Angelina Egerton

Katherine Jenkins in Bridlington

3 June 2014 No Comments

Yay an outdoor concert!

Last Saturday was a rather exciting gig. I was playing with the National Symphony Orchestra in Burton Agnes (near Bridlington) as part of Katherine Jenkins’ summer tour.

I do love my Yorkshire gigs, it’s always lovely to be able to stay with my parents for a weekend, even though we mostly just eat, drink, and play Scrabble.

The programme proved very popular. With patriotic classics such as ‘We’ll Meet Again’, ‘Jerusalem’ and ‘A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square’ mixed in with songs from ‘Chess’ and ‘The Godfather’. Seeing two thousand people all standing to wave their Union Jacks and sing along to ‘Rule Britannia’ was actually quite emotional!

Katherine was also supported by the vocal group Celeste, and the biggest selling string quartet in history – Bond.

Playing for such a big crowd was brilliant, despite the fact that I hadn’t realised the gig was outside and had only brought a short-sleeved blouse… brrr!!

I had to move my car three times and another time someone else had to move it for me. That is simply not normal and highly irritating. The orchestra were all told to put our cars on the ‘land’ next to the hotel. What they didn’t realise was that it was private land (how did they not check this before?!) so to save us all getting towed away we had to find somewhere else to park – just before the gig – when 2000 other people had already filled up the car parks.

Anyway, a very nice man called Will kindly moved my car back down to the area near the stage, so I could load up and make a speedy exit – thanks Will!

Career

Balance

27 May 2014 No Comments

About seventeen years ago I had my first harp lesson (writing that made me feel insanely old).

The first thing you learn when playing the harp is to find the balance point. The harp is a heavy instrument, mine weighs in at around 36 kilos. However, they are designed so that, when tipped back into a playing position, they are almost weightless. All you need is to gently rest it on your knees and you don’t feel the weight at all. Once you find the balance point, everything becomes much easier.

I’ve been thinking recently about balance. This blog is about the experiences of a freelancer and a lot of that is about balance – balancing the different aspects of a career, or just a day, can be challenging.

In addition to this, I’ve started practicing yoga. The idea for this post came to me while I was in the tree. The tree pose, that is… I haven’t taken to climbing the trees of Central Manchester yet – although I’d hate to rule it out. Anyway, my fancy yoga ipad app told me that it helps your balance if you focus on an unmoving object. It’s certainly a helpful tip, but I wondered if it applies to more than yoga.

Maybe this rule could apply to our careers as well? If we have a specific focus in mind – a goal or a target – maybe we are more balanced in our approach? Conversely, what if we don’t really know where or what we are aiming for? Will we lose focus and fall out of balance?

What about balancing the different areas of our lives? Career, Family, a Relationship, Friends, Money, how do we know the best way to balance it all?

Something else I’ve learned from practising yoga is to not compare myself with others. Personally, I can’t touch my toes, yep, it’s embarrassing, but that’s what you get when you’re six foot tall and did all your growing in the space of about a year. It would take me weeks, possibly months of daily stretching to be able to touch my toes.

Some people don’t even think twice about it. But if I just gave up due to my blatant inadequacy, I wouldn’t get anywhere. I choose to practice and trust that I will improve gradually.

The same goes with music, by the way. I’m sure many of us are guilty of feeling like we’ll never be able to play like *insert amazing musician’s name here*, and feeling like there’s no point even trying. Maybe that person you aspire to emulate is thinking the exact same thing about someone else. Torturing yourself because you’re not there yet is counter-productive, you are on your own journey and need to stay focussed on your own targets, to stay balanced.

Lots of questions in this post I know – let’s call it thinking out loud. I need to figure out my own targets and focus on those, I need to find my own balance point.

Career, Music

What to expect when you leave music college.

12 April 2014 No Comments

It’s getting to that time of the academic year when music students are preparing for end of year recitals. For some of those students it will mean the end of formal education and the beginning of life in the big wide world.

During my last year at college I was mainly wondering how on earth I was going to make ends meet without my trusty student loan to get me through. Where was I going to find all this work I would need in order to pay the bills – council tax, what’s that??

I think it is natural to wonder what life will be like ‘on the outside’. With music, everyone’s experience will be different, I’m writing from the point of view of a harpist so my career will be different to other instrumentalists.

