Too much of a good thing

I'm not doing very well with either playing or blogging. My day job is pretty dire and it seems to be sucking all the energy out of me, so I'm not getting round to much else at all, annoyingly.

Earlier this week I took delivery of a cubic metre of compost for the raised beds on the allotment, primarily for my new asparagus bed. It took about two hours in total to scoop it into buckets and chuck it into the beds. I managed to avoid blisters, but my arms have been feeling the strain.

So when the fan reminded me that it was the Foresters session I though I'd better get the Monkey out and see if I was fit to play. I played happily through a few tunes so felt happy to go out. I wasn't brave enough to try the Nova Scotia set, Loch Bee or Magersfontein. I stuck to Flett, the Whaling Song, the Tree and My Home Town. That was a small risk as I haven't played it in a while and wasn't sure if I remembered the B part, but the mice knew it, of course, and I just left them to it.

I don't want to play the same old tunes each month, but the fan says it's useful for the others to get to know my tunes so they can learn them too. Not sure how much use that is in a session that has, apart from me, the fan and the organisers, a pretty shifting population.

One who seems to be becoming a regular turns up in the middle, plays three songs, loudly, in a row, and then walks off with out saying a word. This time he brought a friend who said to the table at large "is it OK if I borrow your mandolin", with his hand already on the fan's baby. The fan said he felt he could hardly say no, and restricted himself to pointing out that it is £2k worth of instrument... Luckily I can't imagine that another piper would ask to borrow the Monkey, and it's not something that people dabble in - you're either a piper or you're not. Despite having been brought up to share anyone asking to play the Monkey would get a very firm"NO!!" in reply.

I got the recorder out this afternoon, but then couldn't remember what I had recorded lately. I played McIntyre's Farewell in A, which reminded me that I should play A more often. I went on to the King, which the fan always says sounds better on A. Struggled to get it right. Played Galloway, just to prove I can still get through a tune on A. Switched to D and got the King at last, then various of the usual suspects. I wonder if I've got to  many new tunes on the go: I forget what I'm playing, forget which tunes I already know.

I just need to practice more - it's the one thing I can't have too much of.