Mixed Mental Mayhem

Oh wow, what a week! (and there's still another mental one to go...)

I know it's the end of term, so one should expect it to be very busy, but seriously. I have aged quite a bit this week...

I hate having to be in two places at once. Its just not feasible, and causes a lot of stress. This happened to me this past week (and I've got it again tomorrow).

It started with an "11th Day" on Monday (the "11th Day" is this thing that the school do, whereby every so often - and not necessarily every 11th day, they take the whole school off timetable to do various projects). For this particular 11th day, I booked in jazz musicians Tomorrow's Warriors to work with the girls on improvisational skills and general musicianship. We had Abram Wilson (trumpet) leading the workshop, assisted by Gary Crosby (bass) and a dude called Shabakah (tenor sax / clarinet). I can't remember the name of the guy on kit, but he was excellent. Anyway, the kids really enjoyed the workshop and got a lot out of it. But the reason it was so stressful is that Monday was also the day of the 2nd of the Cruse farewell gala events, in that it was the special church service with the Bishop of Kingston. I had to organise a bunch of girls to sing "Give Thanks" and also performing "Very Real Way". So here I am, sorting out kids with Tomorrow's Warriors, then rushing off for the church service, then running back for more Tomorrow's Warriors... seriously tired by the end of the day hey.

Tuesday and Wednesday were sort of normal, actually taught someone something for a change, then Thursday was the day of 'Triple M' - Mixed, Mental Mayhem. Before I can fully explain, I have to give you a bit of background. In England they have this stupid thing called Enterprise Education, which basically means I have to spend some time teaching about careers in music, and the music business etc. To be honest, its a pile of rubbish. But we have to do it, so that's why its easiest if you get an organisation in to do a workshop - then you can tick the 'enterprise' box for another year, and be done with it. So on Thursday we had in this group called Urban Edge, who did a workshop with 50 kids on designing logos, organising an event, singing / songwriting, and playing keyboards / guitars. The problem was that the tutors got caught in traffic, weren't allowed into the school (because I didn't know exactly who was coming so I hadn't told the school keepers), and then they hadn't told me exactly how many computers etc were required, so I had to spend ages rustling a few up. The kids seemed to enjoy the workshops though and I was pleased to get to the end of the day.

Then there was Friday. Event number 3 in Mrs Cruse's gala farewell. This was the big one, a concert in honour of Mrs Cruse. The Concert Band, Jazz Band and Orchestra were performing and I was supposed to be conducting the concert band and the orchestra, but one of my teachers at the last minute wasn't able to make it, and I suddenly found myself having to play Tuba for the Concert Band. Completely ridiculous. Going from Baritone Sax in the Jazz Band, straight to Tuba for the next item - couple this with the fact I had to walk in carrying these oversized instruments in my black satin dress and ridiculously high heels - man, I nearly stacked it several times! But the event went well, the Head seemed happy - 3 down, 1 to go. Fortunately we don't have to do anything at the last one.

So it's been hectic. And it's not about to let up next week. On Monday we have 18 kids doing ABRSM exams, so we have a visiting examiner. At the same time (oh how I love this 'be in two places at once' malarkey) I have to rehearse the gospel choir, then run an assembly for the new Yr 7s coming in next year, then teach some "taster" sessions to them... its a joke. Then, I have to go to the Macedonian embassy to get a visa at 3.30pm, then be at the Institute of Education at 5pm for the final session of this course I've been on called Leading from the Middle (which to be honest has been a bit of a joke).

Tuesday and Wednesday should again be normal, but Thursday is Junior Prize Day - so its all mental mayhem again!

Seriously, I can't wait for the holidays...

It Never Rains But It Pours

It's Murphy's Law, isn't it. When you really need to get something done, the elements conspire against you to make the task nigh on impossible. Today I went into town - not a big deal, I know - but the reason was because in a few weeks time it's Dad's 60th birthday, and he asked me if I could send him a video message to be played at his party. No worries, easily enough done - especially as I have borrowed the school mac and could do a spot of editing on it. A few years back I did a video message for my grandparents for their 60th wedding anniversary. I went around to a few of the places that we had visited together when they were here, and I told a few little anecdotes standing in front of those locations. Packaged the tape all up and sent it to Uncle David at AVP to work his magic on. No worries.

