Thought I’d post an update on how the various auditions/preparations are going/have gone.
Halle
Well I’ve found some music for the audition I think! My old singing teacher has suggested Handel’s “Art thou troubled”, and I’ll hopefully be going back to her for lessons in September.
It’s still not actually September yet, so no more news on the Sing With The Halle day, except that it’s on 26th September!
Cabaret
Went for an audition for a Cabaret tonight. What fun! I was going to sing “Feeling good” but the pianist couldn’t play it, so instead I did “Music of the Night” from Phantom. He could play it, I knew it (sort of – had heard it a couple of times anyway) so I went for it.
It only has a high A-flat in it, further along in the score than you would read to check it for crazy high notes like that. And of course I didn’t remember that bit from seeing the musical what I was 15 or something!
But it went ok, seemed to impress them anyway!
Friday, August 20, 2004
Saturday, August 14, 2004
Liverpool and Lost
Today we went to Liverpool! Me, Mum and Grandma. Our prime objectives were to find our way (by road) to Albert Docks, to then find the Liverpool Tate Gallery, then to see Antony Gormley’s “Field” (of little clay men). To then go and see one or both of the Cathedrals would be a bonus.
So off we set, armed with some cash, a couple of Multimap print-outs with directions to the Tate, an ancient AtoZ of Liverpool, and a more up-to-date map of Britain with large scale city centre maps; and trundled off across the M62 to Liverpool.
That was the easy bit.
Coming to the end of the M62 we were faced with a dilemma. Do we follow Multimap’s directions, or do we trust the Liverpudlians and follow the road signs – as Albert Dock seems quite prominent on them?
Mum’s instinct is to go with Multimap, but as I’m navigating and can read maps and road signs a bit better than tiny printed extremely exact directions (200m, turn left...) I opt for the road signs. They seem fairly easy, until we round a large sweeping bend having been told that apparently we should be in the right-hand lane, and discover that Albert Dock is the next exit on the left, and approaching extremely quickly. Mum is unable to get across three lanes of fairly heavy traffic and we find ourselves heading towards the Wallasey Tunnel...
Sigh.
£1.20 later we decide we really really need to stop. So, mum’s instincts take us up towards Wallasey, and beyond, to a small shopping centre which has all the facilities we need: café and toilets. (And, usefully, a stall which did watch repairs, which I took advantage of and got my watch working again! It’s not worked for 3 years now, I’ve just never got around to getting a new battery for it...)
Then we studied the map properly, and decided it would be easier to go through the Birkenhead Tunnel to get back closer to Albert Dock. Much stress later, we arrived at the Dock, all in one piece, very thankful, and ready to find the Tate.
And it was certainly worth it! If you ever get chance to see Field, go see it. It is very eerie... all those little eyes looking up at you from everywhere you look. The brochure says something along the lines of it makes you the subject, rather than them...
A cup of tea and a piece of cake later, courtesy of the Tate Café, we decided that there was still time to try and find at least one of the Cathedrals. Which we did! Hurrah for sunshine and beautiful things.
Finally, in much better spirits, we headed off home. A Grand Day Out.
So off we set, armed with some cash, a couple of Multimap print-outs with directions to the Tate, an ancient AtoZ of Liverpool, and a more up-to-date map of Britain with large scale city centre maps; and trundled off across the M62 to Liverpool.
That was the easy bit.
Coming to the end of the M62 we were faced with a dilemma. Do we follow Multimap’s directions, or do we trust the Liverpudlians and follow the road signs – as Albert Dock seems quite prominent on them?
Mum’s instinct is to go with Multimap, but as I’m navigating and can read maps and road signs a bit better than tiny printed extremely exact directions (200m, turn left...) I opt for the road signs. They seem fairly easy, until we round a large sweeping bend having been told that apparently we should be in the right-hand lane, and discover that Albert Dock is the next exit on the left, and approaching extremely quickly. Mum is unable to get across three lanes of fairly heavy traffic and we find ourselves heading towards the Wallasey Tunnel...
Sigh.
£1.20 later we decide we really really need to stop. So, mum’s instincts take us up towards Wallasey, and beyond, to a small shopping centre which has all the facilities we need: café and toilets. (And, usefully, a stall which did watch repairs, which I took advantage of and got my watch working again! It’s not worked for 3 years now, I’ve just never got around to getting a new battery for it...)
Then we studied the map properly, and decided it would be easier to go through the Birkenhead Tunnel to get back closer to Albert Dock. Much stress later, we arrived at the Dock, all in one piece, very thankful, and ready to find the Tate.
