Turlough O'Carolan, in the Tent, with the Plastic Bag

So, there I was in one of our local charity shops. I took my purchase to the till, paid my money, and as the old lady went to get me a plastic bag, I said, "No thanks, I already have a bag," and indicated the little backpack I had brought with me.

"But I have to give you a bag," she told me.

"But we have a house full of bags and are trying to not get any more, which is why I brought my own bag with me."

"Well, I have to give you a bag. I think it's to do with advertising."

"You know I'm going to just put your bag inside the one I already have?"

She shrugged and gave me my purchase in a plastic bag, which I proceded to put into my pack. So what's all that about then? I thought we were all trying to reduce waste these days.

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Later on we were with friends playing Curse of the Pharaoh, a murder mystery game produced by Freeform Games, a firm co-run, as it turns out, by an old acquaintance of mine from a past life. This was lots of fun, more of a roleplaying game than the boxed murder mysteries that we had tried before, and I singularly failed to achieve any of my goals.

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And finally, last night I finally got to play at our local folk music session. This was terrifying for me: I only started playing harmonica early this year, which is the first musical instrument I have ever learnt to play, and the first session I went to was only a couple of months back (where I just sat and listened).

The regulars were very supportive and encouraging though, and soon it came to be my turn to start a tune. I said that I only knew two tunes and wasn't confident enough to lead either, so someone kindly started Miss McLeod's Reel for me and I tried to play along. It went more quickly than I was comfortable with, but I just about managed to keep going despite losing my way a few times. Whoa, that is a completely different experience to playing on my own — or with one other person, as I have done before.

By the time it was my turn again there were more people around, and I got nudged into starting my other tune, The Kesh Jig myself so it could go at a speed I was happy with. I pretty much fell apart during the first time through the tune, but after some encouraging noises from the others, I got going again and then suddenly just about everyone was playing along with me. This was awesome, and I felt so much more comfortable this time

Now it's time to learn a couple more tunes for next time. The other musicians were good enough to play The Butterfly, a slip jig which I'm now trying to learn, and I think The Boys of Bluehill is another good candidate for the list. We'll see how I get on...