The first thing to expect when leaving music college is that there will be scary times. Times when money is way tighter than is comfortable, times when you look in the diary and realise there are no gigs three months from now. There are ways to overcome this fear: working hard and having faith. I’m not going to get all religious on you here, by faith I mean confidence in the fact that the work is out there somewhere – you just have to get out there and find it (that’s where the hard work comes in).

The second thing to expect after graduating – you will at some point be asked to play for free. This is a highly contentious issue and we all have to make the decision for ourselves. Personally, I don’t play for free for anyone except family. I don’t want people in the music world to know me as someone who will work for nothing. The most important reason I don’t play for free is: I can’t afford it.

Thirdly, you need to stay on top of emails/phone calls/voicemails.

The admin side is so important if you’re going to be successful as a freelancer. I’ve lost gigs because I forgot to answer a text or an email went into my junk mail instead of my inbox. Those are lost gigs. That is money down the drain. That is someone who won’t recommend you to their friends and who definitely won’t book you again. Make a ‘Needs Action’ folder for emails that need action and work your way through it meticulously.

Speaking of being meticulous – you need to watch your income and expenditure carefully.

Being a freelancer means you can earn vastly different amounts each month so it’s vital to know if you need to watch your spending during a rough patch. Try to squirrel away money when you can – for emergencies. A perk of keeping note of income and expenses is it takes no time at all to complete your tax return (go to an accountant) – I’ve already done mine for 13-14 and it took 15 minutes – Boom!

When I left college I found that I really missed my weekly lesson with my teacher.

I missed the little weekly targets and challenges. Once you graduate it’s easy to get into the rhythm of just practicing for the gigs you have coming up. One way to overcome this is to make sure you stay inspired – go to festivals, have lessons if you want to, go to lots of concerts, listen to solo repertoire and challenge yourself to keep adding to your own rep.

You may be about to leave formal education, but in those first few years out of college you will learn so much it’s unbelievable. I graduated three years ago and I still feel like I learn something new every day. I learn about what works and what doesn’t work in terms of organising myself and my working hours. I learn about how to work with different people and different personalities. I learn how to stand up for myself and say ‘no’ to gigs that don’t pay a reasonable fee, in good faith that I will find something better. My dad always says ‘you don’t learn to drive until after you’ve passed your test’. I think the same is true for freelancing. You have to make the jump and trust that you are capable of supporting yourself, you’ll learn the particulars along the way.

This way of life is so inspiring, you really are the master of your own destiny. Thing is, no one is going to gift-wrap a career and hand it to you on a plate, you have to get out there and find it for yourself. It’s daunting, but exciting.

A closing thought; remember that quote from American Beauty?

In order to be successful, one must project an image of success.

When it comes to social media, it’s all about projecting the image you want people to see. I’m talking about band/musician pages here – not our personal pages. Make your twitter page interesting, talk to people, build relationships with others in the same boat as you. Get really good photos taken and use them.

I’m not just talking about our online presence though. I mean in real life too. Do you show up to rehearsals late/scruffily turned out/hungover? Is that making the best impression? It sounds awful but sometimes it’s not just about the music. If you are rude to a fixer or you don’t get back to them, they won’t call you again and you’ll be off the list. If you get back to them promptly and are friendly and helpful on the phone – even if you are unable to do the gig they will probably call again. You need to be showing the best of yourself as much as you humanly can. Look your best, stay healthy, be friendly and polite and doors will open for you.

So there you have it, thoughts on leaving music college. Music graduates – do you have anything to add? Leave a comment below.

Finally I want to wish all the RNCM Harpists the best of luck with your upcoming recitals! I can’t wait to come and hear you (and celebrate with you afterwards).

Career, Music

CLOUDS summer plans

6 April 2014 No Comments

There are so many posts in the pipeline at the moment, it’s crazy. But I said the CLOUDS post would be next so, here it is.

On Tuesday, 22nd April my harp quartet CLOUDS are performing as part of the Wales International Harp Festival. Unfortunately Bec is away playing on the Cunard ships so on this occasion it’s just Esther, Elfair and myself.

Esther received a commission to compose a piece for this concert, the theme given was mythology. The Scottish murder ballad The Twa Sisters was chosen as our specific subject matter. It is a rather gruesome tale in which sibling jealously turns to murder over the attentions of a knight. The younger sister is pushed into the river and drowns, at which point a harper finds her body and makes it into a harp, using her bones and hair (told you it was gruesome). The harp then begins to play itself and tells the tale of her elder sister’s crimes.

