Shambala bala bala

Well well, here we are in September already! Why does the summer always have to go by so quickly? I feel like I’ve barely seen the sun in between working and gigging! However, it is an amazingly lovely day today, which is nice to wake up to.

So, biggest achievement in August was playing at Shambala festival all by myself! No double bass or guitarist to keep me safe, just me, and four completely new songs never heard before and my very basic guitar playing. May I at this moment remind you that I started playing guitar from scratch last summer so as you can imagine I was shitting myself! Zipped myself up in my tent for almost the whole of Saturday practicing until my fingers were raw, but all in all I must say it went incredibly well. I was playing in a little yurt in the healing fields called the Glo Stage, which was very chilled out and full of the most attentive audience members I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing for!

Of course being nervous I started on the wrong capo on the third song, and sped up to a rather incredible speed during my fourth song but it was brilliant. Huge cheers and lots of pats on the back after my set, (even an encore which I hadn’t prepared so left them wanting more…which I think is always better in the long run!) and two people came up to me after and told me I’d made them cry with my songs! Obviously tears are never my intention, but it’s always nice to know that my songs are touching people.

So yes, Shambala performance wise was incredible, and the festival its self was absolutely insane! For such a small festival, it has an epic impact. I didn’t stop dancing for the full four days I was there which is saying something!

As if that wasn’t enough to give August month of year award, I came home to discover all my Open University materials had arrived- yeeesssss!!!! I cannot wait to start my course- The Arts Past and Present. It looks fascinating, and I feel like my brain needs to be exercised a bit more, no-one has use for a lazy brain. Not to mention, all the stuff I’ll be learning will surely give me some more song material, which would be awesome as Shambala, has given me the acoustic bug!

Aaand last but by no means least my website is finally ready for the world! It should be up by this evening if all goes to plan and then there will be a Ngaio hub of knowledge for anyone who’s interested. We’ve got all the usual suspects- bio, blog, gallery, music, contact etc and I am SO excited! A massively HUGE thank you to the brilliant Sophie O’Kelly for designing it and Chris Humpherson for persevering with it. And a special thank you to Kal for the building business. It wouldn’t of happened without all of your genius people so thanks.

Right, well that’s my babbling done. Have a wonderful day in the sun, and have a cider for me ;)

xox

Teaching, Living, and Appreciating

Well, after 5 days of chord finding, songwriting, singing, teaching, assisting, camping, camp-fireing and lighter-lifeing in the great outdoors I must say that when I got to Wiviliscombe I was knackered to the point of falling into the spare room at my aunt and uncles house after a well deserved bath and sleeping until my cousin got up the next morning- she’s 8, it was early.

Now that I’ve had some time to re-couperate though I must say I’ve realized how much I do love the countryside. Having lived in Wales from age 5-9 and having to deal with the racial issues that come with being the only ethnic person in a small town where everybody talks, a part of me had decided that yes the countrys nice for a visit, but ultimately not to live…thankfully I’ve realized that’s completely untrue. It doesn’t mean that I’m going to move to the country tomorrow, I love Bristol life way too much for that, but its definitely something to consider when old age comes a-calling. This is enhanced by the fact that I’m at this moment sunbathing in a beautiful garden with nothing in the distance except fields and the blue skys- not too shabby!

Back to my last fun-filled week, being workshop assistant at Imayla’s Music and Film Camp was even more brilliant than I thought it was going to be. Yes it was cold, and rained almost everyday (except the day we went home…typical!) but the energy that came from everyone there was what kept me going. There’s no better feeling than helping someone make something that they’re proud of. The inspiration I get from working with young people is next to none. The ideas that come out, the melodies and the words, it reminds you of how hard it is being younger, and even though I still feel like a young person, and am in a lot of ways, I think that the resilience in people to withstand whatever’s thrown at them and still manage to look at the world in a positive way is remarkable.

The whole experience was amazing, and the last day where it all comes together and everyone shows each other their work is the biggest pay-off. It was emotional and beautiful and is already being reminisced about. I can’t wait to get the DVD/CD’s so I can re-live it all again! I definitely need to look into working with young people a lot more in the future, there’s nothing like it.

In terms of next week, I’ll be doing some evaluating of the week just passed and then I’m off to Shambalah to perform COMPLETELY by myself, which has never been done before. I will be armed with only my acoustic for company, just hope I can keep it together for the full set- its only 20 mins so I’m feeling fairly hopeful. And then I get to go off and enjoy the entire festival, well I’ll be coming back on Saturday so pretty much all of it.

Oh and I almost forgot to mention, the website is very nearly ready. It’s all been designed, all I need to do is put in all the relevant text and update the gallery and then we’re ready for launch baby!!! Watch this space….

Once again, much love. Update you soon xox

Silent thoughts in the Social

Introspection can be a curse
Especially if your good with words
Who knows what you'll drag
Out of your mind?

So much self obsession
To try and find some meaning
Some understanding
In things that don't make sense

Life isn't there to be figured out
It was never meant to be solved
The only power we have
Is over how we live it

For if we don't live by religion
And morality is nothing but good intention
Whats to stop this society
From falling into the forgotten generation?

Nothing to fight for
Except more power
Nothing to live for
Except desire

Who can define our identity
And be able to sum it up entirely?
What makes us different from the rest?
Apart from the screens embedded in our heads?

So focussed on whats happening
Somewhere else in the world
We can't see what's here
Right in front of us

So dependant on someone else's fantasy
We can't pick our own
Banished imaginations
Adds to mondane conversation
No wonder you're bored.


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Sat 6th Aug, 2011 - My first blog entry

So I guess I've decided to start my blog today because it's the first day I've actually been able to sit down and reflect on the major changes that have happened recently.

To ease you in I moved house at the beginning of this week. The location is amazing, right next to St Andrews park which is for any Bristolians who may be reading, the best place for the summer. My new home is small, wonderfully warm, and full of boxes. There's been no time to unpack but I've got my cosy bed area sorted and really thats all that matters at the moment!

I've also entered the month mark of doing LighterLife which has been a big change but is something that is actually fairly easy to do and has such quick results it's hard not to stay on track. I've been doing it for a month as I said and I've lost 1st4lb's which are hard results to beat!
I've also very nearly got my music website up and running which I'm really excited about because it looks awesome thanks to my lovely friend Sophie O'Kelly designing it in her spare time for nothing except my undying love, which she of course has :P

The bands going really well, me and my lovely guys have begun to introduce a drummer and are working on building up the horn section so that we can start doing bigger, better gigs. I'm also going to be going along to a rehearsal with a new reggae band because gigging with Laid Blak did show me how much I love singing reggae, chiiiiillll viiiibes. So we'll see how that goes- keep ya posted.

Finally, http://www.boohoo.com/ is the best place for fashionable, affordable buys and I've fallen for these heels just a little bit....If only I could walk in heels! I will teach myself....

And despite not actually eating any conventional food at the moment I have started watching cookery shoes- not for any masochistic reason, purely because I love discovering new recipe's so here's one I watched today-http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/pork_sausages_with_43956 - pork sausages with pineapple salsa. Now I'm not a pineapple fan but this salsa looked really rather good. I'll be trying that once my life is lighter!

Right well, hope you enjoyed my first rambling blog!

Much love xox

P.S I would recommend 'A Tiny Bit Marvellous' by Dawn French- laugh out loud in the truest sense.