Concert, etc.
Dec. 18th, 2007 09:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
teylaminhI suppose I should do an update.
The concert on Sunday went okay. I ended up late to rehearsal somehow - I was convinced it was at 10.30am, and I think it was actually at 10.00, because when I'd arrived (after finally struggling to get to the damn stage door - stupid market) everyone had already started. But yeah. Also, my voice held up much better in the rehearsal than the actual concert.
The second half went better than the first, mostly because we were so out of practice. We started with a really complicated version of "Silent Night", which was also a capella, which didn't sound as good as it could have done, and also we ended up going completely flat with one of the traditional carols, as the first verse was unaccompanied - it sounded awful when the organ came in. Meh.
The girl standing next to me kept randomly blacking out and had to keep sitting down, which was a tad worrying... There was also an entire section of one of the carols where half of the sopranos came in a bar too early, mostly because (I'm convinced, anyway) Adrian made a "come in now" gesture that wasn't, as it turned out.
But the silly audience-participation song went down well and was fun to sing, and I also love "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" so that was nice - the descant in that is one of my favourites...
There was quite a surreal moment in the rehearsal, though, as we were singing "Once In Royal David's City" along with the organ and brass, when I was hit with a wave of nostalgia, of being a small child in the school carol service. I was standing there having to fight off tears, for some reason. At the very least, it reminded me that I do love Christmas, I just hate all the associated stress and having to work full-time and fit the shopping around it, and that I would happily spoil everyone rotten if I only had the money.
Which leads me on nicely to my latest decision: I'm going to get a credit card, and I'm only going to use it at Christmas, and for very expensive food shops (like, the "over £40" variety). That way I can pay it off over the rest of the year and not have to worry unnecessarily in December about where my money's coming from. As it stands this year, the savings account has taken a thorough beating.
Thank God we get paid a week early in December...
I only have a little bit more shopping to do (it wasn't as finished as I thought) but I'm hoping The Works will throw up some more gems in that regard.
I braved the post office yesterday to get everything sent out that needed sending - people should have cards winging their way towards them shortly. I left work at 3.30 with the hope of beating the crowds, but it was still horrendously busy. First I had to queue to buy jiffy bags, then had to queue again to get more (they also don't appear to sell a size between "too small" and "not small enough", which is a pain), then had to find a space on the shelves to fill in the addresses and get everything packed (and half of the stupid gift tags have fallen off as well) and then had to queue to get them sent. Everything cost a grand total of £15.00 to send out, which included seven First Class stamps, three UK-bound packages, one US-bound package, and two US-bound cards. (And those customs forms really take all the fun out of sending people gifts when you have to bloody well declare what's in the package. Bah. I would just put "gift", but I can imagine some stupid US customs person declaring it a bomb threat.)
Other than that, the rest of this week currently stands something like this:
Tuesday - Thursday: work, and last-minute shopping, and last-minute wrapping.
Friday: Christmas food shop at Asda. We must be insane.
Saturday afternoon: visiting grandmother and uncle avec presents.
Sunday evening: family coming over (7.00ish) for present-swapping.
Christmas Eve: drinks at Briar with Lloyd and Derek et al.
Christmas Day: the end.
It's bloody freezing in here again.
The concert on Sunday went okay. I ended up late to rehearsal somehow - I was convinced it was at 10.30am, and I think it was actually at 10.00, because when I'd arrived (after finally struggling to get to the damn stage door - stupid market) everyone had already started. But yeah. Also, my voice held up much better in the rehearsal than the actual concert.
The second half went better than the first, mostly because we were so out of practice. We started with a really complicated version of "Silent Night", which was also a capella, which didn't sound as good as it could have done, and also we ended up going completely flat with one of the traditional carols, as the first verse was unaccompanied - it sounded awful when the organ came in. Meh.
The girl standing next to me kept randomly blacking out and had to keep sitting down, which was a tad worrying... There was also an entire section of one of the carols where half of the sopranos came in a bar too early, mostly because (I'm convinced, anyway) Adrian made a "come in now" gesture that wasn't, as it turned out.
