Busyknitter

Yikes! Remember me?

Since I last blogged I have;
-knitted two pairs of mittens for T, neither of which fitted
-been to work loads (ooh, like 5 days EVERY week)
-baked a couple of cakes
-fallen off my bike twice in the ice (HATE ice riding)
-started singing Gilbert and Sullivan arias
-been to a parents evening for S and heard lots of good things
-been on a romantic and long overdue trip to London with Mr BK (well I think cemetries containing dead political philosphers are romantic)
-Started work on turning bits of my Mum’s garden into a veg growing paradise

Definitely feeling that the winter hibernation is nearly over

At the beginning of this year, the choir that I sing in was thrilled to be invited to take part in a performance of a very popular choral work to be performed with a Proper Symphony Orchestra, their house choir and led by a World Famous Conductor. The concert is tonight at a big venue and I am sure it’s going to be a fantastic occasion.

Anyhow, we’ve been rehearsing for three months, every week with just our choir, accompanied by the piano. It’s been very hard work. The actual parts for this piece aren’t particularly difficult. But it’s a hard sing, very tough on the voice and requires quite a bit of stamina. So we’ve worked hard and we’ve learnt it well.

So yesterday evening we all had to travel about an hour and a half in a big double decker bus to attend the final, compulsory, three-hour rehearsal with the Proper Symphony Orchestra and the World Famous Conductor.

We were about 10 minutes late arriving. It then took ten minutes to get into the building as we all had to sign in. Then all the sopranos and altos had to go to the loo (ratio of 45 ladies to 3 cubicles; go figure). So by the time we were ushered into our seats, the Proper Symphony Orchestra, the World Famous conductor and their own choir were well into the piece we are singing. So we joined in.

The piece finished. The World Famous Conductor went through a couple of entries and asked us to make sure we do a decent crescendo at such and such a bar.

And then he said…….. Thank you chorus, see you tomorrow, that’s it.

I think we sang for 10 minutes.

This is what it is like to be one of the grunts of the musical world.

Cold has not materialised.

Elder son is streaming, but that doesn’t matter because he doesn’t sing.

I’ve got a choir event in 10 days time; quite low key, a workshop not a concert. But I do have a bit of a solo part.

And my throat is starting that ominous tickle………..

07:30 – 08:45. Wave delightful children off to school [clue, organise your day off in term time]

09:30 Relaxing swim followed by sauna

11:30 Vacuum inside of car [doesn't really count as leisure, I know. But it wasn't going to get done any other time and the car had started to evolve its own lifeforms].

12:15 Go out for lunch with husband at the New Continental Pub. Eat very scrummy meal. Allow husband to pay.

13:30 Put feet up to read a book

16:00 Wake up just a few minutes before delightful children return home.

16:01 Normal life reboots.

What can I say, we had a completely awesome time. Huge thanks to my good friend who came to help out with T; couldn’t have done it without you. It was also great to spend some time with my brother, who is a Greenbelt old lag (compared to me that is)

As for the little fella, he loved it! Quite the little autistic party animal he was. He especially enjoyed any event with music.

As Greenbelt newbie, it took me a day or so to work out what was going on and when. But we still did loads. Beer’n Hymns was a particular highlight (two nights in a row!) As was a talk by John Swinton on the theology of disability. Also one by a bloke who walked the entire route of the M62 and wrote a book and a blog about it. And then there was the Taize worship. And the dinner I had from the Pie Minister stall (almost a religious experience in itself). Oh, and the Iona Big Sing. I could go on.

Camping with T was not too bad at all. The first night’s sleep was a bit rubbish; we went to bed at 1am and T woke us up before 4 and that was that. But Saturday and Sunday were a lot better.

And I spent a small fortune on books

Here’s a few pictures. There will be more on facebook.

Not much happened.

A very quiet day; My sore throat from Tuesday flowered into a fabulous head cold, so I had to cancel my afternoon singing lesson.

The friend who is coming to Greenbelt with us came round in the morning for a planning session. We decided to go for the minimal kibble approach; i.e. no cooking.

I popped into town while T was with his carer in the afternoon and snaffled two pairs of festival-suitable cropped trousers at a charity shop plus a very nifty little baglett for keeping Really Important Things safe while mooching around the festival.

After tea, T and I went for a walk and got totally soaked in a rainstorm.

And in the evening I reached a major milestone with this bloomin work!

As I said, a very quiet day indeed.

Took T to the church holiday club for a little while in the morning. I couldn’t leave him there as they aren’t set up with enough workers to give him the attention (but I think I will start asking for them to lay something on next year).

He really enjoyed it. When we arrived, there was just one chair placed in the middle of the school hall with all the activity going on around it. T plonked himself in the chair as if he were waiting for church or school assembly to start and just sat there happily waiting. It was very sweet.

Then some girly shopping; face cream, mascara and a new nail varnish. I also got collared in the street by someone flogging a promotion for a local hair salon and Oh My Goodness I signed up for it (which is quite out of character). essentially I’ve prepaid for six months worth of hair treatments – cuts colour, head massages, styling etc. If I use everything, i’ll have paid £55 for £350 of treatment. Now I know I won’t do that, but even if i get two cuts and a colour out of the deal, I’ll be quids in. They’d better be good.

And here is some free advertising for them Spencer Hair Company

T’s respite carer thinks he is starting to echo back simple phrases that people say to him.

Watched the Ingmar Bergman movie in the afternoon.

Carried on working in the evening. It’s very dull but I am making good progress with what i need to do.

Ooh, and I made a huge batch of cauliflower cheese for tea and the freezer. Though i say so myself, I make the best cauli cheese on this planet.

Not much reading going on this week, though I have finished Buddenbrooks at last (Poor Hanno!). Must look out a good stock of books to take away next week.

I have a sore throat.

Husband and older son plus my Mum have toodled off to Paris for a short autism-free break, leaving me and and the little fella at home. We have no grand plans because we are off to the Isle of Wight on Saturday.

I thought I’d keep a daily diary of our very quiet week at home. Here’s what we did yesterday:

Good Bits
-T enjoyed his first visit to his respite carer in a while (she’s been on holiday herself). She’s recently moved house but is still very close to us.
-While T was out, I spent the whole afternoon messing around learning to cook a new curry – chicken dhansak, mmm-mmnn.
-We cycled to the pool and had a very relaxing swim.
-Overnight I taped a ridiculously long Ingmar Bergman movie off Channel 4 to watch over the week – Scenes from a Marriage

Bad bits
- Have you any idea of the horrible mess that can be made by an autistic boy in search of sensory fun armed with only two slightly overrripe bananas?
-I spent the whole evening working, grrrr.
-correction, I spent the first part of the evening struggling to work with my underpowered laptop then gave up and moved onto husband’s smart games oriented PC (I’m going to have to do something about this in the autumn).