Friday, October 27, 2006
Lest I forget
Rehearsal went pretty well last night - it's starting to come together, although some of the music still needs a bit of work. We were encouraged to all spend an hour looking at our parts this week. Sadly, yes, there were that many sniggers...
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Number crunching
Went to London today for a workshop/revision day for my last STEP exam which is fast approaching (and it's during show week...but that's another story). It's trust and estate accounts this time and doesn't look to be too bad - at least there aren't reams of case law and statutes to learn! We started with a jaunt through the world of double-entry accounts and the tutor (bless) gave us a helpful mnemonic to aid us in our pursuit of learning how to put entries into the cash account - DRCP which means "debit receipts, credit payments." The helpful mnemonic? Don't Rely on Contraceptive Pills. There's a lesson for everyone there!
Saw a poster for a new film whilst I was looking around aimlessly on the underground escalators and not trying to catch anyone's eye - it was described as "the best British romantic comedy about sexual politics this year." Hmmmm somewhat narrowing the field of competition???
Saw a poster for a new film whilst I was looking around aimlessly on the underground escalators and not trying to catch anyone's eye - it was described as "the best British romantic comedy about sexual politics this year." Hmmmm somewhat narrowing the field of competition???
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Blog your way into history
L sent me this link today - sounds like a good idea. An electronic time capsule. Here's a run-down of my day.
Got up at the usual time this morning - 6.30am. I have recently started working nearer to home that I have for the past 4 years, but still can't get out of the habit of getting up at half 6. Oh well, more time for television! My particular morning favourite is the children's programme The Hoobs - although I think I've seen all of them about 3 times! In case you're not familiar, they are aliens from the planet Hoob sent to earth to find out more about Peeps (us) to report back. Ivor (purple) is the neurotic leader prone to panic attacks when they don't seem to have answered the question in time for Hoob news, Groove (green) is the slightly dopey one who eats constantly and likes collecting things (like, things there are two of, or water in buckets...), Tula (pink) is the girly girl, good with the cooking and making them all costumes, and finally Romer (orange) is the travelling motorbike chick, ever so slightly butch with a friend called Dorothy (who apparently is very rude about her paintings!).
Had an unholy alliance of Bran Flakes and Crunchy Nut Clusters for breakfast and then drove the 25 miles to work. I'm a solicitor working in the private client department, and my day today was filled with a meeting about personal injury trusts and how we deal with the inheritance and capital gains tax changes wrought by this year's Finance Act and a trip out to Scole to see a lady about an Enduring Power of Attorney. Had been secretly dreading that visit but in fact it all went off okay.
After work I popped into Morrisons on the way home for some extras for dinner (cooked by my husband) and we ate that watching series 7 of The West Wing - they're just in the middle of a nuclear scare in Sacramento. Ooooooooooo. Then off to a sectional rehearsal for orchestra. I play the viola and our next concert is in just over a month's time (the week after the Gilbert & Sullivan show) - playing extracts from the Gadfly by Shostakovich, Rachmaninov piano concerto number 2 and Tchaikowsky symphony number 6. The third movement of the symphony is a bit of a nightmare, not leats because we're playing it at breakneck speed! Rehearsal also a good chance to catch up on all the lovely bowing details!
Got home around 10 and didn't want to spoil the ending of CSI : Miami which was just finishing and which I was videoing to watch later so brushed my teeth and came up to write this. Good night.
Got up at the usual time this morning - 6.30am. I have recently started working nearer to home that I have for the past 4 years, but still can't get out of the habit of getting up at half 6. Oh well, more time for television! My particular morning favourite is the children's programme The Hoobs - although I think I've seen all of them about 3 times! In case you're not familiar, they are aliens from the planet Hoob sent to earth to find out more about Peeps (us) to report back. Ivor (purple) is the neurotic leader prone to panic attacks when they don't seem to have answered the question in time for Hoob news, Groove (green) is the slightly dopey one who eats constantly and likes collecting things (like, things there are two of, or water in buckets...), Tula (pink) is the girly girl, good with the cooking and making them all costumes, and finally Romer (orange) is the travelling motorbike chick, ever so slightly butch with a friend called Dorothy (who apparently is very rude about her paintings!).
