...anyone going this year? Haven't decided whether to go on Friday or Saturday yet...

*waves hand*
at the moment my intention is to do so if at all possible. I really shouldn't, given that I've just bought an instrument and am trying to ignore the fact that another is Within Reach...but there are also friends for me to catch up with ...

You don't have to buy anything, Anacrusis.





you could just supervise my shopping....

I'm using the excuse of 'it'll be very close to my diploma by then and I'll need a day to chill and look at non-clarinetty things'

As always, that weekend clashes with both our local music festival (Friday evening and Sunday) and the London recorder orchestra rehearsal and South London SRP meeting on the Saturday.

However, since I don't teach on Fridays, I might manage a trip during the day...

and how many times have you left empty handed KJ?

I don't think I'll be going this year - hardly playing any recorder at the moment so can't really justify the cost of getting there.

I doubt I'll buy anything beyond maybe the odd bit of sheet music : but as it's local and I'm around, it'd be rude not to...

like you and andante-in-c supervised mine last time then ??



*has photos to prove it too.....*

I wish!!

Can't believe harpsichordist, early music loving friend from here is going to be travelling to the UK soon and not planning to go or to stay 2 weeks later for this.

*lah lah lah lah lah* :fingers in ears:

I probably shouldn't go. But I probably will (especially if we have a Forum Outing going on), and will probably spend money. Don't know on what yet though

Well, I shall be there on either the Friday or Saturday : would be good to see you on whatever day

Have decided to do Friday definitely, and possibly Saturday am as well...

Have decided I'm definitely not going this year. 3 rehearsals and 1 concert with at least 250 miles to drive means I think that weekend is already filled to capacity. It's probably better for my finances as well!

Still thinking, still thinking...I have lots of holiday days to use up, so taking the Friday off work is a viable option. But I've got to spend the time between now and then truly convincing myself about coming home with an instrument (rather, not coming home with an instrument). Actually, I should probably scrutinise my finances and set myself a spending limit for the day, so I can buy some music, etc, and also at least poke round the secondhand table with some interest

That's a good plan. It's always fun having a go at the menagerie of instruments there...

I desperately wanted to go, then decided it was not possible, but have now found there is another London "thing" happening on the same weekend (ESTA methods conference, really useful for my Dip) so I'm being gradually pulled in that direction. Or at least that's what I intend to tell my husband when he has to look after our daughter for the entire weekend.

Oh, and the ?89 it's going to cost just to get there then the cost of an overnight stay is a small obstacle! Even if I see what I want I'll have spent the money I could have used to buy it.

EDIT: Does anyone know if the exhibition is in the "painted hall"? The site is quite odd, it has a plan of the college but doesn't tell you which event is in which room, and then says if you need wheelchair access to the painted hall you must call in advance. I don't know if I need to get in there or not! I've enough annoying calls to make trying to sort out a wheelchair space on a train so if anyone happens to know that would save a lot of messing about.

Part of it is, yes. It's full of steps, so you'll need to call in advance. Would be good to meet you, RoseRodent.

why are these things always in places far far away and on days I can't do

I'll give you the second one. But it's not far far away As is always the case Louise, I wish you could make it, and one of these years, you shall!

As barry says, yes, a large part of the exhibition is in the painted hall.
If you look here, there is an Access Map. On a normal day you would enter the painted hall by the green dot. But, on festival day, that will be shut and we all get to use the entrance marked "restaurant". I am guessing that they just want to know how often they will need to man the accessible entrance to the right of that...


I will be there on the Friday now
I got the EMS newsletter in the post last night, I said "Oh, EMS newsletter, it must be nearly Greenwich then!" and then said to my husband that I was thinking of going, just with a number in my head as a budget. And he said that of course I should go, given that it is only once a year it doesn't really matter what I spend as I have a year to recover from it
Actually, Nikon have just released a new camera...so I think I am being encouraged so he can guiltlessly check out the new Nikon system

Far away is relative. Anything over 20 minutes of travelling needs serious advance planning for me. Flying is a nightmare, trains are a pain as I usually have to pay the price of an open return but am then not allowed to travel on any train I like because I have to book a ramp 2 days in advance, so must know exactly when I intend to travel. They can take two wheelchairs on each train, so they fill up really quickly - annoyingly many people book a wheelchair space then get out of their wheelchair and sit in a seat and leave the empty chair in the space so they stop me travelling for no reason at all. Then there's the fact I can't use the loo on a train (too jiggly) so journey times have to be carefully planned.

