A weekend without equipment…

This weekend was full of excitement, busy, with episodes of déjà vu…

Friday night was my band’s last rehearsal prior to a 2 gigs back to back weekend. Rehearsals always fly by so quickly; especially when you want to finest couple of songs that are a bit messy prior to a show. I left rehearsal that night with a bit of anxiety and high blood pressure (mentally and not physically as I am healthy… well at least I think so– lol). We were tight on most of our material except maybe 2 songs. Mind you, out of 27 songs or so… it ain’t too bad.

Sat night @ MacGradies: We get to the bar about 1 hr prior to starting our first set. Shortly after we walk in with our gear, we find out that, although PA is provided, mics, stands and cords are not. The owner of the bar had no idea and we were all far from home; however, luck was on our side when my buddy Andy shows up and had all the equipment in the back of his car. Luckily, despite my anxiety, adrenaline got us through the show quite successfully. The show had a good turn out; we got people dancing and got asked again by the owner of the bar.

I got home hungry and shoved down a bunch of spelt ginger snap cookies with a glass of soy milk. That was my reward for the night… reward or not… that night… I only managed to sleep about 3 hours. I was up at 7:15 watching “Ratatouille” on DVD.

Sun night @ Slack’s: This one gig was an acoustic gig with a few friends in a songwriter circle format. An early one; 6-9 ish. An email had been sent to the owner of the pub earlier last week to confirm details such as PA, mics etc…; we were left without a response. Sunday comes… Disorganized as we are (not always, only every now and then); we try to reach management early afternoon and again are left without a response. It would be 100% correct to say that we should have attempted to reach out to them last week more than once. So, planning the worse case scenario (of no equipment) we start calling friends. I manage to reach a friend of mine who I know has played there before. I was thrilled to find out, again, that no equipment was provided apart from the PA… oooo “déjà vu”… This time, at least, we found out early enough; prior to leaving home. So, just enough time to turn around and bring our own equipment.

The night turned out pretty good, lots of new faces and a few friends which is always good. It’s great to have friends’ support but it’s great to have new people discover our music. My voice was a little hoarse which is bad vocal health wise but gave me a bit of an edge for one night only.

I got home early last night. Pet my cats for a bit and went straight to bed.

if you’re interested, you can check out my site: click here.

I also invite you to visit some of my co-performer songwriter friends: Laura, Kim and David.

Where Food & Passions meet Relaxation

Is there a publisher out there who’d let me write a comfy food vegetarian/non-vegetarian cooking book for people with/without IBS (wink wink)?

For over a decade (since my adolescence), I have been experiencing digestive issues (IBS). I will admit that it took me years to accept what I’m about to write but I can now honestly acknowledge that, in addition to some food intolerance, there is a stress component to my problem. I have tried many things to heal/cope with this condition such as; medication, digestive enzymes, food allergy tests, naturopath, food elimination process, various lifestyles (vegetarian, vegan, and omnivore), yoga and meditation (which are somewhat helpful), and I’m sure a few more that I just can’t think of on the spot.

**Disclaimer: please note that this blog allows me to share my thoughts, life experiences and culinary tastes. I am not a specialist by all mean and cannot provide you with recommendations. Should you have serious health concerns; talk to your Dr, a Naturopath, Dietician or whoever can assist you.

What’s worked for me I’m currently on a low dosage mood stabilizer, I take glutamine (1/3 of a tea spoon every day or so), I do yoga, lots of breathing exercises (I have learned to let my tummy relax) and I exercise regularly. I avoid products containing wheat and/or dairy. I also try to avoid rice including gluten free products which are mostly rice based (somehow, for me, it’s made a huge difference). I take a good multivitamin, calcium and B12 et voilà.
Q: I can already hear your question: What do you eat then? (which I get all the time)
A: Easy; Protein wise, I eat tofu, legumes, beans, eggs and soy milk (some people have issues with soy milk; I recommend that you look for a brand that contains no oil). Also, you may want to check these out: http://dietitians.ca/news/downloads/vege_guide(EN).PDF ; http://veg.ca/content/view/127/110/ . Apart from that, I eat vegetables and fruits (in moderation at least for me), the potato family (mmmm…), salad (again in moderation), and somehow I can consume some spelt products (as long as they do not contain any or the other products that I can’t have). I have also discovered recently that eaten in small quantities, oatmeal would appear to be well tolerated by my digestive system.

As you can see, I have covered pretty much all the food groups.
I will not get into my life story here but I thought I’d share ideas and ways that I found to cope with this irritable syndrome.