And it was certainly worth it! If you ever get chance to see Field, go see it. It is very eerie... all those little eyes looking up at you from everywhere you look. The brochure says something along the lines of it makes you the subject, rather than them...
A cup of tea and a piece of cake later, courtesy of the Tate Café, we decided that there was still time to try and find at least one of the Cathedrals. Which we did! Hurrah for sunshine and beautiful things.
Finally, in much better spirits, we headed off home. A Grand Day Out.
Saturday, August 07, 2004
Friday, August 06, 2004
Prophecy
To encourage those who have earnestly desired the gift of Prophecy but who feel like they messed up so bad that God’s not going to trust them again...
To encourage those who feel like they try and try, so hard, but it never quite happens.
To those who have the gift of prophecy, but have thought themselves not good enough, or incapable.
Imagine God teaching you to walk...
You watch a baby learning to walk, taking his first steps. Proud parents, hoping their child will walk this time, clapping and cheering, encouraging. Why? Because their child is trying! Trying to walk! They don’t yell at him if he falls over, no they pick him up and say well done! You tried! That was amazing! Then they encourage for another attempt. What would happen if that child gave up because they thought they couldn’t do it? We’d all be on our knees.
Maybe we’re on our knees in the prophetic, because we gave up learning to walk.
When you trust God, and really try, your heart and motives in the right place, God says Look! That’s my child, learning to walk! God’s in heaven cheering you on, loving you whether you walk or stumble.
Don’t give up and resign yourself to a life of crawling, when God’s desire is for you to fly.
Walking takes practice. Don’t give up when I seems like all you do is fall. Babies fall and fall again – and then, one day, they walk! They fall many more times before they’re able to just do it, even then for a while they’ll fall at any opportunity.
It’s a test of character. How do you deal with failure? Do you give up and let it crush you, or do you learn from it and try again?
How many times do babies fall when they’re trying to learn to walk? How often do you see them with parents holding them steady as they learn? Lots.
God wants us to live in the prophetic, to walk in the prophetic. His hand will always be there to guide us and steady us, but I believe He desires us to be able to walk unaided, confident in His teaching and Hid love.
If your heart is for God, to follow His command to love Him and to love your neighbour, if all you do is for God’s glory and not your own, if your life is worship, then how wrong can you go?
If you’re not perfect, like me and the rest of us, Praise God that He’s always there to pick us up when we fall and that His grace and mercy and love is big enough to cover all our mistakes!
“Seek ye first the Kingdom of God,
And His righteousness,
And all these things shall be added unto you,
Allelu, alleluja”
Thursday, August 05, 2004
New Shoes!
You might have to go searching for the photo that should have accompanied this entry.
But they're so cool!
I went past Shelleys on my way shopping for groceries for work, and there they were, in the sale, for £25. So I first asked permission from my lovely husband ;o) and proceeded to get £25 out of the bank to buy my spoils.
But they were the wrong size! So I had to venture into the shoe shop (not a favourite pastime) to search for some my size. Hurrah! There they were, and .... only £15 in my size! That was nice.
So I had £10 left burning... ooh that's a nice bag! £5 for a bag, £5 for a pair of fushia-pink, kitten-heeled flip-flop type Things. I must take a photo. I didn't think things like that existed, let alone could be bought in a high street shop.
But what a bag of goodies for £25.
But they're so cool!
I went past Shelleys on my way shopping for groceries for work, and there they were, in the sale, for £25. So I first asked permission from my lovely husband ;o) and proceeded to get £25 out of the bank to buy my spoils.
But they were the wrong size! So I had to venture into the shoe shop (not a favourite pastime) to search for some my size. Hurrah! There they were, and .... only £15 in my size! That was nice.
So I had £10 left burning... ooh that's a nice bag! £5 for a bag, £5 for a pair of fushia-pink, kitten-heeled flip-flop type Things. I must take a photo. I didn't think things like that existed, let alone could be bought in a high street shop.
But what a bag of goodies for £25.
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
Websites and Banks
I have spent the past two day’s lunch breaks in the bank, sorting out an error of their making. I really hope that I don’t have to do that again in a hurry. Not that they’re horrible or anything, I just would really like to eat.
I nearly bought my website on Sunday night! I won’t tell you what it is because it’s my business site and I don’t think I’m really allowed to do that, although it’s almost my blog name, but purple.
Went through the whole procedure, got the name I wanted (yay) and got Steve to buy it for me (he’s the one with the solo card you see).
