Vin's Update

Great start to the trip, apart from the problems that you have already read about.

The full band has now turned up as you can see from the photo on the left, I'm ashamed to say I really should have bought my own newspaper and the next frame would have shown you the purple lady's handbag hitting Stan in the face! Apart from teaching lanquages, Alex is a part time deodorant salesman and green activist!

We rode the MTR, Mass Transit Railway around the island getting off in the middle of town and wandered up and down the length of Orchard Road. Lunch at the Asian Food Court should have been uneventful, I ordered a Murtabak which is like a stuffed Paratha unfortunately Stan got the pronunciation wrong they brought him a motorbike in a Tikka Masala sauce. Here you can see Stan giving me instructions on how to complete the new Rubix map of Singapore, if you can put it back to it's original form, you get a free weeks holiday in Jakarta!

We joined Alex and his friends at a local curry Bar called Sam's, to celebrate Clare and Penny's birthdays, all the meals were served up on huge Banana leaves, the ambulance had to be called because Stan choked on his Banana leaf which no body else ate! Our fingers are crossed that British Airways have not E Mailed ahead to tell them to charge us another 40 pounds per guitar excess baggage as we fly off to Melbourne.

Tanglin Trust School Singapore & The Col Bar

On The Road To Singapore

We arrived after a short and uneventful flight one hour door to door with Air Asia, we even managed to have a quick snack mid flight of coffee and Chicken Masala. We jumped on board a taxi and headed straight to the venue at Tanglin Trust School where Alex Bosch our Catalan host was waiting to meet us.

The last time I was here in 1966, Singapore was a very different, it's fair to say I hardly recognised the place. I let you know my thoughts once we have had a good look around the island.

I'm delighted to say we had yet another great concert last night, much more intimate and less formal than in KL. It was a small theatre in the school with a mixed audience, quite a few had never heard Vin before but as always there were a fair number of loyal fans who turned up. Annoyingly Vin kept telling the audience I was lying about my surname and that my real name was Stan Dandyliver! Vin's set was different from the previous night and he had a number of requests which he managed to slip in. A lady mentioned to Vin that he had a much fuller head of hair than the last time she saw him, at which point he removed a handful of the noodles from the previous nights meal in Kuala Lumpur!

We were delighted to find an old friend of Martyn Wyndham-Read's in the audience called Brian Mooney, apparently he played with Martyn on a number of occasions in Australia many years ago, he invited us to join them at a late night session at the Col Bar, this well known establishment was originally an unofficial other ranks mess for the British Army back in the 60s on Ayer Rahja Road. I lived and worked in Gillman Barracks at the other end of Ayer Rahja Road, despite this I still have no idea where we are. What a great way to relax, an ice cold Tiger Beer, Vin playing whistle and lots of great music, including a young chinese lad with a double bass, who just happened to be passing by.

Today's adventure will be posted a bit later, so keep logged in.

Yours.

Stan & Vin.

Relaxing in Kuala Lumpur

A huge thank you to our hosts in Kuala Lumpur, Amanda and Mike who looked after us so superbly, it was a pleasure meeting you and staying in your wonderful home. Thank you so much for organising a brillient concert, the food, the sound the atmosphere and the company could not have been bettered. Vin was in top form and thank you all for lightening our load by taking so many CDs off our hands. We now head south to Singapore and another concert tonight at the Tanglin Trust School.

Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

Well at long last we are in possession of our cases, have a clean set of clothes to change into and have the first gig under our belts.

We are in the veritable lap of luxury in the Hilton, the rooms are palatial as was the concert venue. With an audience of over 110, a superb pie and mash meal to start the evening off, followed by wine, music and song.

I started the evening off with a few songs, the audience were with us from the very first chord and the evening just got better as it progressed.

Vin was in great form and as you would expect had the place rocking with laughter with a few short minutes of stepping on stage. His ad libs were brilliant and included quite a lot of off the cuff and quite hilarious comments and plays on words from our wandering around Kuala Lumpur. He is just so sharp when it comes to being observant and creating a vein of humour out of almost nothing. Another triumph, no doubt the first of many. We sold lots of CD's which is a god send as we both needed to lighten the weight in our cases.

Internet connection over here is sometimes best described as variable, which makes it difficult to log on when you want to, so please be patient with us, I expect things may be the same in some areas of Australia.

We have manged to have few adventures in the local if somewhat dodgy areas in and around the city centre, Vin loves to sample the local food and breath the local air, this side of our journey is interesting as is the food we chose. A hunt for empty CD cases proved fruitless, they don't exsist here but we did eventually manage to find enough to package Vin's CDs.

Kuala Lumpur is a mix of the old and new, we joined our hosts last night at their office Chinese New Year party, the year of the Tiger. We ate in a sea food restaurant, one side of the wall when you walked in was filled with dozens of fish tanks full of Lobster, Prawn and every other type of live fish you could ever imagine, your selection was cooked and brought to the table within minutes. Vin had to be restrained from donning his snorkle and flippers in an effort to get at the sick squid that they owed him! I've never seen anthing quite like it, even on my travels. The group was a wide ranging mix of all the races in the city, Chinese, Indian, Malay and of course Ex Pats.

