Sunshine and the end of term
Two days until my orchestra concert, then school trip to Berlin the next day

Home-made egg fried rice

This clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t19NeJjrDI..._embedded#at=12

just finished a four day course in Orff training

Glad you enjoyed it, p*s*l!

For me - going for an early dinner in a good countryside pub out in the lovely sunshine with Bagpuss and noodle...

Hope you have a wonderful holiday!

Oh well done. That is really impressive.

(It is also impressive that the head of department actually thought to write such an email.)

The smell of two chickens roasting

Love it!

Doing a lot of work in the in-laws' garden.

The sun made me happy today

A good concert that has given me a much needed confidence boost regarding my sax playing.

Yep Sun's out here already today so I'm off to walk the dogs before it gets too hot.

I've just had a fabulous weekend in the Bay of Islands in NZ. I saw dolphins, swam and kayaked in the Pacific and enjoyed the most spectacular scenary

Although I'm stressed because I haven't packed yet and have a zillion things to get ready first, I'm still happy at the thought of going to Cambridge today (BKA Spring Course next week) and being with lots of fabby people!

chicken sandwiches from yesterday's roast chickens

Edit: A bit cheeky to have two in one day, but this one made me so happy I think I'm allowed. Have just been talking to next-door neighbour over the fence, and she is a pianist as well - post Grade 8 and returning to it - and is also learning clarinet. I have pointed her at this forum and she has expressed an interest in events. Hurrah!

This made me happy yesterday evening.
Where I live getting to live concerts has been off the menu for a long time but I have recently discovered an association which is doing a phenomenal job getting really good professional musicians down here. Yesterday evening I went to hear the London Baroque Players in a nearby church. It was absolute bliss but what I found so nice as well was the informal contact with the players and this little incident in particular.

After the concert I went to look at the harpsichord. It was absolutely beautiful ? a copy of a 1667 Paris model. The sound board had been painted with beautifully delicate floral patterns. While we were looking at it the harpsichordist, Robin Bigwood, came back from the vestry and I said to him ?It?s beautiful, isn?t it?? and he beamed proudly and said ?Yes it is.? Then he said ?And I?ve had my cat painted on it? ? and there, right at the narrowest part of the sound board, in among the flowers was a delightful little painting of a black cat.

So I said ?Oh, are you a cat person?? and he said ?Yes I am? so I told him we had left three at home but had fed them before coming to the concert. So he laughed and said that he had had his cat painted on the harpsichord because he was getting rather old and it was a way to immortalise him!!

The other thing that made me happy was that one of my Grade 5 pupils, doing the Fiocco Andante for her list A piece was also at the concert and took great pleasure in hearing Robin Bigwood so effortlessly play ornaments of the kind she has been struggling with.

Just wanted to share a happy moment!

I thoroughly enjoyed a Bassoon one-day course/workshop today - playing Flight of the Bumblebee, Le Nozze di Fagotti (sp?) (a special arrangement for 6 bassoons and contra), Danny Boy arranged with bits of Elgar mized up with it, and lots of other fun music

A great Scottish Forum Event!!!

I just caught myself looking for the 'like' button

I don't have to get on an aeroplane today.

I do that ALL the time!

W

Enjoyed reading your story, Aquarelle! Good to know there is a concert initiative.

Lol!

Ha! I've done that a few times too

Utterly convinced that I was horribly behind on my final design project, was never going to finish, and everything was a total mess (impossible cell concentrations etc) I went to see my supervisor feeling very apprehensive this morning.

He reckons I'm about as far along as everyone else, and maybe slightly ahead, because I've been able to write Matlab programs which'll save me a lot of time optimising my design. He also reckons my calculated values are fairly reasonable!

So... yeah... feeling relieved. But still not sure I'll ever get it done. 10 days til I finish this degree forever!!!!

hang in there... darkest hour before dawn, etc. I remember what it was like doing my Masters in Engineering. All the best!!!

Had an excellent weekend with the cubs and scouts at PGL.... Gorgeous weather and a really well organised event by PGL.... and one of the other responsible adults is someone who has caused me a lot of grief in the past and we actually got on ok.... that was good....

Just had my piano tuned!

It was a great event

Today, spending more time with b-c has made me very happy

Well in fact it already happened on sunday. I went to a piano concert with my former piano teacher. I told her about the Walckiers Sonata I am working on and she offered to take a look at the piano part and if it's not too hard, play through the two movements I am working on for the masterclass with me.

