Sorry to hear that Fiona.

On the subject of scales, I alwys found E Major/Minors difficult for some reason.
But arpeggos - darned examiner at my ALCM 46 yrs ago gave me E flat minor for the first one ! Aaaaaaaaaaargh ! All on black notes ! (Gflat major is similar)

C major has come back now I guess that part of what I laughingly call my brain had just gone on holiday

Weird!

Argh! I'm having my wail now. Daughter in uni has some sort of viral infection and gave me regular reports yesterday. OH came home from work in London yesterday evening with Swine Flu. Sonny Jim has antibiotics for tonsillitis.

On the bright side, the hamster and goldfish seem ok!

And you , hopefully !

ARGH!! Got an instant message thing from a colleague asking if I was free for a quick catch up meeting at 12.30. I said yep, sure. She replied that she'd send an invite to those concerned to dial in to the meeting. No invite has appeared. 12.30 has come and gone.

Oh, hang ong, she's in Philadelphia. Have I just volunteered to go to a meeting at 5.30pm today?

Damn, etc.


Edit: Turns out she just got stuck in traffic, so she phoned at 12.45 once she got in to the office (7.45am her time)

OH just retrieved my old PC from mum-in-law's house. I'd spent quite a long time setting it all up for mum-in-law about ten years ago, so she could do letters and stuff like that (its a DOS machine and not internet capable). I ran it up just for a laugh and - on the plus side - its all still in full working order, but then I noticed that there was only one half-written letter (dated about 8 years ago) on the drive. I don't suppose she could have used it for more than about 10 minutes in total!

Hmm. The school is putting on a play of les mis. It's for the upper school (which counts me in), and in the past they've done the lion king, annie, sweeney todd, phantom of the opera, you name it, and it's always been really good.

My friend (who has singing lessons) and other friend (who doesn't have lessons, but is possibly as good/better and brilliant at drama) are nagging me to audition. I know I won't get a main part, but it would be amazing to be in the chorus, which is still very unlikely. But obviously you have to sing in the audition. They're doing it casually, with no backing music, just to "get a taste of our voices". I used to have singing lessons, a year ago or so, and they always pushed me towards the soprano stuff, my range was up to a Gish. I really don't like singing like this, and feel like a strangled cat. Mucking around at home and with friends I can blast out and really enjoy myself in low things, but this is really fake.

Now, the teachers who are casting have heard me sing before, when I was in year 8, in my older sister's ensemble GCSE performance piece. That was the nasty cat screaming one. Also before I played the flute, at the end of year 8, I sang to see if I could use singing for GCSE music, they said I could, but I took up flute instead and gave up singing.

And now I don't know what song to do (it can be absolutely anything), or if I should even do it, arrrggghh. And they'll be expecting me to be half decent because I had singing lessons

Don't worry so much, what's the worst that could happen? Firstly, I'd say sing something you're comfortable with. Just because you're a soprano, doesn't mean you have to permanently stay in your high voice. As long as you're not going too low and growling and hurting your throat, you'll be fine!
Pick a song that you like, and feel comfortable with. If you're not going for a main part, and the auditions are so informal, it can be something really easy too. Do you have any ideas at all for what you could pick? A song from the show, or from a different show, or just something you like?

Don't panic. I've had a million bad auditions and some good ones, and I imagine people will respect you just for trying. Even if you don't get in, you're no worse off than if you didn't attempt it.

Argh! I have a blister on my little toe. It's just in the right position to remind me of its presence every time I walk...

Argh. I've just finished my essays, and for the first time in ages I sent them to my mum to read, to see if she had any suggestions. I've remembered why I stopped. She told me one of them was "ok" and one of them I should scrap, and start again with a different subject. These are assessed essays, and make up a large percentage of my course mark. My tutor has already seen them, and marked a draft, and they're in for Monday morning.

I'd thought they were quite good, but now I really don't want to hand them in. I've spent more time on these, than on any other essays I've ever written.

My mum's always done this. She's always, always told me my essays need more work, and that they're terrible. I think she believes if she destroys my confidence I'll keep working harder and harder... But it's just made me want to give up.

The moral of this story is: Don't give your mum the chance to do this in future! She probably means well, but the end result of her comments is anything but good. Sometimes parents expect more of their own offspring than they ever would of a random English student, so try to put her comments out of your mind.

