Ken Hensley

"Into The Unknown"

Day 4

No extra sleep for me… at least not until I get home and unwind. The "limo" arrived right on time for the ride to Gomel which is about 300 kms south of Minsk. We stopped for lunch where I signed about 50 CD covers for Vitaly (see picture) and I slept most of the rest of the way.

We did arrive at the Gomel Rock Club a little later than planned but everything was ready and the mood was very relaxed. It was a really nice and quite new building and the club was about 85% full when I arrived back for the show.

I changed the set a little bit based on the experience of Minsk and I will have to fine-tune it even more for future shows but the result seems to be always the same. People enjoy hearing the songs in this basic, stripped-down format and the questions were really cool.

As always I signed everything they wanted me to sign and took pictures with just about everyone. It was a really satisfying experience and I am looking forward to doing more of these shows.

At the end, we all went upstairs and had some excellent pancakes with red caviar, a little wine and then I went back to the hotel to close my bags and load up for the drive to the airport. My flight to Vienna was at 05:20 so any sleep I got was going to be in the back seat of the limo which is actually quite comfortable.

In the end, I slept all the way to the airport, said goodbye to our little team and began the strange check-in process which was a bit of a fiasco actually. Once I got to the departure lounge, the pilot came out to tell us that the toilet on the little plane didn't work and that we should go now if we needed to because he was leaving!!

Ah, variety, the spice of life.

This was a cool trip. I am in the airport in Vienna now on one of the long layovers that I have on the trip home. My thanks to Igor, Herman, Katya, Vitaly and everyone for making me so welcome and for all of your help and enthusiasm!

Now that the last show of 2008 is behind me I can focus on recovery and getting ready for the holidays. I have 3 ½ weeks before I go back into the studio and I really want to make the most of it/them.

So…. We'll start again next year and I'll keep you posted and let me just take a minute to wish you all a safe and happy holiday season. In my life of course it's Christmas every day and I hope it will be special for each and every one of you!

God bless,
Ken
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