Reality Recommences...

Had an exhausting but lovely weekend away in Durham, and fell in love with the cathedral in a big way. It is just enormous, and I cannot for the life of me work out how they got those carvings into the columns...brilliant.

However, thanks to MadCow and her marvellous perspective on the world, I now think of it less as one of the finest examples of Romanesque architecture in the UK, and more as 'a great big Fuck You to the Scots'.

[Hangs cathedral-fetishists' anorak back in wardrobe until next time, and resumes normal life...]

More later, I have a stack of catching up to do, including booking my Speed Awareness Course, following my unfortunate misdemeanour last year. Three hours of being lectured about bad driving habits, for someone who wants to be a driving instructor when she's done with being a full-time mum is going to hurt.

It'll be a fine testament to my self-control if I don't get turfed out and prosecuted regardless. Must remember to take duct tape for my mouth.

Choir Envy

So, this weekend, I spent several hours rehearsing and performing a concert of music in celebration of the BVM* to an audience of about 65 in a beautiful but tiny provincial Essex church.

And then The Husband showed me the TV coverage he'd recorded of the BBC Electric Proms. This is the gig I would have been doing instead, if I lived just 30 minutes nearer to my old choir.



I like my current choir, I really do, but they're just a bit, well, *meh* in comparison. They make a great sound and don't often disappoint me, but this gig, we tackled 2 pieces that the conductor featured on the video taught me, and did it with such passion I'd end up nearly in tears in the performance**. It makes me sad when I do them again and remain mostly unmoved.

* That would be Blessed Virgin Mary, by the way
** O Magnum Mysterium by Morten Lauridsen, and Bogoroditse Dyevo by Rachmaninov.