I’m knackered.  Yesterday I did 4 gigs in one day, singing my songs for staff and patients at Fulbourn mental health hospital and at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge.

I’d been invited by Kimberley Iyemere, Arts Therapies Professional Lead at the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT). The CPFT is unusual and wonderful in being committed to providing proper resources for music and arts therapy for their service users.

I turned up with my guitar and a speaker and sang my songs about my own lived experience. It is quite challenging but really rewarding doing mental health gigs. You never know quite what is going to happen or how people are going to react.

First I played in the fabulous music room, then on a ward for women with personality disorders, then at the Ida Darwin ward for teenagers where I met a young girl who had made me a lovely bracelet with my name on it and was learning to sing my song ‘Start Over Again’.

Then in the evening we headed to Addenbrookes Hospital where I performed for staff and patients from S3, the eating disorders unit. It was a great end to a very full-on day. I’m so glad I managed to get there through the snow.

A big thank you to Kimberley and her team for making me cups of tea and helping me lug my stuff around. I’ll be back in Cambridge for a gig at The Junction on Saturday 12 May.

The photos are of me with some of the lovely staff at Fulbourn Hospital – Dr Jorge Zimbron and Lee Davies, and Kimberley Iyemere.

I really enjoyed our warm-up gig on Saturday night which was a house concert in Camberwell, London.  Thanks to everyone who came – it was a really special night for us.  I’m looking forward now to the start of my UK tour this weekend at Dorchester Arts and The Hawth in Crawley.  If you’ve got tickets I’ll see you there.

xx

Back in the UK from Australia, jetlagged, we’re in shock at the sudden change in weather, light and surroundings. I guess it will take a bit of time to adjust. But today the sun is shining in Bath so all of a sudden things feel a lot better.

And I’m really looking forward to the start of my UK tour in a few weeks’ time. We’re playing Dorchester, Crawley, Wotton-under-Edge, Thames Ditton, Fareham, New Milton, Bromsgrove, Stockton-on-Tees, London, Manchester, Sheffield, Cricklade, Penzance, Worth Matravers, Bath, Cambridge, Penarth, Milton Keynes, Southampton, Barnoldswick, York, Carlisle, Biddulph, Crail, Glasgow and Newcastle.

This may be the last time in a while we’ll be touring the UK so please spread the word among your family and friends – all support very welcome. Dates and ticket links are on my gigs page.

I hope all’s well in your world. Thanks so much for your support.

xx

It’s boiling hot and all I can hear is the buzzing of the flies, strange-sounding birds and the cicadas. I’m on the verandah of the main house at Coolabine Farmstead. Coolabine means place of koalas, though I’ve never seen one here.

The view is stunning. Rolling hills and trees as far as the eye can see. It rained last night so everything is impossibly green. The goats are sheltering from the sun and waiting for their afternoon feed.

Our shack is unrecognizable – only the roof remains. The bora ants ate all the tree trunks that used to support it so Christian’s brother has rebuilt it. Gone are the potato sack walls. My yurt is still standing, filled up with boxes of our stuff and other junk. The tattered prayer flags flutter in the wind.

Yesterday we went swimming in a big waterhole down the road and had a picnic in the rain. I’ve seen a goanna and some kangaroos but I haven’t seen a snake yet. A spider got into bed with us the other night but thankfully it wasn’t the huge spider that’s been hanging out over the door.

We cleaned the cheese-room and made some feta and halloumi which was delicious. On Christmas Day I finished a new song. Next week we’re off to Melbourne to see Christian’s sister then back here to start vocal recordings for the next album.

I hope you had a lovely Christmas wherever you are. Wishing you all very happy new year and I’ll see you in 2018.

xx

Thanks to everyone who came to my last gig of 2017 at The George Hotel in South Molton last night.  It was a great way to end a great year.  If you’re on my mailing list I’ll keep you posted on what happens next…

Waiting to go on at The George