As is Esther’s usual style, none of the music is written down. So Elfair and I have learnt it of course, but if there are any parts we forget… it’s kind of hard to get hold of Esther right now as she’s in Brazil with her folk duo Twelfth Day. Hope you’re having fun my loves!!!

This is one of the most fascinating things about CLOUDS in my opinion ~ we all do such different things on a day to day basis that we have all these different experiences to bring to the music when we meet up to rehearse, compose or perform.

Later on in June this year the four of us will be spending a couple of weeks in Edinburgh. We are shooting a new video, recording a new CD and playing in St. Giles Cathedral.

After that we are heading down to Buxton to take part in the Buxton Fringe Festival. We have four concerts, more details can be found here.

So lots of exciting things in the pipeline for CLOUDS this year – I can’t wait to spend a whole month with the girls!! Despite all these plans however, the cost of shooting a new video, having new photos taken and recording a new CD – not to mention all the travelling we’ll be doing with our harps – is proving difficult to afford. We’re applying for funding from various organisations and we have also created a GoFundMe page, click here.

So, if you would like to make a donation (or know a friend who might), please do visit the page and make a donation. All donors will be thanked in the credits of our new video.

In the meantime, thanks for reading, and I look forward to bringing you more CLOUDS updates very soon!

Uncategorized

March 2014

29 March 2014 No Comments

I’m writing this from Victoria Hall Methodist Church in Sheffield. Today I’m playing in a concert production of Bizet’s Carmen. Wonderful music.

Anyone who knows me or who reads this blog will gather that I seem to get into scrapes whenever I have a gig in Sheffield. What is it about this city? Why are its streets so confusing for sat-navs and AA route planners alike? Well, I made it to the rehearsal (just) and am now waiting for the concert.

In times gone by this would be an excellent pub opportunity. But, in the spirit of frugality I’ve brought my own dinner (salad wraps of course), my ipad to play on, and a book to read. The only other people to have this brilliant idea are at least fifty years older than me – oh dear. Also, I don’t drink that much anymore – my wallet can’t afford it and my brain can’t handle it as well as it could when I was a student.

Yesterday I was in Leeds playing Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, an absolutely brilliant piece, incredibly uplifting. I mean uplifting in a very literal sense here – we had to heave two harps onto one of the risers in Leeds Town Hall. Once we were there though, we had an excellent view and I would guess that the sound of the harps would carry much better from our raised vantage point. This was a ‘pub and meal between rehearsal and concert’ gig, mainly because some college friends were there and I also couldn’t resist the siren-call of Thai Green Curry.

So that’s this weekend. Next weekend I’m over in Scunthorpe playing Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius. Long drive, but good music.

The legal dispute I alluded to in my last post has still not been resolved, and just to warn you, there will be a big rant coming when it’s over.

There’s nothing else to report at this point. I’m seeing that as a good thing. I’m booked every weekend for at least one gig until the end of May, I have a big thick pile of music to be practising, and my private teaching in between. Things seem to be ticking along very nicely. This makes for a slightly dull blog post but in real life it’s great. On days with no gigs I can practise in the morning, do emails and admin in the afternoon and spend the evening cooking dinner and relaxing, it’s lovely.

There are exciting summer plans this year for my harp quartet CLOUDS. That’s coming up in the next post.

Until then, wishing you all the best,

Angelina x

Career, Music

Getting up to date…

7 March 2014 2 Comments

As the title would suggest, this post will hopefully bring my blog up to date with the various gigs I’ve been doing since Valentine’s Day.

Almost immediately after V-day, I drove up to Edinburgh with fellow CLOUDS member Elfair Dyer to rehearse for a few days with Esther Swift (for more information about CLOUDS click here).

We are currently learning a new trio piece for the International Harp Festival in Caernarfon, North Wales, in April. The piece is a new commission given to Esther especially for the festival. As usual, none of it is written down so we have to actually see each other to learn the music.

I am so excited about the new piece! The theme is mythology so there is a spooky story to go alongside the piece. We get to use loop pedals! The whole piece is quite dark in nature so it’s a world away from what is normally expected of a harp trio (clue: we won’t be wearing ball gowns). The sound is much edgier and more challenging.

