2014 and all that

On December 31^st 2013, I decided to try and blog my way through the coming year. Well, it sort of happened. In total 96 blog posts were achieved. There were a couple of month-long gaps in there when life got in the way but I'm actually quite proud that I managed quite as much as I did.

And I've decided to continue with the blog for the time-being anyway. Not least because on four months there will be a general election to get annoyed about. But I find it quite enjoyable to put finger to keyboard. A question I get asked quite often is ‘why?’. Why put stuff out there and let the world see it all? Why bother with things like Twitter? I'm not sure I have a great answer really. I enjoy it. I self-censor enough to ensure that I won’t share things that affect other people and which they might not want to be shared, and to ensure I don’t put anything out there that could be career-limiting. But other than that, this is no different to keeping a diary – just one that I let anybody read. I think that the knowledge that I am writing for an audience does prevent there being too much introspection, but it still has that cathartic effect.

So how has the year gone? Well – I've pulled up one of the early posts from 2014 and taken some of the headings from that – seems as good an idea as anything else.

Music - performance

Voxcetera continued to be a great source of pride for me – performing as I did at St Sepulchre in March, and then on tour in Edinburgh, before a ’home’ fixture in October and then a wonderful Christmas concert. This year promises a concert at St Martin’s in the Fields, and then Dublin.

But I also managed to sing in a Prom for the first time – with the Rachmaninov Choral Symphony (Crouch End Festival Chorus) being one of the most demanding pieces of music I have ever encountered. The sense of achievement was overwhelming.

Adding to that a Verdi Requiem, a (second) Mozart one, and six Albert Hall Christmas gigs (plus one at Birmingham Symphony Hall) made for a full year. And that is without adding in my involvement with Balham Ukulele Society – something I did not see in the tea leaves when looking ahead.

All the musical things I do have in common the opportunity to spend time with groups of people, from all walks of life, who are friendly, and who make my life a better place. I am grateful for all of them.

Music - In the audience

Two main words. Kate Bush. A dream fulfilled. But also Folk by the Oak – Richard Thompson, Seth Lakeman, and Keston Cobblers Club among others. James Taylor at the Albert Hall, Difford and Tilbrook at the Union Chapel and Chas’n’ Dave.

Add that to a range of smaller gigs, from solo guitarists to chamber and full choirs, and big bands, and it has been a busy year. I’d lost the habit of going to gigs and have gradually built it back up again. I am sure there will be more in 2015.

Holidays

Life got in the way a bit. The need to practice for a prom, and move house, mean that I didn't clock up the Air Miles this year. Mixed feelings about this. I don’t feel that I wasted my holiday entitlement, in that I look back and can see that I did plenty. But it would be nice to get away a little bit more in 2015. Pretty sure that the kids won’t want to come, so I can look to some more grown-up destinations.

Books

I've kept this one going – with a lot of Kindle stuff. Quite a bit of it has been fairly old and cheap sci-fi, but I've also read a bit of travel and some proper fiction. And I've read quite a lot of economics and social science-y stuff. But Thomas Piketty – just not had the drive to read him yet.

Media do overlap of course – I continue to be a great consumer of podcasts (one of the benefits of being a regular user of public transport). And I would heartily recommend Freakonomics, Planet Money, This American Life, No Such Thing as a Fish (the QI podcast) and Reply All. I greatly enjoyed ‘Serial’ too. Yes it is voyeuristic, and at times uncomfortable, but did have me on the edge of my seat – and we are all allowed one or two guilty pleasures, aren't we?

Work

I look back and (quoting directly from last year’s blog) ‘I do find myself thinking – worrying really, that I'm not sure I can, or want to, go at this pace for too much longer’. Wow. I think the pace has increased considerably. I have coped. In fact better than that, I feel more positive about my ability to do the job than I did then. I think that last year’s anxieties were a part of some more general malaise going on in my life, and that by correcting things elsewhere I had more reserves to devote to work. Of course, now that I look back I wonder whether I am pushing things too hard – just because I don’t see a problem at the moment doesn't mean I am not storing up issues. I'm currently very happy with what I do, but I suspect I should at least start to think about longer-term future options and prospects during the next year.

Health

THE major success story of 2014 for me. I managed to lose 30 pounds in the period from May/June to September. I have managed to put about 5 of them back on over Christmas, but am disgusted enough with myself over that to ensure they will not be sticking around. I found a level of will power I really didn't think I had, and (no surprise) that all you need to do is eat in a controlled way and do lots of exercise and it all comes good. Which makes me feel all the more stupid about the decade-long search for miracle ways of achieving it.

