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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