The Choir

Anyone who reads this wee blog regularly will know that I don't just wear my heart on my sleeve; I broadcast it loudly and pin it up in neon lights. It's not a new thing: poor Alex's thunder was stolen on our wedding day, 25 years ago, when I interrupted him at the end of his speech by standing up and giving an impromptu emotional spiel about how lucky I felt, how much I loved my groom and how grateful I was for everything my mum and dad had done for me and for having me in the first place! Our kids will have also all have many a tale to tell of times when their auld maw's mouth has gone into overdrive! Sometimes I just can't help it, especially when I'm feeling particularly emotional.

Last night was a case in point. If you look at the 'labels' on my wee blog you'll see that 'Heart of Scotland Choir' looms large on the list, which is testament to how often I've written about how good being a member of the choir makes me feel. So, it was with a fairly heavy heart that I headed off last night to my last choir rehearsal, not just the last rehearsal before our next concert, but my last rehearsal. Our lovely choir mum, Ray, eloquently said recently that the choir has an 'ebb and a flow' (a bit like life really), with the heart of it rolling on strong while people come and go. And now it's just my time, for various reasons, to have to go. I always feel sad when any of my friends leave the choir, so it was fairly predictable that I'd be feeling a bit emotional during my own last rehearsal. Having said that though, I absolutely loved it! It was the last rehearsal before our annual concert in the Albert Halls (in Stirling) and the 'Bertie Buzz' was very much in evidence! Rehearsing with the band is always brilliant, but last night there just seemed to be a different level of 'Bertie Buzz-iness' than usual. I had an absolute blast and, even though I was a bit weepy at times, my heart was well and truly lifted. I'm really looking forward to the concert and it'll be a night when the loss of choir members through choice, or through other things in their life taking priority, or for a multitude of other reasons will all be put into perspective when we sing our hearts out in memory of Laurie, our choir dad who left us earlier this year through absolutely no choice of his own. I'm obviously biased, but it promises to be a great night - and it would be great to see you there! Tickets are on sale from 'The Albert Halls' in Stirling online! (Might as well get one last plug in...!)

At the end of the rehearsal Annie emotionally announced to the choir that the rehearsal had been the last for three of us: me, Greig (the man in the hat with the golden voice of Boo's Band fame) and Mair (flautist and singer extraordinnaire, who was one of the favourites with Day Care patients at the hospice). Listening to Annie as she thanked us and told us how much we'd be missed made me cry some more and then (I can actually see my kids cringing as they read this...) ocht, I did that thing of standing up and saying how much the choir had meant to me and how much I'd miss everyone and how grateful I was for everything and I said I was sure Greig and Mair felt the same... it wasn't enough to say how I felt, I even pulled Mair and Greig into it too!

So, to Annie, I'm sorry for butting in on you! I have form...! And, to my choir family, I'm sorry for holding you back at the end of a long rehearsal! But, I'm not sorry for telling you all that I'll miss you, and that I'm so very grateful for every single memory and 'feel-good' moment you've given me during these past few years (present and previous members included!). Thank you all - and see you at the Bertie on Saturday!!

When a picture brightens a boring and sad day...

I was having a really boring day today doing the necessary evil of making a start on our wee business’s year-end accounts. The year-end stuff’s not all that much different from the quarterly stuff that has to be done when I’m submitting our VAT return: sitting surrounded by piles of messy paperwork; pumping numbers into the computer and hoping that SAGE will sort it all out; hunting for misplaced receipts; trying to make sense of the odd withdrawal and deposit that don’t correlate to any of the invoices or receipts in any of the many piles; cursing when I can’t get the books to balance; making promises to myself that from now on I’ll definitely be more organised with the paperwork on a day-to-day basis; cheering out loud when I hit ‘reconcile’ for the umpteenth time and the two columns match at last; feeling miserable when I’m brave enough to come out from behind my hands to see how much VAT we owe; and, finally, saying ‘Ocht well, at least that’s it finished for another quarter! Hooray!’ and enjoying a big glass of wine or a cold beer to celebrate! It’s been more-or-less the same routine for over twenty five years and, as much as I don’t enjoy ‘doing the books’, I’m hoping that we’ll still have a wee business to do the books for for some time to come! The way things are at the moment in the construction industry, we consider ourselves extremely lucky to still have books to cook!, em, I mean audit...

The day, however, was broken up with a wee visit to my Mum’s. I always try to see Mum on the 25^th of October as this is the day that Dad died, 19 years ago. Some folk don’t mark this kind of anniversary in any way, and I think it’s such a personal thing that there’s no right or wrong way to do it, but me and Mum like to try and squeeze in an extra cuddle on the 25^th. Nothing more than that’s necessary really. Just a wee hug, or a wee chat on the phone if one of us is away somewhere and I can’t go see her. Spending a bit of time with mum had already brightened my day, but I had another real ‘feel good’ moment when I came home.

