A joyous day at Hay!

On 2nd June I made my 3rd successive annual visit to the wonderful literary festival at Hay-on-Wye.
Although it took me 3 hours door-to door by public transport - driving would take just under 90 mins but can't manage that distance there and back these days - it was completely worthwhile and was a really memorable day!
The sun was shining all day which is a rarity at Hay and made the atmosphere all the more pleasant. This small market town full of second-hand bookshops is visited by thousands of people during the fortnight of the literary festival and yet the asmosphere is tranquil,calm but exciting with famous faces mixing with more ordinary folk! Locals throw open their gardens and homes serving tea and coffee more cheaply than inside the festival. There's a very friendly all-inclusive atmosphere at Hay and is just wonderful to see people lounging in garden chairs reading, adults reading to children and vice-verca,all sorts of talks,music and crafts going on and of course books everywhere!

I firstly went to visit my former head of music from secondary school in Grimsby,Mr Babb who is now 86 and retired to Hay 10 years ago. Mr Babb has been a huge inspiration in my life. To say he's quite a character is very much an understatement! He's always been quite a tour de force! In fact when I first met him aged 9 and still at primary school when he accompanied me for my Grade 1 piano I burst into tears as I found him rather intimidating!! He was and is hugely enthusiastic at fostering and encouraging musical talent in the young. Mr Babb always used to choose very ambitious pieces for both our school and youth orchestras. He was always very eccentric and fiery but we all adored him in spite of this! He believed in us and always inspired us on to make the very best of our talents even though we didn't always appreciate it or agree with him at the time! It was Mr Babb who suggested that I should swap from violin to viola after I'd passed my Grade 6 exam as he wanted to form a string quartet along with my 2 best friends J&C who also played the violin and E on the cello who was in the year below us. It was a good choice for me - I felt more an affinity with the lower sonoroties of the viola and playing in our Dolce Quartet was really great fun. Most of our rehearsals involved a great deal of laughter! I remember one rehearsal when I arrived drunk for the first time in my life at about 15!!!I'd been at my piano teacher's pupils concert and her husband had rather unwisely sent a crate of wine upstairs for the older pupils away from the parents downstairs so I was more than a little merry and had to go straight to our quartet rehearsal (luckily we were just doing it ourselves and no teacher was present!!)and I don't think we got a lot of work done that evening!!
Mr Babb was not great at keeping discipline in lessons but then could really explode when he wanted to! He introduced me to very mature repertoire from a young age for which I'm so grateful as I've just felt classical music was just normal and has always been part of my life. I remember the first time he played us Shostakovich's 8th String Quartet in our O level class which is extremely dissonant and quite raucous and warlike and we all just hated it and couldn't bear to listen to it but it eventually grew on me and I love it now.
I have many great memories of Youth Orchestra with Mr Babb and especially our tour to Germany in 1988 which was great fun.
After having a nostalgic couple of hours with Mr. Babb I went to the first event I'd booked at Hay which was an hour of First World War poetry beautifully and movingly read by Jeremy Irons,Sinead Cusack and a younger actor who wasn't billed in the programme and I couldn't catch his name but he was extremely convincing.These poems of Sassoon,Wilfred Owen,Rubert Brooke and many other poets I hadn't heard of are so poignant and evocative. It called to mind my father reading poetry to me when I was a child and I had a few tears!
As soon as I came out I was in the very long queue for the same theatre for the event I'd booked led by Cerys Matthews which was totally sold out and proved to be extremely inspiring and really joyous for me. She has brought out a new book which is a compilation of well-known songs from childhood and beyond and through the years encouraging the old fashioned singalong which we seem to have lost. She held the whole audience in the palm of her hands for the whole hour getting eveybody singing along enthusiastically to songs such as Oh my Darling Clenmentine,Let's go fly a Kite,Eviva Espana etc. It really took me back to my childhood and reminded me of the joy music has always brought to my life. There's something addictive and really joyful about singing in a big crowd - as if you're all speaking with one voice and all instantly connected whatever your age,nationality or background. I loved it and it made me feel really exhilirated.
I came home totally inspired and immediately made plans to host my own "Singalong" Event to further raise money for the Tenovus Cancer Charity as I suddenly remembered that their special project to celebrate this their 70th birthday year with the theme of "The Big Singalong" to encourage people to get together with friends or colleagues to sing together while raising money for this fantastic course.
My Summer Singalong is next Sunday and I'm already making plans and have several great raffle prizes and have chosen the songs from my treasured signed copy of Cerys's new book Hook,Line and Singer.
Exciting times!

