synesthasia

Crescendo website up and running

2007-05-12T10:46:00.000+10:00

I've finally managed to get the website for my music republishing business up and running, now with an online shopping cart system. To visit: http://www.crescendomusicpubs.com.au/

28th January, 2007 - Adelaide/Barossa

2007-04-28T13:38:00.000+10:00

Sean, Juliet and Jodie went to visit grandfather again this morning; it would be the last time Sean would see his grandad alive. A teary farewell.

We drove to the Barossa for a daytrip. The weather wasn't great, but that meant some nice photos.

Here's the view from Bethany Wines, out across the valley.

We bought a bunch of wine, organised for it to be posted back to Sydney, and then drove on to Tanunda. We decided on Hotel Tanunda for lunch - yummy German-inspired counter meals.

Juliet and Jodie

Daniel and Sean

Who should we run into there, but Natalie D'Enyar, an old choir friend from Christ Chuch St Laurence! She was on her way up to the north of South Australia to visit some friends. Its amazing that 1) she decided to lunch in the same pub as us, and 2) we both happened to be in different states and meet at that exact point.

Then it was back to Adelaide for our flight back to Sydney. Monday was almost upon us; each of us were going back to work after more than 5 weeks off. Scary...

27th January, 2007 - Adelaide

2007-04-28T12:28:00.000+10:00

Sean and Jodie had organised to go visit their grandfather; I figured I'd use the day to do a bit of exploring, not wishing to be the third wheel. They dropped me off at a clothing store, as I wanted to get some new jeans (I'd only brought shorts with me). After finding a pair I liked, I walked up to the Roman Catholic Cathedral; it was one place I hadn't had the chance to visit on my numerous trips to Adelaide, so was quite looking forward to it.

Unfortunately there was a wedding about to take place, so I walked around the outside of the building instead. I then jumped on the free City Loop bus, making my acquaintance with a rather nice couple, who told me where to get off in order to walk to St Peter's, Adelaide's Anglican cathedral. Before that, though, I thought a quick visit to the Adelaide Library would be in order, to see if they had any scores I could pilfer and republish. Nothing though, so I made my way to the cathedral. I purchased a photo permit (for the princely sum of $2 - I think they should charge more!).

Here are some of the results:

West End

The beautiful West Rose Window

The Hill, Norman & Beard 4 manual organ

Looking down the central aisle to the West Door

Detail of the reredos

After spending 20 minutes talking to the lovely verger-ladies, and purchasing a copy of the choir's new CD, I made my way back to the CBD. When purchasing the jeans earlier that morning, I decided that a new belt wouldn't be a bad thing. So, the eternal quest to find the perfect belt began, lasting 4 hours and 25 clothing shops later, I had it! Ever on the hunt for interesting CDs, I went to one of those discount shops that sell everything for $10; I came away with a recording of Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kijé Suite, and selections from his score for Romeo and Juliet - good stuff! I also bought Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, as it was something that I've been meaning to buy for quite a number of years, but somehow hadn't. Time for a beer, and then I was collected by Sean and Jodie. The visit went reasonably well, and Sean was a bit happier that he'd got to chat to his grandad, after 2 days before being half a world away (quite literally!).

We collected Juliet, Jodie's girlfriend, from her work (she works in this awesome pet store - its huge!), and made our way to Sean's Mum's place for a barbecue dinner that they'd organised for us. It was great to catch up with his Mum and Terry (her partner). It'd be nice to see more of them, but given the distance between Adelaide and Sydney, its not as though one can just drop round to say Hi!

26th January - Australia Day

2007-04-28T11:56:00.000+10:00

Sean arrived back in the country the day after me. How things can change in 2 days.

I received a phonecall from him during our farewell dinner in Los Angeles; his sister had called him to tell him that his grandfather had been diagnosed with cancer. All very sudden, and certainly not the best news when you're half way around the world, alone in an hotel room. He booked a flight from Sydney to Adelaide there and then. Back at the hotel after dinner, I booked one also - I figured even though I'm not direct family, he'd appreciate me being there to support him.

His flight from San Francisco arrived in at 8am on Australia Day. He came home, did 2 loads of washing, and packed bags again, and made our way to the airport late that afternoon.

We'd barely had time to even catch up on the last week we spent apart! The flight to ADL was pretty empty; there was a young gent who had been at the Sydney Big Day Out and was rabbiting on, slurring his words. I reckon he was more than a bit pissed.

As we rolled down the runway and soared up into the evening sky, we were finally on our way to be closer to his poor grandfather. I'd never met him, but Sean was understandably rather close to him. The next few days were gonna be tough. I held his hand as our plane banked left, the increasingly distant lights on the ground glinting, almost smug in their self-assuredness. They'd never die.

Big Day Out kid decided he was gonna be sick; so, a quick glance around to make sure no one was watching, opened the seat pocket and let fly. Except not only did he get it in the seat pocket, but he managed to coat a good portion of the seatback as well. It wasn't long before the biley stink made its way over to us. Cabin crew were good though, they gave him a towel to clean himself up some.

We were met by Jodie, Sean's sister, at the airport. We were going to be staying with her while we were in Adelaide. We stayed up chatting for a while...I turned in and left them to talk things over.

23/1/07||25/1/07 - Los Angeles-Sydney - Day 27

2007-01-26T11:04:00.000+11:00

Our final day in LA, and what better way to spend it than ambling round one of those huge shopping malls with Ms Sherman. I didn't buy anything - just as well, too. When I packed my bags this morning, I could hardly close the zip! We went back to the hotel, where we had lunch in the café adjacent. Craig wondered past, saying that he was going to the local Starbucks, as he noticed there were a lot of attractive single men there! We ended up going there to pass time also, then it was onto the bus that would take us to the airport.

Santa Monica Boulevard at sunset on our final day

The group ready to load their luggage on the coach

Neil wishing us well for the journey back to Oz

The choked freeway on the way to the airport

It was fun and games at the check-in counter. My boarding pass said that I had to "Seek assistance at the gate for allocation of seating". Not a good sign! At the gate we found out that the flight had been overbooked by about 50 seats! If I hated United until now, I wanted them dead (but only after they assigned me a seat!). Because of the disaster with the seating, Kate Massey-Greene volunteered to take up their offer of spending an extra night in LA in a lovely hotel, plus a free upgrade to Business Class for the return leg of the journey. Lucky her! The flight was pretty uneventful, save for a crazy Asian lady in front of me who couldn't speak any English, but kept turning round to jabber at me in Engrish.

A quick spin through Duty Free, and then we were on home soil!

22/1/07 - Day 26

2007-01-25T20:36:00.000+11:00

Yesterday, Robert Bailey-Hughes had kindly organised for Huw, himself and I to go on a daytrip to Universal Studios, 30 mins north of the city. It wasn't something I'd normally do, but I thought it'd be good to try something new. Anyone who knows me will quite happily tell you that I never go to the movies, so I thought the place would be rather irrelevant to me.

I was proved wrong! First up, we went on a tour of the actual backlots, which was exciting. We saw...

