Wednesday, December 20, 2006

On holiday!

Yesterday lunchtime, I picked up my bag, wished everyone a Merry Christmas and left the office for two weeks - and a fabulous feeling it was too. After dropping my stuff off at home I headed to Birmingham (on a very nice quiet train for once!) to meet mum in Victoria Square. We spent a really fun two hours exploring the German market, which we hadn't been to before. It was lovely to just wander round the stalls and gossip as we went. Mum bought stollen and some bowls, and she also bought me a wooden decoration to add to my tree. The highlight was definitely drinking Gluhwein from little painted cups shaped like boots, followed by a highly giggly ride on the carousel! We were the only two people on it and spent the entire ride cackling like idiots and feeling highly tipsy. After the market we went for dinner in Brindley Place before heading to Symphony Hall to see Trevor Pinnock and the European Brandenburg Ensemble performing all six Brandenburg Concertos. It was a great concert, and all the players seemed to be really having fun - it was just like gatecrashing a very high quality rehearsal among friends.

I love being on leave for Christmas. There's so much happening in the next week and it's all stuff that I'm looking forward to. Tomorrow however is a quiet day when I intend to clean the house, go to the gym and then snuggle down to watch the Muppets and Love Actually - a brilliant girly filmfest of unashamed slush and tears, with my tree lights in the background to make me go even more gooey. I'm such a soppy wench!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who was the trumpet player in the 2nd concerto?

Sarah said...

His name was Gabriele Cassone. They were all playing period instruments which must have made it even harder, and given how difficult that part is he did a pretty good job, but he didn't quite hit all the notes. Lovely tone though.