Random thoughts or comments...

dave brum · Post by **dave brum** » 07 Sep 2014, 10:27

Mae cael Merit ar gyfer g5 yn ganlyniad arbennig o dda Sara, ond ar ol g5, mae hi fel pethau'n mynd yn fwy gymhleth mewn dau neu tri cham yn lle un!! Felly fe fydd g6 yn her mawr i ti os wyt ti'n ddigon ddewr!!!

(yn symud nawr i'r adran Gymraeg y fforwm)

dave brum · Post by **dave brum** » 07 Sep 2014, 10:38

Nice to see old Bloddycakes back. Now, to home in on Moonlight. Wouldn't it be fun to post some footage of our mad piano shop crawl of London from twenty-o-eight on my Youtube??

dave brum · Post by **dave brum** » 08 Sep 2014, 06:13

After what would describe as a very unpleasant weekend in this house, a very productive practice session last night may hopefully signal a better week ahead.

Something to look forward to, a Norman church in my local area has open door days and I'm going along on Saturday morning whilst my wife is at work, hopefully to get a good gawp at the organ. There's a whole page on it on the church website:

www.kingsnorton.org.uk

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 08 Sep 2014, 17:55

If there's no other punters, ask if you can have a little go on the organ. If they know how to open/start it I bet they'd let you.

dave brum · Post by **dave brum** » 08 Sep 2014, 18:25

Well, that depends, Gill. On a) who's on and b) what sort of mood they're in. King's Norton is in a suburban village location (its spire can be seen across a wide area of the south city) and it's around 2 1/2 miles from me.

dave brum · Post by **dave brum** » 09 Sep 2014, 06:19

I notice there's a newest member called Janiepooh_7. I call my cat Sarah Janiepooh!

dave brum · Post by **dave brum** » 09 Sep 2014, 06:35

T was saying to me in bed last night why have I 'got' to fiddle- @rse about with doing ##### ####### when I'm not actually studying for any exams and have told Mabel no, I don't want to do them, which she accepts?

It's certainly an enigma when my pieces are way past Grade 2 and I'm doing Grade 3 scales. Even my technical, if it was graded would be around g2-3 and I'm working my way through book/grade 2 of the AB theory scheme.

I certainly enjoy learning and playing new pieces and I even like scales/arps, they're a test for both brain and hands.

gizzy · Post by **gizzy** » 09 Sep 2014, 09:35

dave brum wrote:T was saying to me in bed last night why have I 'got' to fiddle- @rse about with doing ##### ####### when I'm not actually studying for any exams and have told Mabel no, I don't want to do them, which she accepts?

It's certainly an enigma when my pieces are way past Grade 2 and I'm doing Grade 3 scales. Even my technical, if it was graded would be around g2-3 and I'm working my way through book/grade 2 of the AB theory scheme.

I certainly enjoy learning and playing new pieces and I even like scales/arps, they're a test for both brain and hands.

I'm sure I've told you about this before, but...

I stopped lessons when I was 10, at what would probably have got me through grade 1 if I'd worked on it, and I didn't start lessons again until I was 15. In the meantime of course I was doing theory (had grade 6 or 7 by that time) and cello (grade 4 or 5) and general musicianship exams, plus singing in all sorts pf choirs and starting to sing in festivals etc.

And meanwhile I played, like you do, every day. Lots. I didn't work on any scales because nobody was making me, which means that when I started lessons again (and was immediately put in for grade 6!) scales were a nightmare. But neither did I think "I must do some sight-reading" - I was sight-reading all the time, but not for the sake of sight-reading. It was for the sake of learning new music. SO I did ALL the things you are being taught not to do - reading separate hands (well, sometimes) going back over a wrong note, stopping and repeating a chord several times - completely ignoring the pulse when I was trying to work out the notes (because, you know, I did know what it ought to sound like when I eventually got it right, and I'd guess you have at least some of that ability) and this playing new stuff for myself to see if I wanted to play it, eventually made me quite a fearless sight-reader. But as I said, I didn't do it for the sake of "doing sight-reading" and that made a difference.

Dave, would you be up for some easy-to-read rubbish music? I ask because I belong to a thing called the Piano Book Club, an offshoot of the Canadian website Teach Piano Today, where for about 6 quid a month, they send me a new e-book to print out and distribute freely to anyone I like. Mozart it ain't. Some of it is fun, some of it you might try through and decide you can't be doing with it. I'll send you a couple of links by PM in a few minutes.

