Every year on this singing tour I evolve a slightly new fantasy along the lines of what I’ll do “When I grow up”. There are, relative to the population as a whole, few people who know how to sing choral evensong. And there are a couple of hundred paid jobs in cathedrals, chapels and choral foundations up and down the land. I could sing for a living. I’d need to do rather a lot of work to get myself up to scratch musically speaking, but the jobs often come with accommodation. In return, you’d need to sing, what, 9 services a week in term time? Maybe I should keep an eye on the ads in the Church Times. Or maybe I could seek work as a verger – keeping clergy organised, and running a cathedral. Tend to be ex-choristers, ex-public schoolboys and ex-servicemen, and I don’t qualify!
The Cat of the Lay-Clerk of the Chapel of St George
Chapel staff, including the professional choir and vergers, get gorgeous if small housing within the walls of Windsor Castle. And some of them have cats: we’ve seen at least four various different cats lording it over the lawn in front of the houses. And on our way to the dungeon where we are rehearsing and robing, one of the 16th century windows has been pushed wide open and a new pane of glass rigged inside. The new pane is equipped with a catflap.
Day 3 in the St George Chapel
And we’re flagging a bit. It’s a different feel this year: we’re about two thirds the choir we were last year in St Pauls. The lower numbers give us a more focussed feel, and are actually appropriate for the smaller chapel. But because of the lower numbers, we’re tackling a much easier programme of singing this year, with no music we’ve not sung before, and no major works. And — thank goodness — very little Howells.
We have apparently been invited back to St Paul’s for a year in the future. We’re in Hereford next year, which I’m looking forward to. Durham and Salisbury feature. We have tour dates set til 2010, and lots of suggestions to take us beyond that: we want to do Liverpool and Truro.
The car is returned to me. But I think now the headlights have gone which meant I had to drive home on foglights last night. The manual has strictures on not trying to replace the headlights yourself.
My parents were here on Monday evening to hear the Chiropodist’s Anthem, How Beautiful Upon the Mountain Are the Feet (of them that bringeth glad tidings and publisheth peaceth.)
What a holiday!
I have missed the first morning’s reheasal because driving down to Royal Holloway, the choir digs, last night, the car started playing up again. Exactly the same symptoms as last month: toxic fume filter light. Juddering. No acceleration.
I am not pleased.
It has taken me all morning to sort out a tow truck and a garage that can look at it before the end of the week when I have to drive to Hereford.
Grr.
Whole point of forking out obscene amounts of money was to try and get something a little more reliable. I’m not impressed.
Swans
Busy day
A busy, but good day, today. And whilst I’ve been dashing around like thing possessed, so has P. And he’s been doing completely different things, with our paths barely crossing.
First thing, a delivery day in the Meadows area of the city. Two new deliverers joined in today, and it was very nice to see them.
I had to leave early to take some flyers about the Lib Dem petition about homophobic bullying to Nottingham Pride, so I spent an hour or so wandering round hundreds of groups asking “Want to help stamp out homophobic bullying?” There were some really interesting responses, including “I’ve already signed the petition” which is great. And some funny answers too — “My feet are already busy helping stamp out poverty, but I’ll sign the petition.” And plenty of people who didn’t want to help at all. At least, they wouldn’t take a flyer. Maybe I shouldn’t have printed the bird on it quite so big.
I spent a happy hour wandering amongst the gay totty handing out leaflets and having brief chats, and bumping into some old acquaintances who didn’t seem to recognise me. I also think I spoke briefly to Reluctant Nomad.
It was also nice to walk around the stalls at Pride. Lots of local businesses, and not just the gay ones, represented. Tents from several of our local scene bars. The city and county councils. Local FE colleges, trades union and related groups. And strangest of all, Nottingham’s brand new gay sauna — with a lifesize model dalek. I’m intrigued to say the least to know what the link is.
After that, I was gasping for coffee, so nearly drove across town to Starbucks (the horror!) when I remembered that just last week Development Control gave planning permission for a nice looking deli, the Iberian Delight, on the Radford Road, so I popped in there for a double espresso and a Pao de Deus, a sort of sweet roll thing with coconut and sugar on top. It was slightly odd — almost as if they weren’t expecting customers and didn’t know what to do with me. But the coffee was very good and so was the cake.
Back home to, erm, sort out the fish tank. P noticed we’d had a fatality last night, so I finally got around to doing tank related things that I ought to do weekly, but haven’t done since we moved here in December. I cleaned the glass, changed 1/4 of the water, netted out the dead one and flushed it. I also did some bigger things – replaced my Fluval which had almost stopped working entirely with an Elite Stingray (!), fitted a new lightbulb. It remains to be seen whether the lack of cat interest in the fish tank was because previously they couldn’t really see in…
Now I’m taking five to listen to my answerphone messages, grab a cup of tea, return calls, play with the internet (we now have a full cast for Pygmalion), update blog, etc.