Exploding car models used in the movie 2 Fast 2 Furious

The Bates Motel from Alfred Hitchcock's hit Psycho

A mechanism used to create floods

The exploding wharf from Amityville - Jaws movies

We then went on a few rides (the Jurassic Park dropdown ride was scary, but fun - involving falling 25 meters off a cliff in a dinghy thing!), we also saw a demonstration of how fire-type special effects are made. We then stopped for lunch, then on to a trained animal show. We had...

the recycling dog...

A bra-wearing monkey...

And a bird trained to fly in a wind tunnel

The view from Universal is rather picturesque

In the evening, we had our Tour Farewell dinner. Helen Sherman sang some showtunes, accompanied by myself, Robert Bailey Hughes and Mark Stubley on the piano, much to everyone's delight! Home tomorrow

21/1/07 - Day 25

2007-01-25T20:21:00.000+11:00

Inside the church

A friend of Neil and Owen's, Reece (who is also head server at St Thomas') kindly organised a minivan to ferry us to the church in the morning, in groups of about 10 or so, so we didn't have to make our own way there. The Mass was a resounding success, and we were treated to a huge slap-up do afterwards, in the parish hall. It was really nice of them to put on such a spread; we felt like royalty! :)

Before rehearsal, waiting for the others to arrive...

Sammy, get your gun!

We hung around, waiting for our rehearsal with the St Thomas' choir, who were joining with us for Evensong. Afterwards, we were taken out by a few of the congregation for drinks at this giant megaplex-type bar, funnily enough called The Abbey http://www.abbeyfoodandbar.com/ ! A very drunken night ensued with about 5 of us ending up in a cabana! We made some great friends that night! Craig, especially...

20/1/07 - Day 24

2007-01-25T18:28:00.000+11:00

An early start back to my hotel, to pack and to take some more photos. Here are a few:

California Street, with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background

One of the cablecars in California Street

An interesting contrast of architectural styles walking down Taylor Street

Time to load the bus, and yet another cranky busdriver who thinks we have too much luggage! He had dreadful trouble lining the doors of the undercarriage up so that they didn't hit the street signs, and his backwards-forwards culminated in the bus letting loose and belching a big cloud of acrid smoke from somewhere underneath. Now we had a cranky bus and an even crankier bus driver!

However, the bus still went, and we made it to the airport well in time to catch our flight to Los Angeles.

Some scenes from along the way:

Freeway

Housing estate beside freeway (yes, that is smog in the background)

Our flight to Los Angeles

We disembarked (yet again - I hate planes now), and were collected by a coach. We drove around and around and around, our driver seemingly lost in all the palmed avenues. We got to our hotel eventually...thank goodness. Checkin was dead simple, and we had an hour to get ourselves ready before catching taxis to St Thomas' for our rehearsal for the following day's services. Dinner was had afterwards, at a sort-of steakhouse. I caught a taxi back to the hotel with Neil, Owen and David. Time for bed, as I was absolutely stuffed after the days events.

19/1/07 - Day 23

2007-01-25T16:45:00.000+11:00

A day of exploring the shops in downtown San Fran, and some thoughts on the area in general.

There seemed to be a lot of homeless people around town, many with psychiatric problems. I mentioned this in passing to a few people, and apparently its because its one of the lowest taxing states in the country, and there's not enough money to allocate to services for both these (sometimes interconnected) problems.

Homeless people

Everyone seems to be either friendly towards you, or agressive, like you owe them something. I mean, come on!

There are a lot of hills. Thank goodness for cable cars!

--

I bought more DVDs and CDs - someone slap me. I must be mad. Back to the hotel to change for dinner. Sean suggested that for our last night together, it would be nice to have dinner down at Fisherman's Wharf. And right he was! Had a delicious steak with mash...and then a chocolate and coconut tart for dessert.

We decided to head to the Castro to check out some bars, whereupon I found my tummy was still not right (vomit). Back to the hotel with Sean. At least he was feeling a bit better! Last day together *sigh*

18/1/07 - Day 22

2007-01-25T15:22:00.000+11:00

An early start - there was a city to explore! I met up with Sean after brekky, and wondered round the Castro.

Sean having a rest

Market Street, Castro

Then it was back to the hotel to get my robes and music, as we had our Evensong at Grace Cathedral that evening. It was a lovely service...and an interesting building, housing yet another Skinner Organ - strings to make your mouth water!

Grace Cathedral by night

A gin and tonic back at the hotel, then it was on to the Castro for dinner, a sampling of the vibrant nightlife. I was feeling bored so went to Sean's hotel to see how he was recovering.

17/1/07 - Philadelphia-San Fransisco - Day 21

2007-01-25T14:30:00.000+11:00

On the road again....almost. For some reason, our bus to the airport (booked for 11am) turned up at 5.30am, and didn't bother telling their boss that there was no-one to pick up! When there was no sight of the bus at 11.10am, we started to worry - Phillip then called and was told the above. But, Holiday Inn to the rescue! They managed to get 3 minivans to come and take us to the airport! Good on them! Those who were billeted made their way by taxi (I think) to the airport, where we rushed through check-in, passport control, security and to the gate lounge.

Helen and I in a minivan on the way to the airport

Flying US Airways was interesting - the only thing free on board were softdrinks. Everything (incl. food), you had to pay for. Food was quite good though.

We landed in San Fran, were promptly met by our coach, who then drove (what seemed like miles) to the Hotel Beresford. A small lobby, and too many bags...

We decided to check out the local area (Mark, surprisingly, had another Fun Map), we went and had pizza a block away - the wine was cellared too long, and had turned a bit, but that was OK. Some decided to venture to an "interesting" venue, the Nobb Hill Cinema, but I went back to the hotel as I was tired...no, really, I was! Sean had also arrived in SF that day, and was still feeling sick, so I decided to steer clear of his hotel.

16/1/07 - Day 20

2007-01-25T13:27:00.000+11:00

I woke up not feeling quite right in the stomach - and hoped to God I hadn't got the tummybug. I played it safe, and stayed in the hotel, which was lucky, as lavatorial conveniences were needed often! Inadvertently, it was nice to have a day to myself, even if I was in crampy-pain land. It also gave me a chance to update my blog, which was running very behind schedule.

In afternoon, I wondered up to St Mark's with Rajah and Helen Sherman.

We had a lovely Evensong, with a pretty full church, which was reassuring. Alistair accompanied us again, which was very nice of him, considering he had a 2+ hour train ride in each direction to get there. A HUGE spread was put on for us afterwards - lasagne, salad, the works. They had catered thinking 50 people would turn up, but apparently the number was closer to 150. Still, everyone was adequately fed and watered, and who should show up at the reception, but yes...my stalker! I tried hiding from him a few times, but it didn't really work. He did however, approach Neil and gave a ready sample of his singing ability, much to Neil's delight! I finally managed to shake him off and send him on his way.

Before leaving, I had a wonder round the interior of the church, which was sumptuously adorned with many objects, including a solid silver altar in a side chapel!

Their Rector, who spent some time in a parish in Perth as Curate gave a lovely speech, and then it was back to Woodie's! No karaoke though...

