Beaters in hand, rhythm all around and utter joy in my heart. *That* is what I love about drumming with Batala. Tonight I didn't even feel I was particularly on form - a much smaller and lighter drum than usual felt quite different and I was also just a bit tired / distracted / out of practice - but the rush of drumming in such an awesome band was amazing. In my mind I have a snapshot moment of looking forward through the band to our awesome caller for tonight, as we played our second and final set in Garstang. The hoodies. The costumes. The smiles. The energy. The power. The DRUMMING.
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. My arrival to the gig had been somewhat more stressful than desirable given difficulties I had locating our meeting point but throughout that period my concern was that I was going to miss out on playing. The event was pretty good itself - lots of shops open, stalls out in the street, street organs and the like - but I didn't want to watch it all. I didn't want to be the recipient of something that was organised for my entertainment. I wanted to be IN it. Doing. And that's what I got to do. And it was ACE.
The contrast was made starker by being much more of a "watcher" this weekend, with a trip down to a Sunday Assembly in Manchester. It was somewhat of a research trip as there's a small team of us hoping to set up a Sunday Assembly in Lancaster - but it was also another amazing "clarity finder" to add to the list in 2013. The Sunday Assembly concept is that of a church-type set up, but without the religion. I've heard it called the atheist church - but it's not really that either. Whether you have a faith or not, the Sunday Assemblies provide a non-religious setting to spend some time with others from your local community, sing some songs, hear some addresses and have a cuppa after. And that was very much what we found on Sunday morning.
This was the second Manchester Sunday Assembly, and was held in the amazing Victoria Baths (more on them in a bit). There was clearly a strong organising team facilitating the smooth running of everything and the format was very much what I'd been anticipating from a Sunday Assembly. But left me very much being a watcher. Listening to what was being said but not necessarily actively engaging. There was something about it that left me wanting to have "done" more. And yet, thinking about it, I'm not sure how in the set up that I anticipated (and was party to) I would have done more. I love the idea of meeting and getting to know more people in my locale and this seemed the perfect medium. Maybe it still is. But there's a nagging feeling inside me that this may not be the magic pill I was looking for.
But the Victoria Baths. Oh. My. From first looking at their website I had a suspicion I'd fall in love with them and I absolutely did. Stunning glazed tiles. Classic Victorian architecture. A sense of solidity. And just so evocative of, well, another age, another way of living, another world. Rose tinted glasses and all but I was entranced. I shared a delightful moment with three folk sitting behind me when one commented that it was really rather odd sitting in the bottom of an empty swimming pool (the congregation was on chairs on the rake of the base of the pool, the presentation happening from "the deep end") to which my only response was "Hmm, somehow it doesn't feel odd to me. Maybe I've been in the bottom of an empty pool before..." And I think I have - but the memory I've managed to extract from my brain doesn't have the hallmarks of one where being in such an unusual position would just go down as "normal" in my books. Another mystery for another day.
At the end of the Assembly "proper" we were invited to have a look around the building and I pounced on the chance - and somehow managed to snare myself the Baths' representative who was there in a caretaking capacity as a personal guide. I saw the Turkish baths and a contraption that was one of the first jacuzzi type affairs and had an amazing "control panel" to regulate the temperature etc. which looked like it could launch rockets. I saw the other two pool halls - one of which had been covered over for some time and was used as a sports hall, the other which was the most likely contender to become an operational pool again in the nearest future (and had been proven to be water tight just a few months earlier). And I got the opportunity to gaze and gaze and gaze. WONDERFUL space.
(I even got to see the basement and walk around the sides of the pools from the bottom, and go to the room which had the filtering machines and the old laundry. I feel so lucky to have had such a comprehensive and yet totally unexpected tour of this wonderful old place.)
So it's already been a week of contrasts - and it's only Tuesday...
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