To my Dad!

Mea Culpa and a thousand apologies as I failed to get 4 posts in May! Ultra busy and I was away for quite a bit of it but I will make up for it I promise!!

Today's been a day of tears and sadness partly due to over-tiredness and a throat infection and partly due to thinking of my wonderful Dad who is not here in person for me to wish a very Happy Father's Day so I'm giving him my personal tribute here.

Darling dad,
Although I had just 15 years with you they have filled me with enough happy memories,love and inspiration to last a lifetime and beyond. I have realised more in very recent years how alike you I feel I have become.
I have your ever-ready smile and zest for life,your love of young people and educating them and giving them experiences which will shape their futures.I have your love of planning and carrying out travel adventures and researching them to the enth degree!! I remember all the detail - in days before the household computer or internet - you put into planning our magical trip to Canada in 1981 - I smile as I remember during that trip  the day in New York when you came out of the hotel wearing a stetson and with your huge Minolta camera round your neck saying "I don't look like a tourist do I?"!!! As soon as we got to New York you took us on the Staten Island Ferry and took me on a huge rollercoaster on Coney Island which scared me half to death especially when about a second before the ride started a huge female staff member yelled at me "Missy,take off your glasses!!"
It was you I remember mostly reading my bedtime stories from being very tiny and the dffierent voices you'd put on for the different animals in the Just So Stories which was one of your favourites even though I found it a bit boyish at the time!You'd often make up your own stories which was my favourite thing. You'd sing me songs at bathtime like "Oh my Darling Clementine", "The Foggy,Foggy Dew" and "I am a Musicman!". You introduced me to poetry from an early age which I loved and continue to love. I assumed all fathers read poems to their children! We loved the funny ones especially of A.A Milne,Edward Lear,Spike Milligan and the cautionary tales of Hilaire Belloc. Jim was our top favourite and you were there for most of my recitation classes in competitive festivals from the age of 7 and always told me to speak clearly so that the deaf lady at the back could hear! I always looked for her but could never find her!!
It was good fun when you put me to bed for as well as the bathtime songs,bedtime poems and stories we'd often do the "Ministry of Funny Walks!" inspired by your and my brother's favourite tv programmes "Monty Python". You would have been to proud to hear many years after your death,your oldest grandson doing the famous "Dead Parrot" sketch brilliantly word for word at the age of 6!
It was you who actively encouraged my love of music and encouraged me to take piano lessons from the age of 8. I was very lucky that the piano was already in the household and both my brother and sister had also been taking lessons for several years. Dad never played an instrument or particularly sang(apart from singing to me at home!)but was a music afficianado and listened to a lot of classical music at home. I don't recall that you could read music but I do remember listening to  Beethoven's Seventh symphony with you whilst you were following the score. You also loved the music of Joan Baez,the New Seekers,Nana Mouskouri.
I remember early days of piano practice when I loved you to pretend to fall asleep if I played "Lullaby" softly enough and then to come alive with a bump when I played "Grandfathers Clock!" straight afterwards!
You had a full beard when I was about 4 and I used to love the feel of it and there was a bit that if I touched it made you hiccup and of course I'd keep doing it over and over - so whether it was just for my entertainment or not I'll never know!
When I went to France on my own at the tender age of 11 to stay in the huge chateau with my French penpal with her very scary mother it was you that wrote me several long letters in the fortnight I was there. You told me all about being in London for Prince Charles and Princess Diana's Wedding and what you had seen. You would have been amazed that I was later to be invited to walk behind Diana's coffin representing British Youth Opera along with other charities in 1997.
It was you who queued for over 2 hours for me to get me tickets to see Torvill and Dean skate in Grimsby. You came and joined the family skating club with me on a Sunday night in my early teens and we had great fun. It was you who queued with me for hours and hours to get standing tickets for the equivalent of £1 to see the ballet the Nutcracker on New Years Eve 1982 at Vienna State Opera House.
I had great fun acting alongside you in plays with CADs - Cleethorpes Amateur Dramatic Society and I always loved the aftershow parties you'd take me to from the age of about 12. You even laughed when some of the older teens had spiked my drink with cherry brandy! I remember at the same party spitting out what I'd thought was a grape which turned out to be an olive!! I avoided them for years after that only realising a few years ago that they're actually very tasty!! I loved the bubbly personalities and fun of the CADS members and from a very early age (6ish)remember being allowed downstairs for one of your Cinzano and lemonades at parties at our house. They probably had very little trace of Cinzano but I was none the wiser!
I remember you taking me and some friends to York for the day and having a great time. You were always there - always had time for all 3 of your children and other children as your days of Scout Leader and Youth club leaders showed. You very involved in the local church and helping publish the church Gazette and do the photography for it. Mum's local choir concerts were always a family affair - mum would be singing,you would be helping at front of house and I would be selling programmes and presenting bouquets at the end!