The first one I got was called Fleas on the Keys, and it was about articulation (Chillapilla Jones, the cool caterpillar, is about slurs, Buggington the flea is for staccato, Fifi the dragonfly is for the pause, and Buster Buzzbee is for accents, and there are two pieces for each of them)

I've had about half a dozen of these now, with a different slant on each. As I said, you might find the music really boring and not worth bothering with (it's patchy, some of it is really fun - Mabel might not like it)

xgizzy in Cambridge

dave brum · Post by **dave brum** » 09 Sep 2014, 12:57

I think all I can do is discuss it with Doctor Mabel.She in indeed my teacher. But I'd just like to feel I'm actually making some progress on it, rather than persistently being bugged by it and whingeing on 'ere that I can't do it (you're probably all a bit sick of it by now and I'm equally as sick of the whingeing!)

Probably I should get things into perspective here and say the SR exam tests/Paul Harris/Joan Last etc. is the issue, and not specifically sight reading in general. Whenever Mabs gives me a new piece to learn, or a new set of Dozen a Days, I have to sight read in order to learn the piece/exercise. The issue is how long it takes. In an exam of course, examiner puts a 4 or 6 bar specially written exercise on the piano that's not too dissimilar to a Paul Harris or whatever, and the candidate is expected to play it after a half a minute's prep. Not take as long as she/he wishes, experiment, play both hands separately etc. for an hour or even a day or so! I can sight read, I have a repertoire. But I cannot possibly do it in thirty seconds!

Thanks for the PM and things btw Gizzy.

dave brum · Post by **dave brum** » 09 Sep 2014, 18:29

Just popped this on my Youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23QT_ildLV0

This was from July 2009. I'd still be in my 30s then, hadn't done Grade 2 and, of course before I threw in the towel for the first time. But notice how badly phrased the piece was (CTM 1 p9, 'Rondino' by Rameau) and also how I keep looking down at my hands!

dave brum · Post by **dave brum** » 11 Sep 2014, 09:27

I feel it's about time I had 'that conversation' with Mabel next week.

dave brum · Post by **dave brum** » 11 Sep 2014, 21:44

In fact I've had the conversation thanks to the information superhighway. Tuesday's lesson will focus solely on that subject that killed a thousand saints.

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 12 Sep 2014, 19:29

dave brum wrote: that subject that killed a thousand saints.

It's just sigh treading. Drama queen...

dave brum · Post by **dave brum** » 12 Sep 2014, 19:53

Well it has to be sorted as I've no wish to die from a never ending pain in the a.rse

dave brum · Post by **dave brum** » 13 Sep 2014, 18:30

So, as you will see in the 'Organs' thread, I took some lovely snaps of the Edwardian organ in St Nicolas Church, Kings Norton today during their Open Church session (the church is only open at limited times due to its proximity to two council estates).

I managed to get more than a good look at the instrument and console before what I would assume to be a churchwarden collared me but it gave me a chance to ask her about the organ. She told me as much as she knew about the instrument and that it was played regularly but couldn't tell me the date of its last major overhaul but the organist (who wasn't in the building) could. She said there are three relief organists on the rota (betcha one of those is Maggie Murphy) and not long after that, she collared me again when the organist herself walked in! Surprised she was really like you Gill in her mannerisms but 10 years younger and not a single ring (and she plays piano too).

I did tell her about my musical history but I don't think she was that interested. She was constantly being interrupted by various other Church members and parishioners so I felt quite intimidated and like I wasn't being listened to. I told her I played 3 organs in Bucks last month and the results of which were posted on Youtube, and whilst she said it was good, she never asked me for my channel address so she could take a look.

I've said before of aloofness and hostility towards outsiders within the Church of England that is not good. I know lots and lots of British Muslims through the shop, plus one or two Buddhists and not one of those people come across as difficult to get through to, or that they 'look down' on people in any way. Yet I find the Anglican Church as one constant game of oneupmanship and snobbery that is quite repulsive and unwelcoming to a stranger. Even my concerns about shortages of organists and even instruments having to be sold for scrap was like being in a queue at a Jobcentre or post office. 'Yeah yeah yeah. Oh hello Joyce, how are the flowers?'

