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Two things. Finding a full size music copy of A&M Standard in good condition in a charity shop for, wait for it, £1.50:
Number two is that on Sunday, my wife and I will be going to church. An octogenarian campanologist celestial missive bearing Nortonian (how very Leonard Sachs) managed to swing it for my manager. Oh! The raprurous resonance of treble and bass pipes firing at full blow through a church dating back to the time of Henry II

My life seems to be full of positivity at the moment. Wish that was the case always. Like kissing goodbye to a Hippo bag full of builders' debris that has been gracing my front lawn since January.

£1.50??? Bargain!

Yes, I thought that - unlike the bound Welsh bible for £6!!!

New laundry appliance arrived today. Old one was 10+ years old. This one necessitated the resiting of the electrics. Luckily my DH and I have those skills.

Was there a ribbon-cutting ceremony? After the champagne-drinking ceremony and before the sock-vanishing ceremony?

Church today! Not been yet and already I'm happy!

Large organs.

Gill the Piano wrote:Was there a ribbon-cutting ceremony? After the champagne-drinking ceremony and before the sock-vanishing ceremony?

Nope, nope and nope!

Absolutely fabulous! The Edwardian organ, restored in 1996 sounded as perfect, as crisp and as resonant as the day after its restoration both in piano and fortissimo mode. The only complaint I have is that it should have been me playing it. I'll bet Ms.Llwynog (whom I did not get a chance to speak to) never had a mother who denied her the opportunity of piano lessons just because of her class.

But all possible credit to her for getting the best out of this wonderful instrument today - and having the confidence to play it in front of a Sunday congregation and in addition, read all that stupid notational Kryptonite gobbledigook that enables her to do so.

dave brum wrote: stupid notational Kryptonite gobbledigook.

STOPPIT.

Did she let you have a little go at the keyboard later on?

Gill the Piano wrote:

dave brum wrote: stupid notational Kryptonite gobbledigook.

STOPPIT.

Did she let you have a little go at the keyboard later on?

No, I didn't even have a chance to see her. She was too busy with other things you know.

...and in any case if I did get the question asked to me, I would need at least one month to learn one hymn tune to play.

Just press down a few notes and keep dragging stops in and out to see what happens - you don't need to PLAY it, just make a racket!

Gill the Piano wrote:Just press down a few notes and keep dragging stops in and out to see what happens - you don't need to PLAY it, just make a racket!

That's fannybumming around. Church musicians would never allow a stranger to do that upon the instruments they are proud custodians thereof, let alone someone with the music reading skills as myself. Mabel and Tracey certainly would not - fannybummery is verboten here.

That would be another trip to Marlow

Almost finished decorating and renovating the room that the ceiling caved in on last autumn. I don't feel happy about it yet but I think I will when I'm sat in there playing the piano with the bright yellow walls and crisp white doors.

dave brum wrote:

Gill the Piano wrote: Church musicians would never allow a stranger to do that upon the instruments they are proud custodians thereof

I do; I let a kid have a bash on Sunday. It's how we indoctrinate future organists, planting the seeds of fanaticism. I could the the maniacal gleam in her eye as she turned to her dad and said 'Awesome!'
Another one bites the dust... worth a few cats' bums mouths to snare another organist...

That's good. And constructive too. I could not possibly imagine either of the two organists doing that - and Fanny Fosdyke I know for a fact does not partake in such activity, locking the organ away safely and soundly after each Sunday service.

The best course of action one can take otherwise would be to play something on a piano at a Church event in the presence of churchwardens and, of course, Tracey. In other words to publicise ones talents in a subtle way and an aural way as well (that's aural not oral). Then await the interest that will be shown.

Finding out Waitrose will be coming to Bromsgrove (5 miles/11km away)

http://bromsgrovestandard.co.uk/news/th ... ent-12997/

Ooo, there's posh! I know where YOUR money will be going...

My favourite thing in Waitrose has to be ironing water. A whole market based on people's indifference to the fact that ironing water is available in the kettles and tumble dryer condenser reservoirs of Britain without having to go shopping for it.

Seriously though, I like to take my trolley around the store with a copy of the Morning Star on full show just to annoy the other people with Telegraphs and Mails on show!!!!

Good old Waitrose!!!

Is the Morning star still going? I thought it had gone. I have a very right wing mate to whom I post parcels and always threatened to wrap them in the MS...
Have you seen the thing called 'Overheard In Waitrose'? Some of them are hilarious.

Overheard in Waitrose: 'It stinks of coffee in here'.

There is an Overheard in Waitrose Farcebook page. It contains links to lots of Esther Rantzen/Private Eye-esque media snippets, like the Somerset newspaper headline 'Village People Angry At YMCA plans'.

And plenty of middle class dilemmas for people who have so much money they don't know exactly what to do with it. Wonder if, in the interests of political correctness, there's an Overheard in B&M Bargains too?

Went to a book fair today and bought 2 C19th books (one on Mendelssohn, one on the art of letter writing) for a pahnd each - bargain!

I fancy writing a book on the art of emailing. I detest it when I get emails from people I know that begin their emails 'Hi David' when they mean to say 'Dear David'. My ex-piano teacher was one of the principal offenders in that annoying literary trait.

The United States of America has more than a lot to answer for.