I’d had my ipod on shuffle during the drive back from Mums and I couldn’t help smiling when the Rolling Stones version of ‘Wild Horses’ started blaring out. It’s only just over a week since I was singing my wee solo verse of ‘Wild Horses’ at the Bertie and wishing that my Dad was there to see me doing my thing! And then it dawned on me that I had a painting up in the loft that Dad had bought for me many years ago. I can’t begin to express how good it made me feel to go up into the loft, eventually find the painting, wipe the dust off and have a good long look at it. I think it was taken down off the wall, along with a load of other pictures, when we last decorated (many moons ago...) and it just got overlooked when the old, and some new, pictures were hung back up. I’ll be finding a new place for it in our house – once it’s had a proper clean – and it’ll be back on view where it belongs!

Here’s the picture:

And here’s me doing my thing with all my choir buddies:

A picture of a horse from my Dad and singing my first solo on a song called 'Wild Horses'! What a happy coincidence! And that's what made me feel really good on an otherwise pretty boring, and pretty sad, day. Yup, Feeling Good!:

Still Bertie Buzzing!

Well, the Bertie buzz just keeps going on and on! What a fantastic night. In fact, I’m kind of stuck for words for fear of launching into a repetitive and long list of superlatives! Ocht, on the other hand, why choose now to change the habits of the lifetime of this wee blog?!

After writing yesterday’s post, I spent a good couple of hours on important things like having a last ditch attempt at trying to learn lyrics so that I wouldn’t have to look at the words once during the whole concert (fail!); deciding which tights I should wear (result! Ladder-free all night!); deciding whether I should do my make-up at home or at the Bertie (good call as we didn’t have much time between sound-check rehearsal and performance. Enough time for a quick re-touch job. There’s only so much you can do with the war paint at my age anyway!); having a last practice of my solos (result – I managed to do them without a bum note, I think, and I remembered all the words!); deciding how many bottles of water to take (Yup, five wasn’t too many! I drink a lot of water between songs – think it’s more of a nerves thing than a thirst thing - hence the reason why I’m always first to rush off the stage...); deciding whether to go straight or curly (being heavy-handed with the straightners was a good call as the heat on the stage would’ve had me looking like Crystal Tipps if I’d gone for wavy; deciding whether to wear a wee cardy or not (BIG mistake with this one; the photos are unforgiving on the big chicken arms department!); and, lastly, practicing the surprise ‘Thriller’ dance that we were doing as part of our encore (FAIL!! I nailed it when I was practicing, but come the real thing, in front of hundreds of folk... Oh dear!). While all of that was going on Gordon, my fellow choir member and youngest son, was ensconced in front of the telly; cool as a cucumber and throwing his eyes up in the air every time I flew in and out of the room, and wondering how he managed to get landed with a mother who needed his advice on whether to go for 10 denier natural or 15 denier black....poor soul! Alex had escaped the mayhem to compete alongside Ross in a cross country event up in Dundee. Good call. Gemma had nipped across from St Andrews with her good pal Lizzie to cheer them on before coming to the concert at night. Good call staying clear of the house!

Anyway, after all that, we both headed off to the Bertie to get down to the serious business of the sound check and last wee rehearsal. Aw, it was just great to walk in and start to properly share in the big Bertie buzz with everyone. I was, however, really sad to discover that one of my friends, and fellow soloist on 'Feeling Good', Laura had pulled a muscle in her chest, was in a whole lot of pain, and wouldn’t be able to take to the stage. I felt so gutted for her and I’m already looking forward to a future gig where I’m sure she'll get the chance to entertain another audience with her beautiful voice. As was to be expected, it took a bit of time for the sound guys to get the mikes set up properly and the sound sorted out, and it took a wee while for us to get used to singing on the big stage again. We’re spoiled with rehearsals in a church; the acoustics are awesome and we can all hear each other really clearly, so it’s a bit freaky when you start singing on the stage and can only hear the two people either side of you (I don’t mean that Becky and Christine’s voices are freaky, I mean that it’s more difficult to find your cues, or know if you’re getting it right, if you can only hear the two beautiful voices either side of you!).  As was also to be expected, some of us made a fair few mistakes but, as the old saying goes “best to get it wrong in rehearsal and right on the night!” (or something like that!). And that’s what Annie reminded us of – more eloquently than that – as we made our way to the changing rooms to get ready for the performance.

 A very fast thirty minutes later, it was time to hit the stage. Fortunately, I’d had enough time to throw a couple of yoghurts down my neck, quickly change into my new red frock – and 15 denier black tights - and swallow half a flask of hot water and honey. My throat had been sore all day, so I was resorting to the best old fashioned remedy. It reminded me so much of one of my school shows; we’d been performing it all week and I had two songs to sing on my own. I woke up on the morning of the last day with no voice. Mum, as ever, came to the rescue and plied me with a disgusting concoction of hot water, glycerine and honey. Aw man, it was mingin! I can still remember the taste to this day but it did the trick! I managed to finish the last show and get though every song. Fortunately on this occasion, thirty odd years later, I just had a sore throat and hadn’t lost my voice so I reckoned I could get away without the mankiness of glycerine!