So I thought that I had best do something similar for Dad. Only problem is, his birthday is in 2 weeks and so there won't be enough time for Uncle David to edit it. But I have the mac. If I can get the footage done on Saturday (today), edit it a bit on Sunday, post it off Monday special delivery or something - that should do it. It should arrive in time. But of course, I didn't allow for Murphy's Law. I woke up this morning, it was absolutely pinging it down with rain. Heavy, heavy rain. Me and a video camera in London in heavy rain. Yeah, right. But I packed it all up, rugged up in my weatherproof (what a sexy look that is!) and headed off to my first location, Trafalgar Square. And at Trafalgar Square I was accosted by thousands of leather clad, pink t-shirted, rainbow flag hippy dudes and dudettes in drag. That's right, people. Today was gay pride or some such. They took over all the locations I needed for my video message, some of them thinking (how?) that I was some sort of reporter, and trying to get in on my video... they were everywhere! Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, Leicester Square, Oxford St - everywhere. So that was Murphy's Law problem number 1. Problem number 2 was that I had borrowed a camcorder from school because mine is not so good when its overcast - the media guy at school assured me the battery was fully charged, but I got half way through my first message and the battery completely died. Completely. Couldn't even take the tape out of the camera. Luckily I had mine there for backup, but now I've got very dark pictures and also, my camera doesn't have an external mic input - so I had to shout my message. And all the while the rain just keeps pouring on down... Then I found out about Murphy's Law problem number 3. You wouldn't read about it. The posties are on strike at the moment. So even if I manage to edit something in time for Monday, there's no knowing when it will actually get sent. Or even if it will arrive in time... So looks like I might have to give up my delusions of video message grandeur and pop out a quick, emailed mpeg message instead from the living room! Oh well, I can always try again tomorrow - anyone fancy going up to London to be my cameraman?

Goodbye Mr PM

So today, after some 10 years in office, Tony Blair resigned. The reaction of the public here in the UK was pretty much an overwhelming sense of relief. Quite different from the wave of euphoria which greeted him when he first came into office.

Me, I'm actually quite sad to see him go. This is probably because I actually didn't think he was all that bad - sure, Iraq was a dumb thing to do, but hey - it seemed a good idea at the time, and anyway, he wasn't the only one led up the garden path by George "I'm too stupid for words" Bush. Little Johnny Howard for one, jumped on that bandwagon.

I guess the reason I didn't think he was all that bad was I actually met him once, back in May 2000. What happened was, Mrs Cruse called me into her office one day and asked me if the steel band could play funk. Hm, let's see, steel bands usually play reggae and calypso - but funk? And the problem was that the steel band tutor (Mat) was away at the time. I gave him a call anyway and it turned out he was back the next day, and he said, sure, we can do some funk. Next thing I know the Head's taken these kids off timetable for 3 days to prepare for an audition to play at a state function at 10 Downing Street - it was a function for Afro-Carribbean Heads of State, which is why they wanted a Steel band, but I don't think I ever got why it had to be funk. The Head had said to me as we prepared for the audition that as Head of Music I needed to be doing something musical too at the performance. So the next I knew, there I was learning to play "Whatcha Talkin' Bout" and "Upso" on tenor pan. I managed ok with that, as when the difficult bits happened, I just tilted my pan a bit so you couldn't actually see that I wasn't playing anything. Its not like the notes are laid out in a logical order on the pan, you know. I never did manage "Brazil" though...

Anyway, some important (well, they thought so) people from Downing Street came and listened to the band, thought they were ok, and next thing I know, me, Mrs Cruse, Mat and the schoolkeeper Greg were on our way up to Number 10 to check out the space we would be performing in (like a Headteacher needs to come along for that, right?)

A day or two later and there we were, in the Terracotta room, checking it all out for size. Seems it passed the test, as off we were a couple of days later for our performance.

And what a performance! I think it was an evening that I will never forget in my life. VIPs, dignitaries, Heads of State - and they all came up and said hello. Plus before the event Tony and Cherie Blair came up to say hello to the girls and have a private performance. I shook his hand and chatted for a bit, he seemed nice enought to me (or maybe he was just polite, I don't know). Anyway it was at that moment that he got my vote (well would've done if I ever wanted to vote in British elections).

It was a very special evening, an opportunity I never thought I would have as a lowly music teacher from the colonies.