Last night I spent the whole evening designing the site, making sure links worked etc etc. It looked just how I wanted it to. I checked my site account, and printed off the details, and found they’d charged us over twice what we were expecting – I don’t recall seeing any mention of an extra charge for having a .com site – I’m new to this game, so it’s not something I’d just know. Hmm.
This morning we get an email saying the card was rejected (probably because there wasn’t enough in the account for what they’d tried to take out – there was enough for just the site registration though!) so I still haven’t got my website.
And, like I said, I’m new to this game, and all I have at home is Word but I am told that Microsoft haven’t really got their act together with Word and the internet, and web pages designed in Word have a tendency to not work. Even if they do look real pretty offline.
So if you are feeling really generous and want to help me out here, I can send you some Word documents to re-create in whatever web design way you like...
I have spent the past two day’s lunch breaks in the bank, sorting out an error of their making. I really hope that I don’t have to do that again in a hurry. Not that they’re horrible or anything, I just would really like to eat.
I nearly bought my website on Sunday night! I won’t tell you what it is because it’s my business site and I don’t think I’m really allowed to do that, although it’s almost my blog name, but purple.
Went through the whole procedure, got the name I wanted (yay) and got Steve to buy it for me (he’s the one with the solo card you see).
Last night I spent the whole evening designing the site, making sure links worked etc etc. It looked just how I wanted it to. I checked my site account, and printed off the details, and found they’d charged us over twice what we were expecting – I don’t recall seeing any mention of an extra charge for having a .com site – I’m new to this game, so it’s not something I’d just know. Hmm.
This morning we get an email saying the card was rejected (probably because there wasn’t enough in the account for what they’d tried to take out – there was enough for just the site registration though!) so I still haven’t got my website.
And, like I said, I’m new to this game, and all I have at home is Word but I am told that Microsoft haven’t really got their act together with Word and the internet, and web pages designed in Word have a tendency to not work. Even if they do look real pretty offline.
So if you are feeling really generous and want to help me out here, I can send you some Word documents to re-create in whatever web design way you like...
Tuesday, August 03, 2004
What a week.
First of all, the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park.
Amazing! We've been every year for a few years now (me, mum and whoever else is around) and this year was just nice to meander around the gardens and pick up the occasional wonderful idea, and marvel at the often incredible ingenuity of gardeners.
Including a particular one done by Dutch students. Everything was re-used, the theme was infinity - the cycle of life. And sure enough, it had bicycle parts woven into the garden. I particularly liked the path - made of glass bottle bottoms, cans, bottle tops and old tyres.
The best bit though? Spending only £20 on plants, and actually coming away feeling like I'd got something to show for it! They're now planted in my garden, and I hope that in a few years' time they will have grown up a bit and begun to fill up their little bit of garden.
Next up: Soul In The City!
Hurrah! My Holiday for the Year: camping in Uxbridge.
It was so much fun! I reckoned if the weather was always that amazing, I could just live like that...
A typical day comprised:
7.30am crawl out of bed (we had a double mattress in our tent, nicked from our sofabed :o) ... we had a van, it had space, why not take a matress?!)
9am middle of breakfast. Cereal and milk, cup of tea... pot noodle for those who don't do normal meals
10am down to the big top for a morning celebration and teaching from Louis Giglio - excellent stuff
12 o’clock down to the bus to get me and my group off to Ham in Richmond (eat en route!)
1pm briefing at the local church
2pm start gardening! In the glorious sunshine!
4.50pm de-brief
5pm food! Proper good tuck, always helps to have a good meal after gardening ;o)
7.30pm down to the park where there was a marquee and various bands / DJs etc
9pm bus arrives to take us all back to Uxbridge.
12pm bed... z z z z z z
I came away having learned a lot, done a lot (it felt like it anyway) and also feeling like God had a sense of humour – although I was glad I trusted Him.
Steve and I arrived early Sunday afternoon and spent the rest of the afternoon putting up the rest of our church group’s tents as they weren’t expected for another few hours (we took the van, they took the Megabus).
At 7.30, once nearly everyone had arrived, we trooped into the big top to find out what projects we would be doing during the week. I was guardian to a 14-year-old girl from church, and we found ourselves split up from the rest of the group ... when we discovered what our project was, I could hardly believe it.
Old people’s ministry.
I am having a difficult time with my grandma at the moment, she’s pretty old now and is getting grumpier and more confused by the day – it is very difficult to be around her for very long without having to quickly develop coping strategies or run the risk of yelling at her, which wouldn’t help. I thought God must’ve been having a laugh.