Wonderful! No wonder you are happy!


You will, I remember when I was feeling just the same in my Chem Eng Degree. Just don't expect alot of sleep in the last days!!

And it was fun to join the concert with her.

I discovered Matlab's "subplot" function... is it sad that I think my array of 6 graphs showing the changing concentrations, and volumes and flows into my reactor, over time, look beautiful? (Or just a sign of too much caffine?)

I had a brief moment of pure joy earlier, fantasising about how great it would feel to hand the project in early. Then I realised that never in the 5 years I've been doing this subject, have I ever handed in a coursework before the day of the deadline. Which rather crushed my joy, seeing as I've got more work to do than ever!

Thanks for the supportive comments. It's nice to be reminded that pretty much everyone with an engineering degree has survived a design project, and mostly with their sanity intact!

ME??? Sanity intact???

I seem to remember I threw my project at the staff (ok submitted) and left immediately for a camping holiday - best thing I could have done!!

Solving a scripting conundrum quite elegantly (considering the horrific format of the input) after scratching my head for a few hours last night...

We're going out as a year group for a buffet lunch / start-of-drinking, immediately after the 11am deadline. Some of our staff are brave enough to be coming with us! It is somewhat envisaged that the drinking will carry on until everyone crashes from lack of sleep. (Most of the year will have been up all night to get things done by the deadline). One of the guys in my year is then having his Stag Do, the day after that... there is fairly open speculation that not everyone will actually sober up before they all head off go-carting, which could be entertaining .

For myself, I'm intending to be on the first train home to Cornwall after the celebratory drinks have wrapped up and I've had time to pack. To be honest, if I'm that sleep deprived, I won't want to be drinking anyway! Hopefully I will recover over Easter with some sunshine and time on the beach! Really looking forward to it. I can then start making plans for the other 3 months of time I've got before starting work.

still got 5 days before I go back to work

This has been quite a good week for me productivity-wise... both my problem sets and some other work were done well in advance, for the first time since I can remember

Of course, this begs the question: why am I still awake? I really wish it were possible in the university atmosphere to sleep more than 5 hours a night without being considered/feeling "lazy", regardless of how much work one actually accomplishes...

It is probably sad, and it is also probably sad that I *totally* understand this. Even though I didn't do chemical engineering.



My project-from-h___ was software engineering lab. I spent 48 hours awake, the last 24 without food or drink. Then we handed it in, I went to a Chinese restaurant and ate half a duck and drank six pots of tea. Then I went to sleep for 17 hours.

Edit: Oops forgot about cybernanny.

Keep plugging away... all the best.

another 20minutes on new clari today

and it's band tonight too

Lots of bits - great band rehearsal last night, first with my old choir, so got to see them all and sang infront of them too with no shakes

Daughter just starting piano - I started her off a few months ago - has had her 3rd lesson with a proper teacher, and her teacher is happy with what I did with her to the extent she is aiming at Grade 2 in November. Apparently no bad habits so must be doing something right.

I normally HATE shopping (believe it or not because I am quite girly really) but today's venture was surprisingly successful and I even made a Big Decision all on my own!!!! (I bought a car! )

Yay!

I have to go car shopping at Easter. Terrifying that the first time I drive after passing my test, will be to test drive cars...

I'm worried that I'll have to go car shopping at some point, if someone ever decides to give me a job. I passed my test in OCtober 2005, and drove for a bit after that. I did try and get back into driving a few months back, but I've forgotten about it again

Think I'll let the nearly-hubby do the test driving

Empty your PM box, Claudia

So true, so true.

Daughter had a lightbulb moment earlier this week: realized that the reason every deadline goes to the wire is that if she ever sees herself coming in early, she thinks she can't have done enough work for whatever it is, so expands the assignment.

There is something to be said for not having a conscience

band was good last night, clari lesson tonight

I agree. Wishing I hadn't been so... erm... ambitious in my tackling this design project. So much to do, and 6 days to do it in.

A pupil who came for one lesson and said she'd get back to me about another (can't say I was expecting her too, she had one lesson and hadn't signed T&Cs as of yet - I let them take them home if they wish) has emailed me to say it was lovely to meet me and rebook her lesson, yes

Just need to really build up this now. I love teaching music, finally start being positive about finding pupils too - they ARE out there