After a nervous wait backstage, and a lovely introduction from our young compere, we all filed out onto the stage. I think we all sensed right away that it was going to be a great night. The audience was big, loud, warm and encouraging right from the very start, and I think we all kind of fed off that. When the folk with their bums on the seats are there to enjoy themselves, and make that clear right from the off, it makes it really easy for the choir members to enjoy themselves. And, as Katie, one of my lovely choir buddies said yesterday, when we’re enjoying ourselves, we’re more relaxed, and when we’re more relaxed, we sound great, and when we sound great the audience enjoy themselves and when the audience are enjoying themselves we’re enjoying ourselves...etc, etc! Having said that, we’ve done some gigs in the past where the audience has been pretty non-responsive and, well, not looking as if they’re enjoying themselves and that hasn’t really stopped us from having a blast! So, maybe my theory’s a load of nonsense – but it was definitely great to have such a brilliant audience cheering us on last night! It meant such a lot to have so many members of my family and most of my best friends in the audience too. I’m sure that helped to calm my nerves a wee bit before we got to the 5^th song in the programme and my first solo. I’d listened to every soloist before me do an amazing job; Ray and Cara on 'Flower of Scotland' (great way to open the show), Greig  and Katy on 'Footloose' (aw man, that had to be one of my many favourites of the night; Greig and Katy are a couple and they just looked and sounded awesome together – and we were all giving it laldy behind them – great fun!), Drew and Annie on 'You Got The Love' (Drew’s a huge character in the choir and has the most original dance moves I’ve ever seen in my entire life) and Morag, Donna, Carrie, Sandra and Paul on 'Black Horse and the Cherry Tree' (during which I was so relieved to remember to not sing ‘Woohoo’ when I wasn’t supposed to!). Then it was my turn. I’m trying to remember what was going through my head as I walked to the mike at the front of the stage, to stand alongside my fellow soloists Sharron and Cara. “Get a grip woman!” comes to mind, but I think next, very quickly, came “Imagine Dad’s out there watching you.” And then I think I forgot that I was worried about forgetting my words or making a mess of it, and I just sang the song. I’ve been a wee bit overwhelmed by some of the lovely messages that I’ve received from folk, and I’m so grateful for them taking the time to let me know that they were moved by the choir’s rendition of 'Wild Horses', or enjoyed our version of 'Feeling Good'. The more experienced and seasoned soloists will be used to that reaction, and will know full well how good it makes you feel, but it’s new  for me and a lovely addition to my Bertie Buzz!

The rest of the concert went on with one fantastic performance after another. There were so many fantastic moments, like our rendition of a truly brilliant song written by Paul (the same Paul that comes into the hospice and cheerily plays guitar for the patients). The choir as a whole sounded brilliant on every song (I'm reliably informed by my friends and family!) and the soloists all gave it laldy. I’m so in awe of their incredible voices, and I so admire the confidence and personal touch that they all bring to their solos. That was highlighted during many of the songs last night. ‘Say A Little Prayer’ is a great example. Three soloists; Sharron, Ash and Paula, three lovely girls with awesome voices to boot, but each also really different, and any one of them could give Aretha Franklin a run for her money! I’m not joking! There are too many soloists and there were too many songs to mention them all. Actually, no there weren’t.  I can’t let this blog post go by without making sure that all of my choir buddies were included somehow or another! This is copied from last night’s programme:

The audience whooped, clapped and cheered and we all just had a brilliant time. Facebook today has been such a lively, happy place for choir members and provided a great platform to release some of that, still very active, adrenalin! I’m waiting with bated breath for a video of our encore to be posted as I’ve had such a ribbing from family and friends about being way out of time on the Thriller dance. With a bit of luck the big tall Zombie with the crazy hair won’t feature too clearly on the recording and my face, with or without Zombie mask, will be saved from disgrace!

I’m thinking that you deserve a medal if you’ve stuck with this post – it’s been a long and fairly repetitive list of superlatives – and I’m thinking that some of you might be thinking “Jeeso, it’s only a choir, and it was only a concert in a town’s hall that holds around 600 folk, and it was only shoving on a red dress and going out for a sing-song on a Saturday night! What’s she on about?!” Ocht, it’s just really hard to explain. It was all of those things, but it was so much more. And I loved every minute of it. I loved that my hubbie, daughter, son, mum, practically-big-sister and my mother and father-in-law were sitting all in a row together, that my other son was on the stage with me and that lots of my pals were dotted around the audience. I loved that all the choir rehearsals on a Monday night have not only been brilliant in their own right, but have resulted in a show that made lots of local people really happy and really glad that they chose to go to a choir concert rather than watch X-Factor. I loved feeling so many different emotions yesterday; nervous, excited, sad, proud, anxious, happy. I loved standing next to my special choir pal, Christine and sharing lots of special moments with her. And, as ever,  I loved spending time with all the rest of my choir friends.

Every single one of them played a part in making me feel sooooo good last night, whether it was by wishing me luck for the solos, making me laugh, zipping me into my dress, making me cry with their amazing voices, singing so brilliantly together or simply by being part of the wonderful thing that is the mighty Heart of Scotland Choir. 

The Bertie Buzz!

