Bach to Handel

On the weekend I went with DG up to Maldon to look at a house he's thinking of renting. It was a glorious day and we had an effortless drive up (and back). The house seemed appropriate for DG's needs and he will put in a request for it (I think). We lunched in Castlemaine before returning to town.

The countryside, which was brown and parched the last time I was up that way, is now lush and green. Let's hope we get some more decent rain in the right places.

On Monday we had a rehearsal at St John's for Sunday's B minor mass Credo. It's a hard sing, sitting quite high, but still very satisfying. There were still only three tenors; it's a bit much to expect to sing a work like this on only one rehearsal. I get a bit cross with people who expect to sing in these projects and then say, "Oh ... I can't make all the rehearsals - but I'll learn it", and then swan in and mess up.

Yesterday morning I got a very pleasant surprise: a request to join Ensemble Gombert for their recording of Handel's Dixit dominus, one of my most favourite works of the repertoire. I first sang it over 35 years ago (yes, I am that old) with the Melbourne Chorale and have done it a couple of times since then.

I had previously been unable to take up a request to sing with EG at the Woodend Winter Festival as I will be on my way to FNQ with Tat, but JOD has decided on a two-tenor solution - I get to sing in the recording and someone else (the name escapes me) will sing at Woodend. Smiles all round.

We had a rehearsal last night which meant I had to cancel dinner at P&B's. ST picked me up and brought me home thus keeping me out of the cold night air. It was great catching up with everyone and even better singing the Handel. My previous experience paid off as I was surprised by how much of it I seemed to know without even looking at the music.

Sofa, so good

ON WEDNESDAY DG and I went on a hunt in Richmond for new sofas for my lounge room. After walking up and down Church St we ended up in Bridge Road where, after finding a surprising range of affordable sofas (leather and otherwise) in a couple of shops, I finally decided on a pair (1 x 3-seater, 1 x 2-seater) covered in a rather nice charcoal-y fabric. They will be made locally and be ready early in July. What fun!

On Thursday I spent the day with BN and caught up on all the news of her trip. She took some great pictures and said the conference (on Neville Shute) was interesting. It's amazing how we can natter away for hours, almost without taking breath.

On Friday morning, after measuring the width of the front door just to be sure, I went and paid the deposit on the new sofas before having a tasty lunch at the Children's Farm with B. Then on Saturday morning after shopping B&P and I had lunch at Lentil as Anything - also very tasty; I think we paid a reasonable amount.

On Saturday night Tat and I went to the Gombert Concert - it was a program of contemporary Australian choral music. Not only were all the composers still alive, two of them (Peter Campbell and Vaughan McAlley) were in the choir and the third (Calvin Bowman) in the audience.

It was a terrific concert - a beautifully performed collection of varied settings - and a thrill to be present at.

As for my current sofas, I may have already found a home for one of them with one of my work colleagues. One down, one to go.

Werribbee

I had a wonderful day yesterday: after the market at the farm and the supermarketing at Vic Gardens P&B and I went to Werribee Park to see the entries in the Helen Lempriere sculpture competition as well as having a look through the mansion. The house and grounds are very impressive and have been lovingly restored. Unfortunately my camera's batteries died preventing me from taking more pics.


Breakfast room


Werribbee Park mansion


Laundry

Then today it was off as usual to Mum's for lunch - I took the laptop and showed her the images SP has done. IP also turned up and I showed him some of the pictures from last year's trip.

Then this evening SP came around and we went to the Park hotel for a pub meal and a good talk.

I've teed up a couple of things for this week off, but unfortunately neither DC nor MG is available for lunch on any day.

O silver moon

After a quiet weekend, full of the usual shopping and visit to Mum's, I went with DG last night to see Dvorak's Rusalka. It was wonderful: Sally Matthews as Rusalka was truly amazing, both her extraordinary singing and her marvellous acting; her distraught final scenes were truly moving. The rest of the cast matched her high standard and the production with its glacial icy-blue sets, enlivened in the second act by striking red carpets rolled in by the chorus, was most effective. The orchestra played superbly.

But it was the music that was for me the real surprise. I wasn't surprised by its immediate accessibility, as I've not heard any of Dvorak's music that I didn't immediately connect with, but in some of the bleaker scenes, when he uses the astringent combination of oboes, cor anglais and bass clarinet, we are thrown straight into the sound world of Tristan. It's a work I certainly want to get to know a whole lot better. DG seemed to enjoy his birthday present.

Then of course this morning it was back to the mundane business of work - the day was improved by a very tasty roast pork dinner at B&P's tonight.

Fruit and friends

I worked last Saturday which meant I wasn't able to do any shopping - I like working the occasional weekend shift but they do tend to upset my regular habits.

On Tuesday I cooked a couple of curries (chicken rogan josh (I don't care if it isn't echt, it's tasty) and a vegetable curry) for P&B and DG. DG came early and we had a good catch up; I showed him some photo-graphics by SP (who came for dinner on Sunday evening) which he really liked. He also agreed to help me choose a new sofa (or perhaps sofas).

DG brought some tamarillos, which I've never had much to do with; I looked them up in St Stephanie's and decided I'd poach them according to her instructions.

Last night I was treated to more doof-doof music from next door - I first became aware of it around 2am and then kept waking up every hour or so - it was still going at 6! To be fair, the volume was lower than last time, but low-frequency sounds travel further than higher-frequency sounds and it was always there every time I woke up. Very annoying.

B&P came for shopping at the usual time and afterwards we had a tasty lunch at Cavallero in Smith Street.

DG and I had planned to go sofa-shopping this afternoon, but he rang me to say that he was stuck in traffic and had decided it was impossible for him to get here without losing his cool. We'll reschedule for a week-day which should make it a bit easier to get around.

I managed to get a bit of a snooze this afternoon - tonight I got around to poaching the tamarillos; I'll have some tomorrow.

Fruit and friends

I worked last Saturday which meant I wasn't able to do any shopping - I like working the occasional weekend shift but they do tend to upset my regular cycle.

On Tuesday I cooked a couple of curries (chicken rogan josh (I don't care if it isn't echt, it's tasty) and a vegetable curry) for P&B and DG. DG came early and we had a good catch up; I showed him some photo-graphics by SP (who came for dinner on Sunday evening) which he really liked. He also agreed to help me choose a new sofa (or perhaps sofas).

DG brought some tamarillos, which I've never had much to do with; I looked them up in St Stephanie's and decided I'd poach them according to her instructions.

Last night I was treated to more doof-doof music from next door - I first became aware of it around 2am and then kept waking up every hour or so - it was still going at 6! To be fair, the volume was lower than last time, but low-frequency sounds travel further than higher-frequency sounds and it was always there every time I woke up. Very annoying.

B&P came for shopping at the usual time and afterwards we had a tasty lunch at Cavallero in Smith Street.

DG and I had planned to go sofa-shopping this afternoon, but he rang me to say that he was stuck in traffic and had decided it was impossible for him to get here without losing his cool. We'll reschedule for a week-day which should make it a bit easier to get around.

I managed to get a bit of a snooze this afternoon - tonight I got around to poaching the tamarillos; I'll have some tomorrow.