Stuff and things
Mar. 11th, 2010 09:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gothams3rdrobinIt's been very busy lately; had an assignment due yesterday for my OU course, and also a gig last night at the Museum of Welsh Life in St Fagans.
I think I royally screwed up the assignment - plus I uploaded it to the server at one minute past midnight. Which is one minute after the twelve hour grace period ends... *sigh* Ah well.
The gig at St Fagans was actually work-related; all the heads of Personnel from all our international ventures had come in to Cardiff for a meet-and-greet type conference, and they'd put on a meal at the Workingmans Club transplanted from its original location in Oakdale to the museum.
So there was I, singing on the stage in the very room where they held that Ball in the Doctor Who two-parter "Human Nature/The Family of Blood" *geeks out*
The gig went well, despite some pretty ropey rehearsals. I think we actually nailed 'Somebody To Love' for the first time in over a year! :-p I could actually hear the harmonies us Altos usually mess up, and we hit the crescendo at the right point - which is almost unprecedented. The audience were whooping and cheering, which was great, and they also started clapping along during the final song (The 'Born Free' medley we took to the Albert Hall) at Andrea's encouragement. This did make things difficult, however, as they were not clapping along with the beat so we had to forcibly tune them out so as to not lose our rhythm.
The real fun came afterwards, when we left the Hall to make our way home. It was around eight thirty by this time, and black as pitch out there. St Fagans is a mostly open-air museum, and we'd made our way to the Hall through a quite well lit, but lengthy path, and we all wanted to take the shorter route back to the main complex. This, however, was not so well lit and they've closed down one of the old houses for renovations, so the regular route was not available - and we couldn't see that in the dark! *laughs* So we ended up heading towards the storage sheds, and had to backtrack to find the temporary path that goes alongside the house. Suzi was, of course, in ridiculously high heels, and Jo and I had to hold her steady as we went over the cobbled path in the dark *giggles*
Then we had to find out how to get back to the carpark. I was somewhere in the middle of the group, so I followed along when they didn't take the normal turning towards to the exit (I've spent many a Saturday at St Fagans with Rowan and Mam - it's free). Of course there was no-one to let us out through the complex, but one of the staff did turn up and point us to the proper exit. I then got myself a little confused and was insisting we were supposed to take the normal exit on the left, past the rest rooms. But in my defence, I couldn't see that the service gate was unlocked! ;-)
Tomorrow, we're attending the funeral of a long-standing member of staff who passed away last week after a battle with cancer. I didn't know her personally, though several people I work or sing with did, and she came to see us when we sang for Tenovus at Llandaff Cathedral. Her family asked if we would attend the funeral in order to boost the sound of the congregation during the hymns, so they wouldn't sound as weak and lacklusture as normal. I feel rather uneasy about attending, as I never met the woman, but I feel like I should anyway as part of the choir. God knows enough of them are going to be bawling their eyes out rather than singing - including George and Andrea. George used to work for the company so she knew the woman, and has taken it quite badly. I don't know if Andrea knew her, but by her own admission she's one of those people who will well up during such an emotional scenario - they had moments just today when we were going over the hymn list to ensure we had some familiarity with them.
All this has meant that we've needed extra rehearsals this week; three in all - one Altos-only practise and a regular rehearsal in preparation for the St Fagans gig, and one today ready for the funeral. So I've been having to work on for the last four days to try and make up for the three hours I've been away from my desk during work time. Wasn't easy, as we ran out of work half an hour before I'd planned to leave on Tuesday, and I left after just an extra half hour yesterday so I could get Rowan from school on time. Leaving an hour later than normal tends to make me just slightly late picking him up, since the whole stupid reshuffle of the bus system, and I was working to a deadline yesterday.
Ugh... I am tired now. Forgot to set the V+ to record last night's NCIS, so I watched them in bed at midnight since I was still awake after trying to finish my assignment. Means I didn't get to sleep till gone 2am - I know, stupid. Ah well...
I think I royally screwed up the assignment - plus I uploaded it to the server at one minute past midnight. Which is one minute after the twelve hour grace period ends... *sigh* Ah well.
The gig at St Fagans was actually work-related; all the heads of Personnel from all our international ventures had come in to Cardiff for a meet-and-greet type conference, and they'd put on a meal at the Workingmans Club transplanted from its original location in Oakdale to the museum.
So there was I, singing on the stage in the very room where they held that Ball in the Doctor Who two-parter "Human Nature/The Family of Blood" *geeks out*
The gig went well, despite some pretty ropey rehearsals. I think we actually nailed 'Somebody To Love' for the first time in over a year! :-p I could actually hear the harmonies us Altos usually mess up, and we hit the crescendo at the right point - which is almost unprecedented. The audience were whooping and cheering, which was great, and they also started clapping along during the final song (The 'Born Free' medley we took to the Albert Hall) at Andrea's encouragement. This did make things difficult, however, as they were not clapping along with the beat so we had to forcibly tune them out so as to not lose our rhythm.
The real fun came afterwards, when we left the Hall to make our way home. It was around eight thirty by this time, and black as pitch out there. St Fagans is a mostly open-air museum, and we'd made our way to the Hall through a quite well lit, but lengthy path, and we all wanted to take the shorter route back to the main complex. This, however, was not so well lit and they've closed down one of the old houses for renovations, so the regular route was not available - and we couldn't see that in the dark! *laughs* So we ended up heading towards the storage sheds, and had to backtrack to find the temporary path that goes alongside the house. Suzi was, of course, in ridiculously high heels, and Jo and I had to hold her steady as we went over the cobbled path in the dark *giggles*
Then we had to find out how to get back to the carpark. I was somewhere in the middle of the group, so I followed along when they didn't take the normal turning towards to the exit (I've spent many a Saturday at St Fagans with Rowan and Mam - it's free). Of course there was no-one to let us out through the complex, but one of the staff did turn up and point us to the proper exit. I then got myself a little confused and was insisting we were supposed to take the normal exit on the left, past the rest rooms. But in my defence, I couldn't see that the service gate was unlocked! ;-)
Tomorrow, we're attending the funeral of a long-standing member of staff who passed away last week after a battle with cancer. I didn't know her personally, though several people I work or sing with did, and she came to see us when we sang for Tenovus at Llandaff Cathedral. Her family asked if we would attend the funeral in order to boost the sound of the congregation during the hymns, so they wouldn't sound as weak and lacklusture as normal. I feel rather uneasy about attending, as I never met the woman, but I feel like I should anyway as part of the choir. God knows enough of them are going to be bawling their eyes out rather than singing - including George and Andrea. George used to work for the company so she knew the woman, and has taken it quite badly. I don't know if Andrea knew her, but by her own admission she's one of those people who will well up during such an emotional scenario - they had moments just today when we were going over the hymn list to ensure we had some familiarity with them.
All this has meant that we've needed extra rehearsals this week; three in all - one Altos-only practise and a regular rehearsal in preparation for the St Fagans gig, and one today ready for the funeral. So I've been having to work on for the last four days to try and make up for the three hours I've been away from my desk during work time. Wasn't easy, as we ran out of work half an hour before I'd planned to leave on Tuesday, and I left after just an extra half hour yesterday so I could get Rowan from school on time. Leaving an hour later than normal tends to make me just slightly late picking him up, since the whole stupid reshuffle of the bus system, and I was working to a deadline yesterday.
Ugh... I am tired now. Forgot to set the V+ to record last night's NCIS, so I watched them in bed at midnight since I was still awake after trying to finish my assignment. Means I didn't get to sleep till gone 2am - I know, stupid. Ah well...