A few hours from now me my choir pals will be on the stage in Stirling! The choir has adopted the nickname 'Bertie' for The Albert Halls so, today, we're all feeling the 'Bertie Buzz!' It’s two years since the Heart of Scotland Choir was formed and the concert’s being held, partly, in celebration of that fact. I can’t think of a more enjoyable way to celebrate! But, there’s more to it than that; the title of tonight’s show is ‘Born This Way, and I think that’s really apt for a Community Choir concert. Gareth Malone has done an incredible job of raising the profile of community choirs and getting the message across that singing isn’t just for lovies, or folk with incredible voices, or pop stars, or opera stars or church-goers, or kids in the playground, or Welsh miners, or music students – ocht, you get the picture. Singing’s for everyone, and that’s what a good community choir’s all about. It brings folk from a large, diverse group (in our case, the Central Belt) together to form one thriving, inspiring, make-you-feel-good community (the Choir). We’re all born different, and we all have different backgrounds, and we all have different jobs, and we all have different family set-ups and, well, you get the picture; we’re all different. But, we all have something very much in common in that we enjoy spending time in each other’s company, we love singing together and we like making good music - both with our voices and with the various musical instruments that some of the talented musicians in our community can play!

Like any community, it has its ups and downs too; it would be unrealistic to suggest that everything’s always hunky-dory, or that there isn’t a feeling of sadness when a member, for whatever reason, leaves the group. I was thinking about that kind of thing recently when I was watching one of the series of Heart of Scotland ‘Rockumentaries’, which document the story of the choir during its first year. Watching us all being interviewed, and singing at various gigs, really brought it home to me how much I miss some of the people who are no longer members; I’ll be thinking about them tonight,  and feeling grateful to have had them as choir buddies in the past. I’ll also miss some of our members who can’t make the concert because they’re off on holiday, or have other commitments. Just like in any community, missing members are just that; missed!

I’m pretty sure that my friends and family are fed-up listening to me going on about how nervous I’m feeling, so they’ll be pretty glad when the concert’s finally come and gone! But, although I've got a tummy full of butterflies, I’m excited too and I’m looking forward to tonight very much. I keep thinking about the post I wrote a few weeks ago, when I was saying that it's OK to hit the odd bum note or two when you’re among friends. And, after all, that’s where I’ll be tonight; among good friends – both on stage and off! Still, I think I’d better go and squeeze in one more practice before it’s time to head to the Bertie! I just wish I had a tenth of my son’s confidence - and I hope the Bertie audience enjoy our performance tonight as much as this lovely bunch did earlier on this year.....

One day like this...

You know how you have those special songs that make you feel really good and as soon as you hear the very first few notes you have a distinct and happy memory of where you were and what you were doing the very first time you heard it? (It’s the same basic principle that I based my whole ‘Myriad of Music’ project on at Strathcarron...!) Well, we sang a song that does exactly that for me at choir last night and, aw man, did it make me feel good! 

About 3 years ago, I was out one lovely sunny morning for a walk. Even though it was a lovely sunny morning I was feeling rubbish. I was walking a route that I used to run regularly and I was feeling ridiculously sorry for myself that I had to walk instead of run. Regular readers of my wee blog will know that I quite often bemoan the fact that I had to give up running several years ago due to some health issues; moaning about the fact that I can’t run anymore is still something I feel guilty about as folk have to suffer much worse things in their lives! However, I think it’s just that every time I’m reminded that I can’t run anymore I’m reminded of all the years of stuff, gumph, and operations that are responsible for the fact that I can’t run anymore. It’s still a daft thing to feel rubbish about, but, ocht, I can’t help it! 

Enough of all that – let’s get back to the point! I was out for a walk round Watson House about 3 years ago and it was a lovely sunny morning but , as I said, I wasn’t feeling lovely and sunny. I’d just bought an ipod and didn’t have a clue how to load it up yet, so Gemma had piled on a selection of her own music to get me started. About 5 minutes into the walk, this song came on and it just completely lifted me up by the scruff of the neck, gave me a good shake, told me to get a grip of my knickers and appreciate what a beautiful day it was and appreciate the fact that I could go out for a walk at all. I’d never heard the song before and stupidly I didn’t look at the screen to catch the name of it. The ipod was on shuffle and I didn’t have a clue how to retrieve tracks that had just played! All I could remember, when I was telling the kids that night that I’d heard this amazing song that had made me feel so great, was that it was something about throwing open the curtains in the morning and shouting “Hullo world! It’s great to be alive!” The kids instantly knew which song I was talking about and sorted it out so that it was highlighted as a ‘favourite’ on my playlist.  

Three years later it’s still there on that list. So, to get the opportunity to sing Annie and Jane’s arrangement of the song last night was just brilliant! It was definitely a night to add to my long list of ‘favourite choir rehearsals’. The wee video below is our first attempt after a very short time of learning the harmonies – hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed standing next to my choir buddies and singing it! Yup, one day like this a year would see me right.....

 

Holding on to my high

I've had a really lovely day today. I was still on a high, after last night's amazing choir rehearsal, when I met a special pal this morning for breakfast. Karen was as attentive and enthusiastic as ever as I rambled on, very animatedly, about how awesome the rehearsal had been (which she already knew because she's not only my very special friend, she's probably the most faithful follower and regular commenter on my blog. You would maybe recognise her as my 'anon' friend as she, very early on, gave up on trying to work out the wonders of the Blogger commenting set-up and decided to remain 'anon' instead!). We did manage to squeeze in a good blether about other stuff, with some tears and laughter in between, but choir took up a fair chunk of the chit-chat! So, the birthday breakfast to start to my day was really lovely. Thank you my very special anon pal!

