Keeping busy...

I'm keeping busy. Or at least keeping pretending to be busy.

Yesterday I was at uni for 15.5 hours. I got there at 7.30 to do some practise. Didn't actually do a lot of practise because I didn't have a practice room booked. Tough. I shared the MA (Music Auditorium) with one of my friends. I also forced him to listen to the opening of my concerto and give me some feed-back.

Later we had two hours of harmony. The lecturer spent the first half talking about our next assignment. Apparently he already talked about it in the last lecture, which I missed. Then I had an aural lecture. I can't really remember what it was about. Oh, except "Think note names when you play your guitar." And we did some singing.

Then it was time for lunch. Sat with Trev, then with Nat, then went to the library to get a book out. Then went to the library to see if they sold safety pins at the bookshop to fix my broken bag a bit better. Couldn't find safety pins, so decided to buy some pens and asked the lady behind the counter if they sold safety pins. She said no and asked how many I needed. When I told her that I just needed a few to fix my broken bag she said that she might have some in her bag. She did and gave them to me free of charge. How nice of her! I'm very grateful. So I went back to Nat and my bag and fixed it good. :-)

Then I talked with Naomie and Aby and walked to Clusters cafe with them and then it was already time for orchestra. Three hours later orchestra was finished and my quartet had a reheasal. I had to borrow the key to the "cage" off Rob to get some stands out. My nice violin friend stayed back and gave us all some pointers, which really helped. Thank you crasian violinist. :P

After that I had a much needed break and then got on with some practising. I wasn't all that inspired but still got some decent work done. When I took a break at around 9 pm I ran into two of the second year jazz singers I know. I talked to them for a bit and then Dale (a cute second year guitarist) came along and asked if we wanted to keep him company while he ate dinner, since it looked like we were on a break. The two girls said that they weren't on a break, and went back to their practice room. I said, sure, I'm on a break anyway and walked to some chairs with Dale. Then the other two girls decided that it was time for a break after all and joined us. :-) Fun fun fun. Then we all went back to practise. I did some further practice on my concerto and actually made some good advances. Although it's still not nearly perfect. Later I joined one of the singers and Dale for another break. They then decided to jam and asked if I wanted to jam too, but alas, I had to decline because I'm not trained in the art of jamming. I'm a classical violist, so I don't possess the skills for jazz playing. Comping, soloing, improv, it's all one big question mark to me... Soon after my parents called and picked me up from uni on their way home from Tango dancing. And another long day at uni came to a close.

Not much happening...

Not much to report today. I had work in the morning. I set my alarm for 8.30 and then decided to sleep for another ten minutes which turned into half an hour, so I didn't have time for breakfast at home. My breakfast consisted of a delicious Kinder bueno. Yummo! :-) Not very nutritious but it tasted good.





It was surprisingly busy at work today. People must be stocking up for the public holiday tomorrow, although Blockbuster will be open. Maybe they're just bored with the weekend. From all the games and new releases being rented you wouldn't know that we're in a recession. Or maybe it's because we're in a recession... people are renting movies and staying in rather than going out. I get the movies for free. :-) Every job has it's perks.





Right now I'm waiting for my parents to come home and give me a lift to WAAPA. The orchestra I'm rehearsing with on Sunday's to perform a partita or something which Sam Parry arranged rehearses at WAAPA this week and the next two as well from 7-9.30 pm. My parents were going to drop me off at the train station, but they went dancing in the afternoon and didn't want to come home that early, so they're giving me a lift and then they're going out for dinner. Lucky them. :-)





Tomorrow it's a public holiday because ANZAC day fell on the Saturday. I organised a rehearsal for my string quartet at Natalie's house. Hopefully everything will go according to plan and everyone will turn up and we'll have a good rehearsal. Fingers crossed.





In other words I finally figured out why that kid in Forbidden Kingdom looked so familiar. It's Michael Angarano from Sky High. I didn't know his name because his castmate for Sky High, Steven Strait was cuter.

