I’m in my now ex-employer’s house, waiting for some workmen to come - I thought they’d be here before 11, but it’s going to be noon! Then I have a few errands to run, a doctor’s appointment at 5pm, and I have to fit in a trip to Askew Road to vote.

>>>* VOTE *<<<

Yes, vote. Even though I fear the results I have resigned myself to, I know how important it is to make my voice heard, even if I assume it won't influence the outcome. Every vote influences the outcome in a tiny way, I suppose, and that counts. I'll be in Belgium by the time the results come through... and then won't be back in the country for any stretch of time before January. I wonder what I'll come back to. I'm getting to the point where I just want to throw my hands up and wait for the Civil War, but hey. Every little helps, y'all.

Everything was sad & sweet yesterday, saying goodbye to R and her family at the airport. She really didn't make it easy - lunchtime was filled with "You're my BEST FRIEND..." and lots of cuddles, and... that's the worst part of the job. Leaving. Thankfully she's still a little young to really grasp that when she comes back from holiday, I won't be there every day. Hopefully it will slip away easily because of the break. She's been a joy to look after & I'm sad that I won't see her little brother grow.

But... onwards. Tomorrow morning I board a coach that'll take me to Belgium, and from there I think I will head to Munich. My pathetic German language skills will get an airing. My brain seems to switch into German when I hear foreign languages being spoken, as in the Netherlands earlier this year... but with a vocabulary of roughly three verbs and no remaining grasp of tenses, articles and so on, it should be FUN FUN FUN for everyone involved. Hopefully I will fare better in Vienna with the lovely Mela...

The last few days have been quite manic, landing at 8.30pm on Monday and heading to Judit's house in Hanwell. I managed to get an average 5 hour night (I don't sleep much at the best of times) having beaten jetlag by getting only 2.5 hours sleep the night before I left. If you're so tired you don't notice which time zone you're in, it makes it easier to fall asleep when you know you should! Between thunderstorms on departure and the scariest "hit the ground, bounce, tilt plane to 45 degrees and skid across runway sideways" landing I've ever had, I'm just grateful to be in one piece, albeit on the wrong side of the Atlantic.

Tuesday night I went to see the brilliant North Atlantic Oscillation who I discovered on a random gig night with Stephen last month (decide to go out that evening, scan listings, pick random band at venue you like). They’re like a little bit like Secret Machines, heavy Radiohead influences by the sound of it, I’m also informed they have a song which sounds like a Sigur Ros take-off, so… yeah. I mightily enjoyed seeing them on “Power Cut Night” which was also their album launch at The Lexington. They played an all day festival in Herne Hill the weekend before I left, so I tripped down to South London & caught another short set there as they were heading back up to Edinburgh that night. I collared the singer, Sam, who delivered a CD to my table and witnessed the last drunken-Clara escapade for some time (did I mention I’m now teetotal?). It must have been memorable as I ran into him on the way to the loo in Hoxton and he said, “Claire! What are you doing back here?” (jibber) and we had a brief chat before they played yet another short, short set. Those boys need to book the next morning off work when they play London, I tell you. I want more NAO for my money! Watch out for them at festivals over the summer.

There’s been plenty of good music in the past couple of weeks, including a trip to Cake Shop NYC on 25th April, a charming little venue celebrating it’s 5th Anniversary this month. We saw Girls in Trouble, who played as a quartet of Upright Bass, Accordion, Guitar/Glockenspiel and loop-pedal driven Violin singing songs about Women in Bible Stories (caps intentional). Alicia has a LOVELY voice which comes across so beautifully live, I was really rather taken with them and @Cathhh bought the album. They’d been booked as support by the power of Twitter by @cars_and_trains (www.carsandtrains.net) aka Tom from Portland OR, who started following me a while ago on what I assume was a publicity trawl, and I followed him RIGHT BACK, only to discover him having conversations with the lovely Jon (www.boyeatsdrummachine.com) which is either a pleasant coincidence, or further proof that the world does, indeed, revolve around me and my friends.

You heard me, underlings.