I came out of that church feeling very very small and unimportant. That God's people (and that is what they profess to be) cared more about themselves than their community. And I'm not just saying that because I didn't get to hear the organ being played or even got a go on it even though I brought some music.

Hope your church(es) aren't like that, Gill. For me, definitely no more hymns. To play a church organ was all I ever wanted to do and I'm grateful that I had the chance to play three but it seems conservative Church attitudes have scuppered me.

dave brum · Post by **dave brum** » 14 Sep 2014, 18:21

Gone quiet again?

dave brum · Post by **dave brum** » 15 Sep 2014, 06:41

So, if everyone's not decamped elsewhere, I have my appointment with Mabel tomorrow. If we spend too much time discussing the politics of musical destruction then I may have to book an extra lesson. I have a nice jolly little Russian piece to play for her.

Post by **Feg** » 15 Sep 2014, 09:39

dave brum · Post by **dave brum** » 15 Sep 2014, 11:13

This is a good book that I picked up on Friday. It's so much more clear and concise than the pink book that's full of waffle and treats us all like children. I never knew what a tetrachord was, how each one is structured the same to make a complete major scale, and that the second tetrachord of a given major scale forms the first one of a new one, e.g F# G# A# B (second tetrachord of Bmaj) equals the first tetrachord of F# major. Oh, and that the word 'tetra' means four in Greek.

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 15 Sep 2014, 16:42

That;s the book I was ON about; the one I thought you got for a fiver or something, with no cover? It's infinitely better than the Eric Taylor ones. Guard it with your life, they're going for a fortune on Amazon/Abebooks - IF you can get one.

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 15 Sep 2014, 16:45

Between 20 and FIFTY quid!! I've just looked...

dave brum · Post by **dave brum** » 15 Sep 2014, 17:00

I paid £1.49 for mine.

The one I got, and it was unsaleable so I had it for a small donation is called 'The Academic Manual of the Rudiments of Music' by G.Augustus Holmes and dates from 1927. It's not actually published by the AB (found that out when I got home) and it's not in graded order. Whereas the book I got is from much later, from 1958 although the actual edition includes a UK postcode, so with the old AB logo I would put it as an early 70s edition. And it's graded 1-8

The Italian terminology is clearer to stomach than the like that is contained in the Eric Taylor book, and languages is my strong point being bilingual. Con brio....with vigour. Now I imagine seeing 'Brio' powder under the sink.

Gonna be a fun lesson tomorrow with Mabel, plus a nice long talk about....the price of fish?

dave brum · Post by **dave brum** » 16 Sep 2014, 07:43

So the day of the appointment with Mabel has finally made its dawning, wonder what it will bring 'Fourth', musically speaking?

Ditching the anxiety-inducing hymns is enabling me to learn more new tunes from CTM1. I've only 8 tunes left in that book now. Sorry, God.

There is a copy of the same edition of the music theory book on Amazon for twenty quid used. The Church Hymnary Revised Edition, which I also picked up in the bookshop however is not going for a great deal on either Amazon or Abebooks. I paid £3.49.

dave brum · Post by **dave brum** » 16 Sep 2014, 17:35

So quite a heavy lesson this week, with the emphasis on that subject. Also a first because we actually did some duets, great fun until I got to the seventh one and became scared and anxious. We went over it a fwe times and got through no8.

I didn't get any easier SRing, I got the same Joan Last book but only one line of each exercise at a time. And I was reassuringly told 'don't panic' well, when your marriage is falling to bits, and you absolutely hate yourself, that's easier said than done. But I said I would not chicken out, especially when she told me she wished all of her pupils were like me! She said the sight reading will come in time and that it doesn't matter if I get them wrong, I just have to do them. She cited a recital she did last week where she made 2 slipups but it didn't let it bother her, or that she may do likewise at the organ. She also said about her leg, it will heal up but eventually even though she often wishes she could leap around the house like I wish I could SR. I have also been told to stay positive, well again, when you suffer with what I suffer with then again positivity is wishful thinking. Definately no easier SRing, as she knows I can do the g1 ones (only just about)

I have the last group of ADAD book 1 (which I've already started), a new piece and a section of Glinka's Russian Polka I found difficult (semiquavers). And I also have new guidelines on how not to let the piano become obsessive, 2 scales per day and of course repertoire. Next lesson on the 30th same time, insh'Allah.

