Categories: uncategorized
Date: 25 July 2007 23:58:40
Another pass today. It's a great feeling when this happens. The Boss Man, who's been doing this job for 27 years, tells me that the feeling you get when a pupil passes never goes away. I hope so.
I particularly like ones like I had today. The ones where a) I have trained them from scratch and b) they pass on their first attempt. Well, this put me in a good mood for the rest of the day. Pupils passing is a mixed blessing though. It's great for my reputation as an instructor, but bad for business. If people keep on passing like this, I'll have no customers left!
This coming weekend I was supposed to be singing in Gloucester Cathedral. This had been planned for a long time. The London Cantata Choir (for it is they) plan weekends about 18 months in advance. Now, anyone who has not been on another planet and has only briefly seen or heard any news recently will realise that going to Gloucester right now is a Bad Idea. Earlier in the week, I received an email from our Membership Secretary informing choir members that the trip may be called off, but that our conductor (an eternal optimist) was holding out until Wednesday.
Yesterday evening, I received a phone call from the owner of the small hotel where we were to be staying. The gist of the conversation was along the lines that he was discouraging people from visiting due to the fact that, although he had electricity and plenty of drinking water, he had no running water. Basically, "you're welcome to come if you really want to, but you can't have a wash while you're here". (Those were pretty much his exact words).
Anyway, the conductor phoned me this morning. I think he'd finally realised just how bad things are. (I think because the hotel where he was supposed to be staying has actually closed) and that the Gloucestershire Police are pleading with non residents not to visit the area unless absolutely necessary. To the conductor man, this plea seemed secondary. As a professional musician, I think his idea of "absolutely necessary" may be different from anybody else's and I'm sure he was determined that the show should go on if possible, but lets face it, I'm sure Gloucester Cathedral will manage to survive for one Sunday without a full Choral Mass!
I'm disappointed not to be going, but fully understand the reasons. In fact, the way things are down there at the moment, I'd have been bloody annoyed if the trip had gone ahead. The last thing Gloucester needs right now is visitors. When I phoned the hotel this evening to confirm that we won't be coming after all, he actually sounded really relieved.
So, the red cassock goes back into mothballs. No more London cantata singing until the autumn. On the bright side though, at least I've saved a weekend hotel bill.