They think it’s all over, it is now. The British tour finished in Edinburgh last night with a great audience as there has been everywhere we’ve played. Thirteen shows in a row and apart from nearly dying from food poisoning, Olivia losing her voice and turning into Marianne Faithfull, and the rain, it can only be put down as a great success. We could have done with more people at some of the venues but the reaction was so incredibly enthusiastic that we made the night our own anyway. We sold out of all of our vinyl and were left with a small number of CDs, we sold enough Marty & Olivia T-shirts to pay the bill and now have enough left over for anybody else that wants one anywhere in the world. Thank you to everyone that came to see us, we were truly humbled by your support and your reaction to our show.

I’d made it through after the drama of yesterday and after the show, I went upstairs for a cup of tea and a sit down before finding my way to bed. I had hardly eaten anything during the day. Boydie had found me some hummus and pita which I nibbled at just to put something in my stomach that wasn’t going to start a chain reaction. I was asleep in seconds and woke up quite early for me, I got up and decided to organise myself after the shutdown of the day before. I was still feeling under the weather but still had to prepare for the seven-hour trip back to Boydie’s in Bristol. Olivia was still coughing so when Boydie arrived back at the venue after visiting his mum who lives in Edinburgh we were battle-fatigued but ready to go. Getting sick on the road is the worst.

We stopped at a pharmacy on the way out of town and talked to two lovely ladies, one with a Scottish accent and apparently a German mum and the other with one of those lovely soft Scottish accents who was from the Orkney islands. We took the scenic route out of Edinburgh via Dolphinton, Elsrickle, Biggar, and Wandel, till we met up with the M74 where we took our life into our hands, tearing down the country with the articulated trucks spraying water onto the windscreen. The clouds were low and the rain came down, we were heading for the Farmshop at Tebay where we could get a decent meal on this long journey. We pulled over again a little later so Boydie could have a nap and I could do some writing whilst Olivia organised our latest challenge in Portugal (more on that later).

At six minutes to eight, I commented that we should soon be on stage, we’re now in the flow, my fingers are hard, I’m dealing with the thumbs, they don’t seem to be getting any worse, just don’t shake my hand too hard. But you have to stop unless you are Bob Dylan of course, who never stops. There are cities and venues we couldn’t fit in, Newcastle, Hebdon Bridge and in Scotland we talked about the possibilities of going to play in Inverness or even the Orkney islands, you never know, spread the word.