FrozenDreamer

As many of you know, I’m a member of The London Gay Men’s Chorus, and every year, the chorus puts on a Christmas show for it’s ‘fans’. This year was a show directed by the fabulous Stuart Burrows, entitled, ‘For Christmas Sake’. The idea behind the show was ‘traditional’… and that’s what you got. Beautiful arrangements of Silent Night, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and my personal favourite  of the season, Over the Skies of Yisrael. Simply stunning.

The choralography this year was also very good. Simple, but effective movement backed up by some fiery dance moves and very witty link material provided by the chorus’ very own Angel Gabriel, Michael Mangion.

Pictures from the season can be viewed by clicking on the picture below…

A fantastic season, and the next one should be even better, with the chorus participating in an International Chorus Festival called Various Voices… as well as an international trip to Helsinki planned for the middle part of the year! Fantastic! See you there!

For some bizarre reason, my legs and feet are not happy with me for making them run! I am in agony! My shins are actually throbbing!

I think a lot of low impact cardio is in order from now on for at least a week in the gym… no treadmills for a bit!

For an ex-mall-rat like myself, the chance to go to a new shopping centre is like dangling an iPod in front of a MAC geek!

It’s a great place… really huge and more importantly, not full of the ‘usual’ culprits that you get on every high street and in every other mall. I’d really recommend you go if you have a chance, but I have a feeling that Westfield will become the shopping destination for most Londoners. 

Oxford Street, with it’s tiny sidewalks, dingy shops, weather (rain) and muggers… no more… I know where I’m spending my money from now on!

Oh, and when I was leaving, I passed the BBC Television studios… which was quite fun as there was a queue outside the place for the audience, going in to see Strictly Come Dancing. They all looked very smart in their outfits… but that said, they also looked bloody freezing waiting outside like that. 

A picture says a thousand words… this one says a lot more than that… *drool*

Yip… it seems to go hand in hand. The second the football season starts, we get weird people hanging about the building. It’s because we live around the corner from Arsenal’s stadium (it’s about 3 minutes from here).

The weird thing was… they saw Bryan and I coming back from Waitrose… and as we passed them at the gate, they asked us for a light, and then said the weirdest thing.

“Cheddar, Gay, England”

I have no idea if this was homophobia… of they wanted a dirty foursome! I guess I’ll never know.

Weirdo’s!!! 

Our flat is on the ground floor in the School House we live in, and looks out into a communal garden which has a child infestation. The local ‘residents’ all dump their offspring into the yard and they run riot around the place. Throwing stones, playing with balls and just making FAR too much noise.

I have decided we need to install some equipment to solve the problem and will be looking for a suitable supplier in the week. Here’s what I’ll be getting….

There isn’t much to say about this prom really. I didn’t enjoy it at all. Loads of French, and the occasional bit of music. I didn’t have a clue what was happening. It just sounded like a French bloke having a moan in a supermarket!

Wouldn’t recommend seeing this piece if it comes up again… so here are the details:

Pierre BoulezMémoriale (’… explosante-fixe …’ Originel)
StravinskyL’Histoire du Soldat
Members of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra
Daniel Barenboimconductor

Again, we went to The Royal Albert Hall to see Prom 38, it was a brilliant performance by a Palestine and Israeli Orchastra. Security was very tight, and those celebrities who were in the audience weren’t too pleased with the extra searches being made… this included international star Prunella Scales .

They were incredibly good, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially from our front row box seats on the Grand Tier (I’m such a tart!)

Haydn Sinfonia Concertante in B flat major, for oboe, bassoon, violin, cello* 
SchoenbergVariations for Orchestra, Op.31

BrahmsSymphony No.4

*Members of West-Eastern Divan Orchestra

West-Eastern Divan OrchestraDaniel Barenboimconductor

Bryan’s employer own a box at the Royal Albert Hall, and tickets which are made available to staff are obtainable using a ‘raffle’ system. We were lucky enough to get a set of six tickets to see three seperate Proms at The Royal Albert Hall.

The view from the box is spectacular, and the Proms were equally as entertaining (except for Prom 39)

I’m not Classical Music Guru… so you’re best checking out Bryan’s Website for any review of the music that was played… so to cheat… I’ll paste some info directly from the RAH website.

Ravel La Valse
Anders HillborgClarinet Concerto (Peacock Tales) (UK premiere)

BerliozSymphonie fantastique

Martin Fröstclarinet 

Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra 
Gustavo Dudamelconductor

Bryan’s employer own a box at The Royal Albert Hall… and Bryan is lucky enough to be able to bid for tickets to see the shows from the box. We’re right in the middle of the Proms season, so what a fantastic little perk to be able to take advantage of.

This is the view you get from the box (click for bigness)