I hadn’t realised how long it was since I last wrote anything here. Anyway, after the operation for the pacemaker I was able to get to Poland for the wedding which was three days of vodka shots, endless wine and food and continuous dancing, but as I had to restrict my left arm movements for the heart wires to bed in, my one handed dance efforts weren’t too often and not so brilliant,

Back in England the following weekend we travelled to Sevenoaks for another wedding and on the train, some dickhead ex mercenary from the Angola campaign told us all to shut up and threatened Gigi’s ninety two year old woman with his umbrella. Another passenger intervened and eventually the idiot was removed from the train. Who says train guards aren’t needed?

A week or so later, Pete Sargeant asked me to arrange a meet up with Chris, to do a joint interview for Blues Matters Magazine, This we did and had a reasonable enough drink as there was a beer festival on at the local pub. Chris is still having leg problems but is coping okay so that’s good news.

I saw Pete again a week later at the Spice of Life gig which went well. The other performers, Booga Red, a great duo with Steve English on guitar and vocals and pianist Claire Hamlin, were a nice contrast to our set so the evening had plenty to offer. I even sold a few cd’s Could do with more of the same.

The partying had to stop sometime and it did so in the form of my asthma coming back with a vengeance. I met up with Dino Coccia and Ryan Lamb in the Blue Post behind the 100 Club, but the evening was spoiled by a severe asthma hit which caused me to bring up all that hard-earned drink I’d already consumed earlier in Portobello. As I hadn’t eaten anything it could have been worse. In fact it wasn’t helped by me trying to use a redundant inhaler.

The problem got worse over the next week and although Gigi and I went out to the Union on Carnival Sunday, I was in no state to attend the carnival this year, In fact when I finally conceded defeat and made an appointment with the doctor, I brought everything up again at home on Sunday night, and after only one pint. The trouble is I brought up the newly acquired medication too. The result was we didn’t even get to the Union on Monday. Carnival, you bet.

Jon T-bone Taylor is arranging a benefit gig for Henry Gray, after the Louisiana flooding wiped him out possession-wise, As I had the pleasure of working with Henry way back when he was over here, it is a pleasure to help out. The gig will be at the Bull’s Head Barnes on November 7th and is a worthy cause so let’s hope people pitch. Now it’s time to make another doctor appointment for the asthma review. I’m not so sure getting old is quite the fun I thought it was.