Maybe I'm being a bit stupid, but that's why I'm sad to see Tony Blair go. At least he had a bit of personality. Gordon Brown has all the charm and personality of a dead fish.

Playing with the Steel Band

Meeting Cherie Blair

With Baroness Blackstone

Me and Mat setting up the band

The PM and his wife enjoying a private concert

Outside Number 10

All the way to the top!

Girls Night at Gemma's

Last night I went over my friend Gemma's house for a bit of a girly night in. Her friend, Louisa, who is also a dancer like Gemma, and who does the summer school that I was doing the past few years, was visiting from Leeds. We decided we'd do a bit of cooking whilst having our girly goss and then watch a movie.

A couple of months ago I helped Steve and Neil out on "Friday Night Food" at church. It was an oriental evening and they did lots of Chinese food, and I showed the guys how to make sushi. Gemma was there, tried our sushi (and survived!) and asked if I'd show her and Lou how to do it, which is how we ended up making sushi last night. We made ebi nigiri (which was surprisingly easy as I found the prawns already cooked and sliced at the Asian grocers in Brixton), various makizushi, and also inarizushi (we called them "sushi pockets" because they were little pockets of fried bean curd which you stuff sushi rice into).

Tasted pretty good, too!

Louisa cutting the sushiGemmaMe and Lou

Oh crap, my pav's gone spack!

The Head retires after 19 years service at our school at the end of this academic year. To celebrate, they've planned a series of (get this!) FOUR events to farewell her. And of course, the Music department features heavily at pretty much well all of them. So the first one is tomorrow, its an informal event, basically its a bring a dish thing, with members of the Music department and anyone else who plays an instrument providing live entertainment. Anyway, I was volunteered by ASS (the "After School Social" committee) to do two things - play sax, and provide a pavlova. So, here I am, on a Thursday night, diligently making my pav (and from scratch too, I might add!). I happily load the pav up in the oven, it's looking good, oven humming along nicely - but I forgot that if you use a fan-forced oven you have to cook at like 10 degrees less or something. So, now I have a pav that's gone completely spack! It looks like a white cow pat. Imagine me rocking up tomorrow to the do, hi everyone, here's my traditional Australian dish - ta da! The cow pat...! Would go down well, wouldn't it? It's so bad I can't even bring myself to look upon it any more, let alone post a photo of it on my blog for everyone to see my shame. Which is why I now find myself at 11pm on a school night making another one. Only this time I fortunately found a pavlova magic at the back of the cupboard... Fingers crossed this one works...

Side by Side by Sondheim

Totally forgot to post about this until just now.

Two weeks ago I went with my colleagues Stacey (voice / guitar teacher) and Erik (classroom music) to see "Side by Side by Sondheim" at the Venue, Leceister Square. For those who have been to London, the Venue is next door to the Prince Charles Theatre just off Leceister Square, where they show "Singalonga Sound of Music". We went for dinner first at my fav, Wagamamas, in Leceister Square, then had a quick coffee as we had a bit of time to kill before the show. We had got very reasonably priced tickets on lastminute.com (my favourite website).

I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the show. I was a bit dubious at first as the show has only 3 singers and 1 narrator, (plus 2 pianists as the musical accompaniment!), but it was absolutely wonderful. The music of Sondheim is so lyrical, catchy and really is just wonderful to listen to. The singers were amazing, we didn't have the blonde woman that you see here (but her understudy, who sung nice enough but her eyes were really weird so that detracted a lot from the performance), but the woman in the red dress, Josie Walker, was incredible. Her version of "Getting Married Today" was hilarious! (and very well sung)! The guy, Alasdair Harvey, was really good too (especially funny in the Andrews sisters number!).

Basically the show is a revue in 2 acts, of the songs of Stephen Sondheim. There's no real plot, the narrator (on our evening it was Les Dennis) gives a bit of a comment about the song, then it gets performed. It's basically a tribute of Stephen Sondheim songs. Some of my favourites were:
* Can That Boy Foxtrot!
* Getting Married Today
* You Must Meet My Wife
* I Never Do Anything Twice
* Send In The Clowns
* Pretty Lady
* I'm Still Here
* You Gotta Get a Gimmick - this one was especially funny!

So, it was a very enjoyable evening. For more details, pics etc, check out the website here.

Farewell, foul stench!

Hallelujah, its over!

