You cannot just whip out a cello…

...you have to prepare it.  ‘Course you do:

“Do you cover it in rosin, or something?” asks Robin.  “Well, how should I know.  I don’t know anything about stringed instruments.”

While this may be true I am quite sure he is aware that a rosin-covered cello would be a) rather dusty, b) rather scratched and c) no better sounding than a rosin-free one.

And surely there’s enough to do as it is with spikey things to be lowered, strings to be tuned, bows to be tightened…(and yes, OK, a bit of the dusty, scratchy amber stuff comes in handy at this point).

The cello in question was (is) Sebastian’s and he was preparing said cello in order to accompany our rendition of Lully’s Entrees de Ballet (no accent again – my lap-top ain’t ‘alf picky).  We will be singing these at the Portrait Gallery on Thursday (what? When?  Aaaaagh!) with Tamsin on harp, Nikos on guitar and Ol’s friend Andrew (who, a propos of nothing - still no accent - knits a mean cable-stitch, btw) on tambourine.  Neither Tamsin nor Nikos were present on Wednesday and Andrew only ever gets to practise with us last minute, so we have yet to try singing this with all the noise going on.  There will only be two basses left to sing and only two tenors as well because we’ll be missing (big-time) our Robin so there will need to be some belting-out of tunes and lyrics from the remaining men.  John and Arno were being a bit shy on Wednesday.  No room for that sort of behaviour, lads.  Especially as there’s been talk of the instruments being amplified.  You need to make yourselves heard and I know you can do it.  (Don’t worry about getting the notes right, anything will do as long as it’s in tune).

So, that was a small diversion.  What I was going to say at the beginning of this blog goes as follows:  It is just as well I am not the sort of person who makes resolutions at the beginning of the year.  I am far too busy thinking about all the things I didn’t achieve in the previous fifty-two weeks and am also unlikely to acieve in the following twelve months.  If I did make resolutions I dare submit that one of them would have been something to do with getting my blogging done more regularly and on a Wednesday night or Thursday morning instead of -  well, instead of what I do.  You may have noticed that my first couple of 2012 blogs were, indeed, written and presented with some despatch (you may have noticed but that rather depends on whether or not Postman Chris was doing his job with matching enthusiasm) in spite of the lack of resolution (!); you may also have noticed that I fell off my blogging wagon last week – after so short a time, shameful ain’t it? - and found myself far too busy (ahem) to apply myself to literary creativity (ahem again).  I promise forthwith to try and behave as if I actually had made the resolution as outlined above and am actually the sort of person who would make great efforts to keep it.

In an effort to make up for my failure last week I will (maybe) send you two reports next.  One after the rehearsal on Wednesday and one after the concert on Thursday.  This will be Jenny’s last concert with us (just what am I supposed to do without her?) and we are going out for a farewell meal afterwards so there should be lots to tell you.

We have a new soprano, by the way.  Yey!  Her name is Luana.  I know nothing else about her yet except that she is young and can sing but no doubt that will change.  I’ll let you know…….

Now, some altos, please.  Where are all those keen but under-employed warblers?  I really can’t manage the growly-girly bits all by myself…I can get low enough but then I struggle to get back up again.  It’s like the break between a chest voice and a head voice but more extreme; as if my voice has fallen into a deep well with sides too sheer and slippery for it to have any chance of hauling itself out. 

And no bucket.

I could drown down there.

We could do with a couple of tenors, too.

Perhaps I should get my mother to pray to St Anthony.  He’s always finding things for her.  But then, those are things she’s lost in the first place.  I’ve no idea if he’s able to start the process from scratch.