Having a fabulous day yesterday-going out for lunch, going to see my friends show at college, going to the pictures, then going to see Coheed and Cambria live!

Well, yesterday I was invited to attend afternoon tea with the Master and Company of the Merchant Taylors of York, having sung with the choir for the annual Charter Day service to mark the feast of St John the Baptist. Pimms on arrival, tiny little sandwiches with smoked salmon and asparagus and cucumber, fruit tarts, strawberries and cream and champagne. All the ladies wore hats, and the Mayor and the rest of the civic party were there.


Then I went to see S*x and the City 2 with 2 of my friends from choir.

Sounds like fun Celeste even if teh two activities seem at opposite ends of a spectrum...

Anyway, mine - a stroll round York this morning (had appointment to pick up prescription sunglasses and was a bit early) and in doing so happened to see, and subsequently treat myself to, a couple of pretty summer tops and a pair of jean-style leggings - and I got 20% off on top of the fact that one was on special offer anyway.

So doubly pleasant lol: Treats - and money off!!

1) Having Pa and Bagpuss round for lunch.

2) Knowing that the third Jolly Music book arrives in Felixstowe today. Woop woop!!!

My second happy post of the day! I'm happy cause I've just returned from the Hoppings fun-fair, and then I'm having my violin lesson, then going to church for my confirmation!

Sounds good! I'm getting confirmed too, on Monday! I am sort-of happy because at least my Physics exam is over and done with. Only a piano exam*, two bits of science coursework, a German speaking exam and an athletics competition left to worry about for this term

* Note the piano exam before coursework, which shocked several of my friends when they heard that I would put the two on an equal level of importance!

Successful Lunchtime Concert put on at school; those who took part in the recent Competitive Festival:

Westering Home,
Where is Love? - Oliver
Who Will Buy? - Oliver
My House - Peter Pan
Castle on a Cloud - Les Miserables
On My Own - Les Miserables
Send in the Clowns
Somewhere

Muggins here accompanying - all without a hitch.

Awh, well that'll be good when it's all done then! what name have you picked for confirmation?

And yourself? Fran Siscan perhaps?

Shopping.

Not funny, my full name is Francesca which I detest-it works if you're a tall, gorgeous Italian woman, but as I am only one of the four, it doesn't work on me! Being a rather short, insufferably pale, thoroughly English girl, I don't know what my parents were thinking!

Nothing wrong with that - they could have called you Fifi Trixibelle or something equally stupid!

Coming home to find that the builders cleared out and CLEANED the bathroom. I love them forever for that.. I was steeling myself for a whole evening spend cleaning the bathroom.

Well I don't recall having ever taught a Fran who used her full name. Equally those called Clem don't like the full Clementine or Clemency. I was invigilating a Camomile yesterday - likes to be called Mo. There are plenty of others.

Then you have names like Tia Maria! Clearly her parents' choice and it would be a while before she became conscious of why her name might produce a smile or chuckle.

We had one family's children come through school each with a handful of first names - and thereby hangs the explanation: their first child had 5 Christian names, starting with the letters F-I-R-S-T, in order e.g. Frederick Ian Robert Steven Tom. The next one had 6 Christian names, starting with the letters S-E-C-O-N-D in order - fortunately they only had five children, otherwise they'd most probably have had to use Xavier when it came to number 6! What possesses them to lumber their children with such, for life!

Where I grew up... (South East Asia) people often have names like Frances and Clement, which they use in full. Then you get people who decide to take a normal name and invent variations of it. There's a family where all the male members of one generation are named things ending with -mond - so it's OK if you have Edmond and Desmond but then they ran out, so they invented Melmond, Kelmond and Jesmond, I don't know if they've got on to Almond by now.

I also knew an English chap named Matthew Mark Luke John- I know it's a tradition to name boys after the Apostles but they did't have to pick all of them..

General stuff

Chet's is all paid up! Hurrah!

Me too! Cheque posted this morning. Really looking forward to it now

Payday for you as well, then?

A good lesson with Swisscello .

And feeling much better than I did yesterday !

If you weren't a bit younger (from what I can deduce from your references to exams and stuff) I'd swear you were my cousin!!!!!! We call her Secca. Might work for a logon name but not for confirmation I suppose.

Good luck with the confirmation and all the rest...

Moon Unit?

Ah - wasn't that Frank Zappa's sprog??

Surely 'Moon Unit' literally means 'Looney One'?

Today, I have enjoyed experiencing the A'level Music 'Listening' paper - able to try and answer some of it myself - in my head, of course!

FINISHED MY A LEVELS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You didn't happen to sit this morning's Music 'Listening' paper did you?

To be fair, I don't particularly hate the name itself, just the fact that without fail somebody always goes "Well, you don't look Italian to me!" as if I'm some sort of fraud

Dab yourself with damp teabags all over for a more "olive" tone.
Gesticulate constantly while you talk, adding "eh?" to all questions.
Get a male family member or OH to wear a suit and hat and hang around you a lot.
Make aforementioned male carry a violin case around with him.

Problem solved Much more convincing!

Not today but yesterday - my Gospel Choir's concert was awesome! It went SO well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-oagPlBuKA This is us, singing one of our songs yesterday. I had the alto part when there were just four of us singing at the beginning.

That's rather impressive Well done!

Just spent an hour playing my new harp!!

Just harp-an-hour's playing then?!

Dancing rehearsals!

1) Seeing benjaminja (he came in to watch my Guildhall classes all morning).

2) The Junior Guildhall choir doing a fab job in their end-of-term concert. We made six people in the audience cry (RESULT!!!!).

Er...I hasten to add, because their singing was so moving...

Thank you! I'm so proud of my choir! We all worked hard and it was such an uphill battle. I think we sound pretty good.

Well done, Lucky!

well done! It's lovely

I won a game as black (in tournament play) with the Modern Benoni! (Chess players will understand)

Thanks guys. Well done to your choir too Cyrilla! Tears are (generally) a very good sign.

I think the best thing about that video might be my friend doing her little conductor dance when it gets exciting.

Lucky, it was great! The singing is the best thing about it, but your friend's dancing comes a close second

Lucky, that's great! well done to you and your choir.

A walk in the sunshine

having a loo door. For the last week it's been a curtain, due to building work...

No curtain-calls, I take it?!

Yeah, when the whole street burst into applause I knew I had to do something...

(one can see straight into the loo from the street if the door is open because of the angle of windows and such)

Invigilating 257 Y9/10 candidates in GCSE Science papers today, with a hitch!

Two 'sittings' - staggered start, all papers distributed-collected/collated both swiftly and efficiently!

(Just one more for me to invigilate this summer - Wednesday morning, 3 hr Maths exam, only one student, hopefully to be awarded with a bursary for reading Mathematics at University in September.)

Lots!

I did these exams today - and I was a trend-setter. I went to the toilet after the second paper, and soon the rest of the hall wanted to go, too!

Hmmm. Not sure you wouldn't have had to wait, under my jurisdiction!