the boys tried to impress the russian waitress.

set up for our show at the attic. met our fabulous promotor john winstanley. used some herbal throat-spray and participated in bizarre vocal and acrobatic warm-ups with the gringos backstage in the kitchen. watched the gringos kick ass onstage. kicked some ass ourselves. after the show was over watched as the town of accrington disintegrated into a mad riot including a show-down between conolly the giant irish bouncer and a rather drunk polish man. ate some more chips. left nick and matt (upon their request) to fend for themselves in the apocolyptic accrington. and the rest of us drove off into the sunrise to the nearest welcome break.

ravenous glossop birds.

nick shows no fear.

utb me.

our band posters up at the attic.

bitter anyone?

day two.

day two began with the beginnings of a hangover. perhaps too many pints the night before? nick returned offering vague excuses of a pool game gone bad and a man from slovokia. i decided to eat a green apple for breakfast despite warnings from everyone that it wasn't ripe. i accepted the challenge. lost. hangover won.

checked out of hostel at 10:30. waited outside for our driver and our 8 passenger van to arrive. an hour later, shrimpton (the driver) shows up with a 5 passenger van. and a debate begins between us and shrimpton. this is not the van we aggreed upon. there are 8 of us. eventually we win, sort of. shrimpton's company admits mistake. but we are still without a vehicle. jason, sam, gringo pete and shrimpton dissappear for hours. the rest of us hang back at the 639 hostel where we are offered a place to play on our free night. we accept the offer. rough posters are made. by 3pm, no sign of our boys. start to worry. jason, sam & pete return minus shrimpton. and we are introduced to "big red" our mercedes van of enormous proportions.

sam has now been crowned our UK tour driver and jason, his handy navagator. we hit the road. go to instrument hire office to pick up our instruments . eat some monkey nuts. get caught in horrendous traffic in london and on the M1. drive to victoria's biker pub in leicester. down some bitters. play a show while trying to figure out our hired gear. drink some more bitters. and crash that night in our new home away from home, the "welcome break" or UK truck stop.

meet big red.

instrument hire (note the cobblestone street - how quaint)

awwww....monkey nuts.

gringos rockin at the vic.

i'm leaving on a jet plane.

tomorrow... london!

the bags are packed. the dogs are at doggie camp. the house is empty (except for the cats - who are loving it by the way). and me, i'm just siting here drinking a glass of wine pondering what the next few weeks will hold. last time i was in the UK, i had chemo hair. a lot has changed. but jason still has that shirt!

keep on keeping on. see you in the future.