Lunch was great too. For Mother's Day this year, back in March, Gordon gave me a wee hand-written voucher that entitled me to a celebration lunch out with him after we'd both finished trying to lose a bit of weight. We've both finished trying to lose a bit of weight, and he's off school as his exams finished last week, so it was time to redeem my voucher! Gemma came along too and we had a really lovely, chatty lunch. Thank you Gordon!

Gemma and Gordon after stuffing ourselves at lunch!

Then, as if that wasn't enough to make my day perfect, we finished the afternoon off in absolutely glorious style at a concert in a very special place featuring a very special bunch of folk. The Church of the Holy Rude in Stirling, as I've mentioned in previous blog posts, was the site of our wee business's first 'proper' contract - way back in 1989 - not long after Alex had decided to set up his own stonemasonry business. Over the years since, Alex's carried out various bits and pieces of restorative works there and, my favourite bit of all, was asked to cut a plaque in the floor of the church to commemorate the crowning of King James VI. The plaque was unveiled by the Queen at a special ceremony in 1997, to which my favourite stonemason was invited along to. I remember being so very proud of Alex - as I still am - and it's a time-honoured tradition that if I'm in the Holy Rude I have to go and have a wee look at the plaque. It's not going anywhere, but it never fails to make me feel good that it's still there. The kids were mortified when I told them to sit down beside it for a photo, but it's essential to keep up that time-honoured tradition of embarrassing your kids at every opportunity... !

The special bunch of folk that we'd come to see in concert was the very same special bunch of folk that came along to our rehearsal last night. I can't think of a better setting for the beautiful voices that make up the Maryville College Choir. The cheers and applause that filled the church was a just reflection of their awesome performance. I'm fast running out of superlatives to describe this incredible choir, so I'll finish with a few photos and a wee video instead. The video's one that I'll always treasure; at the end of the concert, Stacey (the lovely choir leader), invited all of the Heart of Scotland members in the audience to come up and join them for their last song. It was a Benediction and I didn't have a clue what the words were or how it went. I'm probably the least religious person I know, but that doesn't stop me appreciating the beauty of the buildings that are built in the name of religion or the type of music that's traditionally sung or played in them. And, wild horses wouldn't have stopped me from accepting the invitation from our special new friends to join them in their special song at the close of their concert. It was such a poignant and lovely end to a really lovely day. And, although I'm not at all religious, I really did feel today - in my own way - blessed.

The rear of the choir!

Maryville's finest in their finest

Such a special choir rehearsal

One of the reasons I’ll probably never make it as a real writer is that I don’t have the vocabulary to describe the awesome things that happen in my life in a ‘proper’ writer way. I’m sitting here at the end of one of the most amazing nights ever and I’m thinking, ‘how do I record this on my wee blog without it sounding like I’m being a bit over the top about how totally fantastic and special a night that was?’

But I can’t. So, I won’t try. I’ll just write it, as usual, straight from the heart. And it’ll probably sound like I’m exaggerating. But I’m not.

We were joined at choir rehearsal tonight by the Maryville College Choir from Tennessee and it was just such a special experience. I’m not kidding; it comes way up amongst the top of my list of ‘best Monday nights ever!’ The Maryville College Choir leader – the lovely Stacey – had contacted one of our choir leaders – the lovely Jane – via Facebook a while ago, after watching the Heart of Scotland Choir version of ‘Flower of Scotland’ on Youtube. A connection was made, a ‘virtual’ friendship was born, one thing lead to another and the next thing we knew we were getting told that our ‘American friends’ were going to be joining us at rehearsal while they were over here in Scotland on tour. Now, the Maryville College Choir from Tennessee is made up of a large group of 18 to 30 year olds who audition for their choir; who can read music; who sing mostly gospel music; and are likely to be either a soprano, alto or tenor. The Heart of Scotland Choir from Stirling, on the other hand, is made up of a large group of 15 to, ahem, well, I’d rather not say how old year olds; who don’t audition for their choir; who mostly can’t read music; who sing mostly rock and soul songs; and are likely to be either a melody lady, low lady or an, em, man.

But, we came together in Cambusbarron Church tonight and we clapped each other in warm welcome; we listened to each other perform our very different type of choir music with a mutual respect, admiration and – on numerous occasions – in total awe of the talent and sheer beauty of the sound that was gently wrapping itself around us; we showed our appreciation of each other by clapping, cheering, dancing, crying (there was a lot of crying!) and shouting for more; we learned a very special song together – written by Annie, Jane and their Dad, Laurie – and produced the most amazing and special moment when we filled the church with its totally awesome and uplifting words and tune; and we all simply didn’t want to leave when rehearsal was over.

It was awesome. I could’ve listened to the youngsters from Maryville College for another few hours; they reduced me to tears with almost every song and I definitely had the ‘wee hairy hairy’s’ when we all sang together. There was lots of hugging, more tears, lots of gratitude and more mutual appreciation before we all headed off. Totally buzzing.

Gordon and I talked non-stop in the car on the way back home. One of the many highlights of the night for me had been watching Gordon do his thing brilliantly when he stepped up to sing solo in front of a large group of totally amazing singers who had just blown us away with their performance. He’s not often nervous, but Gordon had to sing with his eyes closed as he was frightened to look at the audience. He needn’t have worried though as he and his fellow soloist, Sasha, soon had our American friends standing up, clapping and dancing along!