15/1/07 - NYC-Philadelphia - Day 19

2007-01-23T13:05:00.000+11:00

Sean felt a bit better, but certainly didn't look it. He got his stuff together and left the hotel room for the first time since Saturday night. He caught a taxi back to his friend's place in Harlem, and crashed out in a chair. Meanwhile, we all boarded the bus, and freeway'd it through New Jersey - driving for what seemed like hours through what I think was mostly industrial wasteland. Some photos from the trip - sorry if they're a bit dark - it was really foggy outside.

The taxi-way at Newark Airport. I've never seen so many planes queueing for takeoff!

Helen Sherman, and a few others had come down with various chest infections, and more people had come down with the tummy-bug. :(

Once we arrived in Philly, we dropped off those that were being billetted at St. Mark's, the church where we'd be singing Evensong the following (Tuesday) night. They were then free to roam the town, while those who chose to stay in a hotel continued on to the Holiday Inn Historic District. Whilst checking in, it seems the travel agent didn't include a room voucher for myself, so I had to pay for a room for two nights myself. Thanks to Phillip though, he telephoned the travel agent in Sydney, who then faxed across the paperwork, so in the end I didn't have to pay for anything extra. Mark Stubley, Danny and I decided a walk was in order. We'd decided we wanted to hear the Wanamaker Organ - situated in the central court area of a 6-storey shopping centre. I'd read that it gets played every day, and wondered if we were in luck to hear someone putting it through its paces. Upon arrival, we found out that there was a recital scheduled for 5.30pm that day. We wondered through Philly some more, and were instantly charmed by the city's architecture.

Mark suggested we try and see if St Clement's was open for a look-see, so off we went. I was doubtful as it was a public holiday that day, and I thought it wouldn't be open, but as luck would have it - it was!

Some pictures...

We returned to Macy's (aka the Wanamaker Store) for their 5.30pm recital. I think the poor organist would have been 90 if a day, and played like it too...a few variations on Lift up your heads (Handel) and then some variations on Twinkle, twinkle...then it was enough.

Stubley had his "fun map" guide handy, and had sussed out a few venues for an evening bevvy or 3. First up was Bump, a rather nice what looked to be a wine/martini bar. They served a wonderful array of tapas type dishes, and was very excited to receive some fried pork dumplings, rather like those at Shanghai China Night in Ashfield!!

After Bump (where I lost my nice scarf I bought in Canterbury :(( ), we adjourned to Woody's, which I was informed was the place to go by Jason Groves' friend Donald. It turns out that it was karaoke night upstairs, so Rajah, Phillip and I made our way up the stairs, the others wanting an early night, as they still weren't feeling quite right after being ill. It seems I acquired a stalker of sorts - a "charming" black man named Chris. Phillip kindly let slip where we were singing the following night - thank you, Phillip! Phillip and Rajah departed after a few numbers, and left me with the bloody stalker! He then suggested we try another bar (which was a few streets from my hotel), where I met his (drug-addled and incoherent) cousin. Great. He started rifling through his jacket, looking for something. I asked what he was looking for, and he said "some drugs I am supposed to drop off to a friend here". Great - I am being taken on a drug-run with a complete fruitloop. I bought him a drink, and bolted out of there, saying I had to be up early. Nicely done, Daniel!

14/1/07 - Day 18

2007-01-23T12:10:00.000+11:00

An(other) early start, today's duties included singing Mass and Evensong at St Mary the Virgin, Times Square (Smokey Mary's). We arrived for rehearsal in their dungeon choir room, and soon proceeded up to the organ gallery where we were to sing from. A stunning service - their Organist and Director of Music, Robert McCormick, is second to none - and gained the title at St Mary's when he was 22 years old (I think he is now 28). What an improviser!! During the Offertory, he played a stunning rhumba-toccata, building up to Full Organ, leaving us all agog. We were absolutely dumbstruck with this little (he's about 5'5" tall) dynamo!

He also played a awesome improvised Pastorale-Choral-Toccata-Final on 'Kingsfold' as the Voluntary - again, 10 minutes of the most amazing first-rate musicality! The organ there is amazing too -an Aeolian Skinner dating from the 1930's, and (if I remember correctly) one of G. Donald Harrison's masterworks. I visited the church shop afterwards, and came away with a cool Smokey Mary's t-shirt and mug. Very reasonably priced too! Also took some photos round the church.

Then it was back to check on Sean, as he was still in bed suffering the effects of his contagion. Spent some time with him, hoping that he was at least improving somewhat, and then ventured back to the church for Evensong rehearsal, followed by the service. More stunning playing from Robert!

Post-Evensong drinks followed, and then a group of us went out to a Splash, one of New York's many gay bars. An early night though, and I wanted to check on poor Sean again. I also had to pack up my suitcases, as we were bussing out to Philadelphia the next morning.

13/1/07 - Day 17

2007-01-20T12:03:00.000+11:00

We had a Saturday morning rehearsal at Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Times Square, affectionately known as Smokey Mary's. It gets its nickname from the rather large amount of incense used at services. One of its main claims is that it was the first church built with a steel frame, with concrete then added around this framework.

The view from the street

Some very funny things in their choir room....

A rather cute number plate...

...and bumper sticker...

...and the choir room.

After we went over all our music, we had the rest of the day to ourselves. Sean met me back at the hotel, and we went out in search of a haircut, as we were both beginning to look a bit untidy in the follicular department. $15 each later, we looked a lot better! We'd decided that we would like to see either Wicked (a new musical about the witches from the Wizard of Oz), Les Mis or Chicago. The first two were booked out, but we got very good tickets to Chicago for that night. A quick duck back to the hotel to get changed, charging through the crowds to get past and into a packed restaurant for dinner. It seems that everyone was there to eat before a show. The first place we tried (at about 6.40pm), Carmine's, had a 1.5 hr wait for a table! We shovelled down dinner, then pushed through the masses. We made it with time for a pee, and 1 minute or so until the show began. It was absolutely running. It didn't seem all that dated, even though it has (as of 2007) been running for 10 years straight. Admirable! We walked back to the hotel, but not before seeing Madonna come out of her hotel, in front of an adoring crowd that was blocking Broadway going North! Ooh, and they have really scrummy Haagen-Daz ice-cream here!

Sean was struck down though - the nasty tummybug that had been presenting itself to the rest of the choir had finally made its acquaintence with Sean. He spent most of the night going at both ends, a night which left both of us without much sleep :(

12/1/06 - Day 16

2007-01-20T07:36:00.000+11:00

Feeling a bit shabby after the preceeding night's festivities, I went and found a greasy breakfast. Sean and I met up again, walked the streets, investigating shops. In the afternoon we had a rehearsal for that evening's concert, which was at the (Roman Catholic) Church of the Transfiguration, situated in the Chinatown district of NYC. A lovely building, adorned internally with "interesting" visions of the Holy Family done Chinese-style, providing points of interest! Sean and I decided to take a taxi there, as if we caught the subway, we would have had to take 2 different trains in different directions, and walked at least 15 minutes. The taxi idea wasn't too grand after all - the taxi driver at first didn't know the street where the church was on, and then once we explained it to him, he refused to drive the 7 or so blocks to the church because there "would be too much traffic". We jumped out and walked the rest of the way!

