2am, 4th July 2012
I left my family at about 11am. It was harder than I expected. My parents and sister made a big deal of it, which was nice, and made me a little emotional. Though being me I made sure not to show it at all. But my grandparents. I'm not sure they realise..I've been seeing them a few times a week for the past 15 years...now the next time I'll see them for more than a quick visit home will be when one of them is really sick or even dying. I try not to think about that. Cus I'm not coming home. This isn't a holiday. It took far longer than we had planned to load up - packing our whole lives away. I didn't really feel excited at all, which was strange. Three years planning - what's essentially become one of my life dreams. What I've talked about near every day to someone for the past 6 months. But it just didn't seem real. It wasn't until we had picked up the others, loaded everything and I had driven to Rosslare - it wasn't until the ferry started moving from the port that it hit me. It's really happening. No turning back now. Now I'm sitting in the bar onboard at 2am, all of us drunk on rum we snuck in and drank quite blatently (Hey, gypsys now, right?). Now I'm curious. I don't know what's going to happen. But my life is going to change and develop more in the next year than the last 5. Or last 24? I hope so. I think so. This sounds far too over-dramatic. But it isn't. This is fucking crazy. This is the dream - and I'm going to start living it right now.
2am, 5th July 2012
The sleep on the ferry was pretty abysmal at first. I left Finbar and Dara at the bar at about 2am - the others had gone to sleep about an hour before, on mats they'd borrowed from the children's play area. I intended on doing the same - apparently they made a comfy ground-mat. But I was stopped in my tracks while carrying one over to where the others were sleeping by a member of staff who explained in the voice of someone who isn't being paid enough to deal with this shit, that the mats were for the kids. So I put it back, he informed me that I could sleep in the reserved seating area though, which was nice. I had seen the reserved seating option when I booked the ferry months back. Was tempted to get one, too, given that we weren't getting a cabin. But thank god I didn't. Jesus it was horrible. I had two of them and slept across as I saw others doing, but it was so very noisy. They must have been right next to the engine. I managed about an hour's actual sleep, and stayed there til about 8am when I gave up and got up. Found Dara in the corridor wandering like a zombie, so the two of us went cruising for a better place to sleep (get it, cruising? Didn't even mean that. I'm amazing sometimes. Only messing. All the time. David All The Time.). After about 30 minutes we found a bench area in the bar that was now unoccupied (they had all been taken at bedtime). It was perfect. I didn't care that there were people walking and talking and sitting near us the whole time we slept - I got a good proper 4 hours sleep. It doesn't sound nice at all, does it? I guess it's all relative. I remember being on a ferry as a kid, and finding the cabin so very horrible. The cabin would've been like a five star hotel that night. Proper tasty.
We found the others after we woke up and played some ninja on the helipad. Man that game is fun. No good at it yet though, compared to Alex/Emily. But we'll get there. Thought of an idea last night of how to busk with it too. It always draws attention. So we're gonna play it for money - every round only happens when someone puts money in the hat. Guess you'll hear more about that if we actually do it. Alex has already applied to electric picnic to do it though.
We eventually docked and after lots of waiting around we got into the camper and got ready to leave. It was pretty cool driving out. My first time on the right hand side of the road...it was surprisingly easy in a left hand drive vehicle though. Took to it without much hassle and we started driving to Rennes. After twenty minutes we found our first Carrefour and stopped for bread and cheese. Amazing. Filled a baguette full of camembere and blackberry jam. So good. Ate two of them between three of us. Hadn't eaten since yesterday really, in fairness. Finbar got an 11 euro fry on the ferry. He's gonna find it hard to get used to this lifestyle I think.
We got back on the road and only stopped when we were basically inside Rennes. About 10km outside the town, the skies opened to a lovely clear blue. It was pretty magical. We were in France. We live in France now.
We found a campsite (The only one in Rennes apparently) and after some humming and hawing due to the relatively high prices, we booked in. Spent the evening drinking some wine and chatting. Though I didn't really want to drink much - I want to get into this performing malarky properly. And I want to have a clear head and be healthy. Finbar wanted to get drunk and Dara didn't really mind, I think. So I felt a little bad, but there's plenty of time to get drunk when we're making lots of money.