It’s a few hours later and I’m still buzzing. I am so very, very lucky to be part of the Heart of Scotland Choir. Tonight was a brilliant reminder of that. I loved every minute of what turned out to be a very, very special night.

See, told you you’d think I was being a bit over the top! But I’m really not, honest. And, aw man, does it make me feel good.

Rewarding and feel-good moments

I was full of good intentions of publishing a post on this blog every week during my placement at Strathcarron. Oops.

Being busy is my only excuse and I’m delighted to report that things are still going really well; music is definitely making a difference! Here’s just one of many examples: A patient’s partner said to me last week, “As I was walking towards the room, I thought I could hear singing. ‘He must have his music on’, I thought. As I got closer, I realised that he did indeed have his music on; playing through the wee speaker you gave him. But that wasn’t the only thing I could hear. It was him. Singing. I’ve not heard him sing for such a long time. I can’t even begin to tell you how good it made me feel.”
It was another example of the far-reaching benefits that go hand-in-hand with making music part of the patients’ lives in the hospice; this particular patient had really enjoyed spending time making up their playlist and chatting with me about some of the music that’s meaningful to them. But his partner had also benefitted by taking some comfort from the fact that her loved-one’s spirits had been lifted enough to sing along to those favourite songs. It might sound like a simple thing, but it was one of many such rewarding moments.

The fifteen hours per week I’m allocated for my placement simply isn’t enough to fit everything in, so I’m doing all of the fundraising part of the project in my own time. It’s now less than two weeks till my ‘Music from the Heart for Strathcarron’ fundraising night and I’m really enjoying pulling it all together. If I’m totally honest though, I’m getting quite nervous about it too; what if something goes wrong on the night, what if people don’t turn up, what if the people that do turn up don’t enjoy themselves etc etc! However, as soon as I start to think like that, I give myself a good shake and go write another begging letter for a raffle prize, or post another request on Facebook for friends to please buy tickets for the night! And, while I’m doing that, I remind myself that if it all went wrong, it would certainly be disappointing but, in comparison to the challenges that face the lovely patients that I have the absolute privilege of getting to know at the hospice, it really wouldn’t be that big a deal.

I’m obviously extremely hopeful that nothing will go wrong and that it’ll be a great night! I’m chuffed to bits that so many fantastic singers and musicians are giving up their Friday evening to come and perform; some of my friends are going to ‘busk’ for the guests as they arrive at the hotel, one of my choir friends and her partner are going to provide the background music as the guests arrive in the function suite and my choir leader – who’s also an incredibly talented pianist – is going to play a lovely classical piece while a short DVD (which I’ve yet to put together – eek!) introduces the guests to the hospice and the project. The evening’s proceedings will then really get going when the fantastic Heart of Scotland Choir take to the (very small!) stage at 8pm. Here's a wee sample of what's in store:



Following on from the choir, I’m giving a young, new band the opportunity to play for a little while (and it just so happens that my son’s the lead singer..!) and then the ‘headline’ act will take over proceedings for the rest of the evening. GT’s Boos Band has an ever-growing fan base in Scotland and I’m delighted that they’re providing most of the music for my night (with the added bonus of a few special guests). Here’s another wee taste of what’s in store:



In amongst all of that, a buffet will be laid out and a raffle will be drawn. I’m so grateful to the local businesses and friends who’ve donated prizes – from bottles of wine to a week’s holiday in a 3 bedroom luxury lodge – every single one of the donations has been extremely gratefully received. I’m still on the hunt for more prizes as I’ve decided to split them up into the main raffle and a sort of ‘lucky dip’. The main raffle draw will include the big prizes and the lucky dip – which can be set-up sort of like a tombola stall – will include the smaller gifts. That’s the plan at the moment anyway! So, if you’re reading this and you live within travelling distance of Stirling, and you’re at a loose end on Friday the 18th of May, why don’t you come along to The Golden Lion Hotel for what promises to be a great night of live music – with a wee buffet, a bar, great raffle prizes and a dance floor all thrown in for good measure. And, simply by buying a ticket and coming along, you’ll be supporting a fantastic charity that supports so many people in its local community. If you’d like more information, here’s the link to the public event page. I’d love to see you there as, hopefully, it'll be an evening full of feel-good moments.

Wearing a new badge

Well, today I worked at the hospice for the first time wearing this badge:

rather than this one:

And, it felt so good!

I’ve not really gone into any detail about my placement on this blog so, before I go any further, I think I should explain what it’s all about.

When I was thinking of a project that would make a difference to the hospice, I focussed on two of the things that I like to do best; listen to music and listen to people. By doing that, my ‘Myriad of Music’ idea started to take shape. It’s pretty simple, but often the simplest ideas are the most effective, and it basically involves bringing the therapeutic effects of music to Strathcarron in as many different ways as possible.

It’s common knowledge that listening to music, or singing along, can lift our spirits and help us to relax; especially if that music is meaningful to us. So, there lies the first part of my project; I’m going to spend a bit of time with patients, asking them about their favourite music (which should be a therapeutic process in itself) then make up a personal playlist of their favourite songs, or the music that’s most meaningful to them. The patient will then be supplied with their own MP3 player – after I’ve loaded it up with their personal playlists - for the duration of their stay at Strathcarron. With the patient’s permission, the playlist could be transferred onto a CD as a special keepsake for their family.