Apparently the rehearsal time had been changed from 5pm to 4pm after Wednesday night's concert, but I was unaware of this, and thus arrived much much later than I thought I would have been with the taxi fiasco alone.
The concert was lovely - the church packed out, and we had the services of Stephen Tharp as our organist for the evening - a very talented organist too, I might add! I first met him once in Sydney when he was visiting, many years ago, so it was nice to be able to meet Mrs Tharp on this occasion, who was pageturner for the evening.

My parents had just flown in to New York from Bermuda, following a 10-day holiday, and luckily their flight back to Australia wasn't until the following day, so they came along to the concert also. I hadn't seen them since before Christmas, so it was a bit of a thrill to see them in NYC of all places!

After the concert, John Collis (our host at the church) had organised a group dinner. The stupid restaurant tried to overcharge our table by 3 set menu meals, and after Sean argued with them, they agreed to revise the bill down (!?!) but for some reason, our table was very short in their payment of the bill, and I had to throw in $20, and two other kind souls threw in $20 and another $10! Thank you both! Total cost of dinner for two, within a group - USD130. Not cheap, and certainly not good value, as most of the Appetizers (what we in Australia call Entrées) were seafood (which neither Sean nor I can eat).

Taxi'd back to the hotel, and had a quiet night.

11/1/07 - Day 15

2007-01-17T07:07:00.000+11:00

Sean arrived at the hotel, and I was absolutely overjoyed to see him. I'd been feeling really depressed since arriving in NYC; I think the contrast between the two cities couldn't be greater. London was easy to get around, had smallish buildings and was generally less "frantic" than New York. All the bloody honking of horns and background din of "living" was really getting to me. I felt alone in a big city. I know I shouldn't have felt too alone, travelling with a group, but I did. A few tears were shed on my part, before we ventured out into the wide world. We walked north to Times Square, where I was accosted by a camera crew. Some of you may have seen it on tele in Australia (I think both 9 and 10 broadcast the snippet). Essentially, they were asking what I thought of David Beckham's move to the US (reportedly for a figure of $250m). I said, quite plainly, that "I thought he was a tosser", which I think confused the US journalist woman somewhat! I was then asked what I thought about Posh/Victoria Beckham, to which I replied I thought she was very ugly! I bought a nice shirt in Element, too!

We made our way down to the southern end of Manhattan Island, intending to go to Liberty Island, but due to my dodgy direction instructions, we ended up on the wrong side of Manhattan Island and needed to consult Sean's Lonely Planet guide for NYC.

We walked along [the!] Wall St, and down to Battery Park, where the boats to both New Jersey and Liberty/Ellis Islands depart from.

Yet more security measures meant stripping off, removing metal objects, only certain sized backpacks permitted, and everything being X-ray'd before we were allowed onto the boat. Some stunning views were afforded us as we journeyed across the harbour.

Manhattan Island, as seen from Liberty Island

We purchased a "walking audio tour" thingo, which explained how the statue was built, and the thinking behind it. All very interesting. Then it was time to go back to Manhattan to find food and drink.

After consulting the gay section in the Lonely Planet guide, we decided we were ready for Marie's Crisis, a showtune-only piano bar, in the Village. As we arrived at 5.30pm, the place was pretty much deserted, but it wasn't long before people started arriving. We got chatting to a nice youngish guy (whom we thought wanted a threesome or something - I don't know what gave him that idea) - but he took us to a converted speak-easy for dinner, which was certainly welcome after the amount of alcohol we'd consumed! We said our goodbyes, and I went back to the hotel, and Sean continued onto his digs in Harlem (5th Avenue!).

The bar that is Marie's Crisis

10/1/07 - Day 14

2007-01-17T06:21:00.000+11:00

Back to Bagel Maven for breakfast - they give you heaps of food for $10! Bacon, eggs, sausages, toast, potatoes - stunning! Then off to hit Broadway shops. Helen Sherman, Huw, Sue and I spent a large amount of time in this cool shop called Antique Orange - Peter, I bought you a present for looking after the house - it really suits you! Huw got pissed off 'cos we were taking so long with shopping - sorry Huw! We looked through a few more shops - so much clothing, and so cheap (compared to Sydney prices, anyway!). I bought a shirt from FCUK. Not much else to report from this day - it was again, very cold, and before we set out on our shopping expedition, we saw snow!

I retired to my room to relax - and listen to some rather cool CDs I bought in London. One stunning disc is the new Christmas Vespers from Westminster Cathedral - http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/details/67522.asp not one I bought, but a belated Christmas present from Jon and Ads - thanks guys - I love it! The Langlais Fête is amazing! Definitely one to republish. I also listened to a great disc of recordings featuring both Mr and Mrs Langlais playing Vierne, one of Duruflé's Tournemire improvisation reconstructions (Victimae Paschali - absolutely first-rate playing), and also Duruflé's Prélude, Adagio et Choral-Varie sur "Veni, Creator".

We congregated in the foyer, to walk together to the Church of the Incarnation on E 29th Street http://www.littlechurch.org/austral.html . When we arrived, their Director of Music was rehearsing her boys choir, so we waited around until that finished before commencing our own rehearsal. Alistair Nelson, our sometime Assistant Organist from Christ Church St Laurence had trained it down from Conneticut to accompany us for our concert - it was great to see him again, and have a little catch-up. Unfortunately, as the church is undergoing extensive renovations, the organ was wrapped up in cling-film, but it could still be played (which was a bit of a curse - I wasn't convinced of its neo-Baroque ability to accompany Howells' Gloucester Service!). We also saw American John for the first time since he'd left Sydney after completing his Fullbright scholarship. Was good to catch up with him also. A number of people were starting to get sick at this stage in the tour - tummy bugs and colds were spreading like wildfire, knocking out a lot of people, but everyone I think managed to rise to the occasion and sing well. Afterwards, we were treated to a reception given by their Vicar, Bp Andrew St John - sometime Bishop of Geelong. He was quite chuffed to have an Australian choir performing in his church. I was tired, although excited, as Sean had flown in from Munich that evening. Yay!

9/1/07 - Day 13

2007-01-17T05:04:00.000+11:00

I met Sue, Huw and Helen Sherman in the hotel lobby, and set off to find breakfast down 7th Avenue. Bagel Maven was decided upon, and we had wonderful table service from a lovely and most amusing black woman named Carolyn. She was most amused to find that in Australia we call "jelly", "jam". We found her linguistic nuances so delightful - a real American black lady was waiting on our table! We set off downtown, in search of a discount clothing store we'd been told about by the name of Century 21, and then we saw it. Ground Zero. Its amazing to think that two buildings that big - the size of a city block each, so many stories high, came crashing down on this very spot. All the dust and debris - some 5 and a bit years ago. It all seems so far away, yet so close. There are still people coming to pay their respects. Putting up roses on the mesh fencing. In the newspapers they report they're still finding body parts in the rubble. It is like some kind of bizarre archeological dig. Now they have a selection of photographic art on display, to do both with the plans for the site and also the day the world stood still.

