Perfectly Vocal

Another Year Over

Well, that's another year over.  Tonight, Rob, Elliot and I are off to my friend D's house for a party - there will be much laughter, drinking, eating and conversation and I'm really looking forward to it.  Resolution-wise, I think I'm going to try to just not take things so seriously, not look for potential pitfalls round every corner, not try to second guess everyone's motives and try to live rather more in the moment as opposed to wishing and planning my life away.  Whatever your resolutions are, if indeed you have any at all, I hope you're successful and wish you all much love, peace and happiness for the New Year.

More Halle

Last night we went to the Bridgewater Hall again to see "A Russian Fantasy" with work by Glinka, Liadov, Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky.  John Wilson, the conductor, appeared to be about 12 years old. (Is it a sign you're getting old when conductors appear young?).  According to the programme notes he was born in 1972, which makes him young by my standards!  Andreas Boyde was impressive during the Rachmaninov (Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini) and John Wilson is a theatrical conductor - lots of leaping and baton flourishing, and dressed in a tailcoat, he cut a far more dashing (if slightly more stylised and less eccentric) figure than Carl Davis in his trainers!  The audience was as varied as ever, ranging from elderly ladies in evening wraps, to two little girls in matching pink dresses ready to perform the Dance of The Sugar Plum fairy in the aisle. The second half was devoted to Excerpts from The Nutcracker and the conductor suggested in advance that we clap between excerpts rather than waiting for the finale.  He felt there would be time as the orchestra was able to perform without the "dancers to slow them down"!  The encore was the Panorama from Sleeping Beauty which I found rather a let down, as it just sort of "faded away", but I imagine it allowed the elderly ladies to calm down before they left the building. 

No Comment

For a few weeks I haven't been able to make comments on Typepad blogs, including my own.  I raised a query with Typepad through their excellent "Help Ticket" facility, and they suggested disabling my internet security.  This does work, so I temporarily switch off Symantec and comment, then switch it back on again, but it's not the most streamlined operation in the world, and I must admit, I don't like disabling it, even for a short time - that's my paranoia creeping in, I think!  I wrote back to Typepad and told them this is a "work around" that is OK, but  not a permanent feature, I hope.  Their response was:

"We've had other reports of this problem so we're investigating currently. If there's something that needs to be changed to make commenting easier, we'll want to do that of course. But I don't have a definitive answer on what's going on just yet. We apologize for the inconvenience."

In the meantime, I'll just keep disabling and enabling.

Failing

I took my car for its MOT yesterday and it failed spectacularly:

• Nearside front brake pad less than 1.5mm thick
• Offside front tyre tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm
• Offside rear coil spring fractured
• Offside front suspension arm has excessive play in a ball joint
• Offside rear parking brake recording little or no effort

This jolly little lot of repairs is going to cost me around £300, which along with the car tax which is due tomorrow is a fairly hefty sum to have to find at this time of year.  S, my friend who runs the garage, informs me that most of this is just "maintenance" and the suspension and coil spring are just "bad luck".  I've also done 18,000 miles in the past year - mostly owing to my new job which involves a lot more travelling than the previous one.  Andy tells me he has a friend who paid £300 for car repairs, then skidded and wrote her car off, so by comparison I know I shouldn't grumble, but it wont stop me!

A Cold and Frosty Morning

Last night was the coldest night in Manchester for a decade according to the radio.  Even the dog was cold!  It took 20 minutes to clear my windscreen before setting off to take my car for its MOT, and the temperature gauge in the car showed -5 degrees at 10.00am.  We even had a short snow flurry two days ago and the flakes are still visible lying on the ground.  A day to stay in a keep warm I think, but makes for some very pretty views.

Winter's Evening

                       

It was so cold last night, but a brisk walk in the evening with the dog was called for after the excesses of the past couple of days.

Lo and Behold

So Christmas Day came and went in the usual flurry of food, drink and games.  On Christmas Eve we went off to midnight mass, sang carols and shook hands with strangers, arrived home to pour a nice alcoholic drink and sat down to watch a film....and Lo and Behold... I had no digital TV channels at all.  Not a single one.  Not to worry, we rarely watch TV on Christmas Day, but still, it was irritating.  Christmas morning came, I went to send a text, and Lo and Behold again, "text failed" flashed up on the screen endlessly.  And so it continued.  The food and alcohol flowed and I finally turned off my mobile and tossed it in a drawer in frustration at not being able to reply to the hearty greetings arriving on a seemingly hourly basis.  After a delicious dinner the six of us sat down to play "Scene It", and suddenly every film title and actor's name erased itself from my memory.  By 1am, daughter #1's team (consisting of daughter #1 and Rob) had won.  I had the luck of having daughter #1's boyfriend as my team mate - his encyclopaedic knowledge of films somewhat hampered by his far more encylopaedic knowledge of real ales. 

