Cheesy wotsits take two...

As I was leading warmup tonight we began again with the Cheesy Wotsit song. What larks! We even did a combat physical warm up which involved four moves. Just so we didn't fall over laughing we all closed our eyes. When I opened my eyes (a little before everyone else - hey I was leading after all) there were the delightful Rudsambeelets in all their glory at various angles with legs akimbo and arms in the air. Hilarious! A visual treat for all the family.

Anyways, before going on, I should like to clear up an important misunderstanding from last week- biscuits should never be dunked in herbal tea. Ever. No, not ever... not even a Hobnob, and particularly not a pink wafer. Pink wafers are the wussiest of all the biscuit genre: not only are they pink (the colour of girls) but they are made of wafer and therefore disappear upon contact with liquid. Anyways, I digress. Just find yourself a proper cuppa for dunking.

On tea and pink wafers:


Tonight was, as usual much fun. We are continuing on our Christmas theme. Worked out it was less than a month 'til the Canongate concert. Robin made an exploding face! It all seems to be going quite well though. We danced our way through Amuworo tonight... yes, that African one again. Just as Woody Harrelson knows, white men can't jump; neither, apparently, can they dance to a rhythm. I include the ladies in this, btw. Getting the proper timing of this tricky little blighter is much easier if you move to the music. Susan's dance was best. She even had a wee arm movement which I liked very much. If Eurovision isn't a goer (see last post) then Strictly Come Dancing it is.

We moved on to the delights of In Dulci Jubilo. We spent a bit of time on the octet which sounded much better. It is actually sounding like a piece of music with dynamics now. What larks! After that we sang through the Tallis which has a pretty impossible tenor line. Maestro Boy asked the sops to sing with the tenors and the altos to sing with the basses. It became obvious pretty quickly that the tenors had drawn the short straw as we bumbled along being more of a hinderance than a help and Anne led the basses (who, respect where it is due, probably didn't need leading anyways). We soon were all singing the tenor line which has an irritating descending fourth of all things. Descending fourths are like the bullies of the choral world- everyone is scared of them, no one can bring themselves to be friends with them but there is always a grudging respect. Oooh an extended metaphor.

We sang both 'Bog off' and 'Apple tree' (with the prescription three bushel baskets I hasten to add) by heart and nearly got them right. We slowed the 'Bog Off' down so we could get the words in but that's a small price to pay for pronunciation excellence. And with that we concluded the evening's rehearsal. As I am starting a new job tomorrow (the heady world of governmental office beckons - watch out Obama!) I didn't stay for the general chit chat upon conclusion. However we did do a rendition of 'Alice the Camel', an exciting, multi-faceted piece of musical satire. No doubt the Editorial King (aka Christopher) will put it up at some stage. [Yep!]


Good to see ill folks back tonight (they were less ill btw) and 'hey ho' to those who weren't with us this evening. Particularly 'howdy doody' to Rach, Jake and Bel the Beautiful. We miss you Rach!

Heads up on Christmas concerts btw. Get your tickets. They will be on sale soon and Canongate will be spectacular. Trust me, don't miss it whatever you do. Invite your friends, family, enemies etc. Details on the website.

Regards on this chill and frosty eve
CSW