Lots of vivid memories of a very special father whom I remember every day.

Happy Fathers Day!
http://www.justgiving.com/Anne-Shingler2/eurl.axd/8f158799a6747e4fb082e6969278ffe8

Time is running away with me!!

Well it's the last day of May and I need to do 2 posts before tomorrow to keep up with the challgenges I've set myself!!
May has been extraordinarily busy for me but so enriching and life-enhancing.
Finally got home yesterday after 9 hours of travelling on the previous day from Sardinia to London with one of my classic but awful migraines complete with sickness and diarrohea and terrible head nt made much better by several screaming children on the flight back - am usually very sympathetic but I really wasn't in the mood that day as was very touch and go that I'd get out of the hotel as I'd been feeling so nauseous and worried about the hour coach journey to the airport. But - I made it and the people I was travelling with from the hotel were very kind and helpful.
I had the wonderfully warm welcome from my lovely Chiswick "family" and a comfortable night's sleep before winging my very tired way back to Wales by train yesterday.
After a much-needed sleep in the afternoon my beloved Bass (my black lab for newcomers to my blog!)was delivered back to me and was ecstatic to be back home and has been very clingy and cuddly since. He's more than well-looked after at the wonderful kennels and the owner gives him lots of extra cuddles but it's not quite the same as home and it's lovely to witness his joy of being home and with me!

I really got into reading on holiday and managed to demolish the Lionel Shriver book "So much for all That" in just under 2 days even though it was quite a harrowing and emotional read at times but so incredibly well-written and researched. Many things described about how people cope and react to terminal illness resonated strongly with my own experiences and how people you think you can read well can surprise you both in positive and negative ways. I'm sure we all are guilty of the "bury your head in the sand mentality" with things we find difficult to comprehend or are alien to us but when you're in the situation with only one endgame so to speak it becomes necessary to find a way through in spite of everything.

I'm now well over halfway through reading "The Life of Pi" which isn't on my reading challenge list but is one I've wanted to read for a long time. I never saw the film and I must watch it once I've read the book as I'm finding it absolutely riveting and very moving.

It was a surprisingly nice day today and I took Bass out for a lovely walk in the forest complete with my Kindle and Ipod and am determined to try and make more time for quiet times and reflection after I got so much out of a slower pace on holiday.

I must go and eat now and then am off to see the film "The Great Gatsby" and will write on what I thought of it later on! I bought myself the novel in Italian at the airport so am going to try and get through that as I'd really like to get as fluent as I can with my Italian as my confidence improved whilst on holiday and I really get a buzz out of communicating in a different language and making closer contact with a culture.

Ciao for now!

Happy Days!

Can't believe it's already 26th May and this is only my second entry this month!
Been so busy this month! Had amazing time competing over 6 days at Cheltenham Festival and meeting up with new and old friends there.
I was amazed to win 5 trophies(2 for piano and 3 for Speech recitation which I hadn't done for over 25 years and amazed my memory held up!!),4 second places (1 with the Outsanding category mark of 90 for piano recital of which I was most proud as was incredibly high standard)and 2 3rds.
Exhausting but well worth doing and had a really good time.

