Performing to an audience can be a very relaxing experience. How so? Surely the process of getting ready to perform is scary and exhilarating? Well, yes, but once you hit the stage and actually relax into the doing of it, it can be more soothing than just sitting in a chair relaxing. It widens the dynamic range of emotions you're feeling, to misquote something someone said to me today. So, what I'm saying is that a good gig can be a remedy. This was certainly the case the other week when two good gigs was a double remedy for me.

Tonight, at nearly the end of an icky sort of a challenging week, I needed something different. I needed to have some sort of giggle time. I could have probably gotten the buzz from a gig, but perhaps I would have preferred pissing about with beer mats with the boys.

Well, one cancelled gig later, and that's exactly what we were doing. They make a satisfying "punk" sound when you flick them off the top of a glass, and it's even more fun when then plop down back on the rim of the glass. Or you can launch the beer mat at a friend by angling the glass before flicking.

Childish? Yes.

Fun? Definitely.

I ended up back home, just in time to get on with some writing I had half started. I've now finished.