So we arrive at our destination on Monday afternoon, and are split again into teams, and I wind up doing ... gardening! I love gardening! I spent the afternoon digging up bushes and weeding (for an elderly couple, mind). Praise God.
Tuesday comes along, and I’m back at the same place, weeding again, while the other two get along with planting pretty things in place of the bushes we dug up yesterday.
Wednesday sees me emptying a shed (you’ve never seen so many cobwebs in such a small space) and sanding and undercoating its door.
Thursday I’m gardening again. Well, sort of. We empty a shed for a lovely old lady who has Parkinson’s disease, and spend the next hour putting everything back again for her. Maybe she just wanted some company! The next hour and a bit I spent talking about the plants in her garden with her and her neighbour, learning stories about various plants – her garden was a Friendship garden. When she moved in a year and a half ago, friends and relatives all brought plants and cuttings for her as a housewarming, so all the plants had stories. One rosebush was discovered desperately trying to grow from under a pile of bricks, so they rescued it and decided to call it “Blessings” as it had been a blessing they’d spotted it. On further digging, they discovered the name tag was still around its stem: guess what it was called. You’d not believe it. Blessings.
Friday we had a picnic for the oldies, on Ham Common. A more genteel sight you never did see! We had a marquee serving tea and coffee and cakes and sandwiches, flutes playing duets, dancers and a small choir to entertain; basking in the afternoon sunshine. And I spent most of the afternoon on a park bench opposite the common talking to a guy who looked homeless but said he had a flat, drinking tea and talking about life.
God’s amazing, he gave me a fright on Sunday and I could’ve given up there and then and said I couldn’t do it; but he’s blessed me with such a week that I couldn’t really have asked for better.
Friday evening, after dinner and throughout the evening’s entertainment and on the bus home, I spent time looking through the Bible to find specific verses of encouragement to give to each member of the team I had been on. I’ve never done this before, although people whose teams I have been on have often done it. It was quite amazing, finding verses that I knew existed, but never realised they were where they were. There’s a verse, John 14:26, which says that the Holy Spirit reminds you of things you have learnt, and that’s what was happening to me.
I had such a good time.
Then Saturday arrived and everything came down and packed back into the van, and off we drove back to Manchester. Everything was deposited, van returned, and then back home ... ?
No – back to my parents house, for a shower, to change into clothes we left there a week ago, and back to Tatton Park for ...
And Finally: Fireworks and Light: The Hallé in concert at Tatton Park
Another fantastic evening, just to round off the week. We didn’t buy a programme, and unfortunately it’s been a couple of days now and I can’t remember what they played, but it as a good evening, enjoyed by all. Steve and I went, both my brothers and their girlfriends went, and my mum went. Plenty of photos were taken on mum’s camera, but as I’d not taken mine to London I still didn’t have it with me... oh well! Even the lack of forks to eat chopped up mayonnaised salad with didn’t dampen the evening.
The “final” piece had been played, the fireworks had been let off and were beautiful, the audience had started packing up their belongings in the dark... and then the orchestra struck up with the Indiana Jones theme tune to more fireworks and much applause! So after all the beautiful music that had been played, people’s abiding memory of the concert will be Indiana Jones and fireworks. Classic.
First of all, the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park.
Amazing! We've been every year for a few years now (me, mum and whoever else is around) and this year was just nice to meander around the gardens and pick up the occasional wonderful idea, and marvel at the often incredible ingenuity of gardeners.
Including a particular one done by Dutch students. Everything was re-used, the theme was infinity - the cycle of life. And sure enough, it had bicycle parts woven into the garden. I particularly liked the path - made of glass bottle bottoms, cans, bottle tops and old tyres.
The best bit though? Spending only £20 on plants, and actually coming away feeling like I'd got something to show for it! They're now planted in my garden, and I hope that in a few years' time they will have grown up a bit and begun to fill up their little bit of garden.
Next up: Soul In The City!
Hurrah! My Holiday for the Year: camping in Uxbridge.
It was so much fun! I reckoned if the weather was always that amazing, I could just live like that...
A typical day comprised:
7.30am crawl out of bed (we had a double mattress in our tent, nicked from our sofabed :o) ... we had a van, it had space, why not take a matress?!)
9am middle of breakfast. Cereal and milk, cup of tea... pot noodle for those who don't do normal meals
10am down to the big top for a morning celebration and teaching from Louis Giglio - excellent stuff
12 o’clock down to the bus to get me and my group off to Ham in Richmond (eat en route!)