Finally on Boxing Day I rang NTL about the telly - oh yes, it was a fault, they would repair it within two hours.  Very reassuring until they added if it hadn't reappeared in two hours to call back.  You just know you're going to have to call back, don't you? I called back on the minute of 2 hours.  "Yes, Madam, you appear to be on a restricted service, I'll pass you through to customer services".  I waited whilst listening to an endless parade of options for improving my service, thinking any service at all would be an improvement!  Eventually I found out I had been cut off on Christmas Eve.  When querying why I was told they could only apologise, it was an error.  I told them I was less than happy, and amazingly they managed to restore all my channels within 10 minutes.  I switched on my mobile and sent a text - "message sent" flashed up - no need to ring O2 then. I really think we were much better off without technology.  As my dad always says, the more you have, the more that can go wrong.

All I want for Christmas...

It's my own fault - I was smug.  All the presents bought and wrapped, all the cards written and sent; the food in the fridge prepared, a bit of dusting and hoovering to be done, but only 30 minutes or so there - and Christmas Eve planned as a day of rest and relaxation for the first time in....well.....the first time ever I think.  I was going to have a leisurely start to the day, watch a bit of seasonal television maybe, prepare the trifle and generally enjoy.  It had to happen didn't it?  I was woken at 5.30am by a call from daughter #3 in Australia to tell me her flight home had changed on 30th January - exciting news for her, I know, but hardly a necessity to know at that hour in the morning.  It was lovely to hear from her, but I suspect I was less than kind about being woken so early, so now I feel a bit guilty.  I made a drink and then realised, I can't breath through my nose...or should I say "through by doze".  My eyes are streaming, my throat hurts....yes....I've got a fully blown cold, dammit!  Someone misheard.  I wasn't singing "All I want for Christmas is FLU"!!!!

Halle-lujah!

On Thursday night Rob and I went to The Bridgewater Hall - what a fabulous night!  The Hall always feels special to me, and the range of music was wide, a bit of something for everyone, and nothing long enough that it mattered if you weren't particularly keen.  Carl cut a dashing figure in reversible green and red silk jacket, black shirt and trousers and trainers!  Frances was typically Diva-like in an assortment of spangles and satin topped with flashing earrings and antlers.  The lack of seriousness added to the occasion and we felt our Christmas started here.

Carl's Christmas Classics

Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without a musical spectacular from Carl Davis. This year you have two chances to hear a programme packed with Carl's personal favourites. He has chosen a selection box of great classics, exciting film music and immortal seasonal songs. Frances McCafferty is there to add extra sparkle and the evening promises to be a wonderful Christmas treat.

Sleigh Ride  Anderson
Toy Story: You've Got A Friend In Me Randy Newman
Cinderella: Bibidee Bobidee Boo  Livingston
Carmina Burana: In Trutina  Orff
Sleepers Awake Bach arr. Ormandy
The Sleeping Beauty: Panorama and Waltz  Tchaikovsky
Hansel and Gretel: Aria and Witch's Ride  Humperdinck
Jingle Bells  Gould
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer  Marks
Let it Snow  Styne
The Gondoliers: The Duchess's Aria  Sullivan
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Harry's Wondrous World  John Williams
White Christmas  Berlin
Messiah: Pastoral Symphony  Handel arr. Mozart
Ben Hur: The Nativity Story  Carl Davis

Carl Davis  conductor
Frances McCafferty  mezzo-soprano

Ready....steady....

I'm scaring myself.  For the first time in years, I can say I am truly ready and organised for Christmas - 6 days in advance.  All the presents are bought and wrapped, all cards sent or delivered and all non-perishable food has been bought (plans in place for perishables nearer the day) and put into the cupboards with big notes attached warning the rest of the family of dire consequences if they eat it before next Saturday!  I am absolutely determined that I am NOT going out on Christmas Eve for any more shopping.  I'm amazed at how relatively stress free this year's shopping has been (apart from the obvious expense and I'll worry about that in the New Year).  The rest of the week is all planned out.  On Thursday night we are off to the Bridgewater Hall to see the Halle Orchestra play some Christmas Classics and there's Christmas lunch from work on Friday. 

Elliot hasn't been well (or R for that matter who generously passed on his flu bug to Elliot as an early Christmas present, I think), so just for you, Elliot....

He Wore Greeeeeeen Velvet......Greener than velvet were his eyes......