Hi Everyone,

I'm such a poor 21st century candidate, I haven't done a blog, a tweet or even taken a picture of my pet dog for anyone that might be interested.  Please accept my apologies.  I know I need to catch up on a few things.  First of all thank you for all my birthday cards and wishes back in September.  I received and read them all and I was so touched by the effort and time you put into them. 

Since September, things have been pretty crazy leading up to the studio time and it's now been two weeks since we started recording.  It’s been suggested that I take small snaps of pictures while we're in the studio- (as William does) - as a way of staying in touch. I think I'll try it.  Otherwise it's so easy to go underground and stay hidden in the recordings.   For some reason the studio we're in and the way the control room and the live room are set out really remind me of the Star Trek Enterprise Star ships.  I keep picturing us flying through space and time!

I don't want to talk too much about the album as you'll hear it soon enough but one thing I'm working on at the moment is a song which has so many words but no breathing space and I am totally adamant not to cheat with protools so just now I've been practising getting my lung capacity to be bigger and get through a whole verse with just one breath.  I'm not too far, there are ten lines and I can do seven so far.  I'll let you know how I manage! 

Ironically I had a small incident with air supply last Saturday.  Mike (@Mike_Batt) tweeted about me nearly drowning. I told him about my little "episode" the other day in the studio cafe, when he came to visit and see how it was all going.   The incident was all my own fault. What kind of nutter goes scuba diving in December in a lake near Heathrow airport?  I did! You see, I'm really keen to get my drysuit diving qualification done. For those of you who don’t know about diving - people usually dive with a wet suit, which is just like skin. It keeps you warm but you get wet.  With a dry suit you stay totally dry, and they're useful in extreme cold waters.  I want to qualify as a drysuit diver so I can fulfil my longtime wish of diving in the Arctic or Antarctic Circle and see penguins, whales and ice!  

So there I was last weekend shlugging my airtank, BCD and the heaviest rubber suit you've ever seen!  One thing I forgot to mention is that your neck is where the drysuit ends so it has to be super tight round you neck.   My neck was so small they had to add a rubber band round the opening to make it extra tight!  Getting to the water was both ecstatic because the gear becomes much lighter,  and horrifying cause the water is 7 degrees.  We swam out to the middle of the lake and when we first descended I was shocked by the icy water hitting my head; it felt like the North Pole in my brain.  We reached the bottom which was luckily only 15 meters down. 

Once there, we were practising standard procedure, taking out the regulator from your mouth (your air supply) and replacing it.  I don't know what happened, I think I was stressed by the cold, the tight rubber ring round my throat plus the visibility was very poor  - the water was pitch black - so I wasn't concentrating.  When I tried to replace my regulator I didn't do it properly, so I breathed in and choked on a lungful of water.  I tried to stay calm and clear the regulator but I kept choking on water. Because of the pressure, the force and speed at which the water invaded my mouth was such a shock.  I did start to panic, especially as you can't go to the surface because of the bends.  It was the first time (out of 40 or so dives that I've done) that I had to pull the "out of air" hand signal.  Luckily my teacher was right there helping me through my sorry state of horror.  She replaced the regulator in my mouth and I managed to summon up the strength to breathe out any tiny bubbles of air to clear the water out of the regulator  and when I next inhaled I finally had some air!  Looking back at it now I was such an idiot! There's a button on the regulator that clears the water and it's probably what my teacher used to help me, as well as having it properly in my mouth. I really hope this hasn't put anyone off diving, it's still one of my favourite things in the world to do and I’d recommend it to anyone.
   
Hope you are well, wherever you are. I’ll try to get some pics and more frequent blogs going from now on!

The new album is scheduled for next May, so we have a busy time ahead.

All the best,
 
Katie

We finally went to Georgia. I played my first solo shows there - it was
over so quickly I didn't even get a chance to swim in the Black Sea or
eat corn on the cob on the beach!

I've spent most my life in England trying to describe Georgia, and
really if I could use one word it would have to be that Georgia is
dramatic! The people are very dramatic, aided by the gutteral language,
which always makes me sound like I'm having a world war 3 argument with
my mum on the phone, when in fact we might be discussing dinner plans!

I knew this trip was going to be dramatic when our plane was followed by
the most exotic thunder storm which I could see in the distance. We
landed in Tbilisi at 4am, and even at that time of night we were
embraced by the warm air. The band went off to their hotel and I went
to spend the night at my grandparents. The street I grew up on used to
be a quiet, tree lined street, now my grandparents place is the only one
storey house left.

I was delirious and delighted to see them, so after a quick cup of tea I
was sent to bed by my fussing gran to make sure I got enough rest for
the next day. In the morning the worst thing happened. I've been
waiting to do this gig for five years and I wake up with a tickle in my
throat, I tell myself it's just a bit of nerves and I'll be fine by the
evening.

The day passed in a crazy cocktail of press conference, proud and
anxious relatives, other Georgians claiming to be relatives, and a trip
to see the Minister of Culture after the soundcheck. When it finally
came to show time I couldn't believe I was there, in the grand,
beautiful Opera House. During the set I sang a couple of Georgian songs
which went down really well. From the stage I could see my first
singing teacher from when I was seven. We played a great gig and after
the show we got on our bus to drive to the seaside town of Batumi.
Halfway through the drive I looked around me and saw that most of the
band and crew had white faces and big eyes staring at the road. I
remember that the rules of driving in Georgia are somewhat different to
Europe, there's no fear of overtaking on a one lane road - whether it's
a corner or a cliff - no fear even without street lamps on a pitch black
night, in fact no fear at all!

As expected we arrived safe and sound after seven hours (my uncle has
done it in five in the past).

The gig in Batumi went really well too, we had a small issue of live
electricity on stage and I was told not to touch anything but no one got
electrocuted - and despite the electric thunder storm at an outside gig
8000 people showed up!

If I can talk the band into it I'd love to go back and play there again.
 
Sadly the two gigs in Georgia completely knackered my voice out and the
next morning I woke up with no voice at all. This was why we had to
cancel the gig in Mainz, I am so sorry for those of you who bought
tickets and were looking forward to the gig, there was just no way that
I could sing. So on doctors orders we decided to pull the show. I hate
canceling gigs and I hope to be back in the future.

All the best

Katie x