Happy Easter everyone! We started the Easter break by decorating hard-boiled eggs.
Early this morning was the Easter Egg Hunt, and Tyler was very happy with his haul. After he found the last egg he held up his torch and declared "This case is closed!" and dramatically clicked the torch off.
Yesterday we had an Easter lunch at the Howards and obviously some people ate enough to make them sleepy :)
Aunty Helen made a gorgeous chocolate birds nest cake
And yes, it tasted as good as it looked! As usual I have been singing since Friday and have one last lot this afternoon. My voice is feeling pretty tired so it will be good to finish. We are hoping to get away for a day or day/night trip tomorrow, probably up Central or Te Anau way.
Yes, I am still alive. And singing. There was a bit of a lull once Christmas arrived and the country went on summer holiday, and I allowed myself to be lazy and not practice properly. But now we are back into it, indeed we are. I'm talking like the Queen. I shall revert to first-person so you don't have to curtsy while you read this.
I already have several performances lined up for the first half of the year. First up is a Concert South concert on 17 March. You may remember the Concert South concert I was preparing for at about the same time last year and my dalliances with metaphorical rose bushes. There's still a thorn or two lurking to catch me this time too, but my bicycle doesn't wobble as much when it spies a top C or in this case a top C#. I have been asked to sing Les Filles de Cadix as well as be part of a trio for two songs - Lift Thine Eyes from Elijah and Handel's Where E'er You Walk. I'm doing the middle part for the Handel and I'm having to concentrate mightily to fight off the tendency to sing the tune. I also get to repeat Les Filles at Womens Club about 10 days later.
Hard on the heels of that is Easter and a full programme of music starting with a service on Holy Thursday evening and finishing with Easter Vespers on the Sunday afternoon. I've got some nice solos amongst all of that including the Mozart Ora Pro Nobis.
On April 28th as part of the Southland Arts Festival, A Capella Singers is doing a programme of Rutter music with the main work being his Magnificat. It's a very approachable work but, dare I say it, could do with a little editing here and there. Is that heresy? If this blog post stops abruptly at some later point, with little whisps of black smoke curling up from the last few words, you can assume I have been smote. Or should that be smitten? Either way it ended badly.
But despite this potentially terrible fate awaiting me, I shall bravely soldier on. The work calls for a soprano soloist and our director decided that she would divvy up the three solo bits amongst choir members. We were asked to audition, preparing one of the three solos. I worked on the Misericordiae, which is the hardest of the 3 (for me anyway) but, fortunately as it turns out, also had a look over Esurientes. I turned up for my audition and the director said "Right let's do Esurientes!" I got through alright - it's a piece that lies nicely and suits my voice. The director apparently agrees with me as that's what I have been given.
And finally in June there are two concerts with a mixture of choir work and solos. So plenty to work on, and I'm right into singing lessons again picking up new repertoire. I'm doing a gorgeously lush-almost-to-the-point-of-corny French song Les Chemins de l'Amour by Poulenc. Listen to this version by Veronique Gens. This is very different from the Poulenc I know!
I'm also learning one of Richard Rodney Bennett's 'Dream Songs' - The Song of Shadows, a lovely atmospheric piece.
I had a session with the voice therapist yesterday, which prompted some interesting thoughts as I drove home. But that's for another blog post.
Yes, I am still alive. And singing. There was a bit of a lull once Christmas arrived and the country went on summer holiday, and I allowed myself to be lazy and not practice properly. But now we are back into it, indeed we are. I'm talking like the Queen. I shall revert to first-person so you don't have to curtsy while you read this.
I already have several performances lined up for the first half of the year. First up is a Concert South concert on 17 March. You may remember the Concert South concert I was preparing for at about the same time last year and my dalliances with metaphorical rose bushes. There's still a thorn or two lurking to catch me this time too, but my bicycle doesn't wobble as much when it spies a top C or in this case a top C#. I have been asked to sing Les Filles de Cadix as well as be part of a trio for two songs - Lift Thine Eyes from Elijah and Handel's Where E'er You Walk. I'm doing the middle part for the Handel and I'm having to concentrate mightily to fight off the tendency to sing the tune. I also get to repeat Les Filles at Womens Club about 10 days later.
Hard on the heels of that is Easter and a full programme of music starting with a service on Holy Thursday evening and finishing with Easter Vespers on the Sunday afternoon. I've got some nice solos amongst all of that including the Mozart Ora Pro Nobis.
On April 28th as part of the Southland Arts Festival, A Capella Singers is doing a programme of Rutter music with the main work being his Magnificat. It's a very approachable work but, dare I say it, could do with a little editing here and there. Is that heresy? If this blog post stops abruptly at some later point, with little whisps of black smoke curling up from the last few words, you can assume I have been smote. Or should that be smitten? Either way it ended badly.
