Monday, February 27, 2006

Ill

Today I am ill. Boo. Usually when I'm ill it gets worse throughout the day, so I get up feeling bad but not awful, end up going to work because I feel guilty, and then being sent home after 2 hours. However, today I made it halfway to the bathroom before deciding that I ached all over, I was shivering and I was going to be sick if I didn't lie down again. Definitely a case when the decision was pretty easy! Having gone back to bed I discovered that if I lay on my sides or my front I also felt sick, so I had to lie on my back which is the one position I can't sleep in. After lots of dozing in and out of sleep, and having bizarre nightmares about being asked to play the Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 2 and not having practised, I finally woke up properly at 10.40 and no longer felt sick. I'm now left with the headache, the achingness, the shivering and a total aversion to food.

However, I have to say this has happened with very good timing. It's Monday in a quiet work week, so I have 5 days to get better before the weekend, and I'm not due to be doing anything on week nights this week. The only problem is that I'll probably have to miss the WO concert tonight - sorry everyone, I really wanted to be there! I've taken some ibuprofen which might help but it's looking likely that I won't be leaving the house today.

Being ill sucks.

Sunday, February 26, 2006

So very tired

Good things to do when you're hungover:
- Eat one of Alicia's mum's fab fried breakfasts
- Bake muffins and eat 3 of them (1 with squirty cream!)
- Sit at home instead of going out to a tour social on the cold buses, and watch Time Team and Desperate Housewives

Bad things to do when hungover:
- Get up at 9.30 after going to bed at 4
- Take an hour-long train from Leeds to Manchester and then a two-hour very over-heated train to Leamington

Am now very very tired. However, the fantastic nature of the night out means that the hangover is definitely worth it! Any evening when you leave a club at 3 and then go searching for a 24-hour pub has to have been a good one.

Friday, February 24, 2006

Wednesday night

Well, all I can say is that I must have been feeling very wine fuelled and generous when I ticked man number 1 at the speed dating!

Positive points about the date: the pub and the food were fab. I can highly recommend the Crab Mill at Preston Bagot, owned by the same people who own the Boot at Lapworth. Delicious food and lovely atmosphere. My pasta starter was particularly delicious!

Negative points: pretty much everything else! I shall deliver my verdict on the evening in the form of words of advice for any men who might read this, although I know that all my male friends are great and would be much better than this on a date.

1: complement your date on what she's wearing. Failing to mention anything about how she looks is an error, even if she has only spent 5 minutes getting changed and throwing on some makeup.

2: when the waitress brings the menus, allow your date to look at the specials first if there's only one copy. Ditto when they ask if you've finished with the bread - ask your date if she's finished rather than just assuming.

3: don't just waffle on about yourself all evening. You may be fascinated by cars but if your date isn't, don't just ignore this fact and talk about them ceaselessly all evening! Special note: the phrase "I never go on holiday so that I can upgrade my car every year" is decidedly not attractive.

4: don't alternate the car conversations with drivel about all the times you've ever been drunk. I don't want to hear about the time you drank 20 pints/the time you stayed up drinking until 7am/the time you bought a £300 bottle of port between all your friends.

5: on the same point, don't spend the evening complaining that you can't drink lots because you're driving. If you suggested this venue you have no room to whinge! Also, don't suggest that next time the date will have to be in Hinckley so you can drink lots and stagger home. Believe me, there won't be a next time, and if there is you can bet I won't be going to Hinckley and kipping on someone's floor.

6: on the same theme again, don't drink a pint and a half if you're driving me home. Sticking solely to soft drinks is the only sensible thing to do when driving, and it's not impressive if you drink that much and then complain about it, and then tell me that you'd be driving much faster if I wasn't in the car.

7: don't subtly let me know that you're a male chauvinist and a homophobe. I am neither of these things.

8: when your date has got so pissed off with you that she stops making an effort in conversation and her responses have become limited to "yes", "no" and "mmm", take the hint and end the evening. Don't under any circumstances use the phrase "Oh, say SOMEthing". Very major error.

9: when your date finally does find a bit of conversation she can contribute to and starts saying something, don't interrupt her with more drivel of your own. She will lose any last shred of respect for you and start wishing she could stab your eye with a fork.