I’m happy to say we can now play through the whole thing! We have more rehearsals coming up soon to polish everything off (and to make sure we actually know what we are doing). So fingers crossed the performance will be a success!

A few days after getting back from Scotland I had a very last minute gig. Background music for a Wake. This type of gig isn’t easy (it’s easier than a funeral service though), but the list of songs they requested were very fitting and, actually, I’m going to keep using that playlist for other background gigs too.

The very same evening I gave a talk at the Women’s Institute in Mellor, just to the south of Manchester. It’s slightly in the middle of nowhere, hurray for unlit, snakey roads with only enough room for one car.

I was a little nervous about this talk… I didn’t know if I could fill the allotted time but luckily, with playing, I was fine, plus the ladies asked lots of questions and genuinely seemed interested in the harp and the different types of work that constitute the life of a freelance musician.

The next gig I had was the following weekend, playing for a wedding reception in Sheffield. My Sheffield gigs are notorious for being stressful, I always get lost, but this one was ok. Not perfect but I found somewhere to park eventually.

The reception was in one of the University buildings.

There was a lot of champagne flowing:

And, check out the interesting table plan…

Anyway, this seemed to be a wedding of people who win at life. Everyone was beautiful and gracious (getting louder towards the end… I blame the champagne) but generally a very classy affair.

Last Thursday lunchtime I went to watch the RNCM Harp Ensemble’s lunchtime concert at the Manchester School of Art – a lovely space for a concert like this…

The photo doesn’t do it justice, trust me it looked lovely. I’ve been out of college for nearly three full years now (can’t believe it) and it’s still a little strange to see a harp ensemble concert that I’m not involved in. I mean it was refreshing in a way – the harp department had been setting up since before 9am! I remember back to my time in college and just loving the feeling of being part of such an amazing team.

Finally, we come to the gig I supposedly had last Friday, now I can’t say too much about this as I’m currently obtaining legal advice from the Musicians Union. But just to warn you, when it’s all sorted out there will be much ranting!

So that brings us just about up to date. I hope you all are enjoying the spring-like weather as much as I am! If you have any feedback please do leave me a comment.

Career

Harps of a feather, pluck together.

24 February 2014 1 Comment

Well it’s been a while since I’ve been able to post. I’ve been busy gallivanting around Great Britain on (mostly) harp related bits and bobs. There is a lot to report since my last update.

This post is becoming mammoth so I’m going to have to split it up into smaller sections…

Firstly, I got my photos back from my solo shoot with Julie Harris. I will be getting more from this shoot soon but I wanted to share the first two with you:

What other news is there… oh yes! My last blog post ‘How to make your grass greener’ has been featured on The Media Directory – don’t believe me? Check it out at http://www.themediadirectory.com/news?shownews=399

In terms of playing, a lot has been going on as well. A few Saturdays ago I had the pleasure of visiting my home city of York to play Sibelius’ First Symphony with York Guildhall Orchestra under Simon Wright. For once, there were two harps in the orchestra! Principle Harp was played by Georgina Wells – I’ve known Georgie since she tutored at a youth orchestra I used to attend so it is a real treat to play in orchestra with her. We had a great time:

The experience of playing in an orchestra is so different when you are not alone in your section. I am so used to being the only harpist that playing second harp actually brought a few challenges that I don’t usually experience. As well as watching the conductor, the music and, if I’m lucky, my hands – I also need to watch Georgina for important entries to make sure we play exactly together. I do not have enough eyes for this task!

Having said that, beefing up the harp section is so much fun – on my own, pretty much everything has to be at least mezzo forte to come across to an audience. With two harps, you can bring the music to life so much more. Even in piano passages, you can be confident that the harps will be heard. It’s great!

But away from the concert platform, having someone else in the section brings a social aspect to the day too. We chat about how we want to play certain sections, which chords to spread and which to leave straight, we help each other unpack and move harps. It becomes a team game. Harpists are often only in one or two pieces in a concert, so this means a large proportion of the day is spent alone. Now, I’m not about to start complaining about that, I happen to like my own company, thank you very much. But it makes a wonderful change to be part of a section – maybe go for a meal together in the break and share stories of bizarre gigs we’ve done, things we’d like to do etc.

