Well, the accompaniments pile will be reducing after a concert next week to "just a few big pieces" instead of "several big pieces and 7 little pieces too"! And I have such a long list of solo pieces that I'd like to play - I need to start learning some of them soon otherwise I'll never get through them all! *is bonkers*

I was wondering why the floor plan for the new office was so exciting to everyone. People were crowding my manager's desk to have a look.

After all our first working day in the new office is not for 13 days and as an IT technician I have to spend the weekend getting it ready for the staff on Monday morning.

Was trying to get a respectable sound from a clarinet.

A last play through of my pieces for tonight's concert (a good job the piano's too heavy to throw through the window)

Revising...trying to get ahead of myself

Hope it went well

making toast now eating toast

Did you type the first part of that post, run off and make toast, and then type the second half of that post?

It went ok. Not too many wrong notes (but apparently I must work on not cringing when I do go wrong)

ermmmmmm, yes


Before logging on here I was practising my clari (band tomorrow night then lesson on Friday) and have also done some violin practice

Well done, Juniper!

making/decorating son's birthday cake.

It needs rest time (to let the icing set) now. And frankly so do I !!!

oooo what sort of cake have you made dawn???

and before i came on here, i was on ebay! right bargain today! i had a buffet chadash barrel (looks mint condish) for ?42

Writing Oracle triggers on system tables (in PL/SQL) to immediately notify system administrators when a user logs on to a particular database application.


Playing piano is so much more fun

Didn't understand a word of that- apart from the bit about the piano!!!

i have been teaching. Last pupil was for 1 hour and has tired me out! Enjoyed played Brahms Eb maj Clari sonata though....

It's a frog pond - cake's the lily pad. Done the lily and the rocks on the outside. Still need to model frogs and flowers.

The cake sounds fab Dawn

I was at band practice

aw dawn that cake sounds fab cant wait to see the pictures!!!

I was at the new office acroos the road. We are moving in one week and as a member of IT I have to do a lot of the work.

Hope it's a proper move and not a "big-bang" one like I've had to do before in the past (NOT fun).

I have to spend 19/20 march working to set up the entire network, there are only 4 IT staff so that will be a lot of work for 2 days!

The decorators are still working hard and I hope it is finished in time, as I don't fancy any complications.

I have a feeling some users will want to swap round and will be a nightmare updating the floor/company plan. We have already marked where each user will be sitting.

Anyway have to dash as a PC needs setting up for a new user starting on Monday and another for a user starting on Tuesday.

Are you doing desktop side or networks too? Depending on how many users, it shouldn't be that painful if you're creating a new environment rather than chucking everything in a van and moving it over a weekend (yes, this happens a lot with SMEs!)

Everything is going over on the Friday evening and set up will occurr over the weekend. We have 60 users. I will probably be mainly on the desktop side and my manager will connect up the servers but I will help him out whenever requested.

Ahhh ok, shouldn't be too bad then. Hope they keep the backups safe beforehand, moving stuff has a habit of making components fail. Good luck!

I have to pack the backups on the Friday morning! The box will have a large label IT Room Racks: Backup tapes.

I just hope the weekend won't be full 9 hour shifts as I do on weekdays.

If something goes wrong then my managwer gets the blame and our office manager will be all over him until everyuthing works perfectly.

Clari lesson

Piano Lesson

Your lesson went well too then Juniper?

Orchestra rehearsal.

Very Started a new grade 4 piece, Chaminade Idyll which I love. Sight reading was almost bearable too and my teacher said I'm getting better at them, which is one heck of an achievement fo me He also said I'm pretty good at the scales to

Looks like summer might be the term

How about yours?

Sounds good Juniper

My lesson went ok thanks, better than I thought it would actually! I had a fair bit of sight reading to do and got some very complimentary remarks about it Not so good at the arpeggios that followed though



Ok, back on topic, I was out at a training day and spent a few hours receiving one-to-one tuition from a police class 1 driving examiner. I've learnt so much from him today and am now seriously considering the next challenge.

Good to hear that someone can manage sight reading......

The Driving stuff sounds good.

I like sight reading, can't get enough of it

The driving was fab, really enjoyed it.

Don't dislike it.... just made a complete pig's ear of it.
It's exam sight reading that freezes my brain. Real life stuff Im told I'm ok at......
I know the 'how to' but it doesn't work for me. I seem to have a missing link when trying to process things. Can easily pick out and describe all the nice scale and arpeggio patterns but stick a clarinet in my mouth and it's like I haven't a clue.

I can't tell you how I do sight reading, I just do it! Maybe I use the 'how to', but it's sort of automatic, I don't look at a piece and think it through like a list if that makes sense Sorry, not much help!

Having a long post-gig chat and laugh with my lovely, lovely Bootleg Beatle. He was absolutely stonkingly wonderful tonight - and even made a solfa joke to the audience (two of whom would have 'got it' ).

I got it, I got it!!

Bootleg-Bag x

PS : do I get a sticker?

Same thing happened to me when I played horn. I had Grade 8 piano by then so had passed Grade 8 piano sightreading - and horn sightreading was only one line compared to two - but the complicatedness of trying to manage blowing through the blasted thing, holding it the right way, with correct fingering in the left hand, and correct hand position in the right hand, just took up all the brain ability I had and there was not much left over for sight-reading.

All the best..

What was I doing - playing Mozart. Badly.

*awards sticker to Bootleg-Bag*

Think the rest of the audience must have wondered why George Harrison was talking about moveable do...

Making a Saint Patrick's Day playlist on Spotify. Very nostalgic. Anyone remember Gilbert O'Sullivan?

writing a home contact list for a visit to the airbase next week for cubs..... home contact forms probably only make sense to those involved in scouting though...... so most of you probably have no idea what I am going on about.....

told you once before, and I won't tell you no more, get down, get down, get down...

Don't really remember him first time round (wrong end of the 70s!), but he's had enough airplay for me to be aware of 'Get Down', 'Clair' etc...

And that clip of Pan's People dancing to 'Get Down' with all those dogs often gets an airing on TV...

Just ordered a surprise present for my niece...

Nintendo 3DS + Nintendogs + Sims3 + Accessories.

That should bring a smile to her face next weekend!

Finishing writing up minutes from a meeting on 6th Feb - ARGH...

Eating PopTarts.

Thanks for reminding me Cyrilla, I've got some to write up too!

I was putting my clari in its case ready for band tonight

Finding cocktail recipes

I had company of a very good friend of mine for a few hours, as well as planning a holiday to New York in a few years time xx

Sitting outside in the sunshine reading my book

Am now back indoors, at work

Busy, busy today. Mother's Day stuff, followed by conducting a Final Assessment Drive, lunch, flute practice then clari practice.