It just goes to prove how empty my whole existence is when I look forward to seeing Mabel's friendly smiling face so much.....but also that I like safety too much. I really don't like going outside of my comfort zone...and that's not good for a piano learner!

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 17 Sep 2014, 16:21

Just get any kid's cheap piano books that come into the shop and have a go at playing them. Don't think of it as sigh treading, just think of it as reading. Remember learning to read letters and words or Welsh and tackle this in the same way.

dave brum · Post by **dave brum** » 17 Sep 2014, 16:47

I don't work in the shop anymore.

Quavers in the seventh duet.That's what done it because thinking time was drastically reduced to get the pitch right, and as soon as I make one cock up with getting the right note, more follow because I lose my place.

Confidence is also a major issue as I don't have any. However I'm certainly not intending on chickening out here. But I am grateful I have her on my side.

dave brum · Post by **dave brum** » 17 Sep 2014, 21:33

Gill, if there are any 'prayer request'books in any of the churches wot you plays at, stick one down for a piano learner in Birmingham who wishes he could, erm.....

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 18 Sep 2014, 15:24

If as you say our churches are full of stuck up arrogant gits, you don't want us praying for you then, do you...?

If there are lots of quavers and it's in 4/4, try counting 8 to the bar instead; it sometimes gives the brain a little breathing space. I used the trick to slow me down when I have a tendency to rush at 'black' passages. Used it last night to a complicated rhythm in the accompaniment to 'Orinoco Flow'.

dave brum · Post by **dave brum** » 18 Sep 2014, 15:58

Gill the Piano wrote:If as you say our churches are full of stuck up arrogant gits, you don't want us praying for you then, do you...?

Of course not. God hates people who can't sight read, or even space-wasters. He's too busy loving nasty arrogant so and sos like Fanny Fosdyke!!!

Even if I did count 8 it would make absolutely no difference to the speed of the piece, or the fact it would have to be played once, rather than tinkered around at leisure with like I'm doing with my homework piece 'Country Minuet'.

Orinoco Flow, as in the Enya song?

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 18 Sep 2014, 17:07

That's the one. Hideous accompaniment with weird off beats and...well, just nightmare. I daresay I shall get the hang of it eventually, she said hopefully.

dave brum · Post by **dave brum** » 18 Sep 2014, 17:25

Enya performed that on TOTP sat at a grand piano (probably a hollow theatrical one as the lid was down) with flower petals all over the place. Ah, the joys of being a proper pianist.........

dave brum · Post by **dave brum** » 19 Sep 2014, 13:03

It's at times like this when I think I don't want to say anything negative but I desparately think of something positive to say #help

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 19 Sep 2014, 18:19

It's such an erratic accompaniment; it reminds me of Thomas Beecham talking about Beethovem's 7th - 'Like a lot of yaks jumping about'!

dave brum · Post by **dave brum** » 19 Sep 2014, 18:33

It gives a sneaky mention to a 'Rob Dickens' (we can ......with Rob Dickens at the wheel) whom I assume to be the producer. I won a competition thingy on Beacon Radio back in the late 80s (won other stuff from them as well) which the prize was the Watermark album, featuring Orinoco Flow. On 12" vinyl.

Must be a bugger to sing as it's practically whispered in syncopation apart from the recognisable 'sail away, sail away, sail away' bit.

dave brum · Post by **dave brum** » 19 Sep 2014, 18:43

Well, was going to take some more piccies of St Nic's Church in the morning but I don't think my health is up to it. Yes I know I'll never be a church organist but I'm starting to get into historic buildings and the church is part-Norman and part-Medieval, assumedly Tudor as the surrounding buildings, restored in 2004 are all Tudor. The church next to where I do Keep Fit is Saxon.

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 20 Sep 2014, 15:29

The choir are in agreement -

- that the words are generally cobblers...I was too busy going cross eyed at the accompaniment to read 'em.
You can get a good book called 'How to Read Churches' or something like. Interesting book - have a look and see if it's in the library.

dave brum · Post by **dave brum** » 20 Sep 2014, 15:47

Many churches are 'multi-period' that is to say having been extended and/or rebuilt with minimal evidence of the original architecture. However I'm beginning to like post-Reformation St Chad's RC Cathedral in the City Centre, designed by Augustus Pugin with it's two distinct spires. Shame it's cut off from the rest of Birmingham's CBD by a hideous 1960s road junction.