We all slept in (though I kept waking up due to my blind being broken, so it gets very bright from dawn!), til about 12. We cooked up our intended dinner from last night (kind of a potato/courgette/sausage stew) and showered etc. By the time we were ready to go to town it was nearly 3 I think. Gotta get better at that too. We all cycled in, Dara with juggling stuff, me with a guitar, Finbar with face painting gear. We found a spot and set up. It went terribly at first. Made about 8 cent, and no-one was watching at all. We didn't really know what we were doing in fairness, I was just kinda playing chords while Dara fucked around. Finbar decided he'd be better off going back to the campsite and getting his graffiti canvas stuff ready for tomorrow so that he could busk with that (which, he never actually got around to doing I think...that guy..)...Dara and I met Alex etc and found a nicer spot to busk. It was roasting so after about 20 minutes Dara had to take a break, which worked out really well in the end. I just played music, and people started listening. Some kids stopped to watch and at points I had a little crowd of children. The money was weird, we did okay in general but not well on average - a few 20 cents and fifty cents. Then one group of girls about my age stopped for ages and were looking through their purses, I gave up on them when I saw them passing money between them but then one put in a fiver (they were obviously pooling together). That really got us going. We'd made our first proper money. There were two boys watching for a bit with their father, obviously tourists - he put a fiver in too. Great. So we made about 13.50 in total, about an hour and a half I guess, an hour of that being music. Dara found a fiver on the street a few minutes after we finished up, so we counted that too.
I realised Finbar had the keys to my bike so we contacted him and asked him to cycle them out to us (annoying for him, but in fairness I brought my keys, he simply didn't, so I gave him mine when he decided to go back). We bought two baguettes for dinner but couldn't find anything else open, so when we got back we ate them with kind of boiled eggs (we put water in the frying pan and cooked eggs in them, no oil or butter you see...it was alright), and tomatoes. Healthy and cheap sure. And pretty good, in fairness.
Dara and I set up the instruments for an amplified show (amp, mic for me, cajon for Dara), and we practiced in the campsite for a bit. My hand was already cramping so I was a little worried about busking, but I didn't say anything. A few kids and a mother came over with chairs and sat to watch us, which was pretty cool - I felt bad for ending a song or two later, but it was getting late (coming up to 9) so I wanted to hit the city. We left a little after 9 after lots of messing trying to get our instruments onto our bikes. We cycled in and checked out the spot we were at earlier, the other group were there and said they'd made about 40, but it seemed pretty quiet at this stage. So we scouted out some more and settled on the terrible spot from earlier, as it now had lots of footfall and hey, we had an amp. It was really slow for the first hour but picked up. Had a big crowd dancing near the end, though my hand was so very very sore. A few people took videos, lots of people came up and said they liked it, and we even got a gin and tonic each from a guy's bottle instead of money. Met some artists who live in kinda commune too, we might check that out tomorrow, would be cheaper than here and fun, will see what Finbar says. That kinda stuff is pretty cool. A dancer came and improvised some dance in front of us too. We made 23.7, though 10 of that was from one drunk guy. We felt kinda bad as he wouldn't have done it if he weren't drunk but fuck it. It was a really fun evening apart from my left hand being about to fall off now. Good practice too, considering Dara only knew like 3 of the songs on the drums before tonight...basically paid to practice in a way! I was really happy that people seemed to enjoy it. I know they were drunk and all but in Galway it's mostly just the songs you pick that makes you money...we had a crowd staying for a few songs at a time. We even sold out and played wonderwall, which was easily the most fun, as they really fucking loved it. It felt really good. Who knows, maybe my voice will be good enough someday. I'll keep dreaming.
So all in all the trip's going great so far. We're just learning how to busk but are making money. I know Rennes is probably the best city to busk in, so it'll get far harder, but fuck it, it's fun :)
2.15am, 5th July
Walked down to reception to write this blog (been keeping it offline but no internet where the camper's parked). The inefficiency is starting to get to me already. I had wanted to get up early but agreed on 10. Dara's alarm went off but Dara didn't get up, we were meant to practice all morning and head into town for the day busking. I did some workout, went to the supermarket to buy us food for the day, and collected money/paid for two nights down at reception. I've warmed up my voice and put the instruments in the box and been good to go for a good 2 hours. But we're not ready to leave yet - Finbar is cutting Dara's hair. I mean it's fine to cut Dara's hair and all, and it's not Finbar's fault as he's not coming busking either. But couldn't he have got it cut in the morning? Or if you do sleep in (And we all do sometimes), could we not leave it til the next morning? I'm not gonna say anything just yet, give them a few days to get settled in, but we need to get far more efficient if we want to do anything other than make money and doss around. And quickly. I wanna see France, not just live!
