Hey-ho, it's July 7, 2006 and all off a sudden I'm not in India anymore. Arghhhhhh.... my five months in a country I love deeply are quickly merging into one big montage of dreams and visions as I walk through the airport tunnel and unto British soil once again. Now, it's 7 p.m local time and a HEATHROW inspector awaits my passport in the long arrivals line. No problems, I'm thinking; although I no longer have leave to work here (my working visa expired back in Feb) I DO have a ticket back to my beloved Aotearoa in three months time, as well as a ticket to Dublin in a week, but this guy wants more proof than that. Spose he's just doing his job I think, as my passport officer asks for evidence of how much money I've got, what my income source will be and wants to know where I'll be staying for the next wee while. Thanks to my recent Vipassanna meditation course, I manage to answer all of his questions in a peaceful manner, and although he detains me at first ('detains' is such a big word isn't it - it doesn't mean what it sounds like! - I simply go and sit by myself while he takes my passport away for closer inspection) he does let me through after ten minutes or so with my passport thankfully stamped 'LEAVE TO COME AND GO FOR SIX MONTHS'. Thanks!!

So I'm back. The U.K and Europe for three months. Singing for my supper every day that I'm able.

I first had this idea to do a big busking adventure when I was in Europe busking last year on and off for a month. In between my alternately various crazy and wondrous experiences, playing music on the streets of Amsterdam, Paris and Barcelona, I thought 'wouldn't it be cool to really see if I could survive on my busking long-term... to interview other buskers and collate all of their experiences, including my own, into a kind of a busking guide for other hopeful musicians wondering if they could do the same one day?'

So here I am. A three month tour of 'I-don't-quite-know-where' planned, with just my guitar for company - no wonder the airport dude was sceptical... Me and Stella (guitar's name) taking to the streets, learning to survive perhaps on the bare minimum sometimes, learning to play music rain or sun, wind or storm. Weeeeeheeeee, I'm excited! So, although my blog efforts in the past have fallen kind of flat, this time I'm gonna try again just cause this is such a damn cool thing to try and do. You can find me here, at least when I can afford some internet time to do an update...