Why Not Blog Today?!

I haven't blogged in some time (who cares? Who even reads this shit?) but I've just had so much going on that I haven't had time to or felt like it.

According to Twitter, only twenty (CAN'T BE?!) days ago, I was in London (as I am now, but I have been back to Carlisle since) at KOKO in Camden, getting shit together to do merch for Amanda Palmer.
Here is a link to a picture she posted of me and fellow merch girl Kaitlin: http://twitpic.com/1hj53l
I happen to look like some kind of evil troll in half of the pictures I am in from that night.
Here is a nicer one from the next night at Bush Hall:
Anyway, Amanda's crew got trapped in the US due to the ASHCLOUD from the Iceland volcano (which she luckily escaped, which prompted me to do this drawing, which Amanda also tweeted: http://twitpic.com/1iwjip (you'll notice that I am opting to post links to Facebook and Amanda's twitpic. This is from laziness. If you can't see the above pictures of Kaitlin and myself, either Amanda's deleted them from twitpic or facebook's not letting you see) and she was short a merch girl. Also they needed someone who could drive. Which I can't.
Beth emailed me asking if I could do merch in Glasgow, Dublin and London, as I had already done it at a couple of shows last year. I said no to Dublin because I didn't have my passport on me (in London with my mother) but yes to Glasgow and London. So the next day I got on a train with Johnny (to whom I had given my guest list space as a sort of crap birthday present -my plan had been to use a ticket, but these both turned out unnecessary as we were both given AAA passes).
Highlight of the night #1: Amanda saying thank you to me, 'Audrey my friend from London who came here to do merch!' onstage. I punched my fists in the air and yelled 'yeah!' along with the crowd, still cheering at her thanks speech, which was aimed at the last minute support bands, her emergency tour manager Sven and myself, attracting much attention from the people at the bar to my right.
After the show we were being kicked out so a few of us piled into a shockingly slow elevator to find the dressing room, where everyone else had apparently congregated and Amanda was passing beer and tea cakes out (I guess she needed to get rid of them to make space?) before we all went downstairs to see if there was any space in the bar. There was not.
We went to the resturant and took over a booth in a corner.
Some stuff happened. Lots of yelling and stuff.
Amanda made a toast and somewhere in there I yelled 'I RULE', perhaps slightly louder than I'd meant to.
(note to self: just don't drink.)
Basically this is a post about my ego being fed with gratitude and how I respond loudly to things, I suppose.
ANYWAY, after a trek to their far-away parked tour van and some goodbyes, we walked back to the hotel and got sleep. Then we wandered around Glasgow, I contemplated buying 'Kneller's Happy Campers' (book upon which a movie I love is based) and we got on a train back to Carlisle, where I made arrangements (travel tickets, etc.) for London.
I stayed in my family's house for the first night. I got to their house and opened my laptop to find 9 emails from Amanda, her tour manager, Holly (who was thought to be doing merch but ended up not doing merch at the UK shows) and Kaitlin. Including excel spreadsheets and a PDF file. Christ on a bike.
Read all of them, made battle plan.
Arrived in Camden and called Kaitlin, who told me how to get into the venue (after a brief struggle. Eventually Bitter Ruin -support band, amazing, google them- showed up and I just went in with them) and told me to meet her upstairs in the production office.
We spent a lot of time running around and having little idea as to what we should do and running minor un-merch-related errands before finally getting our shit together and sorting out the mess of merch. It was a busy night indeed.
I stayed with Kaitlin and the woman she was staying with, whose name is Liz.
The next day we went to Bush Hall for the first of 3 shows there. The first two days, while eventful, I cannot be arsed with describing.
On Sunday, the final day, there were two shows.
One during the afternoon at Underworld in Camden, followed by the 3rd and final Bush Hall show.
We were meant to be preparing to leave Camden at 5pm.
Amanda and Jason realised onstage that it was 5pm.
We all packed into the tour van and went to Bush Hall slightly late.
Jason, Kaitlin and I were in the back of the van and my phone rang. My ringtone has been a Jason Webley song for over a year and I thought nothing of it when it rang. For 10 minutes. Then it hit me.
As we neared the venue, I saw a familiar head of curly red hair and freaked the fuck out.
'RACHAEL'S HERE. OH SHIT NO.', said I.
'What's wrong?', asked Jason, Captain of Greatness.
'A friend of mine who I haven't seen in ages is here and I won't have any time to see her!!!'
'Ask her to help us unload the van and then she can hang out inside!', he suggested (thus earning his title as Captain of Greatness).
So I did.
I ran over there and went 'Rach! I need your help!'
And I got to take her in early.
It was brilliant. The table was pretty much set up already so I just had to eat and we sat down and had a chat and it was wonderful to see her again.
Highlights of the last night: Amanda thanking Kaitlin and I onstage while we stood at the door to the hall towards the end of the show, Holly handing us glasses of champagne as it was the last night after the show while we were still working.

I've left so many details out of this.
But it was great.

Some pictures from the last night:
AFP: Let's lie down in the boxes, it will be an accurate representation of your week. (something to that effect but I can't remember what it was exactly)
Me: You can do that. I'm gonna sit here.

L-R: Alex, Me, Drew, Ben.

Georgia, Me, Amanda, Kaitlin, Drew, Jason.

This was the night most of the photos were taken and as it was the final and busiest night, the day I'd put the least effort into my outfit/hair/errr...face.
Hah.

Other stuff:
Started a project called Hungry Ghosts last month, here's the website: www.hungryghosts.info
Nothing up there aside from who the artists are and stuff.
Was very busy.
But soon there will be stuff.

Will turned 7 on Monday, so I came to visit for his birthday and have made him 2 cakes (cheesecake with a lovely raspberry syrup & a white chocolate mud cake).

Now I'm sitting in my mums room watching her play uno with will. :)