That is pretty shameful!

You may become very popular indeed with your cooking skills, seeing as a lot of students seem to live on pot noodles and beans on toast!

Ah but they get 3 meals a day from the uni so it doesn't really matter if they can't cook (until they live out next year!).

As long as they live in catered halls

After various misadventures we decided to take two of our cats to the vet this morning to have them tested - the adult for FIV (she has up to date vaccinations for FELV) and the kitten (dumped in our garden) for both.
All the tests were negative. Any cat lovers out there will know how happy that made us!

Made me burst into song: "I dreamt I dwelt in catered halls.."

No way! I'm already worrrying about what to cook tonight (more so about how to cook on the oven here, which is very different to the one at home!)


Steve, I'm singing the real version of that at our recital next month! *plug*

Exactly.

Lala, where exactly did you get the idea that I could cook from?

Absolutely

I hope the kitten is settling in well.

We've just turned the aga on the for the winter (it's gas) and our ginger cat has re-discovered his favourite place - right in front of the aga. How many times a day will we have to tread on him before he realises that he really needs to be somewhere else?

Your chocolate creations for the Handbell Day were very tasty!

The only cooking involved there was melting chocolate. I can bake cakes quite well, but I can't cook to save my life!

Well, you can either buck the trend and stay in college next year, or learn during the holidays - they are certainly long enough!

Hope you're having a good time so far.

Hope you continue to enjoy Durham life!

Enjoy it - super song!

Cirque du Soleil tickets dropping through the letterbox!

Just got to pick up my Chas & His Band tickets at some point this week!

This year has been awesome for concerts, I've averaged almost 2 a month!

I'm allowed to go to music lectures. I've absolutley no idea where they are though. :S

My piano teacher - he's never fazed by anything

You didn't do a Janet Jackson or something did you?

Finding the Wii fit classes piano playing as "light exercise"! to add to my fitness bank. So in a few years I'll be superfit, even if I'm not a concert pianist!

Interesting to see how your imagination works

It's a very dark and scary place in there!

Got the results by email of the RSCM Silver Award - we both passed, I somehow got a merit, despite making a real hash of the sight singing!

Taken from the Music Department website:

"LECTURE ROOMS
All lectures take place in the Department of Music, either in the Concert Room or the Lecture Room.
Seminars and tutorials normally take place either in the Lecture Room, Queen’s Court Seminar Room,
the new Seminar Room in the Study Area annexe, or tutor’s offices. Certain modules, e.g. Opera and
Music Theatre, Adminstration of the Arts and Introduction to Music Therapy, may involve an element of
fieldwork at other locations."

NB The department of music is on Palace Green, just across from the cathedral.

Hope you have time to get to lectures there; the Maths lectures etc are all quite near Trevs, and there are a lot of them!

Nothing!

Was meant to be going the casino with my sis and her boyfriend cause there's a free chinese buffet tonight..I just got in from the cinema and they're both in bed and not going now! I have no one to go with!

Poor Ben. Comfort yourself with the thought that you'll soon be at York, and have lots of people to go to things with. And get an early night ready for your journey tomorrow!

A wonderful conducting class.

My teacher is fantastic, she explains each new technique clearly and simply. We are still at the very early stages, but I can see that we will have made great progress by the end of the year.

A phone call from my piano teacher (last night) - I have apparently won a prize for getting a high score in my grade 6 exam. - to quote Barry

Congratulations madbassoonist!

Oh WOW - brilliant to hear this. You'll have to pass it all on...I expect you to run the conducting sessions in our group now !!

Thanks

I think getting to them should be fine. I don't know about tutorials and things yet but, after this week, I think I only have one lecture on Thursdays at 9am (waaaay too early in the morning for statistics!!), so getting across town for 3.15 for music shouldn't be a problem.

Discovering the best little curry house in the world has opened a new branch 5 minutes from the office........
and.......

.......colleague brought in a superb lemon tart he had baked. Excellent.

Realising I could put an advert on our internal online 'noticeboard' to see if there are any fellow musical types out there who might fancy having a go at something with a marginally competent (G5-ish) recorderist...when I feel brave enough! (Doing duets with my teacher at the moment, it's so much fun!)

My violin. She has such a lovely sound even if I can't play her very well.

One of my pupils ( 8 years old) who rather enjoyed working out some simple chords on the piano.

A beautiful butterfly

Oh! That's lovely skylark

My clarinet teacher said some nice things today at my lesson

My hamster has a name! It's her birthday today, she's a year old

But I've never been able to think of a name to suit her, and it has changed a lot so we've referred to her as hammy. But just now mum said "You should call her Ethel" while I was holding her, and it really suits her.

So now my hamster is called Ethel

Happy Birthday Ethel

I'm looking forward to hearing you perform some time Dawn And aren't some teachers wonderful... my piano teacher that I posted about yesterday - I'd gone to him with some ideas and instead of slapping me down with a sneer as a previous teacher used to, he took my ideas and ran with them, coming up with various ideas of his own to improve on mine. I'm still happy about it today

A letter from a friend

She says thank you
I think...

She's most welcome

A rather awkward adolescent boy pupil who is struggling with his theory at the moment brought me a lovely autumn present - a pretty china bowl containing pastillles of dried earth and nine crocus bulbs. I am already looking forward to spring!

Aww skylark - you're so soppy...

For me - some amusing emails

My husband managing to transfer a mobile phone recording of my playing a pupil's piece onto a CD so she can listen to it.

Jen's temperature has gone down at last, and she ate some lunch. First in days.

That must be a great relief for you. Let's hope no-one else in the family catches it!

I was preparing a quote for a garage at work for some people, and the guy spotted my Theory workbooks on the desk. "Are you into music" says he, so I explain that I am a singer, and I'm currently studying theory in my spare time. "So what do you sing then" he asks, and I give out a few bars of "Love is a many splendid thing".

The ladies with him swoon (well, they always do when tenors sing ) and offer me the part of Mr Snow when they next do Carousel! Apparently they are movers and shakers in a local operatic group and want the garage to store props etc!

OOh, you've been talent-spotted! What fun! I hope you took them up on their offer?

(BTW, last time I sang that song, love was a many splendoured thing.)

Oooooooooops! You're so right!

Better not tell you that I got out Love is a Many Splendoured Thing when stetenorve mentioned it and I've been playing it on my clarinet