The trick seems to be to ask the universe the calls are starting to come, and I'm holding fast to taking risks and saying no to what doesn't stir me..anyone with advice or suggestions, please feel free! That skin that I was putting back in is fitting pretty well so far..

This is totally self-indulgent, but also a nice space to log what I'm doing drum-wise, and keep me on track if I drift... Right now, I'm smiling - five years ago, I stopped full-time self-employment teaching West African drums, to work in a school and hold down the mortgage while my partner stepped out into his own bliss. Made redundant a month ago, finishing end of June - and feel like I'm putting back my own skin So this is the Easter break, and I'm going through all the notation, recordings and notes I have on my computer, reminding myself of stuff I've not looked at for far too long, and remembering who I really am.

Have booked myself in for a weekend in May with Seckou Keita, to play dunun for friends' workshops at Drum Camp, and am figuring out how I can get back into enough work to get me to Mali within the next 18 months - went to Sangbarala with Famoudou Konate a couple of years ago, but...

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