I got a phone call on Thursday from the foul stench that is Jessops, saying that finally, FINALLY! my photos are ready. You know, the Iceland ones, the ones that they did a rubbish job developing, and then lost one of the rolls when they reprinted them. The saga that's been ongoing since February...

So yesterday I schlepped up to town to get them. I manage to get there just before closing time, but this time I did actually check the photos before I left the shop. You know what's coming next, don't you? They got it wrong again!

They managed to reprint the lost film, create new negatives, but neglected to put the corrected prints onto CD. Now I thought to myself, I can go back and complain, and looking at their past track record, wait another 4 months, or I can leave the shop, wipe my hands of them, and never darken their door again. Or I can do this:

Sunday Night at the Movies

Well after my experiences last Saturday (and a few weeks back) I will admit, I was a bit skeptical about braving the local cinemas again to go see Ocean's 13. But I figured 6.30pm on a Sunday night should be ok, right? I mean, it'll probably finish around 9.00pm, tomorrow's a school day, so hopefully the only kids who are at the cinema are the ones who are a bit older and have a later bed time... You know I was wrong again, don't you. We get into the cinema in good time, choose pretty decent seats, a comfortable distance apart from other patrons, settle ourselves down in our seats with my good friends Ben and Jerry, and there we go. Bring on the film. The problem with arriving early and choosing seats in the middle of the cinema is that you can't see who arrives after you and sits behind you. So, lo and behold, it happened again. A young woman with her 3 or 4 year old son arrives just as the film starts and sits behind us. So, the film is clearly well over the kid's head, he gets bored, and starts yapping. And the mother makes absolutely no effort to shut him up. At all. After about 30 minutes of constant yap from the kid, we up and move seats. But we can still hear him. So, during one of his many soliloquies (in a quiet bit), I tell him to 'shush'. And he does, for about 30 seconds - then starts up again. At this point, Jane had had enough, so she went out to get the usher. The usher said that unless the kid was crying, there's nothing they can do. Excuse me? I'll have my money back please - at this suggestion the usher decided to get the manager, who came in, heard the racket, and promptly evicted them. Thank goodness. And then we managed to actually enjoy the rest of the film. This has been the 3rd film in pretty much as many weeks that I've been to see, and the 3rd in a row that has been ruined by kids who really shouldn't have been there. What is wrong with parents these days? Why do they think its appropriate to bring young children (or those who can't speak English) to the movies - because they can't find or can't afford suitable child care? Where's the sense in that? My sister and her husband have got it all sussed. At the moment they bring their baby daughter with them to the movies, but if it's a film Beck really wants to see, Dem will take Marcella out if she squarks, and if it's a film Demo wants to see, Beck has baby duties. Makes perfect sense. I just don't get why the people of London can't figure out something similar. Or at least take advantage of the parents and toddler sessions that the cinemas offer. Hm. I want to go see the new Die Hard film when it comes out soon. Maybe I'd be better off seeing it in the middle of the day - all the kids will be at the evening sessions!

The Re-opening of the Royal Festival Hall

Wow, what a weekend!

Or more accurately I should say, wow, what a week! It started on Monday with the commencement of a project with our school, the Royal College of Music students, a laptop orchestra from the London College of Communication, and the London Sinfonietta. Basically, they came in this week to put together a performance of Terry Riley's "In C", which would be performed at the re-opening of the Royal Festival Hall after some 2 years of closure due to refurbishment.

The piece was absolutely amazing, the girls really rose to the occasion and joined in making some very interesting music (well, the piece is credited as being the first minimalist piece so it does have moments of sounding rather unusual). We performed two performances on Saturday night in the ballroom, which is a large performance area in the foyer of the Royal Festival Hall. It was a real privilege to be able to take part, there was so much going on over the weekend (some 250 000 people visited the South Bank over the course of 48 hours) and to be one of the performers, well, that was a real honour. Especially performing with the likes of the London Sinfonietta, one of 4 resident orchestras at the South Bank.

I don't know if this video does much justice for the piece, as it was taken on a stills camera, but it'll give you an idea anyway. And if you look (and listen) real hard, you'll spot me (playing woodblock next to one of the London Sinfonietta violinists)...

Then on Sunday, because there was sooo much going on, and I really wanted to be a part of it, I went back down to the South Bank. The only problem was that there were so many people there that it was difficult to move around, let alone get to see any performances (all of which were free, I might add).

