The Worlds Lowest Country and more…
It seems a while since I have written a blog, maybe it hasn’t been too long and it’s because of the fact loads has been happening.. I’m not quite sure where to start with this one.
So I did the helicopter thing which was a cool experience. Along with the acoustic gig to the snow blinded sunglasses crew on the top of a Mountain.
Ahhh yes, so upon my return from that Mike and I went to the legendary mecca that is Abbey Road Studios to add the final touch of mastering to the long awaited second BirdPen album. It was great meeting Frank Arkwright who has done a splendid job on the mastering and to pass by the tourists re – enacting the front cover of some band I’d never heard of called The Beatles. They walked across a zebra crossing of some sort didn’t they? Abbey Road was very quiet and you could feel the sense of history in the air. A little bit like a museum in some sense what with the no photos signs up everywhere.
It was a great mastering session and we had lamb chops with broccoli and potatoes for tea.
A couple of days after that I zoomed down to Brighton to watch a one of performance from Brighton’s own British Sea Power play their debut album in full at one of the club nights they have been putting on. The Decline of British Power is one of my personal favorite albums and it was great to see the band with Eamon (ex member) smash their way through it to a very over exited jammed squeezed crowd. Some sights I hold in my brain from this show with dread and joy are: A woman crowd surfing in 5 inch stilettos is a big no no in my opinion and also short party frocks are risky to wear if you’re gonna let loads of beer drinking boozy muso’s carry you across the top of their heads, It’s obvious one of them is gonna wanna see your knickers. Heads in giant bass drums whilst crowd surfing is another brilliant risky stunt but that’s the great thing about BSP they can be sentimental and mental. They are always a joy to watch and hear. I didn’t take the photo below.
After chip shop chips on the sea front and a fierce derby battle of the south coasts two football teams and being refused any more drinks for no apparent reason I headed to the airport to fly to the worlds lowest country. For those of you that aren’t sure of where the world’s lowest country is it’s the Maldives in the Indian Ocean. I had delayed in celebrating a massive part of my life for seven months and made this trip to relax, get some rays and turn the levels down for ten days. It was nice that the 8000lb box with wings cruised smoothly across a part of the planet with no bumps, drops or power failures. I have a fear of Turbulence you see and I find long haul flying something of a huge and odd experience that I just can’t get comfortable with.
So a nice trip to relax and unwind… Second day in as I prepared to get snorkelled up and say hello to Nemo I noticed the little red light on my phone blinking. I quickly checked to see that my Manager had sent a text – read on picture below:
A fear and force that has killed hundreds of thousands in the last ten years and been watched by millions on television was very much a realisation that literally left me feeling numb for a few minutes.
A panic attack popped his fast beating head round the corner of my villa and hung around prodding me here and there in my chest. I headed to the reception area of the resort and spoke to someone there about the impending fearful situation, the guy at the desk said to me ‘everything is OK sir, we are aware of the situation, just please relax and go and enjoy your holiday’. OK great advice!! I glued my eyes to the television back in the villa glancing out at the Indian Ocean just ten metres from my door then back to panicked people being broadcast on the news trying to get to higher ground.. All I could do was wait.
Luckily for us the type of earthquake that had happened didn’t cause a tsunami and the Indian chap in Receptions advice rang true. A dear friend quoted us that Nature Regulated itself on this occasion. To be under threat from something so destructive left me feeling so small, I’m happy nothing happened and my heart goes out to anybody who has been involved in recent earthquake and tsunami events.
I won’t go into details about the rest of the trip, the sunsets, the sea life, the weather etc but we did meet and make friends with a chap called Mark Beaumont and his newly wed wife. Mark holds the world record for cycling around the world in the fastest time and has been on some extraordinary adventures. Look him up if you get the chance folks.
Here are a few photos for the world’s lowest country:
So back to England’s green and Pleasant land which has had nothing but rain since my return. My tan is fading but my soul, heart and brain are alight with the exiting times that wait ahead. Nature Regulate is out and I shall write a separate blog for that and post it up in the next few days.
Where’s my umbrella?
I am Dave Pen
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