Century 21 proved to be a dangerous place to visit; not for me, but for Helen. She was so excited by all the shoes and boots they had for sale! Whilst she was trying on one particular pair, she managed to get her foot stuck in the boot for about 5 minutes - we'd all wondered off to find something else to look at, of course - she was getting quite panicked by the thought of possibly having to be cut from her footwear, and having to pay for them, and ending up with nothing but scraps of leather to show for her $200!

We wondered around Downtown for a bit, then returned to the hotel for a little rest. Such a busy day! And it wasn't over yet - Philip French had kindly organised tickets to go and see Rent for himself, Rajah, Sue Southgate, Helen Sherman and I. My first Broadway show! Sue, Helen and I had dinner at this weird steak place just near the hotel beforehand. The show was stunning, although they, for some reason, cut 4 or so scenes from it. At interval, I asked Sue if she was enjoying it - she wasn't. I did actually think that it might not "be for her", just as we sat down in the theatre. By the end of it though, we all were of the opinion that it was very good!

8/1/07 - Heathrow - Washington (Dulles) - NYC Day 12

2007-01-17T03:32:00.000+11:00

Up at 3.30am (after 3 hours sleep!), dragging my suitcases down to the Lobby. Everyone had the same bleary-eyed look on their faces. But still there was gossip to be had! Apparently Neil had invited a few people round to his apartment for farewell drinks on the Sunday evening, including a [lecherous] friend of Fr G’s, Peter (who had been trying to crack on to Huw at every opportunity!), who proceeded to smoke out of a small window all night, which was also inadvertently letting out all the heat, and letting in the wind which was blowing rather strongly, and blowing the smoke back in with it!

Here’s a lovely sign I spied when we were all being loaded onto the coach for the trip to Heathrow.

Once at the airport, we checked ourselves in, wondered through Duty Free (where yet again, I restrained myself from extravagant purchases), and made our way to the gate lounge.

Based on my experience on this flight alone, I am never flying United again - the in-flight service was absolutely disgraceful. The look of scorn on the trolley-girls' faces if you asked for a cup of water was so painful...gawd! Also, no free booze on the flight. The food was pretty bad too...

We landed in Washington right on time, and emerged from the aircraft to find that the airport is currently undergoing renovations. They also have a funny practice of these lunar-explorer-type vehicles that bus you between terminals A, B, C and D.

Poor Huw had bed-hair all day...

We had a good few hours to wait for our connecting flight to New York, so mostly we sat around and ate (we were becoming American already!) and rested.

Whilst at the gatelounge, an announcement went out that United thought the flight was too heavy, and needed 3 people to transfer to a different flight (there was compensation involved though). As we boarded the aeroplane, we found out why - it was a 46 seater jet - boy, did I feel worried!! Luckily we all got to fly together.

We took off (had my fingers crossed as we sped down the runway) and landed about 40 minutes later. By this time it was nearly 6pm, and we'd all been awake for an inordinately long time, taking into account that England was 5 hours ahead of us. We all checked in to the Hotel Pennsylvania, and a group of us (Mark, Danny, Huw, Sam, Craig and I) went off in search of dinner. We found a charming little Italian joint, and ate like kings :) We then went in search of coffee, braving a bitterly cold wind (I went out without a scarf, gloves or beanie), found some dodgy coffee house run by Russians, with only filtered coffee, but they did have a most delicious bread pudding (what we call Bread & Butter Pudding). Almost turned into an icicle on the way back to the hotel, and was glad of the overheated building when we arrived back!

I was very disappointed at my room - both taps leaked in the sink, the shower/bath leaked, my window wouldn't open nor close completely, the room smelt dirty, no internet access in the building, the ceiling paint was peeling off, and there was a mysterious dark stain outside the entrance to the room. Apart from that, it was fine!!

Time for bed! And Sean arrives on Wednesday - yay!

7/1/07 – Day 11

2007-01-13T03:23:00.000+11:00

One last day in London, and what better way to spend it than roaming around doing all the stuff that I hadn’t yet had time to do. At 1pm, I met up with Adam and Jon at St Paul’s Cathedral (they were heading back to Sheffield that night), and lunched at Gourmet Burger Kitchen (if my memory serves me correctly!), where I had the most delicious burger ever, with bacon and cheese, etc. etc. We then wondered down to Tower Bridge, where we went on a tour of the structure, walking across the two horizontal bridge parts, which also have camera portals so you don’t have to look through a smudgy window in order to take happy snaps.

St Paul's Cathedral

Afterwards, we walked back to the north bank of the river, past the Tower of London, had something warm to drink at a café, then proceeded to Piccadilly Circus to try for some decent night-time photography. I was very pleased with the results!

We said our goodbyes, and I went on to All Saints’ Margaret Street for their Epiphany Carol Service, meeting up with Mark Stubley and Danny Burley beforehand. I’d heard so much about this place (and its characters!) from many friends – Peter Jewkes, Groves and Stubley – and I wasn’t disappointed. An absolutely beautiful service, and a fine building also! I introduced myself to the Rector and Curate, both lovely people. One very sensible thing about this church, is that they have a bar (!) underneath the building itself, opening after services with the full compliment of beers, wines and spirits available to purchase. Jason Groves introduced me to Bp. Ambrose, who although retired, was once a Navy chaplain, and worked on the QE2!

Feeling peckish, Groves and I met up with an American friend of his, Donald, and a solicitor friend Aidan at Ballams’ in Soho and had a wonderful dinner – lamb! something I hadn’t had since leaving Sydney.

Arriving home at 11.30pm and a little drunk, it was time to pack! I’d put the last of my washing on that morning, so it was all nice and dry by the evening. I lost patience with folding, so just threw everything into the suitcases, thinking it would all fit. How wrong I was! Sitting on it to get it to close certainly helped though! ;)

I really enjoyed my time in London, and it was great meet up with people that I’d chatted to for so long online!

6/1/07 – Day 10

2007-01-13T03:02:00.000+11:00

Weather: drizzle and occasional rain. Today, I went via train to Oxford to visit some friends. Once again, I have to say the experience of travelling by public transport was second to none – nice clean carriages, and an express service that stopped at only 5 stops between Paddington Station and Oxford. Apparently it has a top speed of 125mph, which is only just faster than the maximum permitted running speed of Australia’s XPT.

My train to Oxford

There was lots of beautiful scenery to enjoy along the way – the expanse of the Thames Valley plain stretching out beyond my gaze (no pictures – train was travelling too fast!). Once at Oxford, I was met by Keith and Bob, who then took me to see a few sights around town. First stop was the Sheldonian Theatre, which apparently is used mostly for university graduation ceremonies these days. It was designed by Christopher Wren (architect of St Paul’s Cathedral, London), and has a cupola which permits views of the surrounding area through no less than six windows. The pictures below illustrate the views (there are some reflections in some of the pictures – sorry!)

We then went on a tour by foot of the town, had lunch in a café, bought provisions for dinner, and then on to Oxford Castle. The castle was in use as a prison up until 10 years ago, and has now been turned into an historical museum, detailing the use of the building for as far back as they can tell. Originally built as one of the towers in the wall surrounding the protected part of the city, it was used as an outpost to defend the city from enemy attacks (of which there were many). We went down into the basement, which was used to store the bodies of prisoners for the first few hundred years of its life. Interestingly, food was also stored down here. I hope the two didn’t get confused!