I left my family at about 11am. It was harder than I expected. My parents and sister made a big deal of it, which was nice, and made me a little emotional. Though being me I made sure not to show it at all. But my grandparents. I'm not sure they realise..I've been seeing them a few times a week for the past 15 years...now the next time I'll see them for more than a quick visit home will be when one of them is really sick or even dying. I try not to think about that. Cus I'm not coming home. This isn't a holiday. It took far longer than we had planned to load up - packing our whole lives away. I didn't really feel excited at all, which was strange. Three years planning - what's essentially become one of my life dreams. What I've talked about near every day to someone for the past 6 months. But it just didn't seem real. It wasn't until we had picked up the others, loaded everything and I had driven to Rosslare - it wasn't until the ferry started moving from the port that it hit me. It's really happening. No turning back now. Now I'm sitting in the bar onboard at 2am, all of us drunk on rum we snuck in and drank quite blatently (Hey, gypsys now, right?). Now I'm curious. I don't know what's going to happen. But my life is going to change and develop more in the next year than the last 5. Or last 24? I hope so. I think so. This sounds far too over-dramatic. But it isn't. This is fucking crazy. This is the dream - and I'm going to start living it right now.
2am, 5th July 2012
The sleep on the ferry was pretty abysmal at first. I left Finbar and Dara at the bar at about 2am - the others had gone to sleep about an hour before, on mats they'd borrowed from the children's play area. I intended on doing the same - apparently they made a comfy ground-mat. But I was stopped in my tracks while carrying one over to where the others were sleeping by a member of staff who explained in the voice of someone who isn't being paid enough to deal with this shit, that the mats were for the kids. So I put it back, he informed me that I could sleep in the reserved seating area though, which was nice. I had seen the reserved seating option when I booked the ferry months back. Was tempted to get one, too, given that we weren't getting a cabin. But thank god I didn't. Jesus it was horrible. I had two of them and slept across as I saw others doing, but it was so very noisy. They must have been right next to the engine. I managed about an hour's actual sleep, and stayed there til about 8am when I gave up and got up. Found Dara in the corridor wandering like a zombie, so the two of us went cruising for a better place to sleep (get it, cruising? Didn't even mean that. I'm amazing sometimes. Only messing. All the time. David All The Time.). After about 30 minutes we found a bench area in the bar that was now unoccupied (they had all been taken at bedtime). It was perfect. I didn't care that there were people walking and talking and sitting near us the whole time we slept - I got a good proper 4 hours sleep. It doesn't sound nice at all, does it? I guess it's all relative. I remember being on a ferry as a kid, and finding the cabin so very horrible. The cabin would've been like a five star hotel that night. Proper tasty.
We found the others after we woke up and played some ninja on the helipad. Man that game is fun. No good at it yet though, compared to Alex/Emily. But we'll get there. Thought of an idea last night of how to busk with it too. It always draws attention. So we're gonna play it for money - every round only happens when someone puts money in the hat. Guess you'll hear more about that if we actually do it. Alex has already applied to electric picnic to do it though.
We eventually docked and after lots of waiting around we got into the camper and got ready to leave. It was pretty cool driving out. My first time on the right hand side of the road...it was surprisingly easy in a left hand drive vehicle though. Took to it without much hassle and we started driving to Rennes. After twenty minutes we found our first Carrefour and stopped for bread and cheese. Amazing. Filled a baguette full of camembere and blackberry jam. So good. Ate two of them between three of us. Hadn't eaten since yesterday really, in fairness. Finbar got an 11 euro fry on the ferry. He's gonna find it hard to get used to this lifestyle I think.
We got back on the road and only stopped when we were basically inside Rennes. About 10km outside the town, the skies opened to a lovely clear blue. It was pretty magical. We were in France. We live in France now.
We found a campsite (The only one in Rennes apparently) and after some humming and hawing due to the relatively high prices, we booked in. Spent the evening drinking some wine and chatting. Though I didn't really want to drink much - I want to get into this performing malarky properly. And I want to have a clear head and be healthy. Finbar wanted to get drunk and Dara didn't really mind, I think. So I felt a little bad, but there's plenty of time to get drunk when we're making lots of money.