Had an unholy alliance of Bran Flakes and Crunchy Nut Clusters for breakfast and then drove the 25 miles to work. I'm a solicitor working in the private client department, and my day today was filled with a meeting about personal injury trusts and how we deal with the inheritance and capital gains tax changes wrought by this year's Finance Act and a trip out to Scole to see a lady about an Enduring Power of Attorney. Had been secretly dreading that visit but in fact it all went off okay.
After work I popped into Morrisons on the way home for some extras for dinner (cooked by my husband) and we ate that watching series 7 of The West Wing - they're just in the middle of a nuclear scare in Sacramento. Ooooooooooo. Then off to a sectional rehearsal for orchestra. I play the viola and our next concert is in just over a month's time (the week after the Gilbert & Sullivan show) - playing extracts from the Gadfly by Shostakovich, Rachmaninov piano concerto number 2 and Tchaikowsky symphony number 6. The third movement of the symphony is a bit of a nightmare, not leats because we're playing it at breakneck speed! Rehearsal also a good chance to catch up on all the lovely bowing details!
Got home around 10 and didn't want to spoil the ending of CSI : Miami which was just finishing and which I was videoing to watch later so brushed my teeth and came up to write this. Good night.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Weight of a bow
Heard at Suffolk Strings this afternoon that a recommended weight for a viola bow is between 69 and 75grams (I think!). So rushed home to check my bows - older crappy bow 59g - new lovely bow - 72g!!! Hurrah! But haven't so far found any validation for this remark on t'internet yet...just that you should use a weight that suits you. But it makes sense - a lighter bow tends to be much harder to control particularly in fast bouncy music.
On the same kind of theme it was the Planets concert last night. Brilliant music. They had a girls' choir in for Neptune - The Mystic because there's an etheral passage towards the end of the movement enhanced by a female choir singing out of sight - and sounding quite faraway and mysterious. Choir stood outside the main auditorium which was all well and good until they decided to close the door for the last few bars to make it sound even more muffled and further away. If only someone had thought to practise with the door which made the loudest most laborious clunking and banging noises as it was being closed...so much for mystery!
On the same kind of theme it was the Planets concert last night. Brilliant music. They had a girls' choir in for Neptune - The Mystic because there's an etheral passage towards the end of the movement enhanced by a female choir singing out of sight - and sounding quite faraway and mysterious. Choir stood outside the main auditorium which was all well and good until they decided to close the door for the last few bars to make it sound even more muffled and further away. If only someone had thought to practise with the door which made the loudest most laborious clunking and banging noises as it was being closed...so much for mystery!
Freaky food
While waiting in a queue of traffic on the A14 on Friday I briefly switched to SGR fm on the radio (local commercial station) to try and catch the local traffic news because R2 hadn't mentioned the A14 hold up. They had some how got onto the subject of weird food combinations - one of them liked to eat a bar of chocolate with mushrooms and a glass of milk (!). Then one of the presenters announced that the freakiest food combination she'd heard of had been chosen by her pregnant friend for lunch the day before. Cue ringing up the friend - what was the strange combo? Cheddar and raspberry jam! What's odd about that?!! I've been eating that since I was introduced to it in Methsoc at Uni (albeit usually red leicester being my hard cheese of choice). It's delicious! Not at all weird. Or strange. In any way. Perhaps?
Friday, October 13, 2006
Friday must be the day for it
Another accident on the A14 on my way into work this morning. Diverted around Thurston and in fact had the diversion not been full of other cars diverting might actually be a nice alternative for the last couple of miles. I would hate a journey to get stale! Got to work about half nine.