10: when you leave the restaurant and some music your date likes comes on the radio, don't immediately slag it off as rubbish before driving very slowly round the car park so you can point out all the Bentleys and Porsches. Ignoring her interests while wittering on about your own is not clever. Especially if your personal favourite happens to be country music.

So let those 10 points be a lesson to you all! Believe me I could have gone on, but I really think I've made my point. I'm sure all of you men would behave much better...I'm hoping I can find someone who deserves me a bit more than he did!

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Oh gooooooooood

Lordy,Juicy and me are pissed. I refer you good ladies and gentleent to Juicy's blog where ye shall see why. Weirdly she can stillplay Scott Joplin althoughshe can't see. Also her space bar doesn'twork. Juicy rules. She rules. now she is plaing with hari gel. Oh god. Hav date tomorrow.Cna't standup. Space bar is realcrap.

urg. highly recommend chocorange cocktails. woooooooooooo brown eyed girl! bloddy shift key and space bar.

Shala lalalalalalalalalallate da.

Saturday, February 18, 2006

The wonder that is Faure

Right, it's time for my Faure entry. I've been thinking about this for a while and I'm not quite sure how it works. There are other pieces that I have sung which have touched/moved me in many different ways, including the Tippett Spirituals from A Child of Our Time which we sang after visiting Auschwitz, and the Verdi Requiem which is full of so many wonderful climactic moments where so many pieces only have one. However, there's something about the beautiful, simple Faure Requiem which does something no other piece I have ever heard can do. These pieces are so very different that it's impossible to say which is the best (although I have to say that the great orchestral, solo and chorus writing of the Verdi still elevates it to the status of possibly the greatest piece I've ever sung) but there is something about the way Faure puts notes together and then puts these notes with the words that means moments in this piece truly do touch the soul and show you heaven. Other works can make you cry, but no others can convince you so firmly that you are seeing exactly what heaven is like - the Verdi for example is a great manifestation of the human fear of death, but I don't think it shows you the ultimate truth about God, although it illustrates much about the inner workings of the human soul. After singing Faure at Symphony Hall with so many beautiful pure voices providing the choral parts and the CBSO as the orchestra, I was firmly convinced that when I die, the choir of angels that will be leading my steps to heaven will be singing the In Paradisum, and that whenever a soul enters heaven the whole firmament shouts for joy using the "Hosanna in excelsis" from movement 3, the Sanctus. I could see it so clearly while listening to this music (the brilliant thing about the alto part is that you get to mostly listen to these bits!) that I was moved to tears, and I really felt that this music had touched my soul in a way that no other music ever had. At last Thursday's rehearsal I had the thought that although dying is the one thing that totally terrifies me (I can't bear the thought that one day I just won't be in the world), if heaven is like the Faure, I will be joyful when I get there and less scared of thinking about it now. I shall be thinking of my Grandpa when we perform this in the Butterworth concert, and I may well have to ask Lu to bring tissues! [Note to all those of you who I will still know and love in 60 years - I want this piece in its entirety at my funeral please!]

These thoughts lead me on to a general musing about music in general. There is something about this art form above all others that can really touch everyone and show them things that nothing else can. Theatre and art can be powerful forces, but I believe that music goes beyond these, into the heart of something that lies within each one of us that can only be touched by this strange combination of vibrations at different pitches that is so much more than the sum of its parts. In Soul Music, Terry Pratchett puts the theory that creation started with someone counting in - "One, two, one two three four..." and that the universe moves to a great rhythm, the end of which causes the end of time. I think there must be some truth in this. Rhythm runs through each one of us in the beating of our hearts, and even those people who claim not to be able to sing (I think everyone is able to sing, but that's another thing) can appreciate music and feel uplifted by it. Whether it's pogo-ing in a club, chanting on the terraces, bouncing round to girly rock while you do your makeup or singing one of the most sublime works ever written, music can take each one of us to a place that we cannot reach in any other way. I feel so privileged to be able to sing and play, and help to create this amazing life force.

Faure Requiem, Mahler 1 and Airport Scenes from Flight - Tuesday 7th March - 8pm - be there.

Friday, February 17, 2006

More sober follow-up blog

Well I'm glad I amused you all with that blog entry - I was certainly impressed by it when I read it the next day! It was a great night though...and clearly I actually am well attractive as I got 4 email addresses and already 2 men want to take me out to dinner. I shall certainly enjoy having all this male attention and free food and drink, and attempt to make it last as long as possible! The first date is on Wednesday night and I shall let you all know how it goes.