Tonight I’m heading over to the reception of some University friends who have tied the knot today.
At some point I have to fit in going to the laundrette, too, so that I have clean clothes to go on holiday with since I won’t be home for over two weeks. I’m off on three very different activities before I return so packing is going to be quite an enterprise and the car will be full: a week in Windsor singing – I’ll probably be wearing shorts under my cassock. A week in Hereford at the Three Choirs, where I need fairly smart clothes. Then two days camping at a pub somewhere off the A1 for the Cix BBQ.
The KPMG Anthem
Please tell me this isn’t really the KPMG anthem!
KPMG
We’re strong as be
A dream of power and energy
We go for the goal
Together we hold
To our vision of global strategy
There’s a much worse children’s choir version, too.
EDIT: it does seem to be real, but also old. It made the Observer in 2001.
EDIT2: Don’t miss the Teutonic Master Mix, the Hard Rock Version and the Jungle Mix, all mislinked here.
Must… log… off…
Environmental pledges
A bit late, I’ve signed up at the Environment Agency on some pledges. An interesting mix for people to sign up to. You too can sign, click here.
1. I promise I will take a shower instead of a bath.
I haven’t had a bath in years!
2. I promise I will put a water saving device in my toilet.
We tried this and found it didn’t have nearly enough flush power to deal with… you get the picture. So we thought we’d have a policy of flushing less frequently, but that stained the bowl and smelt bad. So now we’re back up to frequent full flushes. We will get a better design of toilet when we refurb the bathroom.
3. I promise I will turn the tap off when I brush my teeth
Oh, I don’t know how long I’ve done this for, but it’s certainly since before I left home ten years ago.
4. I promise to use rechargeable batteries instead of disposable ones
How many batteries do I use? My phone, my laptop are obviously rechargeable. I do have many radios with ordinary batteries, one or two torches. Clocks and remote controls don’t really work with rechargeables. So I don’t really do this, but I don’t consider myself a big battery user.
On this point though, it’s worth remembering that dead batteries really shouldn’t go in the domestic waste. Save them up and take them to your tip every so often where they can be reprocessed, and all the nasty but valuable chemicals can be reused and recycled safely.
5. I promise to use a reusable bag when I shop, rather than plastic carriers.
I have several reusable bags.
Do I remember to take them with me to the shops? Only occasionally!
6. I promise to air my washing in public – not in the tumble dryer
Oooh. I’m really bad on this one. What with doing all my laundry at the laundrette, it’s really tempting to bung the whole lot in the dryers before I leave and then (theoretically at least) I can just put it away when I get home. Even in this hot weather I’ve been tumble drying my jeans. Very bad. And there’s no question that I’ve put enough coins into the laundrette to have bought myself a washing machine at home several times over. We just have nowhere to put it.
7. I promise I will boil only the water I need, rather than filling the kettle every time.
Yes — more or less. None of the kettles I use most often has a water guage, so the one at home gets filled with a pint glass every time – half a pint to drink, the rest to make sure there’s enough water in there to boil safely. It’s an old kettle and if its too full or too empty the automatic switch is unreliable.
8. I promise I will share my car journeys to work with a colleague, cycle or replace those car journeys with public transport at least once a week.
Hmmm… sort of… I try and go to the Council House by bus. There’s an excellent service from close to my house to the city centre. I can get in very quickly and there’s a bus every five minutes or so in the day. But… the Council car park is very tempting. Particularly if I’m coming home late, when the buses are less frequent, or going somewhere other than home after the trip to the council.
My commute pattern to Chesterfield by car is at such strange times and frequencies that I don’t think there’s much mileage in trying to share that journey. Although for the last few days I’ve been giving a lift to a keen young member who’s interning in the office.
9. I promise that I will pay back the environmental impact of any air travel I take
Have never done this yet. I don’t really have a plan to do any flying this year — except it would be nice to visit two friends in the Geneva area later this year, and we’re vaguely planning to do a European city visit around about December. There are offsetting links on the Environment Agency website.
10. I promise I will organise or volunteer for an environmental project in my local community.
I really should. But maybe after the elections next year.
Hybrolights
Just back from a very stimulating two day tour of sustainable and green energy installations with other councillors and senior officers from the City.
Lots to talk about, but no time tonight.
So I will leave you with a photo of a series of “Hybrolights” – solar and wind powered street lights – and a new word:
Pluvial – pertaining to rain
Right Royal year
It’s just panned out that this year, I’ll have been to three Royal residences. We camped in Sandringham over Easter. We had the great privilege of attending a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace (I know I’ve still not told you about that yet) and this summer – in just a few weeks, in fact – the choir I sing with are in residence at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.
The music list is now here.
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