Same happened last week - an accident on the A14 which resulted in (apparently) the road's closure for 10 hours! Fatal accident - someone tried to drive along the A14 on the wrong carriageway... And then there was an overturned lorry on the diversion route. Another late start and not setting a good precedent for next week!
I've finally updated my reading list on the Blog, but still finding the Iliad tough going - I keep putting off trying to read it and as L finished "Faithless" the other day. I'm taking the opportunity to read that instead! Philip & Elizabeth still going well, if slowly but getting more into it now - I like the section I'm in because it's working through each family tree. Who Do You Think You are has a lot to answer for!
Same happened last week - an accident on the A14 which resulted in (apparently) the road's closure for 10 hours! Fatal accident - someone tried to drive along the A14 on the wrong carriageway... And then there was an overturned lorry on the diversion route. Another late start and not setting a good precedent for next week!
I've finally updated my reading list on the Blog, but still finding the Iliad tough going - I keep putting off trying to read it and as L finished "Faithless" the other day. I'm taking the opportunity to read that instead! Philip & Elizabeth still going well, if slowly but getting more into it now - I like the section I'm in because it's working through each family tree. Who Do You Think You are has a lot to answer for!
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Day of meetings..
So my day today -
Arrive at work and do an hour's research on some trust issues
Then travel to Stradbroke (about 50 mins) to see client for a little over an hour.
Travel back to Bury and then straight into a meeting. About an hour.
Then straight into another meeting - about an hour and a half
Spent the rest of the day dealing with my emails and emergency post.
So not especially productive...but at least my 3 hour "sharing work" meeting has been cancelled for tomorrow and with no other appointments I can hopefully get stuck into some of the things that have got a bit held up. Like post.
Arrive at work and do an hour's research on some trust issues
Then travel to Stradbroke (about 50 mins) to see client for a little over an hour.
Travel back to Bury and then straight into a meeting. About an hour.
Then straight into another meeting - about an hour and a half
Spent the rest of the day dealing with my emails and emergency post.
So not especially productive...but at least my 3 hour "sharing work" meeting has been cancelled for tomorrow and with no other appointments I can hopefully get stuck into some of the things that have got a bit held up. Like post.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Are you my wife?
Heard this chap on the Chris Evans show on the way home from work tonight - sounded great!
So much to catch up on..
And I seem to be having difficulties uploading photos to my Blog - quite annoying because I wanted to share a few from Shell Island. Must speak to L about getting my blog back logged into Flickr so I can post photos direct from there.
It's been ages since I last blogged - there's so much to tell! Went to Shell Island a couple of weekends go which was truly staggeringly beautiful. We had brilliant weather for the most part and the beach was so quiet and vast. It's impressive when you arrive and they say things like - we've got 300 acres, so you can just go anywhere, as long as it's not too close to someone you don't know. Fine by me! I keep getting a bit mixed up and wanting to call it Shell weekend, but that just reminds me of church youth weekends of the same name from years ago.
Visited Harlech and Barmouth briefly and came home a bit early, but that allowed us to break the journey in Derby which meant not too tired for the rehearsal on Monday and work on Tuesday. And the best part is that I can now say I've stayed somewhere with a causeway...very evocative of certain murder mysteries!
The next week at work was okay but seemed far too long for just a 4 day week. Went to Norwich last weekend to see my sister and fiancee after visiting mum in Yarmo. They had floods again a couple of weeks ago - my sister had to leave her car at school because the water in the car park was knee deep! But all dry now, although there are still a lot of sand bags lying around in case any rain tries to sneak up on them again!
Mum's having a clear out in preparation for selling the house next year to move in with her new husband and wanted me and Becks to sort out some more stuff. Mostly old school work and university stuff, most of which was dumped and although I fully appreciate you can't hang on to things like that (because when did I last look at them? Probably about 10 years ago when they went under the bed!) it does bring back good memories and all the work that went into them. I did hang on to some of my english coursework though - I just couldn't bring myself to throw it away because I'd enjoyed it so much, oh Sylvia Plath. I think English would have been my next choice for degree if I hadn't done law.
