Apologies for the long time without updates!
My wonderful boyfriend of eight months appeared and gave me a great three week holiday break (and of course I managed to take 300odd photographs..which will probably take me the next year to upload on my ridiculously slow connection). Needless to say it was a great holiday, and we went to areas of Wales that I hadn't been to since I was a kid. Brought back all the memories!

He departed back to his house, which is an unfortunate three hour plus drive from mine (long-distance relationships kinda suck in that respect), on Friday. He would have stayed much longer, but the that Friday and last Saturday and Sunday was taken up by the Brecon Jazz Festival. The Festival - one of the largest Jazz festivals in the world outside of New Orleans - is usually a very busy time for me, as I've worked there for the past five years. Usually, I've been 'Chief Technician' for one of the major venues. Sounds like an important job, and I do get an "Access All Areas" badge (which I must say really makes me feel important) but my main bit as part of the Jazz Team is to take control of all of the stage lights for the particular band, changing the colours for different songs. Then, in-between bands I clear the Auditorium of litter, help the first band out and the next band in, and generally make sure everything is running smoothly.

This year, however, was a complete disaster. As I mentioned, I take control of all the lights on the stage. This means that for the majority of a performance I am stuck in a very small cramped room at the top of the Theatre balcony, surrounded by electronics that emit a rather irritating buzz, and every now and then moving a few sliders. Not this year, hell no.

It started on Friday, mid-way through the second concert. There I was, reading a book (incidentally it was; Now Wait for Last Year by Philip K Dick) when I smell something odd. I turn around, and I cannot see anything. Why? Because my little room is filled with black smoke. I stare at this alien intruder for a few seconds before throwing myself out of the way of the electronic racks which were so blatantly on fire. I ran to the nearest Steward, who ran to the State Manager, who cut off the power supply to the specific rack that was smoking. Thankfully neither the band nor the audience noticed. During the intra-band period, we inspect the damage. Turns out that one of the four power racks used to power all of the main stage lights is completely dead; looks like most of the capacitors blew at once, lighting the dust on fire. Luckily nothing vital was plugged into it. So everything seems fine, and we do the remainder of the day without hitch. But that's not the end of it.

Come Saturday, in the middle of a sound-check, there I am again when I hear a major sizzling sound from behind me. Heart dropping, I turn around to find that a second power rack is alight, and smoking badly. Running to get the Stage Manager again, we again manage to get the situation under control. We reroute the plugs into the remaining two power racks, while disconnecting this newest blown from the mains.

Half an hour later, mid-concert, BANG. This time I was half expecting it and so didn't panic to the extent I had the preceding two times. The audience however, hears the minor explosion, and pretty much all have a "WTH" expression on their faces. Yet they obviously have a death wish as they just sit and stare at the black smoke rapidly filling the balcony without moving. Anyway, acting fast, I unplug all of the plugs from this very hot and smoking power rack. This, naturally, plunges the entire Theatre into darkness. Miraculously the band keeps on playing, and the Stage Manager, realising what is happening, turns on the main fluorescents. Now, there is no way in hell we are going to risk our last power rack, so we just isolate the entire damn thing from the mains power, which of course means that we have no lights, no stage lights, no house lights, apart from the main fluorescents. Massive credit to the band who keep on playing in spite of being in semi-darkness.

Come the break, we get a brainwave. We find/make four 15amp/30amp jacks out of bits of plugs and wire, and hook up four of our poor stage lights (a red blue and two whites) into the mains power supply. This gave me four lights, all of which were entirely uncontrollable from my lighting box. And you know what? We managed to do another day and a half of concerts on just those four lights, and I'm very happy to say that it looked bloody brilliant. Still; hell of a weekend!