Thursday

First of all, an apology. I'm just a weeny bit lazy when it comes to blogging every day presently. Actually, no I'm not - I just have to get various other things done, and various other things, as you all know, add up to a lot. I've called this post Thursday because I'm sitting here now, at my desk, and I'm thinking just what a good and varied day I had yesterday. 

Jamie and I did the best non-Aldeburgh-Young-Musician percussion jam that I've ever done today. Of course, they're great at AYM (we have worked with several world class percussionists) but it was amazing fun today. Basically, we found every single bongo, conga, tom, snare, cymbal, maraca, shaker and set of chimes that was in the Hathor Room. The number exceeds 50, when all put together. We dismantled the drum kit and placed all the pieces in an arc around us, put the smaller bongos, shakers and chimes on the side surface, then got out some big congas and put them next to the larger floor toms. Then we just had the biggest, longest drumming session ever! It was very fun, and we plan to do it every lunchtime we can. It's theraputic too.

Some chavs were being stupid outside the door of our history classroom today. Mr Dunbavan noticed. For any of you who know Mr Dunbavan, you'll know what's about to happen. We're all just sitting in class, writing about World War One naval strategies, and he strides over to the door, smashes it open, and bellows: "GO AWAY!" in the most earth-shatteringly loud voice imaginable. They didn't go away (like any sane person would) so he started chasing them down the corridor shouting at them EVEN LOUDER. When he came back into the classroom to a captive and just-slightly-terrified audience, he actually grinned, just a little bit. We all applauded loudly. It was one of those really nice moments that I will remember for a while.

Also, the dentist appointment was good, though the likelyhood is I will have braces within the next few months. In my violin lesson, I played some duets by a really interesting composer called Orlando Gibbons. Now, with a name like that, anybody would think he's an ultra-cool New Orleans Jazz guy from the 1920s. In reality, he predates Bach and even Purcell (who were born in 1685 and 1659 respectively) - see this is the kind of trivia I know! He was born in the 1580s, and wrote the most gorgeous fantasias and duets for treble viols (the predecessor of the violin). They were suprisingly modern and jazzy sounding, especially considering they were written before the invention of equal temperament.

So that was Thursday. A good day all round.