1pm briefing at the local church
2pm start gardening! In the glorious sunshine!
4.50pm de-brief
5pm food! Proper good tuck, always helps to have a good meal after gardening ;o)
7.30pm down to the park where there was a marquee and various bands / DJs etc
9pm bus arrives to take us all back to Uxbridge.
12pm bed... z z z z z z
I came away having learned a lot, done a lot (it felt like it anyway) and also feeling like God had a sense of humour – although I was glad I trusted Him.
Steve and I arrived early Sunday afternoon and spent the rest of the afternoon putting up the rest of our church group’s tents as they weren’t expected for another few hours (we took the van, they took the Megabus).
At 7.30, once nearly everyone had arrived, we trooped into the big top to find out what projects we would be doing during the week. I was guardian to a 14-year-old girl from church, and we found ourselves split up from the rest of the group ... when we discovered what our project was, I could hardly believe it.
Old people’s ministry.
I am having a difficult time with my grandma at the moment, she’s pretty old now and is getting grumpier and more confused by the day – it is very difficult to be around her for very long without having to quickly develop coping strategies or run the risk of yelling at her, which wouldn’t help. I thought God must’ve been having a laugh.
So we arrive at our destination on Monday afternoon, and are split again into teams, and I wind up doing ... gardening! I love gardening! I spent the afternoon digging up bushes and weeding (for an elderly couple, mind). Praise God.
Tuesday comes along, and I’m back at the same place, weeding again, while the other two get along with planting pretty things in place of the bushes we dug up yesterday.
Wednesday sees me emptying a shed (you’ve never seen so many cobwebs in such a small space) and sanding and undercoating its door.
Thursday I’m gardening again. Well, sort of. We empty a shed for a lovely old lady who has Parkinson’s disease, and spend the next hour putting everything back again for her. Maybe she just wanted some company! The next hour and a bit I spent talking about the plants in her garden with her and her neighbour, learning stories about various plants – her garden was a Friendship garden. When she moved in a year and a half ago, friends and relatives all brought plants and cuttings for her as a housewarming, so all the plants had stories. One rosebush was discovered desperately trying to grow from under a pile of bricks, so they rescued it and decided to call it “Blessings” as it had been a blessing they’d spotted it. On further digging, they discovered the name tag was still around its stem: guess what it was called. You’d not believe it. Blessings.
Friday we had a picnic for the oldies, on Ham Common. A more genteel sight you never did see! We had a marquee serving tea and coffee and cakes and sandwiches, flutes playing duets, dancers and a small choir to entertain; basking in the afternoon sunshine. And I spent most of the afternoon on a park bench opposite the common talking to a guy who looked homeless but said he had a flat, drinking tea and talking about life.
God’s amazing, he gave me a fright on Sunday and I could’ve given up there and then and said I couldn’t do it; but he’s blessed me with such a week that I couldn’t really have asked for better.
Friday evening, after dinner and throughout the evening’s entertainment and on the bus home, I spent time looking through the Bible to find specific verses of encouragement to give to each member of the team I had been on. I’ve never done this before, although people whose teams I have been on have often done it. It was quite amazing, finding verses that I knew existed, but never realised they were where they were. There’s a verse, John 14:26, which says that the Holy Spirit reminds you of things you have learnt, and that’s what was happening to me.
I had such a good time.
Then Saturday arrived and everything came down and packed back into the van, and off we drove back to Manchester. Everything was deposited, van returned, and then back home ... ?
No – back to my parents house, for a shower, to change into clothes we left there a week ago, and back to Tatton Park for ...
And Finally: Fireworks and Light: The Hallé in concert at Tatton Park
Another fantastic evening, just to round off the week. We didn’t buy a programme, and unfortunately it’s been a couple of days now and I can’t remember what they played, but it as a good evening, enjoyed by all. Steve and I went, both my brothers and their girlfriends went, and my mum went. Plenty of photos were taken on mum’s camera, but as I’d not taken mine to London I still didn’t have it with me... oh well! Even the lack of forks to eat chopped up mayonnaised salad with didn’t dampen the evening.
The “final” piece had been played, the fireworks had been let off and were beautiful, the audience had started packing up their belongings in the dark... and then the orchestra struck up with the Indiana Jones theme tune to more fireworks and much applause! So after all the beautiful music that had been played, people’s abiding memory of the concert will be Indiana Jones and fireworks. Classic.
Monday, August 02, 2004
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