That concert last Friday evening was fun, if a little long. Having vowed not to do all the commentary and introductions for the abysmal fee they were paying I caved in when I saw the expectant faces in the audience. They'd come to enjoy themselves and a bit of chit-chat does make the evening go with a swing, so away I chatted. They want us back again next year, but they'll have to double my fee for all the work I do.
Another one tomorrow night, this time conducting my choir in a neighbourhood church. They've done a very good job learning a lot of music in a short time but the fact remains I don't have the forces available at Easter to match their ambition. We have nearly thirty at Christmas and just trot out three short numbers; around Easter we have just over half that and they want to sing oratorios. They sound good, but it could all be so much better if he had another ten in the ranks.
Let's not forget the day job; that's a taxing one at the moment...
Sunday, 11 April 2010
Thursday, 8 April 2010
Anybody watching what's going on in Gordon's Britain?
You can be ripped off, taken for a fool, abused and berated for some unspecified act and most of the time those with something better to do than channel-surf daytime TV will just shrug and get on with more pressing matters. However, there's one area of our lives where the above acts upon our person cannot and must not go unpunished: when they are perpetrated by the Government.
I don't mean Sarkozy and his not-so-merry-men; I mean Gormless Brown and his collection of fellow liars, cheats, traitors and wannabe-Marxists. I left England for the second time in 1997, just after His Tonyness got the keys to the trough. The country I find when I go back to visit is now a nightmare of vacuous nanny-like supervision, protection and invasion. The fifteen-year rule allows me to vote this time round and it's something I shall do with the utmost pleasure, despite the three main parties being practically indistinguishable from one another on certain key issues. Democracy in the UK currently appears to be a joke, Labour having socially engineered and gerrymandered their way into contention for a 'historic' fourth term. 'Historic' it certainly will be if this band of thieves and incompetents are returned to office, for it shall herald the day that democracy well and truly died in the United Kingdom.
Sorry about that, but it makes me livid when I see my mother still having to work at 78 and paying income tax out of her pension so that the likes of Anjem Choudary can sit on his fat arse and declare war on the country. I'd better not go on...
Thanks for the comment, Elaine; it was delightful to see that little '1' in the box. Doesn't happen often on my online diary. Hope my reply was useful. I had to stick it under 'Anonymous' as I hadn't signed in at that stage.
It's late, again, and the last day of school before the holidays beckons for the Fingernails. Fingernail 1 has now been learning the violin for six months and she's actually really rather good. She also loves standing up in front of people and performing, so she must get that from her dad, even though I'm wearying of the ritual of getting togged up: 3000 concerts later, you do get a bit jaded. Anyhow, she wants to play a couple of pieces in front of her classmates, tomorrow, rounding off the recital with a dip in the sweety bag she just so happens to be bringing along. Having let off a tirade at the headmaster the other day for the school's lacksadaisical (does that look right to you? I can't be bothered to check) approach to their class's education this year (four different supply teachers since September 2009), I'm now going to go in and stick a flower in the barrel of their gun. Politics is all around us, wherever we look, and all we do is try to steer our own course through the muck without getting too dirty.
I don't mean Sarkozy and his not-so-merry-men; I mean Gormless Brown and his collection of fellow liars, cheats, traitors and wannabe-Marxists. I left England for the second time in 1997, just after His Tonyness got the keys to the trough. The country I find when I go back to visit is now a nightmare of vacuous nanny-like supervision, protection and invasion. The fifteen-year rule allows me to vote this time round and it's something I shall do with the utmost pleasure, despite the three main parties being practically indistinguishable from one another on certain key issues. Democracy in the UK currently appears to be a joke, Labour having socially engineered and gerrymandered their way into contention for a 'historic' fourth term. 'Historic' it certainly will be if this band of thieves and incompetents are returned to office, for it shall herald the day that democracy well and truly died in the United Kingdom.
