Slept in, wait a minute no I didn’t. I woke up at 7am and hit the road toward Ipswich by 8am. All the cars seemed to be moving way past the speed limit of 60mph, but I hesitated to match them because there are signs everywhere depicting cameras that evidently take a picture of your tag and mail you a ticket…like I’m not a big enough Cop magnet as it is!
That said I ambled up the M4 toward London and the M25 (sounds like I know what I’m talking about now doesn’t it). After about 4 hours and a couple of stops for food and petrol – I made it to Ipswich around 12:30pm. Speaking of food, I bought good little cookies with a horrible name – “Digestives”. Probably an American hang-up, but I totally don’t get naming cookies something that is in the Bowel family. I’m just saying!
I checked in with Dave and Veronica at PJ McGinty’s Pub, had a “Tea” and a “Pint” and headed to BBC Suffolk for an interview with Stephen “FOZ” Foster. 
We had a good interview, did some live playing and then recorded some tracks with his engineer afterward for the BBC to feature on their “Sessions” show over the coming weeks.I headed back down to the pub and got checked into my room above the bar, learned I wasn’t smart enough to turn on the shower system in the upper bathroom, decided I didn’t smell all that bad anyway and headed out for a walk about town. The bar’s wifi wasn’t working so I walked the street until I found a corner where someone forgot to secure their internet and stood on the corner to get my emails.
Sound check was fast approaching, but hunger was approaching faster, as the “Digestives” where being fully digested.
Dave & Veronica took me for a walk through the city center, past some guys that were being arrested for being shit-faced drunk in the square. The police officer just held his hand while she waited for back-up. It took more to hold him up than it did to keep him from running away.
We found our way to a favored dinner spot called Miso's (I think) which was a “Noodle Bar”. Yep, I said “Noodle Bar” – any kind of noodles you want! It was great food and nice and relaxing until we realized we were minutes from sound check and had to get out of there. Still, we had to make a pit stop to buy replacement candles for the venue room tables. We had received a phone call that the current citronella scented candles had run off all the indoor mosquitoes but might possibly run off the audience as well!
On the way back to the pub Veronica took me by a famous hotel called the “White Horse Hotel” where Charles Dickens had written one of his more famous books – that was pretty darned cool!
Got sound checked and went on first at 8:30. The Blue Room at McGintys is a very cool, dark, vibey room – we had a decent crowd and the show went well.
The band, “Songs from the Blue House” up from the Kelveton Institute finished the night. They were a 6 piece folk band – good music and good folks!After the main downstairs pub emptied out(about 1am)several of us gathered as we did last year, around a corner pub table, played guitars, drank “Red Breast” Irish Whiskey, laughed and lied and loved each others company into the wee hours of Saturday morning.
I think I finally went to bed about 5am. after a quick ham’n Cheese with Veronica and the 2 cats upstairs!
A great night as usual with my friends in Ipswich! They are truly a beacon in the night for the troubadour class! Tomorrow afternoon, the Orwell Bluegrass Festival and onto Cambridge tomorrow night for the Acoustic Routes show
So….the count for the day:
1 – time getting in on the wrong side of the car
3 – times walking up to the wrong side of the car
550 – car miles in the past 24 hours
6 – glasses of “Red Breast” Whiskey
1 – too many
0 – ghosts seen (it’s a Haunted Pub – dating back to the 1500’s)
3 – shows down (including the BBC)
3 – more to go
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