We had a very chirpy madam show us round the tower itself, then went on an audio-guided tour of the prison part, which was very interesting. The lives of a few prisoners were showcased here also.

Following the tour, we adjourned to their place, and Keith cooked a stunning Toad in the Hole, containing some rather wonderful Wild Boar and Apple sausages! I was curious to read up on the canal system of the midlands, and fortunately Keith had a few books on the subject, so I leaved through a few pages of each before dinner. Interesting reading! I also had a play on Keith’s American reed organ – I had to remember to keep pumping the pedals! I stumbled through Boëllmann’s Prière a Notré-Dame from Suite Gothique, with Keith ably assisting with the pedal part. I had brought some manuals-only music with me (Vol. 2 of Vierne’s 24 Pièces en style libre), but had stupidly left it in the hotel room back in London. How annoying!

Anyways, it was time to get a move on to the station, but not before one last look at scenic (and rainy) Oxford. Thanks for having me, guys! The train arrived back about 20 minutes late due to trackwork on a section just outside Didcot East.

Return train from Oxford (left)

5/1/07 - Day 9

2007-01-07T21:28:00.000+11:00

Caught up with friends again today...there's just so much to see in this town! Went to the Victoria and Albert Museum today - some really amazing stuff here. There's a whole room full of plaster casts - the one below is one of the bigger ones! They also have a rather cool collection of musical instruments on display, amongst other things.

Giant snot thing - scary!

Raining again, we then went to the London Eye. For those unfamiliar with it, it is a giant ferris-wheel-type structure on the South Bank, near the Westminster Bridge.

London Eye

Houses of Parliament Clock Tower, with Westminster Abbey behind

County Hall

Looking North

Then went to the Abbey to rehearse for the Epiphany Mass which went rather well! This was our final service in the Abbey. Fr Graeme again graciously invited us into his quarters for drinks and nibbles (I think I'll need a new liver upon my return to Australia!), after which we decided to hit the town. I met James O'Donnell, Organist and Master of the Choristers at the Abbey, and had a good chat and a few drinks with Trixie and himself at a pub in Soho. Then on to G-A-Y, one of London's premier gay (duh!) nightclubs. It was pretty good, but very crowded - I think there were more than 1000 people there! A few songs later, and I felt it prudent to leave - I was feeling tired, and a bit tipsy, plus I had an early start in the morning, as I'd planned to visit some friends in Oxford, and I'd be completing the journey by train.

4/1/07 - Day 8

2007-01-05T20:50:00.000+11:00

A nice sleep-in today, trying to rest my cold away. I managed to get some Cold & Flu talets, plus some echinacea, so hopefully I'll be back on board soon. Read a good chunk more of my Shostakovich book, before journeying into the city for Evensong. I was reassured when I ate BurkerKing for lunch, as it tastes just like it does back home! ;-)

We had an "all-Australian Evensong", with works by Belling, Drury and Boyd programmed, and Andrew MacMillan did a stunning job with the postlude - an improvisation on Advance Australia Fair...we were well outside the building by the time it finished, but the Trompette 8' on the Bombarde ensured we were not left out! Dinner in Soho with some friends afterwards capped off a rather fun day!

3/1/07 - Day 7

2007-01-04T22:43:00.000+11:00

An early start for Sean, as he was flying out to Munich this morning - 4am or thereabouts, poor thing! He made it safely to his destination. The choir met at the hotel for a 9.30am departure for our daytrip to Canterbury Cathedral. There was much to-ing and fro-ing as we got ready to leave, with the realisation that we couldn't fit all the robes in the cabin of the bus, so we had to take them all off and stow them in the undercarriage. Once this palaver was over, we then got underway, and a most informed tourguide pointed out items of interest along the way. One thing I've noticed is that compared to Australia, this country has so much more history. We seem like a child, compared to this isle that is so steeped in years of wars, conquerors, liberations and uprising. I also had gotten a cold (probably from the rude bitch sitting to my left at Avenue Q, who was coughing all over me, with her hand nowhere near her mouth!), so was sniffing and blowing all the way there. Thank you Sam, for putting up with me.

Our rather high-brow "Christ Church St Laurence International Tour" destination board.

Once we disembarked from our bus, we were taken in through the old city walls, through to the Cathedral, and what a beautiful building it is. Different parts of the building were constructed at different times, thus there are different styles (Roman and Early Gothic) of architecture involved.

Canterbury Cathedral

No-one seemed to know what was going on, and the vergers looked like they weren't even expecting us, but on we went, despite confusion reigning supreme. We were then taken on a tour of the city itself, by our tour guide from the bus. There's some lovely ye-olde-worlde charm about the place, with the delightful Stour River, which the city sits upon, literally!

Stour River

Stour River again

There are also a lot of Vicki Pollard chav girls in Canterbury (yeah, but no, but yeah), some of which we gazed upon whilst eating our lovely pub lunch (which included fried bread - yummo!). I also purchased a scarf (!). We reconvened in the Chapter House, firstly for a tour of the Cathedral (I'll scream if I hear anything more about Thomas Beckett!), then to run through some of the unaccompanied music for Evensong, and found myself unable to sing anything above an F, due to my cold. I decided to sit out today's service, and instead turned pages for Andrew MacMillan (aka Trixie). The instrument at Canterbury isn't much to speak of, which was a bit disappointing. After Evensong, we went to a lovely Italian restaurant, then boarded the bus back to London. Exhausted, I went to bed!

2/1/07 - Day 6

2007-01-04T21:59:00.000+11:00

Today we didn't get up to much - highlights were a visit to St Paul's Cathedral (£9.00 entry each!), where we climbed dozens of steps to reach the Whispering Gallery in the dome, which also gave a spectacular view of the cathedral interior. A bit gaudy for my liking though. Evensong at the Abbey, after which Neil had kidly arranged for Heather Boyd and I to meet Ashley Grote (organ scholar at the Abbey, sometime organ scholar Kings College Cambridge), for a little tour of the organ.

Console of the Abbey organ. Such a huge instrument!

North Case

Ashley demonstrated the different divisions, plus some interesting solo stops, then Heather had a play through the Final from Vierne's Symphonie No. 1, with Ashley running around changing stops and couplers for her. It sounded magnificent!

Friends of mine, Mary Peckham and David Gammie kindly invited us to dine with them at David's house in Wimbledon, and after a delicious meal and many bottles of French and Italian red, it was time to head home. We caught the last tube from Wimbledon, but unfortunately it only ran part of the way home, so we disembarked, flagged a taxi, and were home in bed by 1.30am!

David, Mary and Sean post-dinner

1/1/07 - Day 5

2007-01-04T21:18:00.000+11:00

Sean went off to discover the sights of London on one of the open-top double deckers. I went off to explore Soho, and to try and get discount tickets for a show. I tried for Evita and Spam-A-Lot, but both had no discounts available. We ended up with Avenue Q http://www.avenueq.com/about.html and it was well worth it - a riot! Songs like "Everyone's a little bit racist" and "The internet is for porn" really make it the special musical it is! :) I wouldn't mind seeing it again if it ever comes to Sydney.

