The things I do for the Pigeons...

This has definitely been one of the busiest weeks of my life, and it hasn’t even finished yet! I would also like to point out that this is one of the first blogs I have don’t and not felt guilty for wasting time not studying. But fortunately I have no work for over a week and I finished my last of 7 exams no long than an hour ago!

Which brings me to the point of this post- I am on a train somewhere between Bristol and Taunton now- and yet I finished a thermodynamics paper about an hour ago. I would ALSO like to point out that Bath University is perched on a hill 2 and a half miles away from the city station. I would ALSO like to point out that rush hour in Bath started about an hour ago.

So here is the background information. On top of studying for 7 chemistry exams in the last few weeks, I have been preparing for the wondrous musical showcase that is The Room Upstairs 2. In the show, I feature as the lead in Ricky and the Pigeons, the lead in Battery Powered and also as a solo jazz act. It’s a lot to prepare for.
I didn’t feel like I could properly practice my singing at University, because certain polite standards go along the lines of “the walls are thin, people are trying to study”.

So that was the first dilemma. I couldn’t practice. This was made worse by the fact that there was no realistic opportunity to practice until the show itself! I then heard that there was some kind of warm-up gig to the room upstairs called ‘the night before’. This seemed perfect to me, because I got to practice and see Sophie at the same time. And of course get a celebration beer.
Unfortunately for me, this involved getting a train at 18:05. Where is the problem? Ah yes, my exam finished at 17:35. Hmm.

Thanks to Phil Murphy, I had some help. He waited outside my exam at the bus stop with my pre-packed luggage and gave me some precious few minutes to spare. So I ran into the bus and waited. When we moved off, I was clock-watching all the way. Once we got to the end of Norwood avenue, I was like ‘for f***s sake’.

It was queued all the way down the hill. So despite the fact I had paid the fare into the city, I made an educated snap decision- and jumped out of the bus. (with the drivers permission)

I proceeded to speed down Widcome hill, carrying my case, bag and laptop bag. That’s right. I ran 2 miles carrying a whole bunch of stuff just to catch a train to be at the night before. Only a few things were going through my mind at the time:

• Just think- you’ll get to see Sophie for longer
• I’m so glad I’m not carrying a keyboard (that was part of the original plan)
• I’d better get a beer for this
• I’m so glad ‘Big Pete’ fixed my back or this would be impossible!

Well, as you know, I made it, in the end by 7 minutes. Shows what people go through when they hear the words PIGEONS ASSEMBLE.