Well as one with lots of experience with doing business with Far East people, I am regulalry confused with the gender of my contacts. Some take a western name as well as their eastern names, then its easy, but here are still several people I have done business with for years , and I dont know what gender they are. I cannot address than as Mr or Mrs in an email)
The ones above seem to be Korean rather than Chinese. Japanese are sometimes obvious and sometimes confusing. Even Indian and Muslim names can be confusing.

Indeed - being of Far Eastern extraction myself, I can understand this. But I find it odd that *Radio 3* felt the need to mention this - why would I care if the horn player in the above ensemble is male or female!

Last week I was delivered ?200 gift vouchers for Pets At Home, having filled in a survey mentioned on the receipt and won the prize draw.
This week I have visited a branch, and spent some vouchers on cat and rat food.
And at the bottom of the receipt was an invitation to take a survey to win ?200 in vouchers...cheeky as anything, I know, but I've filled it in to see if I can win again! If this works, I may never have to buy pet food again

Tonight my orchestral exploits will be filmed and put on CD for the 4th time.

Except perhaps two-part ones by Bach?

Only ever done about 2 of those.

Filmed as in I can watch Violin Hero play his violin?

There were no cameras tonigt so I am assuming it is audio only. There are plans to put it on youtube though, in order to try and market the orchestra. The music was excerts from Beethoven 9.

I like a bit of Beethoven 9 *sings Ode to Joy*

my random thought or comment prompted by your comment is that Michael Jackson got in trouble for nicking a Chicago Symphony / Solti clip of Beethoven 9 for the beginning of "Will You Be There"

However I am in these 3 videos, playing 2nd violin, you may just be able to see me!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmXgEGEeiF4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1E9uLPkH2M...feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg3mfpzO6Eg...feature=related

*bookmarks*

In solfa, naturally, Mister Clari??

There are plenty of opportunites to see me play my violin during the orchestral season.

There is an anecdote on b3ta.com about someone who won a year's supply of cat products, which I won't link to here, but the excerpt of what they won was

"300 x tins of Whiskas
50 x cartons of kitten milk
100 x Pouches of wet food
Some random cat treats/toys...

...and 52 x 5kg bags of cat litter. A QUARTER OF A TONNE of [deleted] cat litter. What the [deleted] did they think we owned? Lions with IBS?"

Of course! Because...

a) it's an aid to good musicianship

and

b) I'm visiting Cyrilla Towers this week, and it's good practice...

I think I must have last logged on on either 8th/9th October. Every thread I look at is taking me to posts from the 9th.

Britney Spears is an anagram of presbyterians

Welcome to Chadderton...

You can't get more random than that!

Forum views on the split of Westlife, please...

Sorry Barry, I don't care enough to have a view.

They are a decent band but I was getting a bit bored of them. time for a new band methinks....

well...they were good for karaoke-ing along to in the Proms in the Park this year...



I see you as a One Direction sort of man, Violin Hero

There'll be another one along shortly.

What, you mean like a Westlife tribute band?

Well you could form one if you like.

Nooooooooooooooooo! *weeps*

Just kidding

I must be very cynical these days. The story (on the BBC website) says "The Irish pop group will finish with a farewell tour next year". My instant reaction was: "Lovely way to get free publicity and sell tickets on the final tour." Not that I would have gone anyway!

Eating smoked mackerel +salad with a teaspoon is difficult.

sales of tall bar stools will be affected....

sudden key changes will probably live on

long live "up a tone for the last verse"!
(or is it a semitone?)

Much used in the Eurovision Song Contest, whichever it was.

Surprise they've gone on for this long - Westlife that is.

Off topic - Today I found who actually does care how "Katie Price" has "wrecked her body" and the other trash that is published in "celebrity" weekly magazines!

The delight of glimpsing a can in the cupboard with "Ambrosia" written on it

The despair of discovering that it is in fact a tin of custard, and not rice pudding

I haven't got five bar stools, sorry

Have you got 4? 'Cause I've got a spare one you can have!

I have a bar stool getting in the way in a corner of my kitchen. I bought it just after I bought my first sax. When I first started playing I found the weight of a tenor sax quite difficult to cope with if I practised standing up, but if I sat down I was very aware that I wasn't breathing properly. A bar stool was a compromise to allow me to sit, but the height meant I was still fairly upright.

The bar stool has followed me from home to home ever since. EVen though I have long ago stopped using it for practising. In fact it's many years since it's done anything other than be in the way. It wasn't even expensive - I've no idea why I still have it!

Caro Emerald's on Strictly, now...

I have just had to put in the weirdest helpdesk request...

Basically, this weekend I put in four modification requests, for four different databases. But it was the same change on each one. I had therefore copy and pasted the instructions in each of the instruction forms.

Three of them have quite rightly been rejected - I had submitted a file "CRLF-TextBox.sql" but in the instructions referenced it as "CRLF-Text.sql". So they refused to do them due to the instructions referencing a file that I did not submit with the request.

But the fourth they actually completed, despite it having the same file/instructions as the other three that they cancelled.

So I've had to put in a notification to our tech support group that the four requests I put in should all have failed because I'm stupid and wrote the wrong thing, but they completed one. It's just weird because obviously I submitted these requests to have them done, and I'm complaining that they actually did one...!

I thought I had seen it all as an IT Analyst.

I have been asked to move from 1st violin to 2nd in one of the orchestras I play in as the MD is "rearranging some personnel". At least it gets me out of some tricky sections in some of the music we are rehearsing which go right up to top of the fingerboard!

Not sure if this is a bad thing or not.

On University Challenge just now...

' I'm sorry, you misheard what your team-mate said. The answer is Bartok, not buttock '.

In order to increase the uptake of the flu jab, our trust is bribing encouraging us with an extra days' holiday if we have it.

The first person person in our dept to have the jab is now off with the flu and rang in today to say it is getting worse.

I think I'll do what I always do and rely on extra vit c and zinc. Blow the day off!

I'm going to watch it now on iplayer (not just to hear that - I always miss UC and love it - partly just to hear Jeremy Paxman going 'come on', or the look of disbelief on his face at some of the answers

My daughter has always preferred to play second, despite opportunities to play first. (Currently in Hertford S.O.)