Yay, they remembered me. :-)

So I finally got a letter from the State Library. I'd gotten out some music a while ago. It was due back ages ago. I know this. The quartet I got out I don't need any more. However the other piece I got out I really like. I expected them to send me a letter earlier. They didn't. I was already beginning to feel neglected when I finally got a letter yesterday. Yay! They must be behind on their paper work. Now I have six days to renew or return the items.

I'll probably go in on Monday and return the quartet and renew the other piece. Oh wait, Monday is a public holiday. I'll go in on Tuesday.
Right now I'm watching a movie. Pathology. I saw the trailer while I was working. It came out on dvd last month. The idea looks interesting and promissing. The execution isn't that great. It's not a terrible movie, but it's not a great movie either.
In other news, I bought my brother a birthday present. More on that later. :-)

I LOVE those shoes!

The other day while I was cleaning my room I was leafing through last month's issue of 'Shop til you drop' before putting it on the magazine pile in the hallway. As I was going through it sighing at all the pretty clothes and items I will never own I realised that I hadn't looked at the rmk shoe catalogue inside it yet. I decided to see what shoes are in fashion at the moment. As I was looking through it I saw the most amazing shoes. At first I thought they were a little strange and I wondered what they looked like on. Conveniently a model on the opposite page was wearing them (the pair in the catalogue is purple). They actually look really good on.

The pair of shoes that had captivated me thusly was the Macdowell. Pictures below.

I had originally been drawn to it by the purple colour. However I would probably buy it in black because that is more versatile and I need black shoes for concerts and such. So, I love these shoes. However, I know that sometimes my tastes can run towards the kitschy and so I decided to show them to my sister and ask her what she thinks.

So when she was home yesterday I got out the catalogue and told her that I loved these shoes. She replied: "I've got those shoes!" Ok, so she obviously doesn't think they're too much. She did say not to wear them with any really short dresses because that would be skanky. That being said, she wore them at a bikini model comptetition. Although I guess the aim there is to make your legs look as long as possible.

She brought them over today so I could have a look at them. She'd told me that they were really comfortable and I tried them on. They really are comfortable. Of course hers are too big for me because we're not the same size. Still. I'll go have a look at the store tomorrow and see if they have them in my size. :D With any luck I'll soon be the proud owner of a pair of these sweet shoes!

I'm sick. :-(

So I’m sick. Lucky me. Headache, sore throat, upset stomach, the lot.
I started feeling sick on Thursday. I initially though the headache and sore throat were down to listening to students bashing away on keyboards, drums and electric guitar and talking over said instruments, respectively. But apparently not. The next day I managed to get through teaching the year 10s for first period and it was actually the best lesson I had taught so far. After that it went downhill with me feeling like I was going to throw up, my throat hurting like hell and my head punding. Yay. I stayed until after school, watched the barbershop choir rehearse and then went to the city to buy a present for my friend who has her 21st tonight. Which I’m not attending cos I still feel like shit.
Thursday night I couldn’t sleep properly and kept waking up because my throat was killing me. Yesterday evening I was about to head home when Annie called me and said that she had tickets for this Greek performers in the concert hall. It was some fundraising thing for St. Andrew’s. Apparently they have Greek ties, who knew? It was fun. It reminded me of holidays in Greece. Especially with all the Greek people in the audience. Greek women sure know how to dress tackily. Well, not all of them. Just the ones in their 30s and 40s. Ah well. Who knows, maybe I’ll be walking around in a spandex reptile print turquoise mini-dress one day... Just like when I was 10. Oh the memories.
Anyway, I ended up leaving during interval cos I felt like shit and was soooooo tired. Luckily for me my parents were on their way home from the movies and had just got on the freeway. So they decided to turn around and come pick me up at the concert hall. Yay!
So this morning I didn’t go to WAYO. And tonight I’m not going to my friend’s 21st. I was really looking forward to it. Seeing her and all my other friends from high school again. I don’t see them nearly often enough. Finally meeting her boyfriend. Partying after teaching all week! But just the thought of leaving the house is enough to make me collapse on my bed indefinitely. Well, at least for the next ten minutes. There is no way I’d survive more than an hour at a party right now. And what would be the point in that? I also called up my boss and told her that I can’t work tomorrow. She was very nice about it. I wonder who’ll be doing my shift...
Oh, I should also call Sam and let him know that I won’t be at rehearsal tomorrow evening. Gah. Being sick is more effort than just turning up to rehearsals, work and parties.
So now I’m listening to Reggae in an effort to actually know more than the year 9s I’m teaching next week.... I’m trying to get as much lesson planning as possible done on the weekend. When I get home from school I’m too tired to get much work done. I really want to do some practice. Right now I don’t have the energy to play viola, but hopefully once I’m better I can squeeze in ten minutes or so... I’m also supposed to learn my part for eneksis. Although not sure if my throat will be up to singing by Monday’s rehearsal... So, time to do some work.