Sorry about that, but it makes me livid when I see my mother still having to work at 78 and paying income tax out of her pension so that the likes of Anjem Choudary can sit on his fat arse and declare war on the country. I'd better not go on...
Thanks for the comment, Elaine; it was delightful to see that little '1' in the box. Doesn't happen often on my online diary. Hope my reply was useful. I had to stick it under 'Anonymous' as I hadn't signed in at that stage.
It's late, again, and the last day of school before the holidays beckons for the Fingernails. Fingernail 1 has now been learning the violin for six months and she's actually really rather good. She also loves standing up in front of people and performing, so she must get that from her dad, even though I'm wearying of the ritual of getting togged up: 3000 concerts later, you do get a bit jaded. Anyhow, she wants to play a couple of pieces in front of her classmates, tomorrow, rounding off the recital with a dip in the sweety bag she just so happens to be bringing along. Having let off a tirade at the headmaster the other day for the school's lacksadaisical (does that look right to you? I can't be bothered to check) approach to their class's education this year (four different supply teachers since September 2009), I'm now going to go in and stick a flower in the barrel of their gun. Politics is all around us, wherever we look, and all we do is try to steer our own course through the muck without getting too dirty.
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
A Winter's, er, Post...
Despite the fact we're only about ninety minutes' drive from a major European mountain range, this city practically never gets snow. Winters oscillate around 0° centigrade and it drizzles consistently from December to March. This year, though, has seen a cold snap that has even got the old guard chattering: two lots of snow (including one bout that settled for three days) in December, another lot in January and a sprinkling just the other day. I'd like to ascribe it man-made global warming, but that theory seems to be under major scrutiny, right now.
Following my abortive attempts to get French citizenship with a view to voting in the 2005 Presidential Elections, here, I'd resigned myself to being voiceless for the duration of my prolonged expatriation. However, I learned the other day that you can still get a postal vote if you register within 15 years of leaving Britain. I left Highgate for Los Angeles in 1997 so that gave me two years to get myself mobilised. Off went a filled-out registration form to Haringey Council, oh they of the Loony Left, promptly followed by another this morning when I realised I hadn't put enough postage on the first one. It might still get through, but I'm not so sure La Poste will not shrug, say 'bof' and just chuck it in the nearest bin when they see it's 14 cents short. I looked at the candidates that stood in 2005 and, apart from getting a nice, warm fuzzy feeling when I saw that Labour had been ousted in Hornsey and Wood Green in favour of the LibDems, realised I wasn't getting excited about any of the candidates, least of all the less-than-zero chance the least noxious parties have of getting elected.
What result will 2010 bring? Dave, the re-suited Blair? Gormless Brown and his ragtag- and-bobtail assortment of liars, freeloaders, patronising social engineers and morally and intellectually bankrupt cheats? Sadly, it's going to be one of those two charlatans, so the best we can do is vote strategically. Compared to their German counterparts, the Greens are a joke, UKIP appears to be a one-policy stand-up act, the LibDems wouldn't know what to do with power if it came up and abused their Human Rights and the BNP still turn too many people off, though I'm sure many will vote for them in secret. It's impossible to guage how much support they're likely to have: those who express themselves on the internet are either hard-line anti or worshippers at the shrine. Now that the party has chosen the path of least resistance and opened itself up to ethnic minorities some of the stigma attached to their image may dissolve, particularly if they capitalise on Mr. Singh, the 78-year-old retired maths teacher from Northamptonshire, who has been an unconditional fan of Griffin's party since 2001.
