Sunday 18th March - Blog Catch-up

robertsoncooper.com

No, not news from home, not yet.

Just that I have moved the book list for this year - read, reading, not started, not even bought yet - from the sidebar of the blog to a separate page.

I've even rattled off a few sentences to excuse, explain, or otherwise comment on them....

culturenl.co.uk

Sunday 11th March 2018 - Mothering Sunday

I got given this!

Totally brilliant! Also flowers, cards and cake which are all always welcome...

But This! A battery operated lightbox with interchangeable letters! So, so good, I need to post two photos.

I'm tempted to use it for all sorts of things. For example... I could change it so that the first line is blank, and the next two lines say "can play my scales!" and let pupils put their names up in lights!

Oh Yeah!

Yesterday I got out my mini voice changer that someone gave me for... was it a birthday? Christmas? Mothering Sunday? Can't remember.



It is an excellent device for scaring assisting pupils to remember their sharps and flats and fingerings.

I have been doing sums; specifically counting; something has gone a bit crazy in my life, as I am now teaching 42 piano and theory pupils, and 2 small groups of recorder pupils, and 7 lessons of class music, and 1 school choir, and 1 school singing assembly, and 1 class of guitars, and 1 drumming group and 2 keyboard groups, every week. I think that is 57 groups in total. Which is around 30 hours of teaching as some lessons are 20 minutes, some are 30 mins, some are 45 mins and some last the whole hour. How did that happen? Somehow I can't have been paying attention to how my days were filling up.

Bit it does explain why, by the time I get to Wednesday, two things happen. Firstly I get just a leetle teeny weeny less patient in the lessons, and then, at about 8pm, I fall asleep.

http://whyismycatsosad.blogspot.co.uk/

Things Will Have To Change.

I have already arranged to swap the keyboard groups (90 mins) for some piano teaching (80 mins), so there's a ten minute reduction in workload after Easter. 

Meanwhile, I shall enjoy my cake, and flowers, and cards, and light-box!

Now, I need to send that lad an email to remind him to get some music to me, and order a load of music books for those pupils, and adjust my calendar to take into account school trips, assemblies and a music exam that I will accompany on Friday. Situation Normal for Sunday...

Monday 5th March - Normal for the time of year?

Snow - gone
Clouds - back
Rain - forecast for this afternoon
Temperature - definitely chilly. and a bit damp.

Oh, to be in England...

hang on; the next line is "Now that April's there"

Fair enough - it is still March.



All that snow made last week a whole load easier than it might have been; several schools closed, and several pupils cancelled. I had been dreading getting through all the lessons, but in the event I had a gentle slide back into the world of work.

So far,

I haven't finished reading the Brambly Hedge "Autumn" book; Primrose the little mouse is still missing and everyone is still looking for her.



I haven't finished reading the Gospel of St Matthew; I'm a member of a "Bible Book per Month" Book Club and that's the one to finish before the meeting on Monday. I'll choose an "easy" version for speed; The Message, or Good News. But then again, if I use my grandmother's copy of the JB Philips translation, I can see all her annotations. Tempting.




I haven't finished Sebastian Barry's "Days Without End"; actually I've only just started it. I've joined another book club, one I've wanted to be in since a friend started it a number of years ago. At the time I didn't have the time or energy; too much going on at home with the family and work. Now is the moment! Carpe Diem! It really is time I started reading some "grown-up" fiction. At least I've got until Easter Monday to finish it. Chapter 1 was fascinating - very, very dense, and no real dialogue at all. I can see that it is going to be an interesting read, in an interesting style.



It is very pleasant taking a slow and steady breather in the middle of the day. We have become involved in a simple plan to go to Salzburg with my father for a few days later in the real Spring.



The plan was simple at the start; flights plus hotel for the three of us too and from Salzburg. I say simple; I need to arrange oxygen and get a fit-to-fly certificate and so on, which has a bearing on what flights we choose. A direct flight is better. Arranging oxygen on a series of different flights doesn't appeal - too many opportunities for things to go wrong.

I chose the word "involved" regarding our participation in the plan; there is also a 90th birthday party in a town some twenty or so miles away; so that means taxi or train or bus from Salzburg for the party.

Ah, but it looks as though separate arrangements are in progress to books us into a hotel in the town, so we only need flights.



That probably explains why when I tried to book flights plus hotel in the birthday town, the hotel was full. But the most convenient of the cheaper direct flights from England gets in to Salzburg at about 8pm... - fine for a local hotel, no so fine for travelling on...

And so it goes on. We shall discuss, make plans, "improve" the plans, confuse ourselves, finalise and then book everything tonight, come what may, and then I will set about the fit-to-fly and the oxygen and then it will all be settled. Apart from booking in our ancient cats to a cattery somewhere. 

 As St Julian of Norwich said

“All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.” 
― Julian of Norwich

Tuesday 27th February - Snow!

Yup. Woke up to a white world.

It's lunchtime now, the snow's all gone. You can stand down until the next time.

Monday 26th February - The Calm Before the Storm

I expect you think the blog title refers the the incoming weather

but no,

I am thinking of this being my last day off work before I leap back into the fray.

I am starting gently, with a couple of private students this evening. See how that goes.

I tackled an "extreme" killer suduko puzzle this morning with some success, so that is a step up from yesterday. Not this one; I've got it from the internet, and would rate it as heading for "extreme"

https://www.dailykillersudoku.com/

I've finished reading "Summer Story" by Jill Barklem, the second of the Brambly Hedge series. Dusty Dogwood, the miller and Poppy Eyebright, who runs the dairy, get married.

"Poppy Eyebright, do you love Dusty Dogwood, and will you love him and care for him for ever and ever?"
"I will."
"Dusty Dogwood, do you love Poppy, and will you love her and look after her for ever and ever?"
"I will."
"Then in the name of the flowers and the fields, the stars in the sky, and the streams that flow down to the sea, and the mystery that breathes wonder into all these things, I pronounce you mouse and wife."

Altogether "Ahhhh." 

A shorter and simpler ceremony than ours, all those years ago. Our cake did have three tiers, as I remember... 

And a timely reminder that Summer will come again. .

Saturday 24th February 2018 - More news

Did you look up that poem? Jerusalem, by James Fenton?

Well, maybe the discovery of the sound files in the poetry archive isn't as important to you as it is to me?!?

Anyway, that was this morning, and now it is this evening. My news is that I've been up since lunchtime, with no ill-effects, and am feeling considerably brighter than I did at the beginning of the week. A one-week rest seems to have been beneficial

(I wonder if another week, or maybe a month, no, stop it now).

I've another couple of days of taking it easy before I launch myself back into the unsuspecting world on Tuesday. Just in time for the predicted snowy weather?

File:Free Snow Falling on Blue Sky Unedited Creative Commons (2932693860).jpg