While dieting, I went almost entirely veggie for a couple of months. I've not stuck to that since I hit my target weight, but am eating much less meat that I have ever done – and I feel a lot better for it. At home, I could definitely do the veggie thing 100% of the time – it’s going out that kills it. Particularly it was three days away with work and the third consecutive mushroom risotto as the only choice on the menu that made me yearn for flesh. Does this go down as a fail? No. Because over all I am much much healthier. I have achieved something I knew I need and wanted to, but I think never really thought I would get to with weight etc. It would be better for me and the planet if I ate no meat, but eating it on a less frequent basis isn't a disaster for either.

Life

Big, big changes. Causing a lot of stress to me and to those around me (thank you to all those who gave me such support during what could have been a much trickier period without you). But I finally moved away from a situation that wasn't making me happy (and wasn't making anyone else happy either). With some time now elapsed between then and now, I know that I feel much better (and worry a little about where I would have been heading if I hadn't made the move – I think it would have been a pretty dark place). I've managed to keep what I valued most - my kids and the relationship I continue to have with them – whilst becoming (I hope) a much more balanced and centred individual.

So, there we go. Overall score? A few misses, a few definite hits, quite a few unexpected and unforeseen. A year of major change, and I feel very positive about it and about the future. So I have to put it down as a pretty good year. Of course, I now need to think about what challenges 2015 holds, and what I want to change or continue. More on that in future posts.

I want to break free

It will be apparent that I survived the flight back from Guernsey, about which I was worrying like an old woman. And I've survived the busy week since. Work dinner Wednesday. Work drinks do Thursday (hosting the great and the good of London litigators who were doing their best to drink the bar dry. Friday and Saturday saw rehearsals and performance of the Verdi Requiem with Crouch End Festival Chorus. It seemed to go pretty well and I am very pleased I did it - for North Londoners they are quite a decent bunch really.

Today was a lazier morning and then a potter round Greenwich and lunch, before getting back into the gym tonight to deal with the consequences of all the above. So I'm not exactly resting, but I feel happy, busy and invigorated as another week starts.

The week of the independence referendum.

So if you were wondering "how is Ross of Balham" doing*? then now is the time to switch off and do something else - we are going into political territory here.

I don't usually think about the first fourteen months of my life. Not a lot happened. Well, man landed on the moon (or did he**) and such, but for me, whilst I may have learned my first few words, it passed in a bit of a blur to be honest.

But it did pass in Edinburgh. So I am Scot-ish, if not truly hand on heart Scottish, and so I watch the unfolding drama up there with keen interest.

Living in London, which is the centre of news, culture and pretty much everything in the UK it is hard to empathise with Scotland. For years they have been neglected by the UK government, or worse - experimented on (they got the Poll Tax before we did). And this isn't just a Tory thing. Here is a list of all the good things Tony Blair did for Scotland:

1. left after he finished school. 

So given the chance to make your own destiny, after years locked in your rich cousin's attic and rolled out every so often to be belittled, wouldn't you jump at it?

The sentiment is right. But the idea is surely barking mad. Isn't it? Scotland is a small nation, with an ageing population, no significant industrial base, and no stable economic base. Ah, but there is oil, isn't there? Billions of pounds worth of revenue over the next 30 - 50 years.

Every argument I have yet heard for independence consists of one of two points. Oil and 'fuck the English'. And I'm sorry, I don't think that is quite enough to build a nation on. This model shouldn't have had a chance of working. A resounding 'No' was obvious. But as we approach Thursday, I have this horrible feeling that that it is going to be a 'Yes'.

In the next couple of days I'll write again and say what I think Scotland should be doing and how it can set itself up for the best possible future. But it's not a future of the Toad-like Salmond holding crown and sceptre and wrapped in the Saltire.



*Everyone is calling me that now. Its only a Twitter user name which is 100% descriptive and 0% imaginative but when someone you know in real life's parents meet you and that is how your are introduced, AND THEY KNOW WHO YOU ARE you start to realise that Social Media pervades everything now.
** yes, he did. End of. It's not that sort of blog

Kicking Our Way Through a Golden Gown

As I start to write this it is 6:30 am. I looking out on a morning that certainly looks very autumnal, and conducting an experiment into how much coffee it is going to take to wake me up. The "one-cup hypothesis" has failed but I have high hopes on the two.

This has been the first normal - five day working week for a while with a couple of late work ones thrown in. Plus a couple of late non-work ones. OK, it would be easier to say I haven't got to bed at a sensible hour since Sunday.

I've changed my morning routine a little. As anyone who goes anywhere in the morning will be aware, kids are back to school. And most of them seem to be getting my train. I've tended to get the same train for about the last 3 and a half years. At the beginning there were maybe four or five kids getting the train to the private schools out South of Croydon. Now it is maybe 30 from Balham, with another 30 or so already on the train from the stops before.

This shows something about the area - it's one that is impossible for normal people to buy a house in (if you can afford £18k per year out of taxed income for each of your kids to go to school - which is a salary cost of nearly £70k just on education if you are going to send both Oliver and Sophia, then you are not "normal people"). But this isn't (today) a moan about the increased bankerisation of Balham. It's simply a comment that I've changed to a slower train where I have my choice of seats, and a pleasant-enough ten minute to the office at the end of it.

