Yikes - it's nearly a month since my last post. That won't do at all.
I've had a busy time in the last week. Last Tuesday, I met a student at Birmingham Uni to discuss project progress. Then I travelled to Newcastle. There, (on Wednesday) I had another project progress meeting at Newcastle Uni, and gave a presentation to some academic colleagues - partly as a practice for a talk I would give the next day at Liverpool. We had some good discussion afterwards. Then, I travelled to Liverpool. On Thursday, I attended the 3rd Advances in Computer Security and Forensics Conference at John Moores University. I thought my talk went well, although I did learn a lesson the hard way about configuring laptops, VGA outputs, graphic modes, and displaying videos.
When the first day of the conference finished, instead of taking things easy and ambling to the Teppanyaki conference dinner, I rushed to train station, and made my way back to Malvern. Christopher and Grandma met me at the station, and then I went off to the second half of a choir rehearsal. My voice was a little dodgy, due to a very slight cold. But it didn't seem to matter. After a small and dignified relaxation at the Colwall Crown afterwards, and then too little sleep at home, I found myself back on the train to Liverpool. It's surprising how much nicer the passenger experience is on an electric train - although I would like to have had a 240v plug like some of the other trains do. My voice seemed to have completely deserted me. I attended the rest of the conference in a rather silent mode - only asking one question. (The conference was quite good and enjoyable, but not earth shattering.) Then I met up with Joanna, Steph, and Helen.
They had spent the week in the Lake District, in Wastwater (not what it looks like!) and Ambleside, and they visited Blackpool on the way down to Liverpool. I'll have to let Joanna blog that - although experience suggests this might not happen...
So we met up, and went for a walk. We managed to get to Liverpool Cathedral (the biggest Anglican construction in the world!) just in time for a mens' voices evensong, which was very nice. After tiring the girls out by walking around, we found a restaurant right near our Albert Docks hotel where we had a nice dinner at Circo.
Saturday was the day of our G&S performance - H.M.S. Pinafore "from scratch" - as part of the Colwall Festival. Unfortunately, the voice was again AWOL. Some emergency texting to the musical director suggested that I should look for my voice where I last had it - at the Crown hotel. We drove from Liverpool via Speke Hall grounds (pictured, where we met a plane spotter, who had grabbed a position 5 hours in advance of an A380 fly past). We tried to find the Halton/Runcorn YMCA, where I had stayed during my British-Australian Vocational Exchange in 1984, but I think it must have been demolished. Or we didn't look hard enough.
I attended the afternoon rehearsal, but didn't talk or sing - trying to save whatever there might have been for the evening performance. Well, the time came. Our Musical Director gave a short apology at the beginning, and asked if anyone in the audience might have been a budding Captain Corcoran - but no, it fell to my. During my first song - "I am the Captain of the Pinafore", the squeaks that emerged (mostly in tune) seemed to amuse many of the cast as well as the audience. It wasn't pretty, but it probably contributed to the comic value of the "opera". Having consumed quite a few anaesthetic lozenges (in complete disregard of everything any vocal teacher told me!), I (squ)eked out what I had. We all (including the audience, I think) had a great time.
I've had a busy time in the last week. Last Tuesday, I met a student at Birmingham Uni to discuss project progress. Then I travelled to Newcastle. There, (on Wednesday) I had another project progress meeting at Newcastle Uni, and gave a presentation to some academic colleagues - partly as a practice for a talk I would give the next day at Liverpool. We had some good discussion afterwards. Then, I travelled to Liverpool. On Thursday, I attended the 3rd Advances in Computer Security and Forensics Conference at John Moores University. I thought my talk went well, although I did learn a lesson the hard way about configuring laptops, VGA outputs, graphic modes, and displaying videos.
When the first day of the conference finished, instead of taking things easy and ambling to the Teppanyaki conference dinner, I rushed to train station, and made my way back to Malvern. Christopher and Grandma met me at the station, and then I went off to the second half of a choir rehearsal. My voice was a little dodgy, due to a very slight cold. But it didn't seem to matter. After a small and dignified relaxation at the Colwall Crown afterwards, and then too little sleep at home, I found myself back on the train to Liverpool. It's surprising how much nicer the passenger experience is on an electric train - although I would like to have had a 240v plug like some of the other trains do. My voice seemed to have completely deserted me. I attended the rest of the conference in a rather silent mode - only asking one question. (The conference was quite good and enjoyable, but not earth shattering.) Then I met up with Joanna, Steph, and Helen.
They had spent the week in the Lake District, in Wastwater (not what it looks like!) and Ambleside, and they visited Blackpool on the way down to Liverpool. I'll have to let Joanna blog that - although experience suggests this might not happen...
So we met up, and went for a walk. We managed to get to Liverpool Cathedral (the biggest Anglican construction in the world!) just in time for a mens' voices evensong, which was very nice. After tiring the girls out by walking around, we found a restaurant right near our Albert Docks hotel where we had a nice dinner at Circo.
Saturday was the day of our G&S performance - H.M.S. Pinafore "from scratch" - as part of the Colwall Festival. Unfortunately, the voice was again AWOL. Some emergency texting to the musical director suggested that I should look for my voice where I last had it - at the Crown hotel. We drove from Liverpool via Speke Hall grounds (pictured, where we met a plane spotter, who had grabbed a position 5 hours in advance of an A380 fly past). We tried to find the Halton/Runcorn YMCA, where I had stayed during my British-Australian Vocational Exchange in 1984, but I think it must have been demolished. Or we didn't look hard enough.
I attended the afternoon rehearsal, but didn't talk or sing - trying to save whatever there might have been for the evening performance. Well, the time came. Our Musical Director gave a short apology at the beginning, and asked if anyone in the audience might have been a budding Captain Corcoran - but no, it fell to my. During my first song - "I am the Captain of the Pinafore", the squeaks that emerged (mostly in tune) seemed to amuse many of the cast as well as the audience. It wasn't pretty, but it probably contributed to the comic value of the "opera". Having consumed quite a few anaesthetic lozenges (in complete disregard of everything any vocal teacher told me!), I (squ)eked out what I had. We all (including the audience, I think) had a great time.
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