But the silly audience-participation song went down well and was fun to sing, and I also love "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" so that was nice - the descant in that is one of my favourites...
There was quite a surreal moment in the rehearsal, though, as we were singing "Once In Royal David's City" along with the organ and brass, when I was hit with a wave of nostalgia, of being a small child in the school carol service. I was standing there having to fight off tears, for some reason. At the very least, it reminded me that I do love Christmas, I just hate all the associated stress and having to work full-time and fit the shopping around it, and that I would happily spoil everyone rotten if I only had the money.
Which leads me on nicely to my latest decision: I'm going to get a credit card, and I'm only going to use it at Christmas, and for very expensive food shops (like, the "over £40" variety). That way I can pay it off over the rest of the year and not have to worry unnecessarily in December about where my money's coming from. As it stands this year, the savings account has taken a thorough beating.
Thank God we get paid a week early in December...
I only have a little bit more shopping to do (it wasn't as finished as I thought) but I'm hoping The Works will throw up some more gems in that regard.
I braved the post office yesterday to get everything sent out that needed sending - people should have cards winging their way towards them shortly. I left work at 3.30 with the hope of beating the crowds, but it was still horrendously busy. First I had to queue to buy jiffy bags, then had to queue again to get more (they also don't appear to sell a size between "too small" and "not small enough", which is a pain), then had to find a space on the shelves to fill in the addresses and get everything packed (and half of the stupid gift tags have fallen off as well) and then had to queue to get them sent. Everything cost a grand total of £15.00 to send out, which included seven First Class stamps, three UK-bound packages, one US-bound package, and two US-bound cards. (And those customs forms really take all the fun out of sending people gifts when you have to bloody well declare what's in the package. Bah. I would just put "gift", but I can imagine some stupid US customs person declaring it a bomb threat.)
Other than that, the rest of this week currently stands something like this:
Tuesday - Thursday: work, and last-minute shopping, and last-minute wrapping.
Friday: Christmas food shop at Asda. We must be insane.
Saturday afternoon: visiting grandmother and uncle avec presents.
Sunday evening: family coming over (7.00ish) for present-swapping.
Christmas Eve: drinks at Briar with Lloyd and Derek et al.
Christmas Day: the end.
It's bloody freezing in here again.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-18 12:20 pm (UTC)I was at the one in town and that's almost as bad. As ever, they only had half the tills manned, and there were people paying their bills or whatever holding everything up. It's definitely the worst part of Christmas.
Ta muchly for the card, BTW!
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-18 01:24 pm (UTC)I can imagine... I don't know why I thought the one in town wouldn't be busy. It's ALWAYS busy; I suppose there are lots of businesses sending out their post all the time.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-18 07:40 pm (UTC)A-frickin'-MEN. I have that same issue every time I try and send something to America as well. I generally try to write things as illegibly as possible... but, apparently, last time this didn't satisfy them and they had to open it to make sure it wouldn't explode.
If they spent less time nosing into what people were sending other people, and more time making sure that people's personal details were, y'know, NOT LOST IN THE MAIL... the world would be a better place.
< /rant >
BTW:
A) YAYJCFIC!!!! I shall put aside some time to read it tomorrow, when there isn't three hours of Lame Tuesday Night Television (TM) to distract me; I imagine it will be so far superior to my still-unfinished Christmas fic, that my muses will roll over and play dead for the rest of their lives. :P
B) Assuming I get off my backside tomorrow and spend the morning wrapping presents like I'm supposed to, yours should likewise be in the mail by tomorrow afternoon.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-19 08:56 am (UTC)A) I wouldn't hold out much hope of it being that good, I'm very out of practice. And I basically just put in the drabble with a few extra words...
B) Coolness. I shall reply to your latest DJ comment shortly. Meant to do it on Sunday but got distracted by a Paul-shaped thing talking at me.