So all in all, this was a lovely day, I’m playing in York again in early April and I’m looking forward to it already – or I will be, once I’ve learnt the notes.

Valentine’s Day. What’s the big deal? Restaurants are packed and more expensive than usual, everyone seems to feel this pressure to do something. I’m secretly glad I usually have a gig on this day. My boyfriend and I went for dinner the previous Tuesday to celebrate an anniversary. He proved the theory that the most exciting gifts come in little packages…

But anyway, I’m going off-topic. For Valentine’s Day I was booked to provide background music at The Florentine restaurant in Sheffield. I did not enjoy the drive there. I opted for Woodhead Pass as it’s a little less snakey than Snake Pass. However, once I got to Sheffield, my satnav took me up Hagg Hill. A word of advice – avoid this hill! I attempted it in second gear and immediately stalled. In the dark. A car behind me also turned onto the hill and followed me as I crawled up to the top, where I had to turn right.

The restaurant seemed really lovely. I was given a divine meal of beef with parsley risotto and goats cheese bonbons, and the staff were very friendly and helpful with the harp. I played for a couple of hours then drove back to Manchester. It is so interesting watching couples having dinner on Valentine’s Day. I saw at least one couple arguing. One woman was despairing because her man was so drunk. One couple brought two young loud toddlers to the restaurant (why??) and many couples were turned away because they hadn’t booked a table (rookie mistake on Valentine’s Day).

Personally I prefer to stay away from the expensive meals out on February 14th and cook something really nice with someone special, maybe get a nice bottle of wine, and just spend some time together… Cash definitely does not need to be splashed in order to incite romance.

But that’s just my opinion.

Well that’s it for this post but more will be coming soon! I’m not even close to being up to date with gig reports… As always, watch this space.

Career

How to make your grass greener.

6 February 2014 3 Comments

Ok, this isn’t a post about gardening, sorry to anyone who stumbles across this post looking for lawn maintenance tips.

Having worked in retail, and in various roles as a musician, the phrase the grass is always greener on the other side comes to mind from time to time.

When you’re a freelancer, it’s so easy (pretty much unavoidable) to dream of the pension plans, stable income, job benefits, and general security that come with a full-time job. I’ve been there, I went and got the job. But when you’re on the other side of the fence expecting the wonderful life of having a payday each month, suddenly you begin to dream of the freedom to follow your passion, to travel, to be creative everyday, to not have a boss to contend with (my boss was lovely by the way!)

Basically, whatever you do, there’s always going to be a tempting alternative. So I think, instead of always looking around the next corner to see if something better is on the horizon, why don’t we look around us now and think ‘ok, how can I make my current situation better for myself?’ That way we won’t end up running so far from one extreme that we tumble off the other.

Do you remember that film called ‘The Secret’? A lot of people dismiss it as nonsense but in my opinion a lot can be learned from its principles. We have to be grateful for all the good things in our lives in order for us to have more to be grateful for. We need to do more of what we love and move in that direction. So for me, I love orchestral playing, I also want to travel. I love writing my blog and may someday investigate doing some sort of freelance writing. I love the freedom of setting my own schedule, fixing my own diary and taking responsibility for myself. I need to focus on these things that I love and do as much of them as I possibly can.

Things I’m not so keen on – feeling skint all the time. Well… I was still skint when I had my retail job. Also, you don’t need money to be happy – it helps – but I believe you can be happy when you’re low on funds. The skint-ness can be fixed by careful spending (check) and working harder (an ongoing process). As I’ve mentioned before, I have a wonderful app on my iPhone called Budget – Back in Black. So as long as I keep a record of income and outgoings, and stick to my savings goals, I can sort of trust that the money will come if I keep focussing on doing what I love. To a certain extent I can stop worrying about the money side of things. Worry is such a useless emotion.

Anyhoo…

I guess a good goal would be to stop wishing to be on the other side of the fence, and instead for each of us to cultivate our own side to the extent that we wouldn’t wish to be anywhere else.

Lifestyle, Music

Running vs Practice

20 January 2014 2 Comments

Last November I turned 25. As a result, I decided it was time to look after myself, and my health. So on December 1st 2013 I restarted my running. I ran over 40km that month and am on course to beat that in January. I’m working my way through a Couch-10K app for anyone who is interested.