I want to kill kids serving in shops who seem to think 'You all right there?' is an acceptable alternative to 'Can I help you, madam?' I always say 'No, I have a backache and my husband's run off with his secretary.' Stuns them into a nervous silence, usually.

Waitresses who interrupt your meal with 'is everything to your satisfaction, sir' whilst you're tucking in to some lovely scran. If it wasn't alright, I'd say. Do they think I'd rudely post a negative review on Facebook or something! Sorry. No more moaning!!!

My new old books are lovely; I love Victorian books. A favourite is the Spanish phrase book with such useful sentences as 'Pray tell me where I may engage the services of a fine fencing master'. If I ever go to Spain again I shall pack it...

Playing my own notated version of a piece of music called 'Chit Chat' from Classics To Moderns 1 99.5% perfectly from cold. This piece has ALWAYS caused me problems in the past (due to my inability to sight read Greek Morse code) so I've tended to avoid it like the plague.

And this wasn't on my home piano, it was on the public 'play me' piano in the Bullring this morning! So it did make me happy that I could actually play it without difficulty!!

Splendid! And I disagree - there is NO upper age limit to learning an instrument. But learning it SUCCESSFULLY...! I speak as one who had a thoroughly useless gitbox lesson today. Might as well have been sightreading!

All I did was take a simple piece of music (well, I've done three pieces from CTM1) and rewrite them into a notation that I can understand, taking into account rhythm, fingering, and changes of hand position.

It is something I can and will try to build upon. The realisation is that if you cannot play piano somebody else's conventional old way, then devise your own way that bypasses all of your worst fears.

If it works for you, that's all that matters. Go for it!

Three more tunes today. The difficult bit is the fine tuning, moulding it into a complete musicmaking system for one such as me.

I need a guinea pig to test it out on, asked at work - but, do you know what? Their entire knowledge of music begins and ends with the pop charts. I was amazed and quite shocked that one colleague, who was born in 1980, had not even heard of John Lennon or the Beatles.

But I had never heard of 'Bruno Marse' until she told me about him/her.

I have referred to the Beatles and been met with blank stares. It frightens me...

Going into town today, enjoying the sense of freedom after the last four days of lockdown and demi-siege thanks to the Conservative Party, and getting Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells III from the Library of Birmingham - an album I've wanted to hear for many years but not yet available on Youtube apart from the single taken from it by Cara Dillon (and 'Moonlight Shadow's son):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V054y2zPAL0

Mike Oldfield is a bl00dy genius!

A bostin' bit of CAKE in church this morning. Nothing like It!

Beautiful diamond day, barrelling round the back lanes of the Chilterns en route from one church to the next. Wonderful! Except for the blasted cyclist and silly sweaty gasping runners who force roads to be closed so they can run about in their vests. I didn't appreciate having to walk further with my heavy music case.

Playing a bostin handbells concert in Northfield to a troop of nine, very grateful octogenarian females.

I agree with you Gill about never being too old to learn to play the handbells.

Getting rid of around 75% of my sheet music to a teacher not that far from you Gill in Bucks who will actually put them to good use and will be giving me a donation for the B30 Foodbank for all of it (of which we were both clients of when Iain Duncan Smith took away my benefits last year). It feels like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders. Now to get shut of the bl00dy .

Whereabouts in Bucks? Good that it's going to a good home.

Princes Risborough. Loads of stuff, cost me £16 in postage, which she will reimburse. Some more went to Petersfield and what I've got left may be getting sent to Coventry.

Remaining Double Dutch dispatched out today, to Coventry, Scotland and Ireland, so that has made me happy.

Then in work it made me even happier to see my friend Hassan back, who has had 6 weeks off after being racially attacked by six thugs in Birmingham city centre and needing 15 stitches in his face. He gave me a huge hug as I sent him a goodwill message.

Breaking news. Piano not going. I need some dust in my house, you see.

God, poor Hassan; is he better now? Did they catch them?

Glad about the piano...cats have to sleep SOMEWHERE, you know...

Yes, they did catch them. That weekend, U.K.I.P had just finished their conference in Bournemouth, and their loutish small-minded younger supporters were making their way from there to the Northern Industrial towns where they hang out and they would have to change trains here after drinking copious amounts of cheap lager and beer. I maintain that their travelling army of retarded racist thugs were around in the city centre that Friday night and that Hassan and his friend was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

It would have been good to put the piano in the lounge, open the key cover, put some antiquarian Edition Peters Lizst on the music stand and make visitors to this house see that we have a bit of class!!!

Can't tell you the times I move Liszt off the music desk of a (usually grand) piano that I know damn well is beyond the capabilities of the owner (and me) which has been left there to impress. Giveaway; not even the most ardent cleaner will dust open music!

I've decided to try and carry on learning the piano. How I'll do that I know not. Mabel pushed me too much. Someone in Birmingham has contacted me via Facebook who is a piano teacher and she also plays viola in my favourite little chamber orchestra, Erotic Camera.

Good. Take it gently, keep it light and make it clear you're only interested in playing pieces and you should be fine. You're paying the piper; you call the tune. Pob lwc, bach!

A good day in work today (despite burning 4 bags of sossidge rolls), time for a tea break, and seeing Hassan has his last plaster off.

I'm happy that the concert was last night and I shan't have to play that bl00dy piece again.