And it looks like another busy week ahead. I'm doing the Verdi Requiem with Crouch End Festival Chorus and the gig is Saturday 13th. So a rehearsal for that first thing tomorrow. Ukulele to restore the balance Sunday, and then I am off to Guernsey (working) for a couple of days next week, back to host a work drinks party - deep joy - Thursday and then two days of Verdi before the gig. So I think tonight and Monday is it in terms of free time for a while. And obviously I need to go to the gym on those to counter the excesses of all the other things. It's good to be busy but right now (at 6:47am) with coffee number 2 failing to make much of an inroad yet) I'm thinking maybe not this busy.

It has all felt rather easy in the nice summer weather. Easy to get out and about, just looking out the window makes you smile. I normally really like autumn, but I do wonder how that is going to be, when it gets cold and dark by the time I am home from work. Maybe I'm a little anxious about that right now.
_____

Right - two hours on, in the office and just posting this I saw the following story.

And in sad closing news, the BBC reported that the space sex geckos have died. I'm sure all our hearts go out to the plucky little fellows. I hope that, following their inevitable dissection and prodding about, that they will be given the send-off so deserved by such pioneers.

It's the magic number

During my blogging absence I managed to attend a range of concerts. Normally, I’d have mentioned them on the go, but here’s a catch up for you.

Barts Chamber Choir - Dixit Dominus (Handel) and the Vivaldi Gloria at St James Piccadilly

This is a fabulous venue with a great acoustic. The concert was on the night of the England Italy world cup match so with an English (nominally) first half and an Italian second half, there was something for the conductor to link in to. In art, as in real life, Italy won. I didn't know the Handel at all prior to the gig. It was a lot more intense than I associate with him generally – I know he does powerful stuff, but this had an urgency beyond what I had expected. 

On the other hand, I know the Vivaldi very well, and love it. Sitting in a beautiful church as the Cum Sancto Spirito fugues its way to the end was the highlight of the evening.

Barts Chamber Choir is probably about forty strong, and drawn from the wider Barts choir - clearly comprising some extremely talented singers. They got that balance/mix that smaller choirs can find (which is harder for the choral leviathans I guess). And one of the soloists - Grace Davidson I think, is just angelic. The most amazing voice, with seemingly no effort (or need to breathe). To balance the review, there was also some counter-tenor stuff in the Handel.

Crouch End Festival Chorus Tallis and Others at Southwark Cathedral

Bit of a last minute one for me this – having had a Voxcetera rehearsal cancelled at the last minute, I Facebooked something like “A free evening – what am I going to do?”, and this was suggested. The lead piece was Tallis’s Spem in Alium*.Which is in 40 parts – 8 five part choirs. 

Also performed, in an entirely unaccompanied programme was the Vaughan Williams G Minor mass, some Bruckner, a rendering of the Buddy Holly song “It doesn't matter anymore” by Orlando Gough and the premier of a “Salve Regina” by Hughes.

Crouch End is a very high quality choir, and I was impressed by what they did. I didn't quite 'get' the Buddy Holly thing, but liked the Salve. Vaughan –W is what it is. Which leaves the Tallis. I was near enough the front to have the choirs wrapped around me, so I got a placing effect in the music that you would miss from the back. And it was clever. But it left me feeling that it was done in 40 parts to impress, and that perhaps that got in the way of the music a little. Not my favourite.

Chas ‘n’ Dave – St George's Beckenham

Well – what is there to say? I don’t think CnD’s music particularly suits a traditional church setting – for me they will always be better hear in the low-ceilinged social club. Perhaps on a holiday camp in Camber Sands. And incongruous only begins to describe the dancing and drinking (strictly BYO – the communion wine was safely locked away).

If I was looking for words to describe Chas n Dave’s music, I would certainly go for ‘fun’ but also ‘efficiency’. You probably can’t be in the game and touring every five minutes for five decades without getting it down to a fine art. But they are a tight band, doing things well, but with real economy of effort – songs are incredibly well drilled, and I felt that if I had seen them any other night, the performance would have been the same. I don’t mean this as a criticism – but it’s as near to one end of the spontaneity continuum as it is possible to be without a backing track. (The other end – Dylan – about a mile further along than anyone else!).

My other key observation – Chas Hodges sits really high up to play the piano – if I invoke the spirit of Peter Hook here some of you will know what I mean. I don’t know why – but it interests me.

But it was tremendous fun anyway – how can you pass on Chas ’n’ Dave?

There’s a bit of a hole in my gig diary over the next month or two, so feel free to draw my attention to anything that is interesting.

*I know it’s silly, but Spem in Alium still sounds like a dish from a menu in a Monty Python sketch to me