Following my abortive attempts to get French citizenship with a view to voting in the 2005 Presidential Elections, here, I'd resigned myself to being voiceless for the duration of my prolonged expatriation. However, I learned the other day that you can still get a postal vote if you register within 15 years of leaving Britain. I left Highgate for Los Angeles in 1997 so that gave me two years to get myself mobilised. Off went a filled-out registration form to Haringey Council, oh they of the Loony Left, promptly followed by another this morning when I realised I hadn't put enough postage on the first one. It might still get through, but I'm not so sure La Poste will not shrug, say 'bof' and just chuck it in the nearest bin when they see it's 14 cents short. I looked at the candidates that stood in 2005 and, apart from getting a nice, warm fuzzy feeling when I saw that Labour had been ousted in Hornsey and Wood Green in favour of the LibDems, realised I wasn't getting excited about any of the candidates, least of all the less-than-zero chance the least noxious parties have of getting elected.
What result will 2010 bring? Dave, the re-suited Blair? Gormless Brown and his ragtag- and-bobtail assortment of liars, freeloaders, patronising social engineers and morally and intellectually bankrupt cheats? Sadly, it's going to be one of those two charlatans, so the best we can do is vote strategically. Compared to their German counterparts, the Greens are a joke, UKIP appears to be a one-policy stand-up act, the LibDems wouldn't know what to do with power if it came up and abused their Human Rights and the BNP still turn too many people off, though I'm sure many will vote for them in secret. It's impossible to guage how much support they're likely to have: those who express themselves on the internet are either hard-line anti or worshippers at the shrine. Now that the party has chosen the path of least resistance and opened itself up to ethnic minorities some of the stigma attached to their image may dissolve, particularly if they capitalise on Mr. Singh, the 78-year-old retired maths teacher from Northamptonshire, who has been an unconditional fan of Griffin's party since 2001.
Thursday, 17 December 2009
That time of year, again...
Yup, nearly Christmas and the whole thing starts all over again: resolutions to not buy anything made in China, to eat less, to be nicer, blah blah blah. Never works, but it's the thought that counts, eh? Not really, thought is cheap and actions do tend to land us back at square one, no matter how noble the intentions. Still, I've never been one for New Year's Resolutions and that certainly won't change as we exit the Noughties (who invented that word? Has he/she been executed, yet?). The Fingernails are going to love their gifts, as will Mrs. F, once she's got over the shock of the prospect of six months' worth of acting lessons. She's been banging on about how much she'd like to do it for so long that I felt it was high time to indulge her and fast-track her consciousness to something a little more edifying than the daily routine of keeping house and child-rearing. Nothing wrong with any of it, of course, but everyone needs an outlet, a means of self-expression, and my dearly beloved hasn't had that for many a good long year. It's extremely eco-friendly, too: just a few sheets of paper with the enrolment details and requisite scripts, then it's off to a local basement for a bit of sisterly theatre.
My choir is now 27-strong and sang magnificently this last Monday evening. We now have a strong backbone through accomplished singers in every section, allowing us to undertake much more ambitious and interesting repertoire than ever before. When I think what we started with, back in 2007, and what they're capable of now, my mind boggles. It's not as if we rehearse all year round, either; just five evenings before each service.
Tomorrow heralds the end of piano rehearsals for La Vie Parisienne. Not the greatest piece in the world, not the best actors in the world, so not really the best reason in the world to get out of bed in the morning, either. Still, it's work and I'm fortunate to be in enjoyable, gainful employment. And a very merry Christmas to you all, those unseen masses who never read my blog because I've not told anyone about its existence. That's quite a concept.
My choir is now 27-strong and sang magnificently this last Monday evening. We now have a strong backbone through accomplished singers in every section, allowing us to undertake much more ambitious and interesting repertoire than ever before. When I think what we started with, back in 2007, and what they're capable of now, my mind boggles. It's not as if we rehearse all year round, either; just five evenings before each service.
Tomorrow heralds the end of piano rehearsals for La Vie Parisienne. Not the greatest piece in the world, not the best actors in the world, so not really the best reason in the world to get out of bed in the morning, either. Still, it's work and I'm fortunate to be in enjoyable, gainful employment. And a very merry Christmas to you all, those unseen masses who never read my blog because I've not told anyone about its existence. That's quite a concept.
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