{"id":154602,"date":"2020-01-05T16:42:49","date_gmt":"2020-01-05T16:42:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/?p=154602"},"modified":"2020-01-05T16:42:49","modified_gmt":"2020-01-05T16:42:49","slug":"hello-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/2020\/01\/05\/hello-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Hello 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Well, it&#8217;s sort of time for an attempt at getting on with things again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The band continues but really it is in name only as it has to change quite a bit to make it workable. I have to make serious efforts to get out and about locally as there are one or two local music places where I may be able to make some connections. I need this as much for social reasons anything to do with getting gigs as I have been very reclusive and it&#8217;s not having a good effect on my mental health as I have been dwelling on things rather too much. That&#8217;s the plan anyway, so we shall see what happens next.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have a guitar stand which holds the guitar in playing position now. That means I can use it with the loop pedal and then step away whilst still accompanying myself and pick up the violin with ease. That&#8217;s opened up the options for gigs a lot as I can read music so I can busk stuff from books which means it is easy to do some requests and not have to worry about others learning the material plus I can do the violin stuff which has always been a major part of the live act. If I can get used to doing stuff totally solo then the world&#8217;s my oyster really, it&#8217;s just a matter of confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Apart from that, I am having a relatively quiet life. Ralph, Vicky&#8217;s partner visits once or twice a week, as we have shared interests in sound recording and photography as well as a long-standing friendship. That&#8217;s been helpful for both of us over this last year.<br>I still find it odd performing without Vicky&#8217;s often larger than life presence, but I can see now how hopefully it can work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Money is very tight at present so that is still restricting things socially, which is why I need to find things to do locally.<br>It&#8217;s now coming up to two years away from London and there is a lot that I do miss, to be honest, but I don&#8217;t have any regrets about moving when I did as its made life a lot easier in practical terms. I have still have a lot of stuff in the shed downstairs that needs sorting out, selling or disposing of though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My birthday comes up in a couple of weeks but I shall not be making too much fuss about it, other than to say I never could imagine being that age&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0I don&#8217;t expect to be doing anything special for it. It does have a particular resonance though as I will be the same age as my father was when he died, which is a little disturbing, to be honest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well, it&#8217;s sort of time for an attempt at getting on with things again. The band continues but really it is in name only as it has to change quite a bit to make it workable. I have to make serious efforts to get out and about locally as there are one or two local &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/2020\/01\/05\/hello-2020\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Hello 2020<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musings"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6NRDR-EdA","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":175381,"url":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/2022\/07\/06\/busy-times\/","url_meta":{"origin":154602,"position":0},"title":"Busy Times","author":"diana Stone","date":"July 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"So lots going on and I am doing live gigs again. At present its still all very much an experiment to see what works and what doesn't though. I played 2 gigs on last Saturday and that was a bit of an effort but it was OK.\u00a0 I was worried\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Delta Ladies&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Delta Ladies","link":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/category\/delta-ladies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":155577,"url":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/2020\/01\/23\/musician-wanted-for-duo\/","url_meta":{"origin":154602,"position":1},"title":"Musician wanted for duo.","author":"diana Stone","date":"January 23, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"This is an ad I have running as I need a player to work in my duo.\u00a0 I am based in Bedford England.\u00a0 Ideally looking for people who are local. https:\/\/www.joinmyband.co.uk\/classifieds\/guitarist-vocals-useful-but-not-essential-required-t1217810.html You can contact via the website link above or on this email.contact@ukmusiccity.com\u00a0 with the word duo in the heading.\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Musings&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Musings","link":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/category\/musings\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61689,"url":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/2016\/11\/29\/sniffles-and-sneezes-spread-diseases\/","url_meta":{"origin":154602,"position":2},"title":"Sniffles and sneezes spread diseases","author":"diana Stone","date":"November 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"It seems to be be my fate\u00a0to average about 2 colds a year. I got through 3 gigs at the weekend with one and I thought it was drying up only for it to reassert itself on Monday. My significant other woke me at about 4.00 am to to tell\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Musings&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Musings","link":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/category\/musings\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":179434,"url":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/2025\/11\/06\/november-begins\/","url_meta":{"origin":154602,"position":3},"title":"November Begins","author":"diana Stone","date":"November 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"To me it feels different. in 2007 I was still doing the civil service day job, recording my own music and playing 2 to 3 gigs a week with Elephant Shelf so to me I often feel becalmed in relative terms. My mind is always active but my body can't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Musings&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Musings","link":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/category\/musings\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/the-best-car-we-ever-had.jpg?fit=1149%2C729&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/the-best-car-we-ever-had.jpg?fit=1149%2C729&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/the-best-car-we-ever-had.jpg?fit=1149%2C729&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/the-best-car-we-ever-had.jpg?fit=1149%2C729&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/the-best-car-we-ever-had.jpg?fit=1149%2C729&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":805,"url":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/2010\/05\/19\/enjoying-the-sun-in-the-south-of-france-getting-ready-for-some-gigs\/","url_meta":{"origin":154602,"position":4},"title":"Enjoying the sun in the south of france getting ready for some gigs","author":"diana Stone","date":"May 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Delta Ladies&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Delta Ladies","link":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/category\/delta-ladies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Delta lady on Holiday","src":"https:\/\/scontent.flhr3-2.fna.fbcdn.net\/v\/t1.0-9\/32015_410714011128_529614_n.jpg?oh=025c53e4c5111446dc087d3de6063e38&oe=5AE832BB","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/scontent.flhr3-2.fna.fbcdn.net\/v\/t1.0-9\/32015_410714011128_529614_n.jpg?oh=025c53e4c5111446dc087d3de6063e38&oe=5AE832BB 1x, https:\/\/scontent.flhr3-2.fna.fbcdn.net\/v\/t1.0-9\/32015_410714011128_529614_n.jpg?oh=025c53e4c5111446dc087d3de6063e38&oe=5AE832BB 1.5x, https:\/\/scontent.flhr3-2.fna.fbcdn.net\/v\/t1.0-9\/32015_410714011128_529614_n.jpg?oh=025c53e4c5111446dc087d3de6063e38&oe=5AE832BB 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1423,"url":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/2012\/09\/29\/nerd-days-and-september-stuff\/","url_meta":{"origin":154602,"position":5},"title":"Nerd days and September Stuff","author":"diana Stone","date":"September 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Another weekend and a couple of fairly well received gigs, both in Reading by coincidence. On Friday we were at the Global Cafe and on Sunday we were the closing act at a mini Blues festival held at the Ukrainian club. The festival was organized by the couple that run\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Delta Ladies&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Delta Ladies","link":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/category\/history\/whatever\/delta-ladies-whatever\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154602"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":154603,"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154602\/revisions\/154603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}