If your tutor's marked the draft, (s)he will have indicated areas that need further work. Your mum is not working for York University, so you really don't need to please her this time. Just work on the areas your tutor's suggested - people learn by their mistakes, and if you could already write the world's best essay there'd be no point in going to university. As long as you are doing your best (and it certainly sounds as though you are), no-one can ask any more of you.

I really hope you can regain your self-confidence quickly, lucky. Resolve to be guided by your tutor in future, and don't send any more work home for destructive criticism!

I'm sure you're right. Logically I know that my mum means well, and that she doesn't always mean everything she says, but she is clever, and an English teacher and has good insight a lot of the time, so I tend to forget that sometimes her comments can be less than helpful. She's told me in the past I'm better at essay writing than she is, so I know she can't really think all the horrible things she sometimes says.

Well I've spent a while on it, and I planned to hand it in early tomorrow. I think I'll just finish checking it over now, and stick to my plan. I'd probably destroy it if I tried to fix it now.

Bit grumpy becuse I did a phase tests today at college and apparently the pass mark was 19/25 and I got 18. It means I have to take the test again.

I think I wasn't helped by the fact i was absent yesterday and missed a load of material required for the test.

ahhhh, I hate redoing tests!

Someone writing to me on youtube

" Okay f****r. Its called criticism, get use to it if you ever want to get somewhere. Im sorry I and a large amount of others think you sound like a dieing animal. Your horrible, plain and simple. So do yourself? a favor, and stop before you end up on some show and embarrass yourself in front of millions."

:'(

Sounds like someone's jealous of you, Heslop.

Try not to take it personally (although I know that's easier said than done). It says a lot more about the other person than it does about you.

Thanks Flossie, that's what Laura (SingerPianist) said to me on facebook.

You can disable comments on your videos if you want to avoid people making malicious comments.

It just confuses me, becuase on the same video a 12 year old girl put " Wow your amazing " then sent me a PM saying " I want to sing like you! " .... :S

Agree with Flossie. Might be good, as Sol has suggested, to disable the comments option on your videos, and then if friends/forumites want to comment, they can PM/email/Facebook message you.

Swine flu

Aww..sorry to hear this. Hope you feel better soon. Take care of yourself.

Thanks DC. It is soooo inconvenient! (I know it's never a good time, but this really isn't!)

oh no! just what you could do without. Poor you. Commiserations Flossie.

Heslop01 - that was not only unkind, but also patently untrue (and badly written too! )
Not nice to receive - but the sender does him or herself no favours at all writing that sort of rubbish.

Unfortunately the internet gives an opportunity to people with a chip on their shoulder to behave in a way which they couldn't get away with in real life. I don't know if you know this person, but I bet you wouldn't like him if you did, so don't let him bother you, he's nobody to you. Don't let anyone else's chip-on-shoulder nastiness stop you doing something you enjoy. There will always be people who try to make themselves feel better by trying to put a stop to someone else's pleasure, but at least you can stop them doing this on YouTube by disabling comments. Keep up the good work heslop01


I was talking a friend last night whose son has also got swine flu. Hope you're better soon Celeste

Poor Celeste ...get well soon.

Get well soon. Jen had this a couple of weeks ago, and was better very quickly.

Does it make you come out in rashers?

(sorry... shouldn't joke about it! Hope you get well soon, Fiona! )

Bleeughh, IT coursework, possibly the most pointless and mind numbingly time consuming nonsensical vulgar task that I have ever had the misfortune to experience.

It only counts for half a GCSE but takes so much time, or maybe it's just so unenjoyable that it seems like it takes up a lot more time.

I pity the ones who will mark it.

No, but she snuffled for truffles down the garden

Stop telling porkies! Do you have any oinkment that could save her bacon?

She had such a high temperature that we had crackling.

Snout to laugh about! it's not fair to take the mickey out of people who are having a pig of a week..

I'll just trotter off now.

Will you please stop "hogging" this thread!

[grunts in disgust at the humour swilling around this thread ]

Trough luck if you don't like it!

Aren't you getting boared with it yet

I hope this has cheered Floss up.

Have been feeling absolutely awful I do have a cold, but have finally realised that I was also experiencing an allergic reaction to some beautiful lilies that a friend bought for me and which have been sitting in splendour in the living room for the past 10 days. They've gone now and though I still have the cold, all the extra sneezing, throat-itching and all that gubbins has gone. And it took over a week to work it out. Slow on the uptake or what???!!