Driving is restricted at the moment as I can only manage 1 hour. I can't use a coach so anything that involves coach transfers is not possible. Ditto any stations with steps (that's almost the whole tube network then, even theoretically accessible ones as they have a habit of closing stations and chucking you out at a station you cannot get out of), then there's the last minute "Rail replacement bus" that turns up every now and then and they are stunned that you cannot levitate onto them in your chair. If parking, bus stop, etc. is more than a few metres away I need to make entirely different plans and will need an electric wheelchair, which then doesn't always fit inside the venue. Most people answer questions about distance with "not far" which is a meaningless statement so planning is really hard.

Then add in the needs, wants and desires of a five year old child (which of course wheelchair folks don't have, as the wheelchair space on a train doesn't have space for someone to sit next to your or in any way near to you) and what is not far away to most people can become a trip of several days at massive expense to another person. For many people with things like fibromyalgia, arthritis, etc. the mere act of sitting upright for more than an hour or so is torture. Everything is far away for me, I need a week in bed to prepare to go and another week in bed when I get back to recover from going, but I really want to go.

Assuming you're arriving at Euston or King's Cross, probably the best way to get to Greenwich is to get to the (accessible) DLR, I guess. Unfortunately, neither Tube station is accessible (don't be fooled by the wheelchair symbol on King's Cross - you'll need the Circle line, and the step's too high to get on the train, until the new S stock arrives next year ) and there are also no direct buses, so at least one change is needed.

Bus route 30 goes to Angel from both stations, from there, the 43 goes to Bank, which has an accessible DLR station.

Rose is now in possession of a train ticket and a reservation for the Saturday 6am (ouch!) train. Remains to be seen if I shall be able to arrange to do the ESTA methods event while I am down there. Arriving KX and will ask my local contacts the best wheely method from station to venue.

I hope you have a good journey RoseRodent - I am going on Friday, so won't get to meet you.

Hmmm, today is lauch day, husband was working in London and had been telling me about launch activities that were going on in London...and he is not yet home from work, and I would have expected him any time from about two hours ago. I wonder if he is coming home with a camera?!

I think it's likely I'll use Saturday as a rest day, with diplomas and suchlike coming up : so it's unlikely I'll meet you either, RoseRodent. But do have a good time!

I'd like to go... working out if I can afford an overnighter... I'll have to resist the urge to buy yet another instrument Last time I went I just about escaped buying a Charlie Ogle tenor viol....

Buying some music is a distinct possiblilty as I could do with some 3 part consort music for treble, tenor and bass viol.

Might look at a new tenor bow....

IMPORTANT TRAVEL INFORMATION:
I called today to try to arrange my transport back home and disaster! There is a big football match on, which means that they will not accept reservations for any train leaving London after 15.15, even for wheelchair spaces. If I arrive for the last train of the day and there is ANY other wheelchair user there who is either before me or can make a convincing job of convincing the station staff they were here before me even when they were not, I get left in London overnight.

Not the same level of crisis for people travelling on legs, but beware that trains are expected to be extremely full and they may be turning people away from trains, including the last train home for the night.

This may only apply to my particular route, don't know who is playing the football match, but if you have plans to leave London to go north at the end of the day, make sure you know you will be able to go.

There appears to be a friendly between England and Spain kicking off at 17.15, but I'm not sure why that would affect trains during the afternoon.

There are no league games on 12th November. It's the first round of the FA Cup, but that doesn't involve the top two divisions. England are playing Spain in the late afternoon, but the match doesn't start 'til 17:15...

It could be a different sport, I really don't know, the train company said football, but it could be a concert, a rugby match, any other type of event which takes place in a football venue and they have just called it football. I dunno. But if you want an East Coast train after 15.15 then forget it. Or if you do manage to get a reservation definitely let me know, becuase I've been through 3 layers of the complaint system and am now considering taking them to court over this issue and they are still not budging on allowing me to make a reservation, despite the fact that reservations are compulsory for wheelchairs!!

You can't beat a good paradox

If you're north of the border, have you, or do you have the option to try Virgin Trains? Or go via Sheffield/Leeds on East Midlands Trains/Northern Rail?

On another topic, who's doing the Friday (losing track!), and where and when shall we gather?