I'm writing this from a finally sunny Sardinia where I'm having a well-earned week's relaxing break. The weather's been rather windy,chilly and unsettled since I got here last Wednesday but is really beautiful today and I've had a lovely couple of hours this morning walking and sunbathing and discovering beautiful mostly deserted coves with velvet-like sand and totally clear waters.
Although I was a bit apprehensive of coming on my own for a beach holiday - as opposed to a hobby-type holiday or sight-seeing excursion tours when you can join a group I'm really having a great time and bestof both worlds. As it's an all-inclusive resort and low season there are mostly Brits staying here and always people around to chat to if you want that. The staff are all Italian and don't speak much English which suits me as I wanted to practise my Italian. The Young entertainment team are all lovely and full of life and Iàve been joining in with Zumba and dancing classes and not felt lonely at all.
I've been enjoying my space too and had a fab walk on a windy morning for 40 mins each way barefoot all the way on beach to the next little port listening and singing loudly to my ipod as not many people around as is low-season here.
I've been enjoying losing myself in my Kindle and have finished the second book in my reading challenge which was The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon which I'd highly recommend. It's a very mysterious and spooky story and I think men would like it equally as is a male protagonist and not at all light and fluffy!!
I've now started on the next book on my challenge which is on my Kindle which is "So much for all That" by Lionel Shriver (who wrote the highly rated but contraversial "We need to Talk about Kevin". "So much for all that" will also be a difficult read particularly for me as it's about a couple who go through the wife's devastating and sudden diagnosis of the awful cancer Mesethilioma (caused by asbestos)and the effect on their lives. I had a very dear friend who lived and died with this desease and of course talking about mortality and the impact of cancer is very close to home for me but I feel the need to face it all head on as that is how I cope best and am interested as to what Shriver has to say on the subject. It also deals with the highly contentious and current issue of health insurance in America.
I'm going to go back to relaxing and sunbathing now before the sun disappears!!
Ciao for now!!

Getting stuck in!

I can't believe it's already 5th May! Time seems to be going so fast at the moment which is a good thing in some ways in that I'm obviously enjoying myself and keeping motivated and positive.
I've been really pleased with not having been completely wiped out from the piano course last weekend. It's actually energised me mentally and I've been full of the joys this week especially with the lovely spring weather that's come our way at longlast!!
It's all systems go with my challenges! I'm off to Cheltenham this week to compete in 4 piano classes all in one day! I start with the first movement of Beethoven Sonata op.110 which is beautiful and I first takled in 1990 in my first year at music college when I didn't really have the technique or maturity to really get a proper handle on it so it's lovely to come back to it many years later!
The next class is a Bach class which is out of my comfort zone as I've always found Bach difficult to pull off but I'm playing Prelude and Fugue in G major from bk 2 and they are really lively and enjoyable to play.The next class is a Baroque class so more Bach and this time I'm tackling the 1st Partita in Bflat (complete without the minuets for timing issues)which I've surprised myself by how much I've liked learning it. It has 5 short movements in baroque dance style with different character to each one. The last movement which is a very lively Gigue is causing the most difficulties as there's a lot of crossed hands playing back and forth at a lively pace so it's easy to land on the wrong notes with all the physical arm moves going on!
The last class of that day will be the Open recital class which is challenging as you play 2 or more pieces in a programme up to 15 minutes. I'm playing 3 pieces I love and know well and have performed all them quite a bit before so I'm hoping this will help although I'm going to be tired by that point in the day! I'm going to be playing The Lark which was an original song by the Russian composer Glinka and was transcribed for piano by Balakirev and is heartbreakingly beautiful and expressive. I then will play Night Piece by Benjamin Britten which was commisioned in 1963 for the very first Leeds Piano competition as a set piece and was recently reinstated as such in last year's competition. It is haunting and evocative in mood. I then finished my programme with a fabulous,fun and virtuoso transcription by the British pianist/composer Stephen Hough of the song My Favourite Things from The Sound of Music by Rodgers and Hammerstein which is tricky but great fun to play and to listen to (hopefully!!)
I will then only have a day and half back home to prepare for another 3 days in Cheltenham with 6 speech and drama classes and a further 3 piano classes - if I'm not totally exhausted by then!!
I've pretty much got the 3 poems off pat from memory but it'll be interesting to see if nerves affect my concentration on the day as I've not memorised poems or recited for over 25 years and my memory and brain are not as reliable now. I'm really enjoying the poems though and hope that comes through.
I've had a very sociable week and am feeling so much better in myself at the moment which is good. I feel stronger and haven't had a migraine for a fortnight now which is good.
I've met up with lots of different friends this week and been out to see 2 excellent and interesting films: Trance - directed by Danny Boyle which I was really intrigued and impressed by and A Place Beyond the Pines starring Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper which was gripping and very interesting.
I'm trying to some Italian every day and the new book is really helping me revise things I've forgotten. I'm going to start the book The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon tonight. I read his first book Shadows of the Wind set in Barcelona which I absolutely adored and was such a pageturner so I'm hoping I enjoy this one as much.

