A busy time, my faithful friends. I've had a very busy time, indeed, of late - so much so that the recent Zabava (a sort of dance party) at Ashton Ukrainian Club, for which I played the bass as a part of Yarema, has managed to go unmentioned until now.

'Twas quite a while ago now when the event happened (16th September), so the emotions of the night have faded away and only fragments of them can be remembered; but I do remember that it was a moderate night for me. My party and I - consisting of mum, dad, sister Jess, old friend of the family and mother of an old friend of mine from primary school Anna, her son Ben, my friend from high school Adam, and self - arrived at the Club at about 18:30-ish, me not too much excited to play. We had only played at the Club once before, at New Year's Eve - as I've already mentioned on this blog - and that time everybody seemed to love us like crazy; so this time, when we were arriving, I was perhaps a bit worried of the anticipation that the audience might have for us, and that we might not actually come up to their expectations. Not that the Ukrainians are crushingly critical and readily disposed to boo and jeer, but with the reception we got this New Year's Eve, I supposed the expectation would be high, and possibly susceptible to disappointment. But I don't think anyone was disappointed. We did our fair share of nattering before clambering onto the stage at about 20:30-ish.

We were to play for about four or so hours, with only two short breaks during the night. We started off playing, and to be frank, I just didn't feel in the mood for it. I wasn't really aware that we were there to entertain these people, I just felt like we had to get on, play the music, and then get off at the end of the night. Which is a great shame. The atmosphere that I felt on New Year's Eve was absolutely electric and brilliant, but the other Saturday I just didn't feel that for most of the night. But, on we played - not without me getting cramp just below the right buttock almost as soon as we'd started, and then again later on, just before a commercial break, getting cramp in my right index-finger during our drums and guitars instrumental piece - and we came off the stage for good at about 01:00, all thoroughly ready for it, and pretty damn knackered. I downed a glass of cherry-vodka, bought for me by Zen the drummer from Black Sea Cossacks and more recently Chervona Kalyna, while talking to a young lady from the club by the name of Natalia, with my family urging me to get the hell out of there because they were tired, and the vodka burning the insides of me because I was pretty unused to alchohol, when Dan (our esteemed Accordion player) steamed into the vicinity crying, 'Fifteen more minutes, chaps!' To which I complied, and duly rounded up Adam and my family, and bounded back onto the stage. It seems that alchohol can really do that to people - you know: loosen them up and urge them on to enjoy themselves. Certainly this cherry-vodka stuff, anyway. On I went, we all picked up our instruments (apart from Andy our drummer, and Adam our singer, brother of Dan), and we played the most exciting fifteen minutes of music of the whole night. So, should I go for the alchohol as soon as I arrive for our next gig on the 28th of this month, or should I play the field a bit and see how it goes? Answers on a postcard.

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