We all slept in (though I kept waking up due to my blind being broken, so it gets very bright from dawn!), til about 12. We cooked up our intended dinner from last night (kind of a potato/courgette/sausage stew) and showered etc. By the time we were ready to go to town it was nearly 3 I think. Gotta get better at that too. We all cycled in, Dara with juggling stuff, me with a guitar, Finbar with face painting gear. We found a spot and set up. It went terribly at first. Made about 8 cent, and no-one was watching at all. We didn't really know what we were doing in fairness, I was just kinda playing chords while Dara fucked around. Finbar decided he'd be better off going back to the campsite and getting his graffiti canvas stuff ready for tomorrow so that he could busk with that (which, he never actually got around to doing I think...that guy..)...Dara and I met Alex etc and found a nicer spot to busk. It was roasting so after about 20 minutes Dara had to take a break, which worked out really well in the end. I just played music, and people started listening. Some kids stopped to watch and at points I had a little crowd of children. The money was weird, we did okay in general but not well on average - a few 20 cents and fifty cents. Then one group of girls about my age stopped for ages and were looking through their purses, I gave up on them when I saw them passing money between them but then one put in a fiver (they were obviously pooling together). That really got us going. We'd made our first proper money. There were two boys watching for a bit with their father, obviously tourists - he put a fiver in too. Great. So we made about 13.50 in total, about an hour and a half I guess, an hour of that being music. Dara found a fiver on the street a few minutes after we finished up, so we counted that too.
I realised Finbar had the keys to my bike so we contacted him and asked him to cycle them out to us (annoying for him, but in fairness I brought my keys, he simply didn't, so I gave him mine when he decided to go back). We bought two baguettes for dinner but couldn't find anything else open, so when we got back we ate them with kind of boiled eggs (we put water in the frying pan and cooked eggs in them, no oil or butter you see...it was alright), and tomatoes. Healthy and cheap sure. And pretty good, in fairness.
Dara and I set up the instruments for an amplified show (amp, mic for me, cajon for Dara), and we practiced in the campsite for a bit. My hand was already cramping so I was a little worried about busking, but I didn't say anything. A few kids and a mother came over with chairs and sat to watch us, which was pretty cool - I felt bad for ending a song or two later, but it was getting late (coming up to 9) so I wanted to hit the city. We left a little after 9 after lots of messing trying to get our instruments onto our bikes. We cycled in and checked out the spot we were at earlier, the other group were there and said they'd made about 40, but it seemed pretty quiet at this stage. So we scouted out some more and settled on the terrible spot from earlier, as it now had lots of footfall and hey, we had an amp. It was really slow for the first hour but picked up. Had a big crowd dancing near the end, though my hand was so very very sore. A few people took videos, lots of people came up and said they liked it, and we even got a gin and tonic each from a guy's bottle instead of money. Met some artists who live in kinda commune too, we might check that out tomorrow, would be cheaper than here and fun, will see what Finbar says. That kinda stuff is pretty cool. A dancer came and improvised some dance in front of us too. We made 23.7, though 10 of that was from one drunk guy. We felt kinda bad as he wouldn't have done it if he weren't drunk but fuck it. It was a really fun evening apart from my left hand being about to fall off now. Good practice too, considering Dara only knew like 3 of the songs on the drums before tonight...basically paid to practice in a way! I was really happy that people seemed to enjoy it. I know they were drunk and all but in Galway it's mostly just the songs you pick that makes you money...we had a crowd staying for a few songs at a time. We even sold out and played wonderwall, which was easily the most fun, as they really fucking loved it. It felt really good. Who knows, maybe my voice will be good enough someday. I'll keep dreaming.
So all in all the trip's going great so far. We're just learning how to busk but are making money. I know Rennes is probably the best city to busk in, so it'll get far harder, but fuck it, it's fun :)
2.15am, 5th July
Walked down to reception to write this blog (been keeping it offline but no internet where the camper's parked). The inefficiency is starting to get to me already. I had wanted to get up early but agreed on 10. Dara's alarm went off but Dara didn't get up, we were meant to practice all morning and head into town for the day busking. I did some workout, went to the supermarket to buy us food for the day, and collected money/paid for two nights down at reception. I've warmed up my voice and put the instruments in the box and been good to go for a good 2 hours. But we're not ready to leave yet - Finbar is cutting Dara's hair. I mean it's fine to cut Dara's hair and all, and it's not Finbar's fault as he's not coming busking either. But couldn't he have got it cut in the morning? Or if you do sleep in (And we all do sometimes), could we not leave it til the next morning? I'm not gonna say anything just yet, give them a few days to get settled in, but we need to get far more efficient if we want to do anything other than make money and doss around. And quickly. I wanna see France, not just live!
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