#GoLocal Abroad

As we all know, Spain has so much to offer for us Brits looking for a quick and affordable getaway. But, what happens when you've pretty much exhausted the same holiday and locations? You can research the hell out of the place but you end up going in circles and driving yourself crazy because Google is a black-hole of information. So, I'm bringing a suggestion to you...

Every year I visit this beautiful, gem of a location called Javea, Costa Blanca just over an hour from Alicante airport.  I'm lucky enough that my father lives and works here so I get to go visit and see things as a local whilst being driven from place to place, which brings me onto my next suggestion for when you visit here; go local!

 The town has so much offer in terms of a short-distance trip abroad no matter what your budget or break duration. There's shops, restaurants, promenades, clifftops, water-sports, scenic views, neighbouring towns to visit, nightlife, beaches and crystal water - everything you need in one place. There's a particularly stunning-restaurant called Nox located on the clifftop and hosting live music during weeknights and weekends if you're looking to treat yourself to a classy evening with some entertainment. 

Another great find is Chabadabada situated along the beach promenade of Javea Arenal (beach). You can eat, party and chill here with their great choice of cocktails and Brit-style grub and a mixed crowd of tourists and locals.

A stunning neighbouring town to visit (about 20 minutes drive) is the seaside town Moraira. This small yet acquaint town is home to some real old-town restaurants, cafes, boutiques and ice-cream parlours. It's even the place to gather for a Vespa party at their Vespa Restaurant  if that's your sort of thing!  

Whether you're a family with kids, a couple of group of friends - stay in local accommodation and walk around like a local. You see things so much better and get to know the local way of living; when you leave you feel like you've really brought some culture home. Now with AirBnB this couldn't be easier. It's cheaper, fun and you are free to roam around trying new experiences, walks and getting to know people around you.

Here's a useful link with some more information about Javea and how to get around if you're wanting to learn more :) 

http://www.spanish-fiestas.com/costa-blanca/javea/ 

Feel free to get in touch if you have any more q's following this blogpost. Thanks for reading! 

#GoLocal

LiveOnTheRoad Events!

I have been a busy been right to the core with some very exciting stuff on the way including my most recent launch of a new events & artist management project called 'LiveOnTheRoad'. It is a combination of concepts that I have been introduced to and passionate about throughout my life and with music being the centre of them all, I thought why not create a filter project that hooks up local musicians with local businesses. From bookshops to local cafe's, LiveOnTheRoad will cater to any brief and any size venue. 

I have been lucky enough to work with some talented, unsigned artists from my last workplace and I grew so attached to their story and music that I couldn't bare for them to go off the radar; everyone needs a helping hand and I wanted to offer a collaboration that helps everyone involved - artists, businesses and even myself of course.

There is some serious talent around the world, which I eventually want to get around to touring, but starting with London I have hand picked a few artists for the growing roster featuring on the website. The idea being that if I am given a brief for an event or request for live music, I can match this with an artist from the roster. Artists are flexible in regards to the size of their band - some can perform either as a full 5 piece or just themselves! This makes them flexible and great for me to pitch, so no matter how small your venue, there's always room for live music :) 

Each event is coordinated and marketing by me, and events that are public are warmed up by a duo set from me (as Yasmin Natasha on alto sax/vocals) & guitarist Ro Slater for a 10 minute warm up before the show starts as a 'welcome to LiveOnTheRoad' touch. 

Through social media I help promote these artists in the hope that some great things come from a little helping hand. I am super happy to announce our first collaboration with the infamous Notting Hill Arts Club on Friday 3rd June! It's free entry and we have two fantastic acts Warren & RAFFER performing 45 mins sets for you. So bring friends, family, acquaintances and business folk along for some after work & pre-weekend drinks + entertainment, on us!

Spread the word if you like! Thanks for reading & see you soon OnTheRoad...

www.liveontheroadevents.com

Mahout Elephant Project: Chonburi, Thailand

It's taken a while to blog about my venturous time in Thailand working on the Mahout Project (GoDifferently www.godifferently.com), due to just simply waiting for the experience to fully sink in. It was a true eye opener not just how beautiful these gentle giants are, but also the length in which humans have gone to minimise their already confined habitat.

The ceremony was a great welcome to the camp, the Mahouts and the Chief Mahout would offer rice, orange juice (I believe this was fanta lol) and another red drink around the skin of a pig's head...yes, you read that right. All I was thinking as a borderline veggie was, 'are we going to have to eat that to be polite?' - luckily, it was for the dogs after we were wished the best of health to us and our family during our time with them...phew!

