Somehow my late night put me back into Edinburgh mode. Sleep at 4 or 5 and then back up at 10.30. That's how to live. I had tasks I wanted to accomplish. I went over and picked up my post-Edinburgh laundry from my ex-girlfriend's place (they are so very kind to continue to launder me) and had a bit of a chat about the progress of the week. Then I grabbed some lunch on the way to B&Q where I bought the paint I was planning to use, along with some rollers etc. I also bought the lights I'll be fitting to my kitchen when the time is right. I spent a fair bit of money.

I should just throw a quick aside in. My kitchen/bathroom project is running slow. The plasterer hadn't finished. This turns out to be due to the fact that, in the heavy rain we had the day he was plastering, there was water running down some of the walls. To add to this, I found some penetrating salts in some of the plasterwork he did. I can only imagine that that's not good... oh, and some of the plaster also hasn't dried - that's probably not good either. Great!

However, the bathroom bit of the project looked to be a goer, having dried and EVERYTHING. I planned to paint this up over the weekend, perhaps to completely painted (where it will be painted) from an initial primer coat, through two coats of bathroom paint. I also wanted to repaint my shower room, which has taken a bit of a beating to its initial paint job, which was done before the shower was installed. That was the aim of buying my B&Q things.

On the way back from B&Q I pondered my recordings and wondered if I couldn't buy a suitable microphone for recording my guitar. So far my guitar recordings have been fairly poor and a good microphone would help. Off I went to my favourite music shop with a budget in mind. I ended up first playing on one of their pianos, which was very nice indeed, reminding me of my nice electric piano - now a resident of my sister's house. Eventually, I stopped playing an instrument I've no room to store, let alone money enough to buy, and I went to talk about microphones.

Somehow, a compromise was struck on price, shape and functionality of the microphone. I ended up with a device that could capably record my guitar, but which would also serve me very well indeed for a vocal microphone. Result. My vocal mic isn't that good either. Or at least it wasn't. Now I've got a beauty of a microphone.

Back at home, the DIY stuff was ditched and I started making more music. The microphone was very useful indeed. I was inspired.

I recorded the vocal track for the song which I'd made the piano part for. I then started work on another song. I enjoyed myself so much that I went on to record two of my comedy songs. One song has only been performed on stage about 4 times and I was uncertain about it. However, I was keen to give it the works. It came out rather well, I think. The other comedy song is a firm favourite of my stand-up set. A visit to AshleyFrieze.co.uk will furnish you with copies of these recordings.

I had been worried about disturbing my next door neighbours with my caterwauling. I had heard no banging on the adjoining wall and decided that I simply would trust the thick brickwork to keep them protected from me. What I hadn't quite banked on was the fact that I was doing my recording in a well lit room with no curtains. I looked out of the window, mid song, to find a window full of spectators in the opposite house. All their multitudinous children had flocked to see me, headphones on, posturing and mock-conducting myself in mid air, as I blasted notes into my new microphone.

I waved.

They kept watching a while. It should have been obvious to them that I was up to no harm, given that I was surrounded by instruments and fully clothed.

I went to bed with four songs recorded and some ideas for a fifth.