Good news - a lost email from the end of last year resurfaced, confirming a gig in Rome in two months' time.  Marie and Paula are both great Romophiles (?) so it'll be fun.

We got snowed in over the holiday season which was a great excuse not to do any work.  The snowman in the back garden is melting gradually, and is now only a pale shadow of his former self. 

I spoke to Mhairi Lawson tonight about a gig we have (not as ConCal though a few of the usual suspects will no doubt appear) in Newcastle in April, with the concertina player Alistair Anderson.  This will be another chance for me to play the fortepiano in a folky environment, which is always an adventure.  The strange thing is that it's usually the folkies who are worried about it beforehand - 'ooh I don't think we could do that' - whereas the classical people, who you'd expect to be more uptight and restrictive, are always the ones to muck in and say 'yeah, let's give it a go'.  As ever, once you actually get everyone in the room together and make some music, the distinctions fall away pretty quickly.