But the highlight was tonight. The Head had been given free tickets to the "First Night Gala Concert" (the price range for which was £500 or £100) but she couldn't use them. So she gave them to the Deputy Head and to me. So I got to go to the first proper concert since the refurbishment, to hear the London Philharmonic, the London Sinfonietta, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (plus the Philharmonia Chorus and the London Philharmonic Choir) perform the following repertoire:

Julian Anderson Alleluia (world premiere) - London Phil, Philharmonic Choir, Conductor Vladimir Jurowski
Stravinksy The Firebird Suite (1919 version) - London Phil, Conductor Vladimir Jurowski
Ives The Unanswered Question - members of London Phil, London Sinfonietta and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Conductor Marin Alsop
Birtwhistle Cortege (world premiere) - London Sinfonietta
Purcell Symphony from the Fairy Queen - Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Ligeti Atmospheres - Philharmonia Orchestra, Conductor Christoph von Dohnanyi
Beethoven Symphony No 9 (Choral) 4th Movement - London Phil, Philharmonia choir, soloists: Joan Rodgers, Patricia Bardon, Philip Langridge and Brindley Sherratt, Conductor Christoph von Dohnanyi

and the closing encore, Ravel's Bolero - with members from all of the above ensembles, Conductor Marin Alsop. Actually I thought out of all the conductors, she was probably the best, closely followed by Jurowski. With these two, even the tiniest gesture created a subtle change in sound - and I don't just think that it was the orchestra being really good a following, because the other dude was all full of gesture and there didn't seem to be any real point to it. He was much like Tristan's 'mad conductor' in All Creatures Great and Small...

Then afterwards there was refreshments, speeches, toasts and a celebration cake (yum!). It was a simply fantastic evening, lots of the glitterati in attendance (and some not so glitterati!) - the Deputy Head kept pointing out various pommy socialites whom I had never heard of, and some I had, people like Janet Street Porter - I can't name the ones I hadn't heard of because I can't remember their names! hehehe! During one of the intervals (there were two) Salman Rushdie wandered past me. Dubious honour, but anyway.

I think out of the pieces we heard, I enjoyed the Rossini, Stravinsky and Ives the best. The Ives was really cool, it was played with a string quartet who are out in the wings, off stage, and a woodwind quartet on stage, and a solo trumpet (who was up in one of the boxes). Brilliant.

Anyway, it was such a special evening, one I will always remember, and to quote my sister Melissa (on the occasion of seeing "Turandot" at the Sydney Opera House) - "How can I go back to being a pleb after this?"

Saturday Night at the Movies

The day after the Great CBA, Nic and I decided to go see Pirates of the Caribbean. Now there's nothing all that astonishing about that, I know. But it was a Saturday night, and we decided to go to the cinema in Croydon so we could go to Frankie and Benny's beforehand (my favourite restaurant). Anyway, we ended up going to the 8.00 session or something. Again, nothing astonishing about that. Nor anything astonishing about how packed the cinema was - I mean, it was a Saturday night, you've got to expect it, right? But packed with children? And I mean, children... kids, aged like 7 or 8, all out at the movies on a Saturday night - a movie which is scheduled to finish around 11pm or so. Now call me old fashioned, but I think that little kids that age should be heading for bed around 8.30pm - not heading out to the movies. The reason we picked to go to a later session was so that we wouldn't encounter a load of children. I suppose I wouldn't have minded so much if they actually behaved. But you had one woman there with her 7 or 8 year old son, who clearly wasn't interested in the film, plus her toddler, who DEFINITELY wasn't interested in the film, as he kept crying all the time (and never once did she take him outside! Just stood off the side, trying to shut him up)... then there was the kid behind me, who needed the toilet part way through, tripped over someone's feet in the dark and decided to grab me by the hair as he walked past to steady himself. Ironically, the same thing happened a few weeks ago when Jane and I went to see Spiderman 3. We wanted to go on a Saturday night to the 7.30pm session but it was fully sold out, so we ended up at the 8.30pm. I couldn't believe it, the cinema was absolutely packed, again with 7-8 year olds who don't understand the concept of shutting up when the film is actually on, but additionally, I was stuck in front of the kid who needed the toilet (very regularly), the kicky kid (who thought my chair was a football) - and - the piece de resistance - the Polish woman who translated the whole film into Polish for her daughter. Only in England.