and in other news: my weekend

[electricland]

So, Friday was my choir concert. More exactly, it was the end-of-term recital for the music school of which my choir is a part. This meant that we were the only adults performing; the other performers were an array of (mostly Asian) small children who were all OMGSOCUTE. Some of them could barely reach the piano keyboard, but they all did their thing -- not that I know much about it, but I thought their pieces were pretty well matched to age and ability, so you'd get one kid doing something very simple with only a couple of hesitations while the next whipped off a little flawless Bach. Which I guess is the point. (They were mostly piano students; we also had one violinist, one vocalist, and the children's choir.) Fun to watch; some were very happy to get up there and bow and do the stage-presence thing, and others sort of dashed back to the audience as soon as they reasonably could.

It was all pretty informal -- before it started our choir spent some time figuring out how to line up to get on and off stage in the right order, and there was a call for audience help moving the piano, and none of us was entirely certain where to sit. We were at St. George the Martyr Anglican Church, which is lovely and a wonderful place to sing. My parents and Jen came and enjoyed themselves very much (at least, they said they did). I think we did well; I spend so much time frantically trying to remember stuff like "OK, breathe like this, aim your voice here, shape the note like this" that it's always hard for me to notice how we're doing while actually in the midst, and it's over terribly fast. But it was fun, as it always is, and it was nice that it was SO relaxed and informal. (Especially compared to Wednesday night, when I did front-of-house for my mother's choir and about 700 people came and the choir alone has to be 200.)

Our program:
Aralo - trad. Georgian
Nana - trad. Georgian
Yedid Nefesh - trad. Jewish
Thula Kizio - trad. Zulu
When the Stars Fall - Stephen Hatfield (with a soloist who hadn't rehearsed with us, but who was incredible)
Shouting, Whispering Sea - Mark Patterson (I think)
Come, Let Us Sing - not sure who the composer is, but it's a fun song which we do with the children's choir (did I mention OMGSOCUTE?)

The rest of the weekend:
Friday night: dinner with parents (Peruvian restaurant); The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe with crankygrrl, which made us both very happy (disclaimer: although I read and enjoyed the books as a child, they weren't and aren't favourites in the same way as, for example, the Swallows and Amazons books -- as a result I don't think I bring as many expectations to the movie as I might otherwise. I enjoyed it very much.)
Saturday: took the dog for a walk; started rereading Pride and Prejudice (necessary to reassure myself that it was still there); went over to the house and swept the floors and watched my new window being installed; got parents to drive me out to the wilds of Scarborough to pick up a package which, it turns out, Canada Post didn't leave at that postal outlet at all; dinner with parents (Swiss Chalet); home; bed.
Sunday: socialized a bit with hosts who have returned from frozen North; more Pride and Prejudice; house, vapour barrier (Jen scraped paint off our heat registers); walked over to aunt & uncle's house, meeting real estate agent along the way (he seems slightly horrified that we aren't living in the house yet); admired newly tidy basement and burgeoning Christmas decorations; copied down selections from posted Christmas wish lists; back home for dinner with Italian family who have been in Canada for 6 weeks and were very sweet but had varying amounts of English. Generally more than my Italian, though. My brain kept trying to default to French and then hauling out Spanish words. It's not like I speak Spanish. However, goodwill got us all through.

Christmas cards written: 1 (today at lunch). I had nearly given myself permission to slack off this year and everything.
Number of people for whom I have finished Christmas shopping: 2. I think. Sorta. It would be more, but I'm waiting for some deliveries.
Number of people for whom I am moderately stumped for a present: 2. Hey, that's not so bad.

Comments

[jenlev.livejournal.com]

glad the concert went well, and yay for what sounds like a delightful weekend. :)

i haven't read swallows and amazons in years, too many. my parents read it to me when i was a kid. i should add it to the ever growing re-read pile. (as opposed to the ever growing read pile.) ;)

[electricland.livejournal.com]

I've been exploring my hosts' bookshelves since all of mine are in storage. It's very liberating! Not that I've got much farther than Emma Lathen, but there are lots of options awaiting me!

I reread the Swallows & Amazons series regularly, and am very glad there are 12 of them. Although I normally skip over Peter Duck and Missee Lee -- I prefer the "real" ones.

[jenlev.livejournal.com]

heh, your icon looks like my to-read pile. ;) i know i need to re-read those books because i think i might have forgotten so much about them. shame on me, and yup, there's just not enough time in the day for reading. ack.

wondeful to explore other people's book shelves. although when m. was visiting last week she grabbed "any old book" off my shelf and ended up with the first of the "faded sun" series by cherryh. she doesn't read scifi, so i ended up with a lot of explaining to do. meep.