After a considerable number of courses, we cranked up the Karaoke and almost everone including Mike our host got up to sing, it was just a magical evening, Malaysia is as fine an example of successful multi racialism as you'll find on the planet!

The highlight, apart from the singing, was the ritual throwing of the noodles up in the air with chop sticks making as much mess on the table as possible, oddly Vin said he felt right at home! Hope fully this brings everyone good luck for the coming year.

I don't think we could have had a better start to Vin's world tour, wonderful hosts, interesting city, a bit of adventure, lost luggage, great concert, lots of fantastic people to meet and who, without exception made us feel so welcome and special.

Tomorrow we set off for Singapore and a gig in the Tanglin Trust School, I was there in 1966/67 when it was military camp, if I remember rightly we almost blew it up one day when we were on excerise, so it will be interesting to see how it has changed. The numbers are looking quite promising, with 50 seats already booked and more promised by the time we arrive.

I have managed to forget my E Mail password so it has been difficult logging on the read my E Mails, old age takes it toll!

That's all Folks, speak to you soon.

Stan & Vin.

Arrived Safely a Day Late In Singapore

Who would have thought it would be so difficult to get out of the UK?

Not the best of starts. After Julie and Pat dropped us off at Newcastle Airport we had what could be described as a bit of bother with BA, derspite vallient efforts to sweet talk the staff, plead poverty, break down in tears we had to fork out an extra 40 quid each to get our guitars out to Singapore. Having sorted out this annoying problem, we were delayed by the snow on the runway for about three hours at Newcastle, missing our connecting flight at Heathrow.

We spent a pleasant evening at the Rennaisence Hotel curtesy of BA, the rooms were quite plush, so they should be at 230 pounds a night. We had a midnight feast of cheese sandwiches and chips, that's all that was on offer, before heading off for a good nights sleep. The flight out left at 1100am and we landed here in Singapore at 9 am Tuesday 23rd.

The Changi Airport is immaculate, the staff are extremely efficient and the sun is shining, nothing like my first visit here in 1966, it was abit rough and ready then, no security, no immigration, dirty floors. Overall things are definately looking up, our flight to Kuala Lumpur is at 1250 and should take just over an hour. Of course your all still fast asleep at home so we have a bit of catching up to do when we arrive at KL.

Keep checking the page out, more to follow.

Where And When

Just to give you some idea of the distance we will be covering and the places where you will find us, here is Vin's gig list;

February 25th - The Hilton Hotel Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

February 26 - Tanglin Trust School Singapore

March 1 - Arrive Melbourne

March 5-7 - Port Fairy Festival

March 8 - Burke and Wills Winery Mia Mia

March 11 - Eaglemont Melbourne

March 13 - Brunswick Music Festival

March 14 - Burke & Wills Winery

March 17 - Brookfield Vinyard Hobart

March 18 - RLC Folk Club Port Noralunga Adelaide

March 20 - South Australia Folk Centre Adelaide

March 21 - Alice Springs

March 24 - Darwin

March 26 - Montville Hall Brisbane

March 27 - The Old Museum Studio Brisane Bowen Hills

March 30 - Katoomba The Clarenden

April 1-6 - National Festival Canberra

April 7 - Sydney

April 9-11 - Fairbridge Festival

14 April The Fly By Night Freemantle

Well that's it, if you know anyone out there in OZ, tell them to come and say hello.

Time To Swat up on a bit of history.

It is the driest, flattest,hottest, most infertile and climatically aggressive of all the inhabited continents and still Australia teems with life - a large portion of it quite deadly. Australia has been things that can kill you in a very nasty way than anywhere else. Bill Bryson from his book "Down Under" He goes on to say; The people are cheerful, extrovert, quick-witted and unfailingly obliging: their cities are safe and clean and nearly always built on water: the food is excellent; the beer is cold and the sun nearly always shines. Life does not get much better than this, lets go Vin.

I have suddenly realised that in seven days we will be heading off to the other side of the world, to a country I've known existed about all my life but know very little about. How about you? Any authorities on Australia out there?

Our first port of call on the 1st march will be Melbourne and we will be staying in a charming sounding place called Mia Mia, more to the point it's wine country and our Host owns a Vin-yard.

Will I need my old school cricket bat and pads?

On The 21st February Vin Garbutt is heading "Down Under" to follow in Captains Cook footsteps and Re Discover Australia accompanied by York Singer/Songwriter Stan Graham. The tour will start off in Kuala Lumpur the capitol of Malasia, followed by a special gig in Singapore, before heading on to Aus where he will guest at all the Major Festivals and a considerable number of clubs across the length and breath of the country. This promises to be a very special tour which, as I'm sure you would expect, will produce many hillarious and memorable moments. We would like to invite you to join us as we discover the delights of Australian music and hospitality, all you have to do is keep in touch with this Blog which will be posted at appropriate points along the journey. Please tell your friends and all of Vin's fans!