Tuesday. A long blow.

Late on Tuesday afternoon, Mick, a piper in the band and chiropracter had a look at my ankle. He quickly made a diagnosis and set to work. He very quickly relieved the pressure on my foot, and found the knots in my calf. He worked on the muscle, and had me wriggling in pain on the bed, but afterwards there was a freakin' tremendous difference in my ankle and foot! I managed to get the brogues on, and perform in much less pain, and the swelling went down a little bit over night. This morning I got some inserts for my shoes from foot locker, and my foot is continuing to improve... Mick has been worth his weight in gold on this trip, and has repaired many players, and done a great job on patching up Postie, who has most likely re-fractured his foot [but still managed to get through the band performances yesterday, having a well deserved rest for the Nuit Magique].

The band gathered together at 1745 for what turned out to be long string of performances. First up, we were due to play at 1900 at the Breton Pavillion. It turned out to be 1920 before we started, so we had plenty of time to tune up. After a 20 minute set there, we marched to the Australian pavillion where we started a one band parade through the city to another stage. We did a 15 minute stint there before marching all the way back, with a set to finish off. By the time we had finished, it was 2045.

It was a satisfying stint on the pipes, since I was enjoying the performance, and the crowd reaction was great. We had a few people follow us on the trip around town. The other pleasing factor was that we are only playing night magic performances from this point on each night. So we have a chance to catch up on some sleep, beer and recuperation.

After the peformances, we ate our packaged lunches in front of the bar in the university, and indulged in some well deserved beers and some bordeaux. After eating, it was time for another Niut Magique, which finished at about 0130 as usual. Since my foot was feeling a bit better after the performances, I went down to the bar with the guys for a couple of drinks before bed. All in all, a very good day.

The photo is one of the many bands that play outside the pubs in the festival. There is a wonderful constant stream of [mostly] celtic music everywhere you go in the centre of Lorient.