The single rooms in the hospice will also, hopefully, be provided with docks and speakers. I say hopefully because much of this part of my project is dependent on how much money I can raise, and how many donations I can pull in. I started fundraising a few weeks ago and, again, often the simplest ideas can be surprisingly effective. I made up a music quiz sheet, set up a Just Giving page, and sold the quiz sheets for £2 a go. I’d hoped to raise a couple of hundred pounds - which would’ve been enough to get me started with a number of MP3 players and some other accessories - but I’ve been overwhelmed by the response and have managed to reach a total of £970 so far. I’ve also been given, free of charge, a brand new Walkman by a local supplier - The Sony Centre in Bridge of Allan – and I’m hopeful that this proves to be the beginning of a partnership that’ll help me put more of my Myriad of Music ideas into practice.

I’m also going to be looking into the possibility of getting music ‘piped’ into the hospice’s bathrooms. I mean, what better way to relax is there than a good soak in the Jacuzzi bath with your favourite music playing over the bubbles?! And another thing I’ll be researching is a method by which patients who can’t leave their rooms can still feel a part of the things that are going on in and around the hospice. For instance, the second part of my placement involves bringing live music into Strathcarron. There’s a lovely area in the Day Care section which lends itself beautifully to wee groups of singers or musicians performing. However, many of the patients aren’t well enough to sit in Day Care so, to make everyone feel part of the experience, I’m hoping to facilitate the provision of CCTV cameras or camcorders that could ‘broadcast’ the performance to TV screens in the patients’ rooms. The system could also be used for things like watching the wildlife outside in the hospice's beautiful grounds – in fact, I’m sure there’ll be a multitude of different uses for such a system.

But, all of this costs money so – as much as my placement is not primarily about fundraising – the last part of the project should hopefully bring in enough cash to help put some more of these ideas into practice. And, what better way to raise money than a music event featuring the best rock and soul choir in Scotland?! A venue to host the night, starring my beloved Heart of Scotland Choir, has been booked for the eighteenth of May. Now I just need to leave myself enough time to get it properly organised, along with everything else I’m hoping to achieve while I’m working at Strathcarron! Yup, it’s going to be a really busy 4 months, but I simply can’t think of a better cause to be busy for!

Watching a clip from our concert

I wrote last week about the choir's concert in Falkirk Town Hall. Here's a wee video of the last two songs, and - recorded for posterity - my little thank you 'speed poem' right at the very end. (I really wish I'd blown my nose before I started...!) The three children that sing during 'Aint no Mountain' are members of the Heart of Scotland Junior Chorus; an incredibly talented bunch of kids.

The buzz of the morning after the night before

I’m usually slow to wake up in the morning; I usually do that thing of re-setting my alarm a few times before eventually dragging myself out of bed. Once I’m up, I’m fine and tend to be a cheery morning person – it’s just the dragging myself out of bed bit that’s the problem! However this morning, with no alarm set from the night before as today’s Sunday, I woke up with a real ‘ding!!’. You know what I mean? It was as if someone flicked the ‘WAKE UP!’ switch inside my head instead of pulling down slowly on the ‘Aw ..naw.. it’s.. time.. to.. wake up..’ lever!

The fact that the sun was streaming through the bedroom window probably had a bit to do with it, but I’m sure it was more down to the fact that the adrenalin was still flowing after last night’s choir concert. What a brilliant night! It wasn’t the biggest audience we’ve played to (though, as my choir buddy Mair said, “it’s the quality of the audience that counts, not the quantity!”) but it definitely was one of our best gigs.

I’d forgotten what a nice wee venue Falkirk Town Hall is. It’s a cosy theatre, and there was just a really good ‘feel’ about the place; even before the audience arrived. And, they’ve got a fantastic sound system. I always think it must be so frustrating for Annie when we turn up at a gig and the sound arrangements aren’t geared up for our large choir and its accompanying musical instruments. The family members and friends of mine who were in the audience last night - most of whom have been to at least one of our previous concerts - all commented on how different the quality of the sound was. The choir and the band were doing the same as they always do, but when the microphones and other sound equipment are of good quality and set up properly, everything seems to pull together so much better. I guess the audience appreciate the choir and respond more when they can hear all the soloists and harmonies and instruments as they’re meant to be heard. And that must be so satisfying for Annie and Jane too – knowing that all their superb arrangements are being heard, just as they’d intended them to be heard the first time they sat down to work them out! And, as I said, the wee audience were great; whooping and cheering and clapping along.