dave brum · Post by **dave brum** » 20 Sep 2014, 17:04

I seem to be on the winning side with my Country Minuet, my next HW piece. See, this is exactly what I mean in relation to the subject that was invented by the Prince of Darkness. If it takes me five days of constant practice to learn the bulk of a homework piece then by the law of averages maybe an hours tinkering with an 'Anthem of Doom' might be okay for me to get on top of such a thing. But it's not what Mabel wants, is it?

dave brum · Post by **dave brum** » 21 Sep 2014, 08:07

Exactly what I mean. For around four weeks I have suffered with almost persistent back pain with restricted movements. But also I have had some really bad moodswings and intense downers that I've not been able to control, and so I've been eating more and more, so much so my weight has rocketed up to 113kg in a short space of time. Which turns the wheel full circle as rapid weight gain may be the cause of my back pain, which I suspect to be either a trapped nerve or a slipped disc. I have a spinal clinic appointment to prove this very soon.

This morning I weighed myself and I found myself to be 2kg lighter. But to me, that's nothing to be pleased about even though my wife says I should be. To me, it's not good as it's too large an amount to lose in seven days given the fact I have most definitely not been starving myself with my meals, had a takeaway Tuesday, a piece of cake, and some nice home made pies. I would have been happy with 1 or a half a kg, so to me, this is a disaster. If I'd had GAINED 2kg, it would have felt like a reason to jump off Clydesdale Tower (23 storey tower block in Birmingham city centre) or something.

I really cannot understand why things I should be happy about I'm ambivolent to (as if the 2kg will go back on soon when I get yet another downer I can't control). Like getting a Distinction for g2 for example.

dave brum · Post by **dave brum** » 21 Sep 2014, 15:44

Nice run out to Worcester and back this morning, constant back pain and painful twinges, and to make things worse Fanny Fosdyke was playing in church this morning. The Bishop would never believe me if I told him that I couldn't go to my local church because the organist said something downright insulting and confidence shattering to me that I find unforgiveable (wonder if Mrs Fosdyke is a member of UKIP?)

gizzy · Post by **gizzy** » 23 Sep 2014, 20:45

Apologies in advance for the somewhat indelicate subject matter (but some of you have heard worse from me in the past!)

I'm off to hospital tomorrow morning. I have colitis. I seem to have Mystery Colitis as my GP doesn't know what caused/is causing it and I don't have any kind of pain, just the - er - the other symptoms. Had them for six weeks now. And I've lost 34 pounds since easter. I was priding myself on having done this by cutting my carbs in order to keep my blood glucose down, but now it looks as though it was not all down to my efforts

I did the bowel cancer screening test, which came back normal (that's the one where you have to do three poops on three separate occasions, maybe three days, and scrape two little bits of each into tiny little squares on this card then you shout BINGO! - no, sorry, where was I? you fold it up and send it through the post to some place in Nottingham.)

I also had to take a poop sample, in a sort of test tube, in to my health centre which I did the day after I first saw the doctor, so that was Friday, and go in on the following Friday to have a blood test. At that test I was told they had no result from the poop test which was a bit strange. Then later in the day the nurse rang me and said very sorry but I put your blood into the wrong bottle so please can you come in again on Monday to have it done again. Then on Monday morning the surgery rang me and said i had to do the poop test again as they had been told from the lab that the original one was "lost/unusable". I was really annoyed, why had it taken that long for them to let me know? So I did it again, and had the blood test with a lovely African nurse we have whose name is Memory

Finally last Friday I got a letter saying my blood result had come back and the doctor wanted to see me. Had a very nice consultation with my favourite male doctor at that place who said he'd refer me to the Fast Track clinic which is a place where they either detect or rule out early signs of cancer. He doesn't think I have it, but they will deal with all the complicated investigations that involve putting cameras where the sun don't shine, etc etc and maybe tell me what I really have. My colon seems to have stopped functioning properly, hasn't quite come to a full stop, but there's a question mark hanging over it.

Oh and apparently I'm a bit anaemic. (EH? This is ME we're talking about!?!) and my hitherto perfect kidney test showed up as less than perfect this time.

I get very tired, but otherwise I'm fine - teaching three hours a day and four and a half on Saturdays. Robin retires next Tuesday, and at the end of October we're taking a train to the south of France to celebrate. I was surprised how cheap it was (relatively). I do hope I don't get ill (properly ill, I mean).