My Weekend!

Things always happen en masse. There will be entire weekends where nothing much is happening and I’ll be sitting at home sighing and watching TV. And then suddenly a weekend comes along when I have more things to go to then I have time for.
This weekend I’m going to see Phantom of the Opera on Saturday night. YAY! And my parents are giving me a lift there, which is great. I was afraid that I’d have to take public transport which would’ve taken two hours. I’m really excited. Last time a Phantom show was near where I lived was when I was in primary school in Switzerland. Most of my friends went to it but my parents weren’t interested, so I didn’t go. I just heard all their stories about how great the show was. The same happened with a Magic Flute performance where three of my friends happened to be watching the same show and Pamina lost her voice. How exciting!
Well anyway, this Saturday I get to watch Phantom and I’m really looking forward to it even though I have to go on my own because nobody wanted to go with me. I have a good seat as well. My dad offered to pay for a ticket when I complained about not having money and once we looked at a map of the seats decided that if I was going to watch it I might as well have a good seat, otherwise what’s the point? My dad is really awesome like that.
Then on Sunday night I have two options. Either I go watch the WAYO at Burswood concert. It should be fun with WAYO playing music from various music, including Titanic, as well as some operatic pieces with young stars from the WA Opera. I love Titanic. We played it when I was in the Philharmonic Orchestra. It’s pure cheese but I absolutely loved it. Especially when the drum kit came in when we played the “my hear will go on” section. I really enjoyed playing with drumkit because usually we don’t do that. In that same concert we also played Handel’s Watermusic. Or was it Handel’s Fireworks music? Either way, it was polyphonic baroque stuff. The sort of stuff that doesn’t really sound good unless played by a really good orchestra, but always played by bad to moderately good orchestras because the notes aren’t that hard. Anyway, we didn’t really get a good pulse going so Pete who was conducting us got us to play it with the drumkit in the rehearsal. That was fun. J
So anyway, I could go to the WAYO concert. I’m not in it because the stage isn’t big enough for everybody. So my desk and the last desk got cut. I was in the last concert instead. The one with WASO in Kings Park. That was great! So I was thinking that I might go to the Burswood concert with Annie and some of her friends and we’ll have a picnic. But I’m not sure yet. It depends on how Annie feels. I don’t want to go by myself.
So if I don’t go to that I’ll go to the movies with Nat and her sister instead. To see Watchmen. We were going to go last weekend but then we were both busy. So if I don’t go to Burswood I’ll go to the movies. Actually, we should go out after that. Although we probably won’t, seeing as it will be Sunday night and we’ll have to drop her sister home right after the movie because she’ll have school the next day. I don’t have uni until 12.30 on Monday although Nat has history at 10.30.
Of course after standing around at work all day on Sunday I probably won’t feel like going out after the movie anyway. So that’s my weekend. Hopefully. J

Awesome Valentine's Day!

So, yesterday was Valentine's Day. And I had a great day despite not actually having a 'Valentine'. :-)

I went to Kings Park with my parents because I was playing in the WASO/WAYO concert there in the evening. It was one of the concerts in WASO's Classical Spectacular Series. We had a few rehearsals without WASO first and then three rehearsals with WASO. There were about 150 people in the combined orchestra. It was always a WASO member and a WAYO member together. We played the Festive Overture by Shostakovich, and then Shaun Lee-Chen played Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso by Saint-Saens with WASO minus WAYO. We went off stage and listened. Shaun Lee-Chen is such an amazing player. I know the piece quite well, even though I've never played it and I didn't know what it was called or who it was by. Listening to him was heaven. Sigh....

