Today is the day I handed my notice in at payroll, with the intention of leaving at the end of February.

Hi there.

I'm currently killing time in the office; it's the payroll Christmas meal tonight, so I don't need to cook, and it's not worth going home as I've a choir rehearsal before that. Should be a fun evening, though I'm rather tired, and I must not be persuaded to go clubbing. Much as I'm looking forward to home at Christmas, it's a pity I won't get to sing all of the cool Christmas pieces that we're currently rehearsing at Sacred Heart.

Today has been ooooooooooooooooooookay. Had a rather depressing week due to various things, which, though not hunky dory, are now in a much better state than they were earlier, so I'm fairly content. Work is odd - my allocation of it has largely disappeared, so I'm doing other peoples' work and checking the work of others too. Most unusual.

No. Christmas. Shopping. Done. Whatsoever. Need to think about it - browsing just doesn't seem to work. Anyway, my Amazon wishlist is still here. Also, I think it would be pretty damn cool to have a phone with a loudspeaker so as to include more people in a conversation, and I told Mum of some other CDs that I would rather like. Yesterday Monica and I tried Christmas shopping, but all we got were some cards and a complete Winnie-the-Pooh.

Monica made me an advent calendar; she's great. She even said she liked some beer the other day - egad. Plus, it seems that she brings out my ability to cook fine omlettes, which can't be a bad trait in a ragazza.

I note with interest that The JCB Song is doing the rounds again. Are they aiming for a Christmas number one? Surely not. There's also a song that keeps cropping up on our local news, one which a Mum co-wrote with Billy Bragg for her daughter - wonder if that's in with a shot... it's not inconceivable that it could go national.

Apparently one of our managers bumped into the new Bishop of Crediton t'other day. Suspect he must be an independent church type, 'cos he didn't get episcopal vibes from the purple shirt. I suspect Crediton is an Anglican bishopric, but I'm not sure; Chris is Mr. Plymouth and there's a chuffing great Cathedral in Exeter...

My brain hurts

Saw an article in the Guardian today about autism. Brain scans of children with autism were compared to those without while viewing facial expression. Similar article in Scientific American. Thought this would be of interest to some readers/contributors.

Ho Ho Ho

It's suddenly got very busy on the musical side of things. Being in two choirs doesn't help, especially as one of them is church based! Last night was my Christmas concert with CAOS, Tuesday night is carol singing, again with CAOS (no rehearsals now, so we're off to the Christmas markets in town for mulled wine & pancakes), and on Thursday I'm singing with the choir at the Holy Name. I think it's the feast of the Immaculate Conception, which seems disturbingly close to Christmas to me...
On a tangent; if one of the Catholic readers of this august blog could let me know why Mary gets referred to as "Star of the Sea" in no less than three of the pieces we practiced this week, I'd appreciate it. It's an odd nickname for anyone & I can't recall anything of Mary's nautical adventures from the New Testament.

Back to the Christmas concert: the choir side of things was going very well. No worries about that. I was mostly concerned with the orchestra half. Since I don't play an instrument, but have been in the choir for much longer than is healthy (being a student society, 4 years of membership qualifies you for "furniture" status) Al asked if I wanted to do percussion. This resulted in me playing the cymbals in Verdi's Nabucco Overture and Tchaikovsky's Slavic March, the tambourine and the triangle in Carmen.
In the end it went really well. A couple of people said afterwards that I looked like I was really enjoying playing the cymbals (banging two big bits of metal together is quite fun!), and the tambourine part (which I was most worried about, since it's exposed & a little tricky with timing) was just right. I didn't go out of tune once!
It was good fun too. Al, Dan and Ping were the other percussionists, all long time CAOS people, and a good laugh. Think I might volunteer for the Easter concert too. Thanks are due to Emma for not complaining (much) about me spending most of the week listening to the orchestra pieces on CD whilst banging a biscuit tin.

Aftershow was fun: got to bed at about five, and got up today (just) in time for a rehearsal at the Holy Name.

Hmm. Random CAOS photos.