I went for a walk up The Piccadilly, finding a rather high-brow tea place called Richoux http://www.richoux.co.uk/home.htm and had a delicious late breakfast (Fortnum & Mason were closed, so must visit them again at another time) - back bacon, copious amounts of toast, hash browns, tomato, jams, sensational Cumberland sausage, OJ, tea...I was ready to tackle Soho! I must have walked at least 4 kilometres, trying to avoid the crowds that had turned out to see the annual New Year's Day parade. Wondered into St Martin-in-the-Fields, only to find out the lunchtime organ recital had been cancelled for that day. Damn! Walked on and on and on. Back to the Abbey for Evensong, and caught up on all the choir gossip from the previous night. It seems that one of Fr Graeme's groupies had a thing for poor innocent Huw. He wouldn't leave Huw alone all night and even tried to get into his bed! Well done Huw, for fending off that slimeball! In the evening, I met up with Sean for Avenue Q.

31/12/06 - Day 4

2007-01-04T11:38:00.000+11:00

What a day! Commenced with Matins at 10am (rehearsed from 8.30am-9.40am). It isn't a service we normally do at Christ Church, so we had a little bit of liturgical learning to do beforehand. The setting was Howells' Collegium Regale, which I thought sounded stunning when accompanied with that organ, and in that acoustic. We then performed Choral Eucharist at 11.15am, followed by a *yes, again* pub lunch, kindly bought for all singers by Fr. Graeme, then returned to the Abbey to rehearse for Evensong. Returning to our digs for a change of clothes, Sean and I then went back to the Abbey for a private party in Fr. Graeme's flat, which is located within a stone's throw of the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye, and Westminster Bridge. We emerged for the fireworks at midnight, and I must state that I felt some sort of gruesome privileged joy at watching the boistrous seething crowd behind the barricades, held back by police, while we gaily tripped about on the lawns beside the Abbey, a holier-than-thou lot, with an unimpeded view of the fireworks spectacular. It is believed that Sam Blanch was heard to proclaim "let them eat cake!" They really were spectacular too! We made our way home by tube at around 2am, and had absolutely no trouble getting to our destination. A far cry from a New Year's Eve in Sydney where everyone is stuffed like sardines into train carriages for the journey home.

30/12/06 - Day 3

2007-01-04T11:24:00.000+11:00

Hurrah! Sean arrived from Dublin today, and came in to the Abbey for Evensong. I didn't realise I'd miss him as much as he did, and he was probably feeling rather harassed by the number of cuddles he received within the first day. Not a lot happened this day, apart from the aformentioned. We came back to the hotel after Evensong, and I had dinner with Rajah, Philip and Sam in their room - walnut and blue cheese ravioli. Slept better this night than I have in a while.

29/12/06 - Day 2

2007-01-04T09:57:00.000+11:00

After having only been able to sleep in fits of an hour, I got up early to go in search of a supermarket for flat provisions. I wondered north of the hotel, up to the Victoria & Albert Museum on Brompton Road, then west, and 40 minutes later, returned with groceries etc bought from a rather expensive Convenience Store. After feeding and watering, I went to the Abbey where we had a 2hr rehearsal in the song school, followed by our first "singing" (rather than observing) Evensong service. It was rather daunting in many respects - the acoustic is larger than anywhere I've ever sung before, and also there was a congregation numbering more than 400 people. We got on with the service and had a great time, despite the nerves.

Some of us in the song school

Following the service, we were treated to an 1.5 hr evening tour of the Abbey by Fr Graeme - its astounding the amount of information contained in this man's brain! Here are some photos:

From the nave, looking towards the screen and beyond it, the quire.

From the quire looking towards the nave.

South organ case, as viewed from nave

Abbey ceiling detail

After the tour, as was becoming the custom, we retired to the pub, then a group of us decided to go to Brick Lane for a curry - what an area! The touts are a pain though..."would you like to come to the best curry house in Brick Lane"...gawd! I was introduced to two ex-St Andrew's Cathedral School boys, who then took myself, Helen Grimley and Huw out for more drinks, this time at The Porterhouse. Following that, I decided to meet up with Mark, Danny, Bribri and Robert at a pub in Limehouse by the name of The White Swan. I had no sooner got myself a drink than a crazy blackwoman dragqueen by the name of Sandra (I am told she's the "meanest bitch in the east") had me up on stage and had removed my shirt!! She then proceeded to put her hand down my pants, much to my shock, amazement and disgust! I reclothed myself, danced to a few tunes, had a few more beers, and then jumped in a cab back to the hotel. Big mistake! £35 (AUD$100!) later, I was back at the hotel - the journey took no more than about 25/30 mins!

Mobile phones...

2007-01-02T21:52:00.000+11:00

Just a brief note: for some reason, my mobile phone is not always receiving messages or phonecalls, and will quite frequently drop out totally for hours (or as I found out yesterday) days on end. Apologies if you get no response, but it either means I haven't received your message, or cannot send one myself. :(

Oh, and Happy New Year to everyone!

Day 1

2007-01-02T20:24:00.000+11:00

Our touring party was greeted by Craig at Heathrow, and we all boarded the bus (despite crankiness from some over who was actually in charge of the group!). Interesting fact: British tour buses now require that passengers wear seatbelts on board! We were given our Oyster card, which works like a Pay As You Go travel card that can be used on the London Underground, London buses and ferries on the Thames. The bus first stopped at the Chelsea Cloisters (the more "salubrious" accommodation) in South Kensington, then followed by the St Paul's hostel accommodation. Neil met the touring group upon arrival at Chelsea Cloisters, and helped unload luggage. There was some confusion about the room reservations and some of us (me included) were told that our rooms wouldn't be ready until 2pm that day - very annoying, as the first thing I wanted to do was shower and change my clothing, which I'd been wearing and sweating into for more than a day. The Nowickis kindly obliged me by letting me use their shower, and I felt much refreshed.

Keryn Ward, Mark, Di and I adjourned to local cafe/restaurant Brasserie for breakfast, and it was here I discovered the truth about how much everything costs in this bloody country! I ordered some Crepes Americaines (blueberry pancakes with maple syrup for you common folk!), and was charged something like £6.95 for thepriveledgee of eating what were essentially burnt offerings (no incense of rams though!).

Some friends from Oxford decided to come to London, so we caught up, and they showed me around a little of the south bank of the river. We had lunch in a pub near the Tate Modern, and then wondered back to be "observers" at Evensong at The Abbey. What a stunning building it is, both inside and out. A visiting choir sang Evensong (Vox Ecclesiastae, I think, or something like that) - Byrd Short, with the Coventry Carol as an anthem. Unfortunately, this will only be one of a few opportunities to hear choirs of this country performing. Following Evensong we adjourned to one of the local watering holes near the Abbey (we have discovered two so far - The Sanctuary, and The Westminster Arms). Jason Groves had kindly invited us to dinner out in Islington, with drinks at the house where he is a lodger. A group numbering about 8 (!) descended on his house, where we were kindly treated to drinks and nibbles. We then went to S&M (sausages and mash, not some dodgy sex club, thank you!), where yet again we paid exorbitant amounts for food (not your fault, Jason, in case you're reading this!). We were all pretty much falling asleep at the table, so following dinner, we pretty much went straight back to the hotel, apart from one minor diversion. Sam Blanch and I were the only two people at dinner who were residing at Chelsea Cloisters, so we caught the tube back together, promptly falling alseep, and missing our stop. We ended up somewhere near Ealing, I think, but we jumped off, crossed over to the opposite direction, and caught the tube back safely, without any more attacks of travel-induced narcolepsy! More anon...

