(NOT) Dealing with loss

I am struggling, this is a fact.

Its been 10 weeks since my baby brother, Werner, was taken away from us.  I cry every day, I need to find solace, I need to accept, I need the hurt to stop.  But I don't want to stop feeling, I don't ever want to forget what he means to us.

Another fact, Life is HARSH and mine is incomplete.... 

8 years since Snow Patrol gig

Gosh how time flies, I cannot believe its been 8 years since that wonderful day.  I still cringe when I think about my stage appearance and how I made a tit of myself in front of thousands.  I had so many inspirational things to say and people to thank and what happened???  I lost the ability to speak and giggled like a school girl.

But most of all......I missed my chance to stage dive!

https://myspace.com/andyeathorne/video/filming-snow-patrols-thank-yous/1904023

A brief glimpse (of me) in a documentary

Charity Gig Announced!

Well its a new year and time for my annual charity gig again.  This year featuring the amazing Robert Vincent and his band.  Details can be found below:

Bob The Builder Cake

Contacted last minute for a Bob the Builder cake to wow a 3 year old.  To be honest I feel a bit out of my depth with kids cakes as its been a long time since mine were small and I feel a bit out of the loop.  It is far easier to make pretty girls cakes with lovely flowers.

Figure is gumpaste with a rice krispie head and the digger is mostly rice krispie treats covered in fondant.

Always good to see a happy customer!

Rob supporting Madeleine Peyroux @ Royal Philharmonic Hall Liverpool

Found out in the afternoon that Rob had been given a last minute support slot at the Philharmonic.  I  had heard of Madeleine Peryoux but jazz isn't really my thing but still I thought it would be good for Rob.

Nightmare journey with unreliable sat nav, but luckily made it in time and when I got there Rob was waiting with a car parking pass for me.  I made my way to merch desk and set up just in time to get inside to see the performance.  Staff pointed me to the house seats.  Rob was awesome again tonight.

After the gig bumped into Peter and Irina, who seem to have become regulars these days.

It was lovely to see the local crowd flock to the desk to talk to Rob and buy some albums.

Posing with some keyring bottle openers.

After the gig we tried to find the person in charge to pay our share of the merch commission but he was nowhere to be seen.  We decided to go for a drink with the Dobsons at the Philharmonic Pub.  All of Madeleine's band were there and the lady herself.

She was quite lovely and very down to earth.  Rob gave her an album before she left and called her over for a picture.  I tried to convince her to sit on Rob's but she said she might break it!  I have a few pics with silly faces but this is a better one courtesy of Peter.

San Francisco - the start of our roadtrip

Well the time for our holiday has finally arrived. We chose San Francisco to fly in to as it was not that far from Sacramento and Lake Tahoe and we wanted to revisit a few things.

By the time we landed and collected our car it had gone 5pm and now we had to find our way to the hotel in peak hour traffic. Luckily between us we more or less remembered where to go.

We checked into same hotel as two years ago and freshened up and got ready for to repeat one of our culinary highlights of the last holiday. Circa, well we were not disappointed this time.

The starters were ginormous! I had the Shrimp Scampi which was spicy sausage and shrimp with tonnes of garlic bread.

And Phil had the Baked Camembert, which were both simply delicious!

Phil's main was a lime marinated skirt steak and it was as delicious as he remembered.

I had stuffed chicken which was served with very very rich truffle mac and cheese with lobster.  I got a take out as it was all too much to eat.

We got talking to a lovely couple who were visiting San Fran for the first time.  It was then time for pudding a dessert we were both looking forward to very much.  Last time we shared one this time we had one each.  Black and White JD Bread pudding with Pecans and Caramel sauce.  We left stuffed again!