Last Updated on 29 April 2024 by gerry

Paddy’s night ended with a late meal in a restaurant across the road from the pub with Marta and a couple of her friends. It was a lovely feed and we were spoilt with a lift home to Arenys. Quite a late finish therefore heralded a lazy Saturday to gently recover. My friend Pep Massana from Igualada had arranged to travel all the way to Arenys for a face to face rehearsal for the next gig which was due to take place in Igualada on Fri 24 Mar 2023.<1–more–>

There was also the little matter of the conclusion of the six nations in which Ireland would face England knowing a victory would secure them the Grand Slam. That match was due to kickoff at around 6.30pm Catalan time. Pep arrived around 4pm and we got down to business of working through the songs planned for the set next Friday. It was to be a very different set compared to last night’s more mainstream Paddy’s day affair. About half of the dozen songs would be original compositions and it was exciting to learn that Pep had invited a drummer and bass player to join us. It was therefore important to tie down the order and chosen keys for the songs we would play.

Pep is a music teacher by profession and very efficient at this process naturally and we breezed through the rehearsal and said our goodbyes so that he could drive home in daylight. This left me comfortably in the zone for watching rugby and watching Ireland overcome their initial yips to secure the Grand Slam in devastating style in the end.