I think as a result I'm trying to rekindle my old love for literature and I've started Homer's The Iliad. Only read a few pages so far and it's a bit hard going at the moment, but I'm hoping that once I get into the language it'll flow a bit more. I was weak last night and started the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy again...but that will have to be put aside now!!
Work's been okay this week so far - the new cupboards arrived with a fanfare of chaos and we're having a meeting about it on Friday... Ran the on-hold gauntlet at lunch today with various utility companies and banks, and was successful! Noone had to listen to me trying hurriedly to swallow a bit of sandwich because they'd answered the phone too early!
Off to Fleet this weekend for a birthday party and then back on Sunday for G&S. This now seems to be flowing much better although it would help if the lady setting some of the movement could learn the words of the song - 'you move your hand on the bit when it goes "his dumpty dum should thingummy and his" (starts humming)...' Great - and the men surpassed themselves again - supposed to be doing actions on 'foot should stamp' and 'throat should growl' but bless, they got carried away with the new learning and all manner of actions broke loose on the section before. But it will all come good and L now has a lovely sailor hat to wear. Can't wait to see it on!
It's been ages since I last blogged - there's so much to tell! Went to Shell Island a couple of weekends go which was truly staggeringly beautiful. We had brilliant weather for the most part and the beach was so quiet and vast. It's impressive when you arrive and they say things like - we've got 300 acres, so you can just go anywhere, as long as it's not too close to someone you don't know. Fine by me! I keep getting a bit mixed up and wanting to call it Shell weekend, but that just reminds me of church youth weekends of the same name from years ago.
Visited Harlech and Barmouth briefly and came home a bit early, but that allowed us to break the journey in Derby which meant not too tired for the rehearsal on Monday and work on Tuesday. And the best part is that I can now say I've stayed somewhere with a causeway...very evocative of certain murder mysteries!
The next week at work was okay but seemed far too long for just a 4 day week. Went to Norwich last weekend to see my sister and fiancee after visiting mum in Yarmo. They had floods again a couple of weeks ago - my sister had to leave her car at school because the water in the car park was knee deep! But all dry now, although there are still a lot of sand bags lying around in case any rain tries to sneak up on them again!
Mum's having a clear out in preparation for selling the house next year to move in with her new husband and wanted me and Becks to sort out some more stuff. Mostly old school work and university stuff, most of which was dumped and although I fully appreciate you can't hang on to things like that (because when did I last look at them? Probably about 10 years ago when they went under the bed!) it does bring back good memories and all the work that went into them. I did hang on to some of my english coursework though - I just couldn't bring myself to throw it away because I'd enjoyed it so much, oh Sylvia Plath. I think English would have been my next choice for degree if I hadn't done law.
I think as a result I'm trying to rekindle my old love for literature and I've started Homer's The Iliad. Only read a few pages so far and it's a bit hard going at the moment, but I'm hoping that once I get into the language it'll flow a bit more. I was weak last night and started the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy again...but that will have to be put aside now!!
Work's been okay this week so far - the new cupboards arrived with a fanfare of chaos and we're having a meeting about it on Friday... Ran the on-hold gauntlet at lunch today with various utility companies and banks, and was successful! Noone had to listen to me trying hurriedly to swallow a bit of sandwich because they'd answered the phone too early!
Off to Fleet this weekend for a birthday party and then back on Sunday for G&S. This now seems to be flowing much better although it would help if the lady setting some of the movement could learn the words of the song - 'you move your hand on the bit when it goes "his dumpty dum should thingummy and his" (starts humming)...' Great - and the men surpassed themselves again - supposed to be doing actions on 'foot should stamp' and 'throat should growl' but bless, they got carried away with the new learning and all manner of actions broke loose on the section before. But it will all come good and L now has a lovely sailor hat to wear. Can't wait to see it on!
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