Ocht, I’m still buzzing – you really can’t beat this feeling. I also had a tiny wee taste of how nerve-wracking it must be to take centre-stage and do a solo! Before we went on stage, Annie and Jane’s sister, Alexis, asked me if I would do the ‘Thank You’s’ at the end of the concert. “The kids are going to come on when the concert's finished and present Annie and Jane with the flowers from the choir, so you'd just need to take the mike and say a few words to thank everyone. Is that OK?”. Well, I definitely wasn’t going to say no – I was deeply touched that Alexis had asked me – but it did make me come out in a bit of a cold sweat! The only time I don’t feel really nervous when I’m speaking in front of an audience, or even a small group, is when I recite one of my poems – so, I sat at the interval and scribbled a few wee verses of thanks! It was a real test of my ability to do ‘speed poetry!’, but I managed to throw enough words together to enable me to take the mike without shaking too much in my shoes (or, to be more accurate, stocking soles) and do the necessary. It was a real privilege to be able to say a heartfelt thank you to the band and Annie and Jane - on behalf of the whole choir - in the way that I love best. Somehow it's always easier when speaking straight from the heart!

So, I’m sitting here bright eyed and bushy-tailed at 8.30 on a beautiful, sunny Sunday morning, looking out at the snow-capped hills and – once again – thanking my lucky stars for that day that Gordon said “Mum, I think I’ve found you the singing group you’ve been looking for.....”

Looking forward to a different kind of buzz from Falkirk

Usually on this day in February I’d be through in Falkirk at the National Cross Country Championships but, unfortunately, I’ve had to give it a miss this year. Alex and Ross are away through and it’ll be weird getting the text or phone call to tell me how Ross’s race has gone; usually I’m running about like a mad thing cheering him on round the course, then doing the same when Alex runs (I’m sure I cover just as many miles spectating as the runners do competing!). It’s a brilliant event; the climax to the cross country running calendar and held in the lovely grounds of Callendar House (as recorded here last year). No matter the result of the races, whether our club’s done well or not-so-well, I've always come away buzzing. I'm kind of sad to be missing it this time around.

However, I will still be buzzing after being in Falkirk later on this day this year – but for a different reason:

It somehow seems kind of fitting that the last time I was in Falkirk Town Hall was many moons ago when I took my Mum to see Gary Wilmot (Yes, I did say Gary Wilmot..!) singing a mixed bag of songs from musicals, stage shows and the charts. Before that, probably the last time I was there was to see the Christmas Pantomime as a child with my Mum and my Gran. So, I’ve got some nice memories of the place and I’m hoping to be adding to those happy memories after performing on the Falkirk Town Hall stage tonight with the choir. This is our first gig since appearing at Stirling Castle on Hogmanay, so I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve been having a last minute practice of the set list while I’ve been doing all my bits and bobs at home today and, as ever, it’s put me in a great mood and left me really looking forward to tonight. I still do that thing sometimes of stepping back and thanking my lucky stars for the night Gordon came home and said, “I think I’ve found you the singing group you’ve been looking for Mum!” Ocht, I just love being part of the Heart of Scotland Choir community!

So, if you’re planning on spending tonight stuck in front of rubbishy Saturday night telly, why don’t you come along instead to Falkirk Town Hall at 8pm and be entertained by a bunch of cheery folk dressed in red singing fantastic covers of songs by the likes of Sting, Coldplay, Queen, Primal Scream, Adele, Simon & Garfunkel and Louis Armstrong! I’m reliably informed that tickets are available to buy on the door – and I can guarantee that you’ll leave the hall with a smile on your face and a song in your heart. Yup, I'm pretty sure that everyone - whether they're a choir or audience member - will leave Falkirk Town Hall tonight feeling great!

Rehearsing (so imagine how it'll sound after a bit of practice and live!):



Our Choir Anthem!:

Having a happy Hogmanay

I didn’t want the first day of the New Year to pass without writing something, so this is going to be a hastily written wee post; we’re just back from the traditional family get-together - and delicious steak pie - at Mum’s and I’ll be heading back out shortly with my ‘Mum’s Taxi’ hat on to collect Gordon from a ceilidh.

I don’t think I could’ve asked for a more enjoyable way to end one year and welcome in the next. The choir had been asked to open proceedings for the Hogmanay celebrations on the esplanade of Stirling Castle. Aw man, I loved every minute of it! The choir were first on – at 9pm - so I wasn’t expecting much of a crowd; how wrong was I?! It was mobbed! The view from the stage was just brilliant. Well, it was brilliant for me, maybe not so much for my choir pals that were standing behind me! Sorry I’m so tall girls! (I should explain that the ‘low harmony’ and ‘the men’ are the two smallest groups in the choir, so Annie places those two groups in the front so that the microphones can pick up our voices over the much bigger melody and mid-harmony groups. So, for my friends that keep ribbing me about it; I don’t push my way to the front – honest!) Annie, yet again, did us all proud and - after a very short sound-check, having to work with a water-logged piano (the rain thankfully went off by the time the show started), having to play a piano which one of the 'technical' guys had put on to the setting labelled 'weird' for our first song, having to rely on the 'technical' folk to sort out a few other wee sound issues during the set, and having to deal with all the other things that she has to think about when taking a big group of folk onto a stage to sing - she guided us through a great set that the crowd clearly loved. It was yet another choir experience I’ll never forget; from the moment we walked out, soaked up the view of all those people standing under our beautiful castle, took our places and sang our songs, till the moment we walked off the stage – I loved every second of it.

Gordon was up on the stage with me while Alex, Gemma and Ross were standing near the front of the crowd - watching and singing along with us. I’m writing this in a hurry and don’t have time to think of the collection of words that could properly express how happy I felt for that twenty minutes or so.

