Keith's gig supporting Colin Bailey's art exhibition at Revolver went really well! Colin's paintings don't really need enhancement to sell, they're just beautiful work. But Keith played beautifully, and got a great reception.

Don't forget - tomorrow (Saturday) is the big day! I'm hyper!!

I love following frustrating days with really good days.

I tried again with the Observer yesterday and got through. The entertainment guy was having email problems for a few days, and apologised for the inconvenience. Yesterday was the deadline for this week's edition, so that was a bit frantic.

I had easy bios for Hastings Rock Radio, MacMillan Cancer Support and three of the performers. The fourth has no bio on her myspace. I'd written everyone a few days prior to ask if they were okay with me using their myspace bio and pic but hadn't heard back from this one yet. I didn't want to wait longer than early afternoon to send the article and risk not getting in this week, so at noon I improvised one for the remaining performer and sent the article and pics of each performer to the Observer. Cross your fingers for me. It's a bit long for the entertainment section. But at least something should be printed again about the event in this Friday's Observer.

I also sent another email to Southeast Today. I'd love it if they came down to cover this event. You never know!

Keith was watching TV while I was writing the email to them. An advert came on for The One Show (which I never watch and hadn't even thought of). I stopped typing and stared at the boobtube until the advert was over, then finished the email and sent it, and looked up The One Show online. Hmm. Don't know, but it's possible. So I sent them an email about the event as well. Maybe The One Show and Southeast Today can duke it out for exclusive coverage.

Here's the other good stuff.

I got an email from that publishing company again. I'm definitely being included in the book. I know this is probably something they say to everyone, but it was kewl anyway. She said "Although my personal enjoyment is not a criterion of the contest, I did enjoy your piece, as did the other judges." She also mentioned the other three stories I'd submitted, so it's probably not a template letter (too specific) but still probably something they do for everyone. Gotta like it though. I've been so wrapped up in trying to get some attention for Keith's songs for the last three years I've spent very little time thinking about my own writing. So my little corner of fame. They're going to put the story on the website this weekend and I'll be receiving a copy of the book after it's published.

Oops. And I just got a call from Argos that our new sofa set is arriving in the next half hour. That means Keith's waking up happy too. Coffee's on. Off to wake m'dude. No time for proofreading - ignore typos!  Latah!

You just never know what's going to happen when you blog.

I got a message yesterday from one of the friends I made right here on Xanga. She was dining with two friends and my name came up! Whoa! Yeah, we have mutual friends.

And, as it turns out, it's two friends that I particularly adore. I think this is totally interesting. This combined the two creative halves of my life - Keith's music and my writing!

We met Peter and Sally (the two mutual friends) at one of the open music nights we attend regularly. You know, the one in Pett Level that I like to blather on about. They were two of my first real friends here in England. Peter's now in a band called Colonel Mustard. They opened the final night of the Black Horse Festival this year, and they were a total party! People were dancing all over the place. http://www.myspace.com/wearecolonelmustard

I got interested in Melisandé's blogs because she's into writing, she's got a nice style, and I'm curious to see where she goes with it. I noticed a couple of days after adding her that she was in Hastings, so I already thought, yeah, coincidence!

Here's another coincidence though. On the same day I got the message from her that we have a mutual friend, I got a notice from a publisher I'd submitted some stories to that one had been accepted for a compilation. Yesterday was a very weird coincidence day!

Wait, there's more. Erm, okay, you've passed the happy coincidences now, so if you're riding a bummer, turn around and go back the way you came before the Coincidence Fairy bites ya.

Yesterday Keith was supposed to be putting together some of his CD's for the benefit gig he's doing on 25th August. Well, the computer he keeps all his music and art on went greasy side up. Won't boot. Kaboom even.

BACK UP YOUR IMPORTANT WORK, PEOPLE!!

Luckily Keith's "real" job is IT, so he's frantically over there in the corner right now, at 6:50 a.m., working to extract all the files. Looking for the coincidence part?

Okay, the message I got from the publisher stated that they needed me to resubmit the story, along with my bio. No, I don't know why they would have read it, accepted it, and then lost it, but I'm going to email them and ask about that as soon as my coffee kicks in.

So anyway, Keith needs to use my old desktop to extract the files from his hard drive and at the moment nothing is accessible. Yep, you guessed it. The stuff I submitted is on that computer; not this one. I started using this laptop in December and had just recently decided I should transfer the files over instead of networking every time I want something. I decided that recently, but have I done anything about it yet?

Well, yeah sorta. I started cleaning up the folders on this one so I won't have a big mess of files on here with no organisation whatsoever. Could I have completed that task and moved on to copying the files over by now?

Let us not speak of that.

*sigh*

Yeah. So anyhoo, isn't that cool though that Melisandé and I have a connection beyond Xanga?  Yeah, I thought so too.

Here's one last eeny-weeny coinkydinky for Melisandé, just because I know you don't know this yet, although Peter and Sally do. Lily is short for Lillián. I got tired of trying to explain it, trying to get people to pronounce it correctly, and trying to remember the computer command that kept changing. (what was wrong with leaving it at alt 160? grumblegrumblegrumble) So I shortened it to Lily.

It's pronounced Lily-Ann.

Beatcha on rambling today, Melisandé.