The following weekend on 1st May I caught Album Leaf at the Bowery Ballroom, which was both good and sad at the same time, slightly baffling as I think I prefer them on record by miles. The majority of the crowd left about 2/3 of the way through the set and poor, pretty Jimmy LaVelle was left playing “Always For You” to the last few hangers on, most of whom are probably like me and can only remember the name of that one track. It’s catchy. Hmm. We bailed before the second encore and caught the subway back to Astoria, where we’d ditched the car after lunch with Joshie.

….and that brings me back to last Monday’s flight and the fastest three day week I’ve ever had, which I should now continue by heading to the Launderette and the Polling Station and the Doctors and and and……….. *headdesk*

Judit drove me to the airport last thing on Thursday night as I’d decided that it might be safer to get to Heathrow as early as possible. 12.30am seemed reasonable when I thought of it, but the check in desk for American Airlines didn’t open til 5am and for a while, I wondered whether there was anywhere indoors to wait, as the departure section of the Terminal wasn’t open.

Earlier in the day we had jumped in her car & delivered the broken Tambourine that I found outside the gospel church to Amanda Palmer. I had tickets for Evelyn Evelyn at Koko (though Evelyn wasn’t there, she got stranded by the ash cloud) and Amanda had tweeted for a tambourine and kazoo earlier in the day. After getting everything packed, I remembered that Tiina and I were going to bake that night - so although I was ready to go to the concert, I ran inside the venue, spotted a man with a headset who turned out to be the manager, showed him the iPhone tweets and he kindly took the tambourine off somewhere. I don’t know if it reached Amanda, but I’m glad I got it there. Judit was an absolute star, putting up with my craziness, but it felt important for me to give something broken a new lease of life. It doesn’t matter if you’re dealing with a Godforsaken & ruined tambourine, it can still bring happiness.

Once I was at Heathrow, I found somewhere in arrivals to sit down & wait. And Wait. And Wait. At one point I fell asleep on the phone to Brad & woke up 30 minutes later to find he was still connected - all together now, aaaaahhh.

Anyway, I checked in fine, the computer skipped the part where I pay an extra charge for my extra bag, OR the overweight fee (24kg and 26kg, both over the 23kg limit). I was seated right at the back of the plane and alternated watching DVDs of Mad Men with catching 45 minute naps. No vegetarian meal for me - so I went hungry. Thankfully I had already eaten a flapjack so wasn’t starving - but really, what’s the point of having that field in the booking system if it doesn’t get processed? I was told that the pancakes were “probably” vegetarian (they weren’t the last time I flew American, had a bit of smoked ham under them) but then they gave away all the pancakes before they reached me anyway. Fail. I am to call customer services before I leave and make sure it’s logged in the system. I might ask for Vegan on the return flight just to be EXTRA awkward now. Whatcha gonna serve me that has no cheese? HMM?

Since I’ve been here, I’ve been cleaning Brad’s disgusting kitchen (we’re talking WITHNAILIAN STANDARDS here) and mostly sleeping - although the theory was that an 8am flight would make it easy for me to skip jetlag as I’d just be staying up late once I landed, getting no sleep in the 24 hours preceding it really wiped me out! I think in total, I slept for 17 hours and lost all of Friday - oh well!

On Saturday we went to the “National Wholesale Liquidators” which is across the street from Brad’s place. It sells everything - computers, homewares, clothing, food - sort of like a giant Tesco but with bankrupt stock only. I got a hairdryer, straighteners, and a million storage containers to stop the cockroaches getting into things like dried pasta (see?). Also happy to discover that the same Polish gherkins as you find in Shepherds Bush get imported here, they have a huge section of the same dried pulses you get in Indian shops in London, so I’ve stocked up on red lentils, millet, and some spices. Today we’re going out REAL grocery shopping and I’m going to cook the world’s largest vegetarian lasagna. I might also make my old bosses’ Chickpea and Leek soup, which is delicious and which I messed up in January last time I tried to cook it. You just need to let the leeks & garlic cook REALLY slowly, so there’s a job that’ll kill time when Brad’s at school tomorrow.

Tonight we’re seeing a gig by a guy from Portland called cars and trains who is playing at the Cake Shop, which I think will be my new favourite venue! Jason’s already found a Sunday night open mic and I’ll chat to Cath about it - 2 girls, a ukulele and a glockenspiel…?

I’m going to be 30 tomorrow.
Weird.