Tourist call that came good for troubadours...
YOU couldn’t make this up, and apart from restoring any faith you may have lost in human nature, it demonstrates that, like the TV dog, I’m more than lucky...
The day was pretty good from the outset, my Irish band, The Curragh Sons, were booked to play at Hawkshead Brewery in the English Lake District near Windermere. Yes, I know, it’s a hard life, and before you ask, yes, they could organise it!
We set off early, for a bit of red kite watching, or maybe even the odd golden eagle, both of which now breed in the Lakes, and I was also hoping to show the lads at least one red squirrel - a species still thriving in that neck of the woods - and perhaps a red deer or two. All this only two hours from Manchester.
Over a lunch of locally caught brown trout, and with the sun cracking the crags, it seemed foolish to drive home to Glossop after the gig, but with the Lakes being like Bethlehem at this time of year, it was proving difficult to find accommodation.
That was until I called the unsung heroes at Kendal Tourist Information, who told me of a cancellation at Maggs Howe Farm, Kentmere. For here began the magic.
“Oh don’t bother with a taxi, we’ll come and pick you up after you have finished playing,” said Christine Hevey, who runs the farm guest house and a camping barn for fourteen with her husband Paddy, a Dubliner. (Check out www.maggshowe.co.uk for further details.)
They picked us up at