Heart & Skill was really good - thanks... I enjoyed playing drums again in God's service btw. It was difficult learning 12-13 songs the week beforehand and practicing to get my drum coordination back within a week, but on the day the playing went really well. What went even better was the teaching, the band dynamics panel and the two afternoon workshops. There were 120+ people there, not just from Scotland but also Cumbria and Tyneside (keen!). 18 of them were in my drum workshop and a similar number in the rhythm section workshop. Calum had emailed me beforehand with some suggestions based on his previous drum workshops, so i had a good session prepared. Jesse (from Riverside) and Nathan (from Hull / Vineyard Music UK) were the guitarist and bassist, and we really gelled together in the rhythm section, it was very well received by the hungry shivering Scots in this damp church basement with a 1-bar gas heater, we almost could forget our cold and discomfort ( heheh!)

Highlight of the whole weekend for me was the end of our evening worship set, where we found ourselves playing a long fade from the final song, and ending up just me and Jesse playing very quietly for about 8-10 minutes, while Matt prayed and eventually everybody just knelt down or stood very still as we were all experiencing the presence of God.

So that was Heart & Skill, thankfully a good experience all round. The kit itself was a shocker btw. but thankfully I had managed to smuggle enough of my own cymbals and handluggage full of clamps, stands, pedal, etc aboard EZJet, that (give or take half an hour's tuning) it sounded reeeeeasonably OK..ish..sort of.. by the end. Still, they did confiscate one of my pairs of drumsticks at the airport for being too sharp. hmmm

I did manage to buy a proper haggis while i was there, and am now looking forward to cooking it with the de rigeur 'neeps & tatties' for my housemates tomorrow night.

Only 3 days til me & JR go conquer Scandinavia...