Oh, oh, oh, me, me, me, I'm there on the Friday (and not at all overexcited, not a bit)

I can get there at about 10.30 or 11.00 (depending on whether I drive to the tube station and come on the tube, or walk to the railway station and come on the overground. The latter is more expensive and slower and has restrictions on when I can travel home; but I don't know what my chances are of getting a car park space at 9.30 at the tube station!!)

I don't know if it's different with your tube station (I think I've worked out which tube station you mean!), but North Greenwich nearly always has space whenever you go there. I think, if it's the tube station I think it is, that you can avoid going through the centre of London, too...

Sadly I've given up. Every permutation ends up costing more and more extra money, and by the time I'd added up all the fees I was going down there to look at instruments I can no longer afford to purchase because I've spent all the money being there to look at them, so regrettably I am not going at all any more. Off to get a refund on my train ticket today and will convert it into a new descant recorder to cheer myself up.

Good luck. If it's a ticket that's tied to a particular train, you may end up with no refund...

A shame you can't come, but unfortunately with East Coast (and First Great Western too), the cheap fares go very early on, as a rule (tickets usually go on sale about 12 weeks beforehand). Do have a look at muzikalbadger's Glasgow do if you fancy meeting forum members in the future.

If that happens, then a stroppy letter may get you a 'goodwill' refund - I think you could make a good argument about having no choice but to cancel, given the paradox they presented that you couldn't book a place on the return journey in a massive window, yet you must book a place for your journey

Epping It used to be 3.70 per day for the car park, and if you weren't there by 7am at the very very latest, you weren't getting a space. They then upped it in one go to 5.50 per day which made it less congested. I get there about 6.30am and there's plenty of space, though it is usually fairly full when I get back there at 6pm. But, I can't imagine that there won't be one single space somewhere in the car park at 9.30am...
Plus the excitement of going a completely new route - never got the DLR at Stratford...

My guess was right When you leave Stratford on the DLR, try to get a seat on the right hand side : you'll get some rather good views of the Olympic buildings

It was not so much the fact the fare was expensive, more that they continued to advertise trains which are cancelled that weekend due to engineering works, yet nobody at their reservations centre realised that the reason they were unable to book me a ticket on the train was there is literally no train! They thought that "no reservations available" meant there was a train but no reservation. I never could have gone, but this was not clear from their website as they advertised 3 trains which are not running. Hence I could have gone down provided I wanted to be there no more than an hour or have to stay overnight, costing either a hotel room or a return fare to my sister's house... whole thing was going to run to about ?150, cuts into my spending money so that I could have had a budget for the day of about ?40 - not a viable trip.

When I turned up with a complete copy of the rail codes of conduct conditions of carriage and told them I required a section 26a refund they knew I was not to be diddled with and paid me every penny back.

Here's hoping for no imaginary trains and no imaginary football matches next year!

Glad you got a refund, sad that you're not able to come down south

As I mentioned above, do give muzikalbadger's Glasgow event on 13/5/12 serious consideration.

I'm a Friday person.

Already in my diary Now do I want to join a string quartet, a recorder ensemble, have a bash at an easy piano part for a new learner, perhaps a piano duet, flute choir...

Cool : see who else is turning up nearer the time, and you can plan from there. I can play, to a greater or lesser extent, the clarinet, flute, saxophone, 'cello, piano, recorder, and I can sing a bit. Will copy this post to muzikalbadger's thread, and the conversation can continue there.

Yes.



So am I

Isn't anacrusis as well?

My husband is being terrible about me going

He is waiting for a shop to have a new printer come in, and I said if it came in during the week, I could pop down and get it. But then, oh dear, my credit card would be jolly full. And he enquired as to whether I had a problem with the credit card, and I said no, it was fine, could completely clear it by Xmas with two pay days in between now and then, it's just quite full at the moment because it has a ludicrously low credit limit.
And I said which is no bad thing but, hahaha, maybe I should ask them to increase the limit; and then I said, hmm, perhaps not until after Greenwich.
To which he said I must do it before Greenwich, because it is only once a year and if I see anything I want I should just come home with it!

I'm really not sure he understands what he is saying there Though I did promise not to come home with a contra (Him: "What's a contra?" Me: "Taller than you. But still a recorder" )

The sneaky thing is that you would almost certainly have to order a contra and wait a long time for it. So you could keep your promise and not come home with it...

How devious

Hmmm...now why didn't I think of that.....

Yes, but katyjay, you have now added this to your armoury of excuses as to why you'd want to buy that recorder/flute/crumhorn/violin/ocarina (delete as appropriate )...don't deny it...