Incidentally, you did find something new out in your first trimester, and that is that it is impossible to sing while pregnant.
Unfortunately, you discovered this by collapsing in the middle of the winter concert of your choir.
Interesting programme. You have now added two new singing languages to your repertoire: French and Russian.
French, the conductor spent [...]
Read Full Post »
Last night you went to half a Prom.
It all started quite auspiciously. You both set off in good time, even allowing for side trips to that endlessly fascinating retail emporium, Boots the Chemists, and so you arrived a good 45 minutes before the start.
At which point you realised that you had picked a popular Prom.
Now [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Architecture, Britain, Chelsea, Culture, Food, Music, Nodnol, Sightseeing, The Proms, the Royal Albert Hall on July 30, 2007 | 4 Comments »
So there you and B are, sitting on a bench eating grapes and a pork pie, admiring the view of large tombstones which populate the square you are in, and basking in the unexpected sunshine.
Suddenly you become aware that the young lady next to you has not only come prepared with cutlery and a china plate [...]
Read Full Post »
You’ve missed rather a lot of rehearsals for your latest choral extravaganza, so the full glory of the Bach and Vivaldi Glorias you are planning to inflict on the public have only now started bursting in upon you.
It was all the little black notes in the Bach that were immediately worrying. So little and so black [...]
Read Full Post »
So there you are at work, dubiously contemplating some hapless trainee’s latest assignment and grumbling wrathfully about the total inability of modern university trained youth to reference their sources in any manner which makes sense (”…what are they teaching them? Surely they can’t all have done travel and tourism for their degree?”), when a colleague comes in [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Britain, Communication, Culture, Culture Shock, ESC, Eurovision, Eurovision 2007, Eurovision Song Contest, Flags, Language, Lasha Tumbai, Morality, Music, Patriotism, Russia, TV, The Rest of the World, Ukraine on May 13, 2007 | 12 Comments »
You adore the Eurovision Song Contest and you say this totally without the kind of qualifiers that Brits usually add at this point. Such as ‘it’s so tragiclly kitsch’.
In fact, you are rather bemused by the fact that the British persist in regarding the thing as a monumental joke and yet follow programmes like Pop Idol with [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Britain, Culture, Music, Work on April 27, 2007 | No Comments »
So there you are hanging off a handrail in the despised underground on your way to Covent Garden Opera House on a works night out to the ballet discussing why one of your number hasn’t managed to persuade her other half to come with you all.
“Perhaps he thinks it’s always sentimental and pretty pretty?” says [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Architecture, Books, Britain, Culture Shock, Drink, Music, Public Transport, Russia, Sergei Lukyanenko, Sightseeing, The Rest of the World on April 23, 2007 | 7 Comments »
Having discovered that you had slightly misinterpreted the setting of the book by a Spanish author - with large chunks of it set in Spain simply because Spain is the centre of the universe, as opposed to somewhere suitably Continentally decedent for odd Art to take place - it got you thinking about the other series [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Music on March 18, 2007 | 3 Comments »
The bass tutor for the rather better orchestra you played in used to tell a story about a particularly dull piece he endured once. Well, it may not have been particularly dull for the audience, but it was spectacularly so for the bass section as the part entirely consisted of pinging a pizzicatod note, counting nine, and then doing [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Marriage, Music on February 25, 2007 | 11 Comments »
Your living room is dominated by the sound system.
If you knew about these things you would be able to astonish readers with a list of the thoughtful and knowledgeable mixture of hi fi separates which go into its make up. As it is, what you can say is that it is sleek and essentially black. The elegant loud speakers are [...]
Read Full Post »