Argh! I emailed my uni singing teacher a few weeks ago, asking if we could organise lessons... She hasn't got back to me! Terms are short here, and I really do need some lessons. I texted about a week ago to sort of nudge her, and remind her I was around, and then she still didn't get back to me, so I rang... It says her number is out of service.
I don't know whether to get a new teacher, as she was always a bit disorganised and took a while to get in touch last year too, but she's a really good teacher, and that made up for it.

Should I email again? How long should I leave it before I try and find someone else? Eurgh, so annoying!

Nothing big, just several little things.

Dentist this morning. I get to go back on the 9th for two small fillings - still, if you have dental work done at 8.15 on a Monday morning, your week can only go up from there
Got told lots of things about diet and it not being what you eat but when you eat. Oh except for some things which do matter what they are, e.g. orange juice. Now I have to try and make some new habits/routines for this to see if I can look after my teeth better. They're not that bad, just not that good.

Yet again, as I was leaving the dentist, I remembered the question I've been meaning to ask him for about three years now - little hard lump at the back of my front lower teeth. It doesn't hurt, it's not growing - so I never remember to ask about it in the stress of the actual dentist visit. But I'm curious as to what it is. I shall have to try and remember for the 9th!

Was talking to someone at work about the things I'm waiting on, and got some breezy reply about something being approved earlier in the week. Oh, great, thank you, was anyone going to tell me things were now ready for me to work with?! Because it's not like we're on a massively tight deadline or anything...

Had a really enjoyable music lesson last night, haven't got one next week (half term), probably haven't got one the week after (teacher is performing). Forgot to ask last night if I actually have been entered for an exam this term. So next lesson is in theory 12th Nov, with exams from 23rd Nov. I suspect I haven't been entered as it just got forgotten because we've been playing lots of fun duet sttuff instead. I don't mind either way, but it would be nice to know if I should be worrying preparing myself or not.
I'm pretty sure I've never told my teacher my date of birth, so therefore I can't have gone on the entry form, and the closing date has now passed. Still, I can keep on at the scales on the off-chance I need to know them, and it's not like learning them or the aural stuff or polishing the pieces is a waste
(To the obvious response - phone him up and ask - firstly, he is teaching all afternoon; then he is going away for the week as soon as he finishes teaching this afternoon. And it's not important enough to disturb lesson or holiday time over!)

All that, and I can't decide what sort of budget to set myself for a new treble when I'm at the Early Music Festival. Which I suppose is a nice problem to have

Am feeling none-too-bright - just generally exhausted and not very well feeling . Typical - just as I get a few days off...

Aww...

Thanks for the company earlier

No problem - it was fab to have a good chat (as well as blowing the dust off those vegetables ). I started to feel not-very-well while we were chatting...I'm just hoping I'm not Coming Down With Something...

Hopefully it's just feeling very tired after a busy half-term's work. It can often hit like that...

Mmm, thanks, that's what I'm hoping...

I'm usually so careful about making sure trouser pockets don't have paper tissues in them before I put them in the washing machine...

I now have a load-ful of black washing with white bits of fluff all over it

This isn't really an arrrghh, it's more of a plea for help.

Both my mum and myself can remember a scene from a book, where a woman and her partner go scuba diving. All the way through training they are buddies, but on the actual swim, the man can't go for some reason. So the woman has to buddy with a creepy guy who usually goes with the instructor. At the bottom of the sea, her oxygen tank stops working but she remembers what to do, and signals to her buddy that she needs to share his tank. He panics or something, and swims off, so she is left stranded, and so tries to swim to the top, and only just makes it before passing out.

Where was this from? It's bugging us SO much!

Is it a Marian Keyes book? Angels? The one with Margaret and Paul? I think it might be. Doesn't Paul have a cold or something?
Otherwise, it sounds very vaguely like Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination, though the circumstances in that one are somewhat more sinister.

Ooh, it could be a Marian Keyes book! Because I read half of one, and never finished it because it got lost in the depths of the mess which occurs in my room. Thank you! I'm off to scour my room, find the book, and read it to make sure it's that one.

I have Army officer selection tomorrow. I'm terrified