The 5-day visit consisted of us getting to know our Mahout and their elephant before assisting in elephant-care duties, my elephant was call Bung-Mi who I deeply fell in love with from the moment I saw her. It's incredible to see how large they are in person yet they are so gentle and slow moving almost as if to be careful not to hurt you. Even though these elephants were trained for generations through the Mahout families, they still had a little bit of wildness in their eyes & swag (yes, elephants have swag it's true).

Once I got to know Bung-Mi, I was able to take her grazing to a neighbouring field no bigger than a training football pitch where there was bottles and rubbish scattered amongst the dull green grass. We spent some of the morning cleaning the rubbish as couldn't bare for a wild animal which was already restricted so such a confined habitat, to have to endure human polluting as well. 

The best part of each day, was the showers! Due to a property developer actually having bought the river situated a few hundred yards from the Mahout camp, the elephants couldn't bathe or cool off there so it was down to a hose and some commitment from the Mahouts to shower them down. I couldn't believe it when I heard the elephants couldn't use the river, it was so close yet someone was greedy enough to purchase this land and the neighbouring green field to eventually build a hotel complex next to the Mahout camp. 

This will increase the elephant 'tours' whereby tourists sit on a chair on top of the elephant's spine which results in deformity of the spine instead of actually caring and getting to know the elephant...it was beyond my understanding!

Just watching, caring and being around these animals was a huge privilege. Understanding what's happening and why elephants have to be looked after in a camp in Thailand (and other parts of the world) was a true eye opener. The more volunteers go, the more you can tell the Mahouts what you'd like to do with your elephant such as: walking to a greener field and allowing them to enjoy the tropical forest as oppose to a dry field, cutting grass for your elephant 30 mins away because the field wasn't producing enough and stating that you do not wish your elephant to wear the chair when you're around.

One of the highlights was having dinner at the camp with the Mahout and their family. The family cooked a full-on meal in their little Mahout hut fully equipped with cooking utensils & a TV!! We got to know them well and looked through family photographs; it was a binding moment between cultures & familes that I won't forget. Such fantastic hosts and felt touched that they welcomed us into their home for one evening.

It was a sad moment saying goodbye to beautiful wise Bung-Mi (54 years old!) and I will continue to spread the word that property development across the globe (not just in London) has gone nuts and that there is a fine line to be drawn....I might have to go back and draw it one day!

Thanks for reading, spread the word about volunteering to work with the elephants; www.godifferently.com were a great match for us to go through. Make your stamp on nature too :)

Alice Pisano Performance @ Waitrose Managers Conference

Today was a great experience working with beautiful Italian singer-songwriter Alice Pisano. 

Alice and I met at the ACM@Metropolis Academy during her studies Artist Development and Songwriting at the renown Metropolis Studios, London. It's a beautiful institute and general creative hub that I've had the privilege of working in with such amazing talent and staff.

Alice was invited to perform, through one of our tutors Andrew Armour, at a Waitrose conference in Cookham. During the drive, Alice's calm and professionalism made me realise that this lady is going to be a big star one day. Working with Alice is truly like a driving down a straight road - no bumps, just going along! Not only does Alice's professionalism stand out, it's the way she holds herself on stage with dignity and class which in my opinion is rare these days to just be polite and well mannered.

We did have a momentum of anxiety as we realised after plugging everything in, we had forgotten a guitar lead!!! I instantly googled music shops in this small village praying they had one open and nearby at three in the afternoon. After driving like a loony Londoner in this poor innocent village, we managed to find 1 out of 3 shops we had stopped at that stocked a guitar lead. The first one wasn't much luck as we approached an industrial estate it was clear Mr Music (the shop) was no more...a local had kindly informed us he had actually passed away! 

Even during the panic, I realised Alice was super calm and controlled (on the verge of a panic but I offered her numerous Rowntree's fruit pastals to take the edge off!) and we made it back in time for Alice's set in front of a warm crowd of Waitrose Marketing Managers who were all nodding along to the music. After Alice's enlightening set we chin chinned with champagne!

What a great day, check out Alice's profile - she's genuinely one to watch out for and she's actively gigging so try to catch her at a local gig soon!

x-x-x 

www.facebook.com/alicepisanomusic

Modern Weirdo!