After that, all us WAYO players piled back on stage (me with the addition of some really annoying mozzie bites) and played Stravinsky's Firebird Suite (1919). Then it was time for the interval and we all found our way back down the hill in the dark to return our instruments to the safety of their cases for the duration of the interval. I once again made my way to the portaloos which were available to the performers (just like during the break from the previous day's rehearsal). There were two for the ladies and two for the gents. For some reason there was a queue for the ladies' both nights but not for the gents. On the rehearsal evening I decided to wait until one of the ladies' got free and then made it back on stage just in time for the second half of the rehearsal which contained some drama. More of that later. So when it came to the interval in the concert I decided to not take any chances by waiting for a ladies' to get free and went into one of the gents' portaloos instead. All I can say is that I sincerely hope that the liquid on the floor was water... I made it back to the tent in time to talk to Bec who'd gotten back before me from saying hello to some friends who had come to watch the concert. Oh, did I mention the portaloos were on top of the hill, but on a sort of an incline, actually about halfway up the hill. So you sat at an angle. It was quite a weird experience...

After the interval we played Peter Sculthorpe's Sun Music III followed by Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Ravel).

Out of those pieces the only ones I hadn't played before were those by Sculthorpe and the Firebird Suite. We played Pictures at an Exhibition in our midyear concert last year with gues conductor Vladimir Verbitsky (awesomely great experience!) and the Festive Overture was the opener of the WACO concert last Monday. Wow, I've really been busy...

So, back to the piece I hadn't played before. The Sculthorpe was mostly effects and counting. No difficult runs or anything like that. However, the Firebird Suite is a killer. I can honestly say that I could not play every note. Although one of the more difficult movements was our encore piece and I played it much much better the second time round. I think everybody did.

It was a really great concert and such a good experience to play with the professionals and see how their rehearsals run, although I guess they made some concessions for us kiddies. The woman I sat next to was really nice and chatted with me and told me funny stories about previous outdoor concerts. :D The weather for the concert was really nice too. Earlier in the day it had rained on and off and as we arrived at Kings Park there was one last shower and then it cleared right up. Actually as I sat in the sun with my parents and ate dinner it was quite hot. In the end I decided to get myself backstage before I actually had to because it was behind some trees and the stage, so it was cooler there. Also fellow young musos including a rather cute bassist had congregated there while I was eating dinner. :)

Anyway, so the weather for the concert was great. Pretty much windstill which was great for us because we didn't have to cover the music with clear perspex sheets which make page turning a real chore. (Move perspex, turn page, replace perspex, don't drop instrument in the process and don't hit anyone with any part of your instrument either.) Due to the calmness of the evening we were able to leave the perspex sheet on the floor and all page turns went off without a hitch. :-)

The day before it was quite windy, so we used the perspex thingy and I had more than one page turn which took longer than the time I really had... In the second half of the rehearsal we also had to stop for a while because it had started to rain and quite a big portion of the orchestra was not covered by the roof of the stage. Actually, most of the string players weren't under the roof, which considering we play wooden instruments which are highly susceptible to changes in temperature wasn't ideal. So then 10 minutes before the official end of the rehearsal we all sought cover and they told us we'd wait a while to see if rehearsal would resume (we still had some movements of the last piece to go) or if we would leave the rest of the piece to chance. In the end it stopped raining long enough for us to bash through to the end and then it was time to go home.

Below are some pictures of the concert.

I know the picture quality isn't very good. But you get an idea of what the stage with the orchestra on it looks like. If it was a better quality picture you'd be able to spot me on the right. :-) Another photo of the stage.

A close up of the right hand (or left hand depending of where you're standing) of the stage. I am pretty much in the centre of the picture towards the back... My head looks really tiny. :D

In this photo you can see me putting the little microphone on my strings near the bridge. I'm the one with dark brown hair looking down when you look past Catherine in the forground. These pictures will no doubt pop up on Facebook in better quality.