He keeps singing the bit from Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds which really ought to be in the mis-heard lyrics thread: "the girl with colitis goes by"

So anyway, that's mainly what I've been up to recently. I do read the forum abut every other day, so I do understand about all the ups and downs; sorry to hear about your job, Dave, and your back pain (you have all my sympathy with the latter!) Have you tried any of the Piano Book Club links I sent you yet?

Love to you all
gizzyx

dave brum · Post by **dave brum** » 23 Sep 2014, 21:15

Your colon may actually be shaped not too dissimilar to a question mark, Giz, but every good wish to you from me for reasonable functioning Enoch Powells. I have tried the stuff that you sent, and also I've had some good luck tweets from Paul Harris (that Paul Harris) telling me how to follow his SR course I've always struggled on.

At least nobody has to tell me to do my piano practice! Lesson with Mabel next Tuesday, will you and : be out of hospital by then?

gizzy · Post by **gizzy** » 23 Sep 2014, 21:31

Oh yes, I'll be out of hospital about half an hour after I go in: this one's just a consultation, luckily.

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 24 Sep 2014, 16:36

Have you actually had the up yer endoscope yet? I do hope they sort you out, Gizzy; it's a miserable thing to have and now is just about your busiest time, isn't it? Try not to do too much (she said...yeah, right!).

gizzy · Post by **gizzy** » 24 Sep 2014, 22:19

Just a consultation and a quick look at the first few inches. I have to have a CT scan and the candid camera thingy over the next couple of weeks or so, and I've asked for morning appointments for both of them. It's dawned on me that they may tell me to come for the 'scopy for Thursday morning which might put paid to my going to Robin's retirement party, because you have to have nothing but fluids for 24 hours and take this stuff to clear you out and not be far away from a toilet. Could be a rather awkward party...

I have the unspeakable Mahi tomorrow afternoon. Think I'd prefer the MeTube.

gizzyx

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 25 Sep 2014, 15:39

I would skip the party. E had to take it before his big cancer op and we decided the apt plrase was 'the world fell out of his bottom'. Bogrolls in the fridge, Giz...

gizzy · Post by **gizzy** » 25 Sep 2014, 16:36

They've just rung and told me to come on the Friday, so apart from only being able to eat white bread and non-fruity cake and sweeties, the part should be OK.

Thursday pupils is another matter, though. Will have cancelled all except those who can understand what's going on.

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 25 Sep 2014, 18:14

Doesn't matter, you can always make up the lessons when you're better. This is more important!

gizzy · Post by **gizzy** » 25 Sep 2014, 19:03

Well, I definitely won't teach the last two I've just had till two weeks' time; it was their first lesson, and they're Chinese age 4 and 6 and don't say much, though they made reasonable progress for a very first lesson. Hard work though. Mother didn't stay, as I would have preferred, because she had no.3 with her, who is 18 months old (and called Austin!) and totally charming but very naughty - nothing would have been safe. So it's a shame to start them and then wait two weeks but I'll send them lots of bumph to be going on with. Nice family, and the kids' surname is Sun - I hope that's a good omen. (The dreaded Mahi is tomorrow, not today)

I have 39 daytime spaces and 37 kids in them plus three adults in the mornings or lunchtimes. Only have to stay alert for 3 hours on a weekday, but some time in between I have to do lesson notes which is quite comprehensive. But... what was that rugby song which ended every verse with "my god how the money rolls in"?

gizzy · Post by **gizzy** » 28 Sep 2014, 23:36

Definitely won't have to miss R's party now: CT scan on Wednesday morning (got to drink 4 lots of iodine-based jollop before then so as to make my guts light up or something) and as from tomorrow I go on to the sort of diet which prohibits all the things that are meant to be good for you and restricts you to the things that are "bad" (white bread, white rice, no fruit or veg apart from skinless potatoes...) so I don't know what I'll eat at the party; then on Thursday I take the poison and just drink oxo and lucozade all day, and the 'scopy is on Friday morning.

I had thought that I would just come back and teach in the afternoon, but d#1-Chloe's partner said there's no way I could do that, the sedative they give you is like Rohypnol. I did wonder how he knew what Rohypnol was like, then I remembered he's a pharmaceutical technician. So teaching Monday and Tuesday and then no more lessons till Saturday. What with a couple of adults I'll have to cancel, those three days are costing me over £200

Gizzy in Cambridge