April 2007
1st – 16th
So, the biggest, bestest news ever - I got the house! The big fancy one with the garden and the stairs and the bit on the front where I park my new blue car and the shed in the garden and the loft that is all kitted out and the compost heap and the dining room that I’m going to make into the living room and the living room that I’m going to change into a dining kitchen and the very cool couple with the two kids who are going to sell up and sail round the world…I’ve got to stop really, haven’t I?
So, no mourning this month – yeehar!
Now, all that has to be done is that I have to sell my gorgeous, beautiful, sunny flat. It’s kind of weird though; when your house is ‘on the market’ you have to keep it in this kind of suspended reality. It’s so clean that you obviously must eat off the floor every night and your house had been dust proofed and you having no belongings and your windows are eternally clean…I was scared to leave my towel squinty on the rail or - punishable by estate-agent death - leave my jacket over the kitchen chair!
We did have a load of viewers though, so, hopefully one of the offers we have had will work out.
It’s all still in the balance, so, once again, if there’s no diary next month – It’s because I’ll be in mourning! In fact, I think I’m just going to use that ‘mourning’ thing as a disclaimer for anything in the future. And, if I don’t use it then…it’s because I’ll be in mourning – yes, I know, too much, too much but subtlety’s never been my strong point!
Slap bang in the middle of all the uncertainty – will we get the house, wont we sell the house – I was on the beach in Portugal! Bad timing I guess, but it was booked a long time ago. And, there I was reading my book wondering if anyone had bought the house yet?
Honestly, I couldn’t believe how uptight and edgy I was about the whole thing. It was constantly in the back of my mind.
Folk say that next to divorce, moving house is pretty stressful – well, I haven’t moved yet and I’m a woman on the edge!!! Thank god I’m not getting divorced too and thank god for red wine and good pals!
Thankfully, I had some shows in the middle of all this. And these shows were great fun. Although, I find myself asking what shows I do that aren’t great fun these days??
I had a trip up to the Festival Theatre in Pitlochry which was lovely and busy. Only problem with this was that I took my mum and step-dad on the journey. Well, you know how my mum has to be at every Carol Laula event (eh and yes, that includes my going to the corner shop to buy some bread!!!!)
I hear you wonder what the problem would be in spending some quality time with your parents? Well, no problem really, except that as soon as one of them starts a story, the other finishes it. Or if one gets the story wrong, the other starts chipping in with ‘no Irene, you’re thinking of…’. Although, how he knows what she’s thinking when all she’s said is ‘did I tell you about the other day...?’ Then, once she’s told you a story, he repeats the whole story, almost word for word and they both wonder why you aren’t laughing as heartily as you did when she told it – THE FIRST TIME!
I don’t know, they say we all end out like our mothers…well, all I can think of right now is that Irving Berlin tune which starts, ‘there may be trouble ahead…’
Joking aside, it was a great show, great venue and fantastic audience. Just the type I like.
One guy came to me at the interval and asked if I’d sing ‘It’s True’ for his daughter.
Well, I tried, except I could hardly remember the words – well, it is fifteen years since that CD was first released! Anyway, the daughter had brought the CD for me to sign and so, had the lyrics inside. The wee soul mouthed the words to me just incase I forgot – how lovely was that?
17th – 30th
I had another show up in the Strathpeffer Pavillion. An absolutely stunning venue and hardly any audience – not so good, I thought.
However, as is often the case, what I thought was going to be an okay show, turned out to be an absolute cracker. Great fun, great laughs and a great, if small, audience.
Again though, I had the pleasure of my parents in the car – even better, we stayed overnight!
Again though, I had the pleasure of my parents in the car – even better, we stayed overnight!!!!!!!!!!!!
Please, please, please tell me you got the irony of that last wee bit?
I also got to play in Glasgow’s Classic Grand. It’s a gorgeous venue – one which runs a salsa club that I’ll be attending – but sadly, one which everyone knows, only as Glasgow’s old porn theatre. I really hope it becomes a venue that everyone knows as Glasgow’s crackin’ music venue because I think it has some potential. All they have to do is get rid of the dishwasher from behind the bar – ESPECIALLY during the quiet tunes!
A final show this month was in Paisley Arts Centre. As ever, this was a great show. It’s a really special venue and, as it’s my ‘home town’ I always see lots of old faces. People I went to school with, people I used to out with, old neighbours and just Paisley folk who wanted to touch base. It’s a special feeling and I hope Anna from California will read this?
I got a lovely email from Anna a while ago, just her reminiscing about her times in Paisley and how she loved to get my monthly updates as it took her home.
She wrote something about having known my brother John and I wondered who she meant, since I don’t have a brother John – in fact, with four brothers, it’s about the only name of brother I don’t have.
Anyway, Anna got back to me and told me that she meant my dad’s brother John, my uncle. And that she remembered chatting to my dad on the way to the bus stop – BEFORE he and my mum were married! Amazing eh? We worked out that this must have been some fifty years ago! Just incredible.
If you are reading Anna, it was nice what you said about my folks all those years ago. You should come home sometime and we’ll have a nice wee cuppa and a chat all about it!
And, as ever, I have chatted way too long. So much so, in fact, that it is now the 1st May, so – White Rabbits!
Remember the mourning thing – if you don’t hear from me next month, you’ll know why!
See ya
Carol
Ps – one last thing, my beautiful god-daughter moved into a new house the other day too…it’s only 1.4 miles and 4 minutes away from my new house. Wonderful!