It's all gone quiet again, hasn't it?

Yes, but I've been busy.

I've been working out my audition for Music in Hospitals.

Also. on Saturday, my usual busking day, I had to go to a funeral. I was glad to do that, of course.

I've also been writing a talk for the Roy Noble show on Wednesday from the Royal Welsh Show. Guess what it's about? Auditioning for Music in Hospitals, of course.

I did write to them asking if I could busk on the field but they somehow got the impression I was offering to provide entertainment and they declined my kind offer.

Oh well, must get used to being misunderstood when writing simple prose, I suppose.

So you're a professional musician now?

I think that's a very interesting question.

Certainly, I could easily live on this kind of busking money if it wasn't going to the church. Then there's all the piano teaching and sundries.

But something has just happened to me that only happens to professional musicians and it's made me think.

There's a charity called "Music in Hospitals" that does what it says on the tin except it also works in care homes and so on. It exists to bring music of the highest quality into those settings. That's very creditable, I think.

A couple of friends, Catherine Handley and Huw Chidgey have been doing gigs for Music in Hospitals for some time so when Catherine put something about it on Facebook I thought I'd look into it and sent off for a form.

I filled it in thinking it was wasted effort because it says you need to be a professional musician and asks you to put down your qualifications and experience.

So, I put down that I could play grade 8 piano stuff and I mentioned about Frost at Midnight - www.myspace.com/frostatmidnight and the songs on the radio and the busking tour and thought nothing of it.

And now I've got an audition. Now, by talking to Catherine Handley I've found out that it's entertainment first in this world and not by any means all classical although that's included. So I'm thinking at the moment about playing the Scott Joplin rag, The Entertainer and a couple of songs people can join in with like Blowin in the Wind and You've got a Friend.

Whether I get the gig or not, I'm quite chuffed to have been asked. In any case, I'm giving a talk on the Roy Noble programme from the Royal Welsh Show next week the day after the audition so I intend to use the experience to talk about how we need to find ways to make our faith and experience work together.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Why are there no apostrophes in this post?

Its simple, really.

Usually I update this blog using Catherines computer. So far, so good.

This morning, Im on our church laptop and one of the keys is missing. Its the one with "at" as in email addresses and the apostrophe.

Sometimes I go to the trouble of copying and pasting all the apostrophes but this time I dont think I will.

Great feedback on yesterdays appearance on the Roy Noble show. It seems to me to be quite a precisely defined audience in terms of age but, boy, does it reach that group!

Ive done quite a lot of "Thought for the Day" type material for BBC Radio 2 as well as Radio Wales and theres no comparison between the reaction you get from the two.

In fact, there is a comparison and here it is:

The Radio Two talks go out late at night and early in the morning. It is extremely rare for anyone to mention hearing them. I can remember perhaps three or four reactions to something like fifteen talks. All these numbers are guesses, by the way.

On the other hand, the Radio Wales ones are heard by a large number of people in the community here. And then, if you go somewhere else in Wales, its not unusual at all to get people coming up and referring to things theyve heard.

Better get busking soon.

Not more media appearances?

'Fraid so.

Went on the Roy Noble programmes on BBC Radio Wales this afternoon. Just over an hour in here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sj46l

Cath Martin was producing. It was nice to see her again. She's been off having a baby.

They were talking about songs to do with the sea and had wrongly said that Sailing By was the theme of the TV series Owen MD. I pointed out that it was Sleepy Shores by the Johnny Pearson Orchestra.

We chatted about the parable of the talents project and then about busking in general and I sand snatches of some famous busking songs: Blowin' in the Wind and Streets of London.

Near the end, I accidentally upset the whole of Merthyr by saying I was too frightened to busk there. And that from a Valleys Boy, too !

Roy Noble gave me £20 live on air, so the project is coming along nicely from a financial point of view.

I was quite nervous - nowhere near as nervous as for my piano exam but enough, all the same. As I told Roy, Catherine can sing whereas I can remember the words to all the songs but can hardly sing at all.

Today?

Not just yet.

Every Monday morning I go in to Raglan Primary School and do an assembly.

We normally do lively songs. There's one I like at the moment with the action of a submarine submerging. Don't ask.

This morning, I decided to have a dry run for Wednesday afternoon when I have to sing live on the Roy Noble show on BBC Radio Wales.

So, I asked if they knew what busking was - they did. I asked who the greatest living songwriter is but they didn't know. Fortunately, one of the staff did, so I sang Blowin in the Wind and Streets of London. The, I made some point about war, homelessness and people's indifference to the problems of others.

I got the staff to pretend to be passers-by and they did a good job, making encouraging remarks, not paying any attention and sometimes pretending to throw money.

Anyway, I glanced into my guitar case - great: full of money! Twenty pence pieces and fifty pences mainly.

Then, when I came to put my guitar away, what a let down . . . PLASTIC MONEY.

Well, that's primary schools for you.

Surely not another interruption?

Yes, I'm afraid so.

Yesterday, Cath Martin of the Roy Noble show phoned up from BBC Radio Wales.

Could I come down next Wednesday at three and be on the programme?

I was already booked in to do the Wednesday Word - a kind of Thought for the Day - the following week and I must admit I was hoping to get away with mentioning the busking trip but this is better. Perhaps they'll let me mention it next Wednesday, too.

So, they want me to sing some typical busking songs. Asked Steve Ashley and he said "Ballad of a Thin Man" and "Like a Rolling Stone" but I think I've already mentioned that they have too many words.

I need to cut to the chase, so "Blowin' in the Wind" and "Streets of Cardiff (London)" it is.

Charlie also suggested writing a song about the busking trip so here it is:

"Busking for Raglan Baptist Church, doo dah, doo dah,
Wherever I can find a perch, oh doo dah day.
Going to sing all night
Going to sing all day
Unless you get your money out
I won't go away."

Oh, the report should be at www.mon-tv.com today

Wasn't it Welsh songs today?

Yes it was but sometimes things happen and you change your plan.

So, yesterday Andy Sherwill of www.mon-tv.com came to the Senior's luncheon.

That was great - cottage pie and veg and rhubarb and ice cream to follow. The disruption caused by the work on the disabled toilet didn't seem too bad, either.

Then, after the lunch we had an interview outside and then inaugurated the busking tour of Wales!

We went down to the Ship (under new management now) and I sang "Is Your Love in Vain". £7.21 made. Can't be bad for one song. If it's always like that I won't complain.

Oh, and one of the neighbours said she'd sent the South Wales Argus report to Roy Noble at BBC Radio Wales. I'm on the show on 2nd June so you never know.

The report should appear at www.mon-tv.com over the weekend.