Spring at last!

I'm feeling pleased with myself today. Firstly it's been a truly beautiful and warm spring day which has been long overdue and secondly because I'd expected to be exhausted today after my 4 very busy but enriching days in London. Instead I practically bounced out of bed before 9 (very rare indeed!)and went to be beautified or at least tidied up at the hairdressers followed by a relaxing half hour in my favourite local cafe. I then took Bass (my wonderful lab)out in the sunshine and while he ran and pranced around madly I was sitting on the grass mugging up on my Italian and feeling full of the joys of spring - literally! I also managed to fit in around 3 hours of practice,another dog walk,2 wash cycles and an hour and half of teaching which is a lot for me especially after a busy time. I'm also feeling a lot lighter and brighter in myself. Of course I could well wake up tomorrow and the tiredness really hit me as I often seem to get a delayed reaction but I'll just take what comes!

I also feel proud that I managed to not only survive but really enjoy the 3 day piano course even though I forget how exhausting London is!It took me an hour and quarter each way from my wonderful friends' house to the course each day and the course itself ran from 10-5 for 3 days which was a challenge for me. I managed to make sure I played in the mornings as after lunch I tended to aim to sit on the sofa at the back so I could drift off to sleep mainly unnoticed when I needed to!
There were 9 of us of varied but generally diploma level and above on the course. I knew 3 of the other students and the teacher already but the others were all lovely and it turned out that one lady was also from Grimsby originally like me and not only that but used to live literally round the corner from me whilst we were growing up and we went to the same primary school! It's a small world!
We would each take it in turns to play something and then get feedback and helpful hints on improving from the teacher and the other students. It was a very supportive class and we began each day with relaxation exercises in the garden of our teacher's lovely home. We had a lot of laughter and sharing and wonderful music during the 3 days and the course ended with us all playing in a concert attended by friends. I felt very honoured that I had 3 friends there and felt very supported and I enjoyed playing the Stephen Hough arrangement of My Favourite Things from The Sound of Music even if the purists perhaps might not have approved!
The best thing about all my stays in London are that I stay with the most wonderful family whom I've now known for almost 20 years since teaching their eldest daughter in my very first batch of pupils and going on to teach their younger daughter. I feel like family in their home and even their gorgeous dog helps me to miss mine a little less! I'm so blessed with my friends and it really does me so much good to be with people with whom I feel really able to be exactly myself.
I'm going to go to sleep contented now and hope tomorrow brings even more productivity but I'll take whatever comes my way!

Quick Update!

It is with horror that I realise tomorrow is the last day of April and I have 2 more (including this as one)blog posts to do before May arrives and I mustn't break any of my challenge pledges!
Therefore this will be a short post as I am exhausted but happy after 4 days in London on a piano course and my bed beckons plus cuddles with my lovely labrador who is ecstatic to be home from the kennels.

I am pleased to report that I've finished the first of the books I've pledged to read. It was Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie which tells the story of two sisters and their families in Nigeria during the Biafran/Nigerian civil war of 1967-70. It's a wonderfully written and moving and gripping read and I was sad to come to the end of it. You really end up caring for the characters so much and I had no idea about this war and what happened during that time in Nigeria.

I've now started reading Lume Lume, the Italian novel (in Italian)I pledged to read for my language challenge and am really enjoying it and although I haven't looked at my Italian for almost a year I'm finding I can understand it very well and don't need to look up as much as I had expected. It's a gentle whimsical story about a chap living in a very multicultural neighbourhood in Italy and trying to find the words to an old Romanian song called "Lume Lume" which means people and the world and he's searching for it's true meaning and encountering many different cultures on his doorstep and describing his neighbours' different ways of life of mixing their ethnic cultures with the Italian way of life.

Whilst in London I bought an intermediate level Italian book intended to push you to the next level and I'm enjoying revising and trying to improve my language skills. I really enjoy learning languages and trying to get more proficient and Italian is such a musical and lyrical language. It'll only be 24 days until I fly to Sardinia so I'd like to be able to express myself in a more naturally Italian way to try and blend in!!

I had a very enriching time in London on the Advanced piano course with old and new friends.
I will write about it in my next post tomorrow for the last one in April as now I really must get some sleep!