But despite this potentially terrible fate awaiting me, I shall bravely soldier on. The work calls for a soprano soloist and our director decided that she would divvy up the three solo bits amongst choir members. We were asked to audition, preparing one of the three solos. I worked on the Misericordiae, which is the hardest of the 3 (for me anyway) but, fortunately as it turns out, also had a look over Esurientes. I turned up for my audition and the director said "Right let's do Esurientes!" I got through alright - it's a piece that lies nicely and suits my voice. The director apparently agrees with me as that's what I have been given.
And finally in June there are two concerts with a mixture of choir work and solos. So plenty to work on, and I'm right into singing lessons again picking up new repertoire. I'm doing a gorgeously lush-almost-to-the-point-of-corny French song Les Chemins de l'Amour by Poulenc. Listen to this version by Veronique Gens. This is very different from the Poulenc I know!
I'm also learning one of Richard Rodney Bennett's 'Dream Songs' - The Song of Shadows, a lovely atmospheric piece.
I had a session with the voice therapist yesterday, which prompted some interesting thoughts as I drove home. But that's for another blog post.
Goodness me where has the year gone? Let's pick up where we left off shall we?
Alright then, vegetables it is! Doing the grocery shopping recently, I stopped at the drink section (not alcohol, we're in a Licencing Trust area, but if there was an alcohol section I would definitely have been perusing it) and had one of Oprah's Aha! moments. OK yes I know that Oprah's Aha! moments are generally about significant things like 'I finally figured out how to cure cancer/make World Peace/be a nicer person' but I'm a simple girl. It was the V8 juice. This is not just your standard apple or orange or mango juice, this is juice which includes vegetables. Juice that doesn't taste as if it has vegetables in it. I hatched a plan that could indeed be called a weasel.
That evening when Tyler asked for a drink I gave him a glass of juice. "What's in it?" he asked with a touch of suspicion. "Oh mostly orange juice, with a bit of apple" I responded airily. He took a cautious sip. "Mmm this is the nicest juice I've ever had!" he said and proceeded to skull the contents of the glass accompanied by much inner celebrating by me.
Later that evening I chanced my arm and said to him "Do you know what else was in that juice? Carrot juice!!" "What? Really? Wow, now I know how I can eat my vegetables!!" Now I just have to test out the other varieties of juice-with-veges to see what he'll drink.
In other news, we have acquired a pub-size pool table which is ensconced in the man-garage. Chris has bought a slab of some kind of hard board which converts it into a table tennis table. So here's the wee dude taking on the big dude. Big dude is looking intensely competitive.
Tyler, like many children, thinks most vegetables are made of rat poison and elephant dung and have been grown purely for the purposes of torturing him. He will eat:
Potato - but only mashed
Corn - but only in chicken and corn soup.
Yep, that's the sum total. Bribes, threats and guilt trips leave him unmoved and making gagging sounds every time we mention the word carrot. Last night's conversation ended on the following note:
"Mummy! I know it won't happen for a long time, but when you die I'm never eating vegetables again!"
Christmas Eve I came home from singing at the first service at St Mary's at around 9:20pm to find Tyler fast asleep in the hallway because apparently he was 'waiting to catch Santa'.
On the bench he had laid out a feast for Santa and the 'rainder' with a little note.
Off I went to St Mary's again for round 2 at 11:30pm, finishing just before 1am. By the time I got home and ensured everything was ready for Santa it was 1:45am.
Tyler came "Merry Christmas!"-ing into our room at 5:15am but amazingly we were able to get him to settle down in our bed till 6am at which time he dragged me out to the lounge with him to open his Santa presents and the presents from us. Much excitement ensued as amongst other things a skateboard was revealed.
Tyler and I played Monopoly and then we headed over to Mum's at midday to open presents and indulge in a traditional Christmas feast with Mum's personalised home-made crackers between courses.
It was a gloriously hot, sunny day.
Chris Stephen
Back home Tyler played happily with his loot while Chris watched a movie and I had a big nana-nap!
We have one not-so-small-now boy happy as a Christmas elf high on frankincense and myrrh after putting up the Christmas tree this afternoon. We put up the Advent calendar last night so he has already had his first gift from that.
We have one of those Advent calendars with 24 small pockets into which I put a slip of paper with a picture of a location at which he will find a 'wee something.' This year we are having the usual toy/lolly type gifts and then we are adding in some 'Time Vouchers' which will have things like "Spend an hour at the beach with Mum &/or Dad' or 'Picnic at the park'. Like a lot of kids, Tyler's love currency is time with us, so not only do we get away from buying cheap cr@p that will get tossed in a week or two, but we all benefit from the time together.
Surprisingly, we have been having difficulty getting out of him what he wants for Christmas presents. He consistently says that he will like whatever we get him (oh the fish-hooks in that one!) and that he wants to do things with his family. He actually wrote a note to Santa asking for 'something the whole family can do play together'.
I recently created his PNP Santa video and it was a sight to behold when the video got to the bit where Santa has a look under the cover at what the elves are making for Tyler. Santa "Oh Tyler, I see you want something that everyone can do together". Tyler's eyes went like saucers, his mouth dropped open and he exclaimed "Oh my goodness!" Belief is still strong in him :)
