A perfect few days

Sometimes when I’ve had a really great day (such as Sunday in St Andrews) a few, sort of anti-climax days tend to follow. Fortunately, that’s not been the case so far this week.

I met up with my lovely friend Claire for a quick cuppa yesterday morning, a perfect start to the day before heading off to do some voluntary work through in Falkirk. I did a bit of work work when I got home before shooting out to choir. Anyone who fancied auditioning for a solo part had been asked to come along earlier than usual so, as he was up for it, I took Gordon along to join the others who’d decided to give it a go. I was totally in awe of them all. They walked up to the front, one by one, and sang their wee hearts out in front of Annie, Jane and the rest of us. They were all fantastic (though, I’m slightly biased of course towards the youngster who sang “Chasing Cars”, but that’s a mother’s prerogative!).  A wee part of me wanted to get up and try – but I completely bottled out. Now, anyone that knows me well will know how annoying I can be at hogging the microphone whenever there’s an opportunity to stand up and sing in a social setting! But, it’s a different matter standing up and singing on your own in front of a bunch of gifted singers! It takes a different kind of guts, and confidence in your ability to sing well, to audition like that. Think I’ll just stick to the backing vocals!

The rehearsal itself was great. Annie does this thing of ‘revealing’ the new song; she doesn’t tell us what the song is, just starts to play it on the piano and, when folk ‘get it’, they start singing along.  As more and more of the choir start to recognise the song, the sound gets louder and bigger. Clapping and cheering follow, as the song choice always meets with enthusiastic approval! Then, each section is taught their part and, what started as a bunch of folk singing along to the tune, is quickly transformed into a choir of voices singing in perfect harmony! (OK, maybe not always perfect to begin with, but it never fails to amaze me how quickly we start to pick it up!) Speaking of perfect, that was one of the new songs last night, ‘Perfect’ by Fairground Attraction. They were one of my favourite bands in the eighties and I love that particular song; it was released in 1988, the year that  Alex and I  got married. Last night, the verses were sung beautifully by three different soloists – one of them was my old friend, Sandra,  which made the choir’s version all the more special!

At the risk of this blog becoming a running commentary on the Heart of Scotland Choir, I’ll finish on a different personal high note. I thoroughly enjoyed being at the course through in Edinburgh this morning, which was a real breakthrough after three weeks of doubting my decision to change venue. Today I felt as if I was sitting in a room with a bunch of friends, rather than a bunch of students – and that really did make me feel good.

It’s been lovely tonight to do nothing (except a bit of work work which should’ve been done this afternoon when, instead, I was enjoying a leisurely late lunch with my pal Sue) and draw breath after a busy few days. All in all, it’s turning out to be a perfect Birthday week!