The regular practice of running has led me to ponder the similarities between running and music.

Firstly, I am not a gifted runner. Anyone who went to school with me can testify to that. BUT, having been working at it for a number of weeks I’m a lot fitter than I used to be. So if someone who is naturally gifted at running never trains, could they still beat the less talented but conscientious trainer? I’m not so sure.

You can apply this analogy to music. I admit that from an early age, teachers seemed to think I had an aptitude for the harp, and this, coupled with years of practice has allowed me to get to where I am now. But, had I not practiced and just trusted my ‘gift’, I wouldn’t have got anywhere.

This comes back to the whole nature/nurture debate. When people tell me how lucky I am to have such a talent (implying that I was somehow born being able to put on a full evening recital), I want to tell them actually no it’s not luck – I worked damn hard to be able to do this (I don’t actually say that, it comes across as rude for some reason). I feel that putting achievements down to talent alone is inaccurate and insulting to those who work hard every day to be able to do what they do.

The same with running, right now there is no way I could run a marathon (or even a half), but with training and regular practice, who knows how far I could go (pun intended). Maybe what we are born with is the potential, what we do with it is up to us.

Another similarity between the two disciplines. You can practice for years and it never feels any easier. What was hard for me in the first week of December I now do regularly, but now I am working on more challenging things. When practising, you are always pushing yourself to be better, to achieve more, to go faster, to improve technique. As a result, practising will always feel hard. It is about finding your own weak spots and putting them under a microscope. It’s a search and destroy mission to remove weaknesses in performance. It is mentally and physically draining, and if you aren’t passionately committed to it, it will be very unpleasant.

Still, it’s a voyage of discovery. It’s satisfying to be able to do things you were previously unable to do. A future post will be talking about how to practice effectively (musically speaking). Proficiency in any discipline is very satisfying, not to mention absolutely vital if you are attempting to make a career of it.

Career, Music

ready for my close-up…

16 January 2014 2 Comments

After having driven back from London last Wednesday night, I hoped in vain for some sort of lie-in on Thursday morning. This was not meant to be, however, as I was booked in for a Skype meeting at 8am with my lovely fellow members of CLOUDS Harp Quartet. I can’t complain too much though, how many of us can boast the fact that we can have an early morning meeting from bed, complete with dressing gown, coffee and Alpen?

We have a lot to talk about. But first thing’s first. We had this weekend to sort out. My role in CLOUDS is something of ‘tour manager’ when we are together, so that means I get to do the schedule! I love schedules! Sadly I’m not being sarcastic, I actually do. So we needed to talk about who is staying where, whose harp is staying where, and when we are going to rehearse, eat etc. – organising the logistics of four harps can be challenging!

First thing Sunday morning we went for a photoshoot with the lovely Julie Harris.. We needed some publicity photos for an upcoming concert in April in Caernarfon as part of the International Harp Festival (yes we are super excited). We thought we could get it done in an hour. We were slightly deluded. Three hours later we left the building. Julie taught us how to stand and look good in a photo. It felt quite awkward at times, but then you look at the photo and somehow you’ve become thinner, but with curves in all the right places… I think Julie might be some sort of wizard. In fact I went back to see her on Wednesday morning for some solo shots.

After CLOUDS’ photoshoot we immediately went for a meal as Esther was about to keel over. We went for a spot of Thai food at Manchester restaurant Umami, then went back to my place to rehearse. But how do you rehearse when you’re so full you just want to sleep? We couldn’t stay lazy for long though, we have new music to learn! Esther has written a four movement piece for Caernarfon and, as is the CLOUDS way, none of it is written down. Esther teaches it to us by demonstration and explanation and we try to cram it all into our brains. But it’s fine, we’ve been learning music together this way since 2008, and we love the freedom it gives us.

Monday morning we rehearsed again, 9-12. We were reminding ourselves how lucky we are that this is our Monday morning, no hideous traffic, no getting up at the crack of dawn, just learning some great music and playing together over coffee and good company.

We had a meeting Monday evening with our fantastic teacher Eira Lynn Jones. A couple of hours later we left, stuffed full of home-made macaroons (thanks Bec!) and bursting with new ideas for future projects… I can’t wait to share some of them when the time comes!

So that’s about all my news for this week, it’s been another busy one! Maybe things will calm down soon… not that I would want them to of course!

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