Huw, Sam and Mark on the Tube to Islington. Janice and Brian are in the reflection.

Sydney - Singapore - Heathrow

2006-12-28T20:40:00.000+11:00

What's to be said? I was the person involved in the first funny incident of the tour. I got to the airport to check in, and suddenly had a thought that perhaps I hadn't switched the iron off before leaving home! Having checked in, I jumped in a taxi, got home, found the iron switched off, and then headed back to the airport; $35 later, I felt like quite the fool!

Not much else to report from checkin, except that one Francis Dorman was late to arrive!

Knowing how much choristers enjoy the odd drink, most adjourned to the Catalina bar for a few pre-flight beverages.

The Nowickis with Keryn, Robert Bailey-Hughes in the background.

Mark Stubley being told by Dr. Jane that champagne really does contain alcohol, and isn't, as he thought, a substitute for red cordial.

We then went through Customs, Airport Security (where I was selected to undergo a random explosives and explosives residue search by some scrubber from Blacktown with luminescent lime-coloured nails), followed by Duty Free shopping, which some chose to take advantage of.

I purchased some herbal sleeping tablets from the chemist (more on that later), and we then moved to our boarding gate where we encountered a ladyboy!

Me paporm po yu!

David, Owen, Terry and Doug at the gate lounge.

We then boarded our flight to Singapore. Sam organised for myself, Mark, Danny and Sam to be seated together for this leg of the trip. Some of the highlights:

* Mark asking the hostess for a gin and tonic, which he managed to put away in less than 1 minute.
* Mark then asking for a "strong" gin and tonic, which he then downed in about the same time.
* Mark asking for a third gin and tonic, in the manner the previous was created!
* All of the above occuring within about 5 minutes.
* Playing the in-flight trivia game, and making up purile four letter words for our contestant names.
* Mark ordering repeated drinks for the four of us, and then being glared at by the hostess, and told "No, I come back in half hour!"
* A family of three, travelling to our right (with what appeared to be a slightly handicapped boy), being turned on and yelled at by the woman in front who "couldn't take it any more. I want you MOVED!"

We disembarked at Changi Airport in Singapore, finding nothing much to do but wonder around in a daze. After all, it was about 1am Sydney time, and I'd had little sleep, if any. I found a nice pizza place to get some food and drink, so I was happy. One thing I noticed while I was there, was that everything was spotlessly clean. The toilets had attendants to hand you a towel after you'd washed your hands, and they'd then clean the basin you had just used. Amazing!

Pizza place in Changi Airport

A very tired Helen with Julia Pitt-Owen, ordering pizza.

Weird waiting lounge, bathed in blue light - Changi Airport

We then re-boarded our plane to continue on to Heathrow, but this wasn't without incident. Robyn Bailey-Hughes became a victim of an overbooked flight, and had to wait for the next one. We boarded the aeroplane, then had to wait for one hour at the gate, while they unloaded the baggage of people that couldn't travel on the flight, as there were "too many babies on board" (?!). Finally, we had liftoff from 98%-humidity-with-rain Singapore.

The next leg was completed in total darkness. On the first leg of the trip, I figured I would test out the potency of the sleeping tablets. Bottle instructions give the required dosage of 1 tablet, taken one hour before desired sleep. I took one tablet at the gate lounge at Sydney, and it had no effect. In Singapore, I took two tablets - still no effect. On the plane, I took another 3 tablets (now 6 in total), which finally worked and I dropped off for about 2 hours! By the time we arrived at Heathrow, I was very tired, having been awake for 22 of the last 24 hours. The only memorable incident to report on this leg was me knocking half a can of Coke all over myself in my seat. Luckily, most of it was caught in the blanket that was covering me, so I wasn't too wet and sticky.
We touched down half an hour late at Heathrow.

Sue enjoying a pastry in the Arrivals lounge at Heathrow.

Marie-Alma, Keryn, Francis and Jane, trying to figure out where the hell they are on the Tube map.

Pre-Christmas Festivities

2006-12-26T12:55:00.000+11:00

We had some people round for dinner on Saturday 23rd. Plenty of food, wine and crackers! From left to right: Peter Guy (dear organist-friend), myself, Sean and Rhonda, one of Sean's work colleagues.

Well...1 more sleep to go, before the tour takes off. Reading material for the trip includes a new book about Shostakovich, and Rock Me Amadeus, by Seb Hunter.

I still need to go and organise some foreign money - oh well!

Upcoming Tour

2006-12-22T09:05:00.000+11:00

Well...6 days till the Choir of Christ Church St Laurence departs on their 2006/2007 tour. I am getting very excited! I'll post photos and blog entries every few days. Let's hope the plane doesn't crash!

Highlands/Lowlands

2006-09-04T14:01:00.000+10:00

A rather delightful time was had over this weekend just gone. A dear friend had invited us to spend the weekend in an apartment in Thredbo. The drive to and from, and Thredbo itself contains some of the most stunning scenery. Photos below.

Farmland sunrise beside the Federal Highway, North of Canberra.

Medium density scrubland beside the road to Queanbeyan.

Ghostgums and pines, shrouded in mist, Thredbo Valley.

Rainstorm over Lake George, north of Canberra.

Some people have too much time on their hands!

2006-08-28T10:30:00.000+10:00

What does it mean, we ask ourselves. Should we be alarmed?

Snapped on Broadway, Sydney, 25 August.

Freaky freak hail

2006-08-15T17:15:00.000+10:00

It seems a storm decided to come through, dumping a huge load of hail on Sydney. Some pics below.

Planes

2006-08-08T08:41:00.000+10:00

It is a constant source of wonderment to me, as to how planes stay in the air. Smart guys...whoever designed the things should have been awarded some kind of societal saint status!

Photo taken on the afternoon of Saturday 5th August, 2006 at Sydenham.

What to do on a rainy Saturday

2006-08-05T18:23:00.000+10:00

Happy 100th Birthday, Central Station.

A lazy morning, somewhat clarified with Earl Grey, was spent putting the finishing touches to the scores I’m republishing. From Marcel Dupré’s œuvre, his “Poème Heroïque”. BUT! As it was the 100th Birthday for Sydney’s Central Station, I thought Sean and I would pop along and have a look. Ambling down each platform and inspecting what “new” toys the State Government had come up with to keep us moving. As a contrast, 3801 Limited, the New South Wales Rail Transport Museum and the Powerhouse Museum graciously provided the means with which to run two double-ended steam train shuttle services between Central and Hurstville. Some piccies are below.