Sunday 27 July 2008

By the Seaside

Have just returned from an action packed and fun filled weekend in Brighton.

By a series of happy turns, I sang at St Mary Magdalene's for their Feast Day, swelling the ranks of their choir with various other extra singers. All power to the maestra di capella and my host for the weekend.

Then, after a glass of wine, (how civilised) and a meeting with Fr Ray, PP and celebrity blogger extraordinaire, to the beach for cool music sung by the daughter of a parishoner, then a boat trip from the beach to Brighton Marina. (I'm not making this up, btw.) Oh yes and the boat trip included tea from fine bone china cups, no less. These people relax in style!

Thankyou to all for a fantastic time!

Monday 14 July 2008

On the move

I'm moving house on Wednesday. That's my latest excuse for not writing anything on me blog. That and the fact that other people are up to lots more exciting things. Fr Ray (the lutenists)has his new lute, Fr Sean Finnegan is gadding around North America, The Pope is in Australia...I'm moving about three miles, to a slightly bigger house in a much greener area, three stations closer to London.

Me and the cardboard boxes are doing just fine.
I happened upon some board markers (c1998) this morning, so can now label the boxes and can tell the removal men where to put them.

The main removal man can round today to remove rubbish, which was great. Off went the desk I did my Alevel work on. If you took a 'brass rubbing' of it you'd probably get an interesting collage of algebra, harmony, organic chemistry and calculus, plus my Dad's comments on student's History essays.

My parents are doing all sorts of useful things like disconnecting washing machines and taking curtains to the dry cleaners. I think you can guess which is doing what.

Books, Music and CDs. Moving house must be easier without them, but life less exciting.

In other news I have two tickets to hear the Berlin Phil with Rattle at the Proms. Not alas the Brahms 3 and Shostakovich 10 programme which was already sold out last week- no surprise really. Not sure how they did that programme, just take two of your favourite symphonies and put them either side of the interval? Yes, I could go and queue, but contrary to what it says in the Proms Guide, it is very possible to turn up to hear a visiting foreign orch and not even to get into the Gallery. I know 'cos it has happened to me. I have queued all day before to hear Rattle and the CBSO doing Mahler 7 and was on the telly, but I was a student and sitting on pavements passing the day chatting was a way of life. Now I want comfort.

I'm going to the Wagner and Messiaen concert. From the back row of the circle, the Messiaen will sound interesting... in a different way to when I heard the same programme in Amsterdam in Feb. Then we sat in the Choir Stalls behind the cymbals and every other metal percussion instrument. Crash! Two Turangalilas in one year!

Monday 7 July 2008

Evening Devotions

I keep meaning to put a link to this.

Don't know how anyone has time to do this, but it's really good.

Tuesday 1 July 2008

Reading

It is about this time of year when my mind begins to be filled with wonder at the time which is - drum roll - the Summer Holidays..... The sooner the better. I can't afford a repeat performance leaving stuff on trains. It'll either get stolen or cause a major security alert.

It is during this time every year that I do anything needed doing to my house -DIY etc and me new contact lenses and the like.

Other seasonal activities include reading proper books. I had a chat once with some other teachers and we agreed that we can't read proper serious tomes during the year. Infact one suggested that she was so frazzled at the end of term that a week of reading trashy stuff was necessary before getting down to decent books. She offered to lend some to someone else.

I suffer delusions that I will read that book on Orchestration and that other one on Species Counterpoint because they would be improving and generally sharpen up my now flabby mind. This year...

What would you folks reccommend? I should say I have read all the 'easy' (that is chatty or written as sermons and tied together into a book) BXVI books.

Biographies are good.