3/2/09

Sorry for not updating the blog as regularly as I have been - internet has been down. It appears to go off when it rains! And I’m noticing an emerging pattern of it raining in the early morning and brightening up during the day…So sorry for any lack of communication, I will of course be in touch when possible. Do keep the emails coming though! J So here’s the events of the past few days…(sorry it’s long!)…Taught Michael on Thurs. It’s going really well. He practises lots which is good. We were just working on his piece which is improving when we were plunged into complete darkness because of a power failure! Trust me to be in the only room without a window when that happens! I did that comic walking with your hands out in front of you like a zombie to find the door handle type thing…! So that kind of put an end to the lesson. It was a shame though because I was hoping we could have a little look at a new piece which is on the Grade 3 syllabus (the Hungarian Stomp by Pamela Wedgwood - Dad?!) I remember having great fun playing this when I was about 10 and taking Grade 3 myself so was very excited to see it (still) on the syllabus - lucky I brought the music too! After I met this professional cellist lady, Beata, who is visiting from Stockholm with her boyfriend, who is doing research at the University. She is going to be here for about 3 weeks working with us and the students. She will be doing Orchestral sectionals, technique classes as well as individual lessons. I had a lesson on Friday! Was really good, though I was admittedly a little scared. But it’s really nice to have some coaching again. She is very enthusiastic and is helping with my performing technique. Lots of practise necessary while she’s here I think! I really enjoyed it actually.It was Charlotte’s lesson on Fri. She is really getting to grips with playing in tune and is getting on well as a result. I have started her on one of the Grade 1 pieces - Saint Saen’s The Elephant from Carnival of the Animals. It’s not too hard so we should be able to start working on the staccato etc soon. It was then the weekly meeting. Was long, but we covered lots of stuff. Nothing too interesting though! Next was my lesson, which was fun, and then I left her starting to teach Michael the basics about vibrato. Hopefully between us he’ll be able to master it! She’s really nice. Will be good working with her these next few weeks. Once home, had late lunch and helped Siya take the braids out of her hair - what a business it is! Manding managed to undo 79 braids in the time I did 29! Practise makes perfect I guess..! Other than that the only excitement was that Julie announced she was going away for the weekend so Sam and I were going to have to take the Junior Orch rehearsal Sat morning! It would have been quite fun I’m sure, had it not been chucking down with rain meaning that absolutely no one turned up! Oh and I have another cello pupil, another beginner I think called Francesca (Frank). She is Mr Yiga, the Directors, daughter so hopefully that will work out well. Went with Manding and the girls to a big, monthly, get together lunch (Sat). This is shared each month between 12 different houses and everyone brings some food and there is a big feast for lunch! Was delicious, and followed by cake, ice cream and fruit. The watermelon is amazing! After lunch the kids were kept busy with the bouncy castle and mini basket ball hoop, and the mums started dancing inside! Very good fun. Picked Fatu up from the airport on Sat evening too, is nice to have her back! She seems to have had a fantastic time, despite it being about 0 degrees most the time. Good practise for when she goes to uni (in UK) I guess!Sunday was a fun day. Spent most of the morning helping Siya and Manding in the kitchen (internet still down). Started off making Samosa’s, then Chapati’s and ended making my very own marble cake! With a bit of practise hopefully I’ll be an expert at these by the time I come home! All these cooking efforts were contributed to the big lunch we had with 2 of Lamin’s work colleagues. It was nice to be able to contribute something back to the family after all they’re doing to look after me for all this time. So it was a good, fun, productive, sunny and chilled out day. Wonderful! Carys, another volunteer teacher on her Gap Year who went to St Paul’s Girls and lives in Hammersmith (it’s really weird we all live so close to each other at home!) arrived on Sunday too. She plays Oboe and Double Bass and I’m sure will be a great addition to the team. She is here for 3 months - leaves just before I do. Thought I’d explain who she is as she’ll probably start to crop up in these blogs too.At the moment I don’t actually have anything to do on Monday’s except for Orchestra in the evening. I’m sure that will change though - maybe the teaching at a primary school can happen on Mondays as I think Sam and I are both free. We’ll see. So yesterday started with pouring rain which made me stay in bed a bit longer. I managed some good practise and went with Badru (driver) and Irene (girls nanny/house keeper) to buy the fresh veg/fish etc from a local market. What an amazing bustle of activity it all is. Badru advised I stay in the car while Irene did the shopping as they’d put the prices up because I’m a ‘musungu’ (white person). It was pretty fun just people watching though. So different from anything you’d see in London. We stopped off at the British Embassy to do my registering thing, but turns out it’s an internet jobbie so it was a bit of a wasted journey. Oh well, the market was fun. Orchestra is going really well. Beata came to the rehearsal which was good as it really injected some energy to our cello section (of 4!) We have a cello sectional planned for tomorrow afternoon which should be very useful.Taught Michael again this morning. It looks like Beata and I have similar ideas about how to teach vibrato so that’s good. Started looking at the Hungarian Stomp which he seems to be excited about which is good - really need to work on his tuning though. It’s surprisingly hard teaching someone how to actually listen to themselves. He’ll get there though I’m sure. Sam and I then spent ages sorting our what our musicianship lesson was going to entail (leaving it to the last minute again!) We decided in simple harmony and cadences etc. Sadly it started raining at lunchtime which, as we are discovering, meant that no one turned up which was pretty annoying but I guess we can just do that next week. Also Frank didn’t turn up which was a bit of a shame, we’ll have to rearrange her lesson. Shouldn’t be too hard. Apparently she’s about Grade 2. We’ll see how it goes. Carys is to be settling in well too - she already seems to be quite busy! Which is good for her. We’ll start planning our trips away properly now.I think that’s all really. Bye for now! XPS. Sam’s hands are fine now so no worries there :)