I have to work yet another open day tomorrow. This sucks. Ah well, at least I can spend the rest of the weekend cuddled up doing absolutely nothing - but two open days on a one-day weekend is not a good thing. I shall be very glad when they're all over.

Right, I'm off to wash up. Life is still all good - hurrah!

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Ladies and gentlemen, a life lesson from Aunty Sarah

Wooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Ladies and gentlement, you have wiated too long and now it's here - a drinken blog from Sarah!
WQooooooooooooo!

If there is one life lesson I can impart to you, my readers, it is this. Speed Dating is goooood. I just spent a most fab ebening cahtting to 25 men, some more attractive than others, and I would recommend that any of you try it. It';s fab - you get to exert your fabulous female charms over all these men and tehn write amusing coments about them! I had a most fantastic night. After it gfinished i was persugaded to stay and chat by a man whose name I forget, who was unfortunately ginger and who clearly fancied the pants off me. The lady next to me (Rachel, lovely) commented thaqt I definitely had a tick tghere! Clearly I am well attractive. I also think I managed not to sound pissed which is well impressive given the state of my typing. Havbe had most of a bottle of wine. mmmmmmmm.

Comedy moment: was walking home and nearly walked past my house, tehn went "Oooh, I live there" and managed to get in,. Just cooked remsinds (remains?) of pasta and shouted "Ping" really loudly when microawave went, then jimped acrpss floor in manner of kangarroo tgo fetch said pasta. Man. Have open day tomorrow and will likely be hungover and knackered. errorr.

So yes - Valentine speed daing highly recommend, or at any time of year really, and definitely v attractive and funny men there. Hurrrrah.

Enjoy the drunken post of meeee!

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Ball pics now up

My pics from Lesley's party and the ball are now up on my space. Enjoy!

The ball was a great night - I had loads of fun especially dancing at the end, with particular highlights being our conga-style adventure on Amarillo and the leg kicking in a circle to New York New York. I also had a moment when I put my dress on and it fastened up straight away, then I looked in the mirror and decided that I actually did look completely fab! I loved having big mad hair too, and am proud to have won the Tebay Most Amazing Hair of the Night Award - "You have amazing hair!", "Did I mention that your hair is amazing?", "How did you get your hair to do that?". Everyone else looked gorgeous as well, especially the Earlsdon girlies with their lovely straight hair dos. I didn't get as drunk as I planned but at least I was able to get up this morning and I'm now enjoying having a fat day - so far I have consumed most of a loaf of white bloomer with butter, a gorgeous Gu chocolate souffle with squirty cream and a spinach and ricotta cannelloni. I'm about to put a pizza in the oven... It's so nice to eat whatever I want just for a day, after all the hard work! I'm back on the exercise tomorrow though.

Thankyou to all my girlies for being so great and making our nights out so much fun! Roll on the next drunken party. xxx

Friday, February 10, 2006

New photos

Well, after an enormous amount of faff, my new photos are now up on my MSN space. They're of Andy R's birthday, the Kingston Road Christmas party, Christmas and New Year and the Ann Summers party. Don't worry Josie and Juicy, I've left out the ones of you dressed up, as promised! I have however included one of Juicy, Dave and a yule log box which is definitely a candidate for most amusing photo of all time.

So excited about tomorrow...can't wait!

Sunday, February 05, 2006

The post of Juicy...

Hello. We are a little bit drunky. I am Death Balloon Girl. We like chips and cock. Eespecially cock. Sarah wants some cock. Some people wanted to pop my balloon but I gave them chips instead and they didn’t pop it. I see fog. The fog is coming to get me! I think I may have put my lenses in the wrong way. Sarah is a secxy beast and has fab eyebrows thanks to some torture she had earlier. Mmm, torture. I am seriously pissed. This is not fgood really but quite funny actually. Spaghetti. We madfe a new COCKtail tonight with CREAM. Recommended. Was pretty neat alschol. Man. Buggert.

Saturday, February 04, 2006

Feeling foxy

Getting ready to go out is such a good feeling! A glass of wine, hair straighteneres, makeup and girly music all combine to make me feel fab. Plus I went to have most of the hair pulled out of my eyebrows today by a really good beautician, so I feel even better (although it hurt at the time). Yay for Saturday night!