From bias free of every kind

Went to see Rock Trial last night. It's a rewrite of Gilbert & Sullivan's Trial by Jury with (can you guess?) rock music. Same words & harmonies, but in a very different style. Probably the most enjoyable thing I've seen on stage. The whole thing was helped by a pretty amazing audience: it was in a small theatre in the RNCM, so most people at the Saturday night show were ex (or present) MUGSS people. Before the show even started, there was a mexican wave, and chants of "Rock Trial!, *clap, clap, clap*, Rock Trial!, *clap, clap, clap*, etc...". Much of this was led by Al, the director, who was sat just behind Emma & meself.
Another reason for going was that Pete was playing guitar. It sold out fairly quickly; we only got tickets for that night because Alison kept a couple aside for us. Thanks Alison!
I liked the G&S version anyway (I was in it last year before doing La Cage!), but this was really well done. The leads were all very good and while the clever lyrical humour was intact, a lot of updated gags had gone in on top of those. As well as the leads, there was a huge chorus consisting of nerds, hippies, old people, groupies (of Edwin, the defendant), punks & such.

Brilliant night out.

I went to Bristol yesterday, the nightmarish traffic was just as bad as I remember, started with the Zoo, unsurprisingly it's changed a bit since I was last there. The penguin and seal enclosures have underwater viewing tunnels so you can see them swimming. I really liked watching the penguins and the seals appeared to be showing off to me and the wide-eyed toddlers. I decided to walk back towards the City Centre, stopping off at where we used to live, it's certainly changed, the exterior's been sandblasted, but I didn't have too many happy memories of Bristol to be spoiled by any changes. I also stopped off at a toolshop for some tools for work and the geology section of a museum.

It took ages for me to find anywhere I wanted to eat, half-two is very late for me. I only found one thing I wanted to buy, a PC game, but a previous mix-up of CDs in the part-exchange shop meant I didn't get it. The wind really started to get going, so I headed back to the station, and ended up waiting nearly an hour for a train running 40min late, and already rather full before 40+ people got on at Bristol. It's nice to know that Virgin Trains has improved its reliability.

Despite being rather tired when I got home, I quite enjoyed myself and the snow this morning has left me in a good mood, despite most of the snow melting.

As the "festival we shouldn't even be thinking about until mid-December", is approaching could you e-mail me some suggestions for presents for Monica, Nan and the Parents.

I been in a bit of a slump at recently, but things seem to be improving, several clock haven't been working properly with no apparent cause, with help I've been able to work out what I was not doing, and feel rather silly for not doing it in the first place. I suspect the combination of the clocks changing and a change in my working week threw me a bit out of step.

I've made a start on a craft project to make a couple of "pin pictures", with nails on a cloth-covered MDF board . This sort of thing http://www.mmwindowtoart.com/drawing/para1a.html Hopefully, tomorrow I'll draw out the designs on paper, then use the paper to guide where I hammer the nails in.

Apologies in advance

What's black and white and conquered most of the civilised world?

Alex Panda the Great.

I'm really, really sorry.

Slugs Ate My Parents

'Tis a band consisting of Dan from choir. He's got a few gigs lined up in Manchester (see website),
and you can listen to some Mp3s elsewhere on the site. I particularly liked "It is Wise to Fear the Mega-Spider".

The BBC said:

"Odd doesn't really do Slugs Ate My Parents justice. This is music from the insides of an asylum, where deeply frightening basslines back lyrics like 'Would you like a drink of water?/I’ve put poison in your water' and 'His name is Mr Jesus/And he don’t know if he exists'. It's a case of experience at your peril, but you really must experience..."

It's that time of year again

I can't think what I'd like for Christmas. This won't be a suprise to anyone who's asked me for the last 10 years or so, since I've tended to look confused, and then ask for money. Inspired by their campaign last year, I'd like to direct shoppers to Oxfam's website where they've got some rather cool things (donkeys, trees & such) which go to people who need them. You also get a card for the person you'd normally get a present for, telling them that you've spent the money usefully. Seems much more Christmassy that getting people stuff they don't need.

Actually, I'd also like Ziggy Stardust & Hunky Dory (Bowie), but other than that I'm out of ideas, so get a goat for someone who needs it.

Book Club seems to be working out at last, I talked about a duology of books in Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series, (Dragonsong and Dragonsinger: Harper of Pern). One person talked about a biographical book on an aircraft test pilot \ engineer who started during WW2. The other person talked about another Dragonriders of Pern book (Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern).
Quite enjoyable, I lent one of my Asperger books and Shatterglass (Tamora Pierce) to a chap who seemed interested in both.

Work seems to be improving a little, there's a bit of "edutainment" with a BHI-trained part-time repairer, him getting the education, us getting the entertainment from some of the inefficient practices such as thoroughly cleaning the movement in the cleaning fluids before and after doing the actual repair work. He's even keeping a work diary, which just seems a waste of time. Hopefully we can teach him some more time-efficient work habits.