The last time

Many years ago I had a friend who often used to forget my birthday. She once sent me a card that said "Don't think of this as a belated card so much as the anniversary of the last time I forgot your birthday". I thought of it because I'm currently amazing myself with my ability to repeat mistakes. I feel like a horse at a fence: "uh oh - it's this horrible one where everything goes wrong. Think I'll just stop here..."

I'm currently consistently making the same mistakes in the same places in Loch Bee, Magersfontein, the King. I'm skipping to B parts after just one play of the A part. I am trying to play the Trail or the Captain and accidentally playing the Captain or the Trail, or even the Farewell.

I am playing with A each time, and each time my right hand wont stretch, my wrist rests hard on the bellows, the straps pull my clothing awry, the drones lean heavily across my chest. My right hand thumb is uncomfortable, my hands are tense. I go round and round with the same old tunes. I've played for four days in a row and don't feel that I am getting back into the swing of things at all.

I keep playing just three tunes on the A and decided to branch out today and went for Galloway, Tree, Whaling Song, King, Farewell and Home Town. I moved to D and went back to Farewell, and took note of the different way the gracing sounds, the different way the pipes sounds, the tunes sound.

I should listen to pipe music, look at my books of dots, try new tunes, revitalise my playing. The days of the old year drift slowly away. I listen to Deadly Buzz and knit and knit.