I'm still here...honest

and it's still raining. I'm sure there was some mention last year of lack of rain, drought, never drinking again and all that. Well we're going for a bit of a record in the South West. Not just spitting, not just drizzling, but real, proper rain. Torrential rain. Rain that soaks you right through to your undies type rain. Are you getting my drift here? I have a lovely new rainproof coat which has an excellent wire sort of arrangement in the hood that makes the hood stick out over your face so the rain doesn't drip in your eyes. God, however, has obviously taken this on as a challenge by making the rain horizontal and going for my legs and shoes. My beloved pair of Puma trainers - the sort of mucky beige ones with the blue swirl on the side which you might have seen me wearing once or twice - has been on the kitchen window sill, stuffed with newspaper, for the past six days drying out from a precarious new year's eve walk around Baggy Point in a Force 10 gale. Can you imagine how hard it's been working out what to put on my feet the last few days? Those trainers just jump on as I walk towards the front door.

Anyway, I'm just about getting around to working out where I can launch myself on the South West Jazz Scene. It shouldn't be too long now. Plus it looks like I will be up in Blackpool in April which would be great. Hopefully I can tag a few other North West gigs on to the same visit. Watch this space

Other than that not much to report. Did I mention the rain? I ran back from the beach a couple of days ago. Yes, ran. I need to do a bit of post Christmas body reengineering in the weight loss department. Hey, what's new? I've found that once I work up speed, my skin/flesh/flab - call it what you will - seems to start to resonate all by itself which sort of helps me maintain momentum. It must be a bit like being on one of those vibrating platform things that all you need to do is stand on and it vibrates your weight off. I looked them up on the internet and found they're a snip at just over £6,000. Unfortunatelyy that tips it just out of my price range...fnar. It does appeal - just standing still and having a machine shake your weight off. Slight issue in that it might encourage my long lost heart condition to join in. Possibly not the best way to start the year.

Anyway, keep in touch and I'll be popping up for a bit of a sing somewhere near you soon.

Happy New Year.

Rx