Monday
Happy Birthday to ME! My 18th birthday and what an exciting day it was about
to be.
I had intended a small lie in but as usual was rudely awakened by my alarm clock,
and the fact that it was PT. With bright hopes for an easy session I arrived
at the gym. A nice steady run around Southsea would have been perfect, but by
7:30am we were sprinting up and down the hot and sweaty gym trying to breathe.
Well after that start, the day could only get better although when I arrived
at work I realised that might not be so. For the first time in a while we were
inspected by the house NCOs (Cpl Cornish and Cpl Bean), instead of just the
usual Section Commanders. After that it was straight over to the elements room
to sing the modes, not very successfully.
I can always rely on Prof. Kennard to cheer me up. I had a good lesson with
my clarinet teacher as we went through a piece I shall be playing for my assessment
next week and for recitals in the new year, it is Prelude No.1 from the Victorian
Kitchen Garden Suite by Paul Reade.
The afternoon was again a busy one as I have my violin T3s next week I was busy
preparing my piece and scales for this.
Monday night and as soon as we got back from work I began to scrub my rounds
so that I could go out later on.
We did however have an evening rehearsal of concert band in preparation for
the gig on Thursday night. It was planned to be from 18:30 till 20:00 but as
it didn't go too well we ended up staying till 21:00. All hopes of a few birthday
drinks went out of the window at 20:30 because of rounds. However at the end
of the rehearsal Sgt Ridley thankfully excused us from rounds. However because
everyone was so tired after having worked for about 13 hours just a few people
came up the bar where we had a few drinks before an early night to prepare us
for a tiring week.
Tuesday
Well as we had no rounds we all got a bit of a lie in, which I know I we were
all thankful for after that long rehearsal.
The day seemed much the same as yesterday although we had an aural lesson with
Sgt Ridley which I tend to struggle on, this went as per usual, not very well.
I then had a lesson with Prof. Simpson my violin teacher, where we went through
my piece for my T3 examination next Monday. It all went reasonably well and
he gave me a few areas that needed a little more work and well the rest is up
to me.
The rest of the day was spent frantically practising for the up and coming gig
and exams. That night it was again rehearsals in the volunteer band room only
this time it was orchestra. I know that most of us had our fingers crossed hoping
it wouldn't run over so that we could get an early night. However we needn't
have worried as everything went a lot smoother and we managed to get through
everything and leave at eight o'clock.
Wednesday
No parade band yippee, not for myself anyway, however the new term that have
just finished basics were out pounding the parade square with Bug Vyse on the
bass drum.
The rest of us however started concert rehearsals at 08:30 in Portsmouth band
room setting up and tuning our instruments in preparation for the three and
half hours ahead.
The rehearsal didn't seem to go too badly and after having run through all the
orchestra dots, we then moved on to concert band at about ten o'clock. Again
this went well proving that the hours we had spent on Monday night weren't a
waste after all.
The boss then surprised us all by giving us the afternoon off from RT, I think
he must have known how hard we were going to work the following day.
I myself spent the afternoon doing a little shopping and then generally lounging
around reading a magazine in my room, until I went swimming training that night.
Thursday
Today was the day of the big concert, however we were still up at 07:00 to
get ready for PT.
The morning then began at 08:50 however instead of practising Musn King and
I got the job of collecting enough stands and banners for the concert. This
may seem like an easy task however when it came to counting how many we had
we were still about 15 unbroken stands short and 10 decent banners short, and
so my morning began hunting around the school for the missing items.
This task took until stand easy. This was then my chance to collect the web
site reports for the previous week however I was one short and so I spent until
dinner time racking my brains out to think what happened last week and get it
all down on the computer. Unfortunately leaving me no time to practice!
I did think that I would get a bit of a relaxing lunch break, but as usual I
was wrong. After just finishing the web report the bugle went, so I rushed up
to my cell (for the first time that day) to get my instruments so I could load
them onto the wagon. I then received a message that I had to go over to the
Blue Band Dept. to see Sgt Snell. Fortunately I wasn't in trouble and it didn't
take too long, he just wanted to give me a camera so that I could take a photograph
that evening of Prof. Simpson receiving an award from the PDM. This however
was not something was looking forward to as I'm not much of a photographer and
could see myself making a complete fool of myself in front of huge audience.
I did manage to sit down at dinner time for about five minutes before I got
changed into my suit ready for the trip to St.Mary's church for the final rehearsal.
Things went smoothly throughout the rehearsal especially as I found myself sat
next to Prof. Cresci who gave me a few handy tips throughout.
It was then back over to Nelson to get some tea and give my brasses a good scrub.
Before we knew it, it was time to get in rig and get back to the church.
The concert began with concert band, in which Musns Burton (Solo cornet) and
Clark (who played the flute) had solos. This half went smoothly and once over
it was back to the changing room to warm up our orchestral instruments. The
second half was where I was about to make my first debut as a photographer,
I don't know which I was more worried although I think the photography won out
in the end.
Again this half went well with Musn McKinnon playing a beautiful solo on his
violin, then it was my turn. After sneaking out of my chair and to the back
of the church, after the PDM had made a little speech he then called Mr.Simpson
forward to receive his award, this was my cue. I leisurely wandered between
the pews to where they were standing, I then managed to take one photo whilst
neither of them were looking, another just as the PDM looked away. Then as I
tried to take another nothing happened, it all went quiet and I could hear my
heart beating in my ears. 'So this is what nerves are' I thought, as everyone
was anxiously looking at me wondering what I was going to do next. I smiled
and then hastily tried again, well as they say third time lucky and thankfully
the flash went and my job was done. I felt I should have taken a bow but I didn't
like to steal the lime light, so I walked as fast I could back down the isle
with my head hung in shame.
Thankfully for everyone else the concert went wonderfully. However the night
was not over because as we were packing away and loading the wagon the bus driver
decided to inform us that he had to leave right then whether we were on the
coach or not. As we had no other way of getting back we had to leave the loading
of the wagon to the instructors, professors, the boss and even the PDM. However
we did have to wait for the wagon to get back to the school so that we could
unload.
Friday
Today no one had to be in work until 10:15 however because it was the Christmas
Social today, myself and the rest of the social committee were there by 9:00.
We were off to Macro so that we could buy the rest of the raffle prizes. Once
we'd arrived we split into two groups and then ran round with our trolleys trying
to find some good prizes that everyone would appreciate, not an easy task I
can assure you. After this we split again with Musn Linden heading to the school
to help Cpl Bean pick up some more prizes from the school and the rest of us
having a final dash to town to spend the rest of the money.
Cpl Bean then picked us up and we headed to the Harvester pub for some lunch.
Afterwards it was back to the Queen's hotel to drop off the prizes and spend
the next one to two hours tearing up thousands of raffle tickets, whereas everyone
else had thinned out at dinner-time so they could get ready. I finally arrived
back at the accommodation at about half past three, just in time to have a shower
before going to get my hair done.
The welcoming drinks began at about 7:00 with the meal starting at 8:00, all
went smoothly and everyone had a thoroughly good time, and with work on Saturday
cancelled everyone had the chance to let their hair down for once.