Recently the temperatures have soared to high-twenties/low-thirties everyday, relentlessly. In the next week they are predicting mid/high thirties everyday. Wow, this will be a scorcher of a festival.

What’s going on for the next week:

After the box office opened a few weeks ago I secured myself 2 Melody Gardot tickets (one for me, one for Ed) and 1 Tony Bennett & Herbie Hancock ticket. Both concerts promise to be fantastic.

On top of the bought tickets, there is free music everyday in the 2 main piazzas and various resident bands in restaurants and bars. Not all are officially on the Umbria Jazz program so i have to look out for facebook events and fliers. There’s  a few places doing late night jam sessions. Fun!

Can’t wait until it all kicks off tomorrow!

Dan called just a little while ago. He’s having an amazing time. He’s still working a lot (as always) but is also doing other amazing things. Like jamming with Katie Noonan’s brother. OMGWTF. Ridiculous.

I booked my plane ticket home yesterday. It’s real that I have to leave, now. But its still over four months away and these four months are going to be incredible. I can just feel it. Well, if the last 2 months are anything to go by, anyway!

Karaoke went better than last week. Firstly, I wasn’t sick and secondly a fair few people came as well. As usual Vasile (my boss) was pissed that there wasn’t more in the till. They’re talking about trying to keep Rockcastle open til 5am. Apparantly this would make a huge difference in terms of making money.

All the foreign students in Perugia have left everything behind and arrived with only themselves and several suitcases. They don’t have their safety network of friends, or family commitments like they would back home. This can be quite delightful, as, if you ask someone what they are doing that evening and whether they would like to go out for dinner/go out to a bar/have dinner at your house, most of the time the answer will be “Yes”! Therefore a lot of socialising happens. The fact that most apartments are cold, cramped or uninteresting is probably part of this too.

I, personally have found that almost everyone I meet, I can get along with and happily spend time with. My theory on this is that we’re all here for the same reasons and often have similar interests and motivations.

Perugia has been described as a “pressure cooker”. This description is right on the mark. Everything seems more intense, or distilled. The writer was talking about intimate relationships at the time but I think this description also applies to friendships and other experiences here. I can put some of my favourite music on my ipod, walk through these streets and even on a dull day its seems more alive and the music seems more meaningful. It gives me those excited little stomach flips.

Right now I am in good spirits as this week or so has been rather eventful.

Sunday night (14/02) Andreas and I decided to meet for aperitivo and perhaps shisha a bit later. I arrived slightly before him at Shamrock Irish Bar.  He arrived and we greeted and he said “I have a bit of a strange proposition, or, request for you”. I prepared myself. “How would you like to help with Karaoke at RockCastle on Mondays. Basically, you sing when other people aren’t singing, you help people choose their songs, help them get their microphones, get a little tipsy and talk to people. Oh and you get paid and you get free drinks”. Well, I didn’t know what to say except “Yes” it was possibly the most perfect job ever offered to me in my entire life, and I didn’t even ask for it! He continued “Yeah the girl I had backed out and I needed someone else who could sing to do it”. Aw, and he comes with flattery too! So the next night, I arrive at Rockcastle bright and early at 10.30pm and meet the DJ, Rudy. He seems like a nice guy and he’s a great singer. It turned out to be a great night. It was exactly as Andreas had explained. I was so happy with how it went I helped sweep the bar afterwards! I also got paid 30 euro for less than 4 hours work.