What ever happened to plate-spinning acts?

It's been a fairly quiet weekend, for which I am quite grateful. Not sure if 'burning the candle at both ends' is the appropriate phrase, but I've had quite a few late nights in the last couple of weeks - a mixture of rehearsals, evenings in the pub that have gone on just a bit longer than they should have etc. So I took the opportunity Saturday and Sunday to recharge and do nothing more than have a wander around and a trip to the gym etc, and make use of my extra hour to sleep in a bit.

From here on in, weekends are starting to hot up with more rehearsals - this year I am doing a good number of gigs at the Albert Hall with London Concert Chorus, plus Voxcetera's Christmas concert on 13th (only one gig but lots of music to learn, plus at least one Xmas gig with Balham Ukulele Society - which will be songs I know, but do not know on the Uke. So there is a lot of practising to do as well. This may come across as a moan - it really isn't - I love doing this sort of stuff (otherwise why would I...) but put it on top of the usual social whirl and it all gets quite busy.

Other than that, work continues on apace. We've had a number of people out over the last month - a mixture of conferences and holidays and the colds and 'flu that are always around at this time of year. I'm hoping that now everyone is back I will be able to move things forward rather than just feel like one of those circus plate-spinning acts. (What happened to them - as a kid you couldn't go a fortnight without seeing one on TV - presumably they are all working in call centres or stacking shelves?)

And it's my birthday next week - which really isn't a big deal - I've reached the age where even the ones ending in a '5' aren't a big deal (this one doesn't) - it's pretty much only the decades you want to commemorate. But it's an excuse for a bit of a celebration if I want one, and to buy a nice book or similar (I need *no* excuse for the latter of course).

Anyway, that's a quick 'no news' that his filed my lunch break. Will write a little more later in the week.

Sweet baby James

Having separated off my music blogs I am going to cross-post for a while to help those who want to find it.

So here is my review of last weeks James Taylor gig at the Royal Albert Hall.

http://rossonmusic.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/sweet-baby-james.html

Enjoy.

Somewhere in between

There is going to be a gap in my blog I'm afraid.

"Yes", you point out, "it started a week ago...". Well, so it did, Dear Reader. It's just that (as well as minor details like a gig at the Albert Hall tomorrow) I have something really major that has cropped up and I have to deal with it. And given that I need to work - well I need to keep getting paid, and intend to honour all my commitments to various choirs and causes if at all possible, something has to give.

And that something is the blog.

I very much hope that before the end of the month normal service can be resumed. And what is happening might give me a few new things to talk about - if I can - not sure. But for now I'm going to tie off a few posts from the year where I have left things hanging with some bullets below - and say auf wiedersehen.

1. I'm still not eating meat. Had a bit of fish, especially at the start, but that's reducing now. Don't feel much different physically (but feeling no worse is good) but feel happy that this is right for me now.
2. I blogged earlier on this year about dieting. That did not go well, until the last couple of weeks, which have seen a bit of a change, so I'l have to hold that one for now and see. 
3. Cigarettes. Clearly good to have stopped, but I still want one. If you're offering?
4. So glad to see the UKIP bandwagon has at least stopped speeding up following the by-election result. I do feel sorry for the Libdems, because I don't think they really had a choice about the coalition, but there you go. I'm sure Nick Clegg will relish his peerage in May 2015.
5. Not exactly a Green breakthrough - but not a collapse either. 3 MEPs (up from 2)
6. Three months until Kate Bush (in tribute to whom this post was named)!
7. Before that, Chas 'n' Dave on 21st June! 
8. I have lost count of the times and ways in which music has kept me sane, who I want to be etc. It matters.

The year just gone

Given that the idea of blogging for the year is in itself clichéd, I am going to maintain the cliché level by reviewing last year.

This is purely from my perspective of course. I recognise it wasn’t a very good year for people in countless areas of the world, or for people forced out of their homes by the bedroom tax. And, moving a little closer to home, I am now of an age where a number of friends’ parents are dying.

Compared to any of these people’s situation the word to sum up my year is probably “trivial”. But it’s my year, and so that’s what I am writing about.

Overall I had a pretty good year in 2013. Not everything in my life is great, by any means, but generally I look back on the year with some satisfaction, and I think I am in a much better place now than I was a year ago.

Music

Music is important to me, increasingly so each year, and I’ll write about why in a future blog.

Totting it up, and I might well have missed something, I sang in twelve concerts in 2013. I think this amounts to about 40,000 people. Admittedly, playing the Albert Hall seven times (three different shows) amounts to 95% of this, but it’s still an impressive number.  I also, for the first time, did some proper big band gigs – alone in front of an audience with only seventeen fabulously talented instrumentalists. When they kick into gear six feet behind you, the sound is incredible.

By no means the biggest gig of the year, but the one I am proudest of, was with the Voxcetera Chamber Choir. Looking for further challenge I joined this fabulous group of singers in September and our Christmas concert was an incredibly special event for me.

Life and Health

After years of trying, I think I’ve finally got into the habit of going to the gym. Not sure I am doing exactly the right stuff when I am there, but it’s a step in the right direction. There’s a new and cheap gym opening opposite work in a month’s time, so I am hoping this will allow me to continue to get healthier.

Alcohol (the cause of - and solution to - all life’s problems – Homer J Simpson) and I have a bit of a chequered history, worthy of its own blog, but from a long-term perspective, my decisions here have definitely been the most beneficial.

On other life matters – I will only quote Tracey Thorn (and yes – I know Danny Whitten wrote it). Ho hum.

Holidays

I took my kids away for a big holiday for the first (and, given their ages, increasing self-reliance, and my bank balance, probably last) time. Orlando probably isn’t my dream destination, but they loved it, and I enjoyed two weeks with them, with no greater pressures than deciding what and where to eat that night. Plus I got to see the Space Shuttle!!!!!

As the boys reach adulthood, I don’t think I love them any differently, but we relate to each other now as adults, and that’s a big plus for me.

The other benefit of the holiday was that I got to read lots of…..

Books

I used to read a huge amount. In terms of amount but also breadth of stuff. And over the years it really tailed off. Lack of time, tiredness – lots of things played a part. Two weeks of fairly solid reading reminded me of what I have missed, and I have been busy catching up ever since. There is so much cheap stuff available on the Kindle store.

Work

A really busy year. I’ve vowed this isn’t a blog about work stuff, but that doesn’t stop me from saying that it has been really tough at times – great fun on lots of occasions, and frustrating on others. 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. Partly because I am an overweight middle-aged male, so am entering prime heart attack territory, but mostly because there is so much more I want to do with my life, and I need the time and energy to do it.

So I don’t foresee any changes right now, but am going to start thinking about what else I could do to pay the bills and make me a little less time-poor.

Friends

I don’t have lots and lots of friends. I don’t want lots and lots of friends either. But I do have some very good friends, and (cliche-ometer to max) they really are what life is about. You know who you are - thank you.