Last night in Europe! I’ve spent the past couple of days in Sheffield, England, visiting my friend Kirsty (we’re joint Godmothers to Benji – but unfortunately neither of us are Fairy Godmothers – how cool would that be, bibbidi bobbidi boo and all that?).
Sheffield’s a nice area, bigger than I thought, and Kirsty lives right on the edge of town, about 5 minutes drive from some of the most spectacular scenery I didn’t see. That’s right. Didn’t see. It was foggy the whole time I was there and could barely see out her window! However, that didn’t stop us from going out for a walk – Pride and Prejudice country, which was very exciting. In fact, one of the stately homes in the area was used as Pemberly in the new Keira Knightly version of P&P, and we think some of the rocks were used in the (way better) 1995 version with Colin Firth. You know, the bit where Lizzie goes walking with her aunt and uncle when they’re on holiday (see photos).
I didn’t get to meet Mr Darcy, which was a bit of a shame, but maybe next time!!!
The other cool thing about my time in Sheffield is that I got to join a choir for a night! Kirsty sings in the Abbeydale Singers, an a capella choir who have won various awards and toured to places like Hungary. She had phoned the musical director earlier in the day to see if it was alright for me to come and watch the rehearsal.
I could only hear her end of the conversation, which went something like:
K: I have a friend from New Zealand staying. Would it be okay if she came and watched tonight’s rehearsal? She’s as music teacher.
(listens)
K: Oh no, she’d probably just want to sit and watch.
(listens)
K: (to me) You’re an alto right?
J: (suspiciously) Yeah…
K: Yes, she’s an alto.
(listens)
K: Okay, great. And you’ll have a folder of music for her?
(listens)
K: Cool, we’ll see you tonight.
So I ended up singing with an English madrigal choir. Sorry, sight-singing with an English madrigal choir!! It was heaps of fun, even if they did end up mocking my NZ accent after! And bizarrely, the husband of one of the women in the choir is also from Dunedin, and Dunedin being Dunedin, we established that I’m going to be teaching her niece at Balmacewen this year!
I’m in London now, staying at my friend Brett’s place. Then my plane leaves for home at 9pm Saturday night! I think I’m all packed…may have to pay a little excess luggage.
Can’t wait to get back and see you all again and play some music. I’m getting desperate. I’ve never been away from my flute for this long before and I’ve been going through a bit of flute-withdrawal. And just think of all that sheet music I’ve accumulated these past 4 months and haven’t been able to play!
This probably won’t be my last post here, I’ve got a bunch of other photos I’m going to torture you with and who knows what’s going to happen on the plane on the way home? Knowing me, I’ll end up singing next to a troop of Mongolian throat-singers and end up performing with them or something!!
Thank you for reading this and thanks for all the emails, facebook messages and texts you've sent while I've been away. They've kept me sane!!
See you soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment