YOU'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE
When you've been with someone a long time it gets harder to buy presents that surprise them, or meet a need. So for Xmas 2019 we decided we both had plenty 'stuff', so instead of even more 'stuff' we'd buy a joint present that didn't add to the clutter of an already cluttered home. Since we both like going to gigs we decided that tickets would be the best answer, but in a new venue, away from home.
That ended with a trip to Dublin in January 2020, to see the great Christy Moore perform at Vicar St. Great gig, great experience, and we decided that this was the future of the Crawford Xmas. How wrong we were. Ten weeks later the first lockdown came and a gig in Edinburgh on the eleventh of March would prove to be our last of the year. Xmas 2020 came and it was back to the 'stuff' again, because where could you book with any degree of certainty?
But it looked like being better this time around so, cautiously, we booked to go somewhere not too far away this time. Tonight is the night for our Xmas gig in Newcastle. Wasn't it? Because this just happened...
That's me on the left. Sadly Barbara came up positive, and trying again produced the same result. So no trip for us today. And I'm wondering how much live entertainment we will end up getting to see this year, because the record hasn't been good so far.
My first outing of the year should have been to Murrayfield on the second of January to see Edinburgh take on Glasgow, with another match, this time against Cardiff, on the eighth. Both of which fell within the period of the mini-lockdown we had at the turn of the year, meaning sports events were played behind closed doors. (For once covid provided a silver lining when there was an outbreak in the Glasgow squad and the match has had to be postponed, so maybe I'll get to see that one.) I did get to the next match, against Brive, on the twenty first. So that's one.
We had booked five gigs through in Glasgow during the Celtic Connections festival. One vanished quite early on, US musicians deciding not to come across. Then another went, for 'covid-related' reasons. Then another. In the end we got to see two, moved to larger, socially distanced rooms, but at least they went ahead. And reminded us how much we miss live music.
There are at least five more rugby matches to go to this season. And the calendar shows a further five gigs. Three of them have been rearranged from previous cancellations - one of them five times already. All bar one are local events. The first is two weeks from tomorrow. Maybe. Who knows what comes next?
On the plus side, staying at home means more time with this ageing lady, who's not been too well recently. Which might be a subject for a future post.