#WeirdoThinking

It's come to my attention that recently in social media and viral threads that 'being comfortable in your own skin' is something that's being promoted on a global scale. It's great to see that the more eccentric of us individuals are getting some exposure in this too! For years we've been isolated and sometimes bullied for being slightly 'weird' by society which of course translates as just being happy in our own skin.

I was drawn to an article titled 'Why Weirdos Are The Best People to Fall in Love With' that I saw on viralthread.com because I was always described as weird, which as the article explains, it just means I was comfortable being me.

Regardless of weirdos in love, I think it's about promoting a new mindset and encouraging new generations to not be persuaded by the media everywhere to be a certain way. Being positive and outgoing shouldn't be considered odd or an unorthodox way of living life, but accepted and inspiring. 

Speaking as a true weirdo and not ashamed to admit it, I feel that each day is a fresh start in life almost. I can choose whether to eat too much or too little, who I meet, what I learn and so on - this makes life a little more exciting. Plus as a naturally positive person having seen the world in most of it's true colours, I realise just how lucky I am to be healthy and to have the things I have, not to mention the amazing people I have around me.

I hope people who are perhaps a little afraid to be themselves can read this and feel encouraged to start tomorrow new. It's ok to be approachable but of course, as with anything, there's always a fine line :) 

Check out the article I am referring to here:

http://www.viralthread.com/why-weirdos-are-the-best-people-to-fall-in-love-with/ 

Why Choose the Saxophone?

So some of you might ask why, of all instruments do people choose the saxophone? Of course, they are cool but starter instruments like piano, guitar, clarinet and even violin come as many people's choices. Not me, like many other characteristics I always chose something different in every aspect of growing up.

I liked what wasn't obvious and people ask why I chose the sax I have the pleasure of telling them, 'to be honest, it was like the sax found me'. 

When I was 11 years old, I didn't have many friends and was used to entertaining myself. No one else in my family was musical (at all) but my interest in playing instruments came from loneliness. The music department at school was where I hid and didn't feel awkward like I did in a group of kids who were all fighting for the 'cool' kid's attention.

I looked up on in the music department one day and saw a glistening, gold straight instrument on an 'which instrument would you choose?' poster. It was the sight of a soprano saxophone and I fell in love with it there and then! I asked how I play such a beautiful instrument and the teacher advised learning alto saxophone first. So, the following week I was off on my venture to learn the sax and become good enough to play the soprano.

Five years later when I was 16 years old, for Christmas my family bought me a soprano sax! I had never owned an instrument before so this was a massive deal after using the school's for ages. The emotion was that I didn't deserve it having gone through some issues at school but the support and faith my family gave me (having not really heard me perform much, I was very timid about my playing) is eternally appreciated.

I just love telling this story! If you're thinking of choosing an instrument, let the instrument choose you but yeah, sax rules!

:) 

Escapism and You

Hello readers!

I hope you're all having a good autumn so far - it's my favourite time of the year with that autumn-leave smell in the air (could be damp if you're UK based...), leaves falling off the trees and the whole town paints a colour pallet of red & brown. 

I've decided to blog about Escapism. It's a theme that runs through most of my songs and something I find myself yearning for regularly. Whether it's the fast-pace lifestyle, living in London, modern life or the over stimulation of social media and entertainment. It's something I try to analyse and see if we can change by having a healthy approach to entertainment.

Escapism is generally a term used to describe those who look for distraction and relief from their harsh realities or current state of mind. In particular the most common technique to escape is through entertainment and engaging in fantasy which helps this 'relief'.

The question is, how do we escape when reality gets too harsh? My way is to write lyrics, play the sax, dream of a deserted island surrounded by nature and by drowning myself in satirical movies for a day here and there. We all need to find a healthy escape route and remind ourselves that the entertainment industry is merely a money-making, mind compelling and drama overloaded source for our escapism. 

Life is becoming so demanding and this constant need to check social media just takes valuable time away from our daily life and stops us looking around us. Gone are the days where technology was a nuisance, it's now a necessity. The key is to find a healthy way of escaping by getting back in touch with what's natural - going to the park, sitting still, enjoying someone else's genuine company and learning how to relax without stimulating your mind - this is all becoming a life skill!

Apparently, watching  TV or a film whilst being stationary is the same as if you were walking around doing things around the house because your mind is still ticking and absorbing images on the screen then using it as your 'escape route'.

I believe technology will get boring and we won't rely on it forever, we are just in the prime and 'honeymoon' period of learning how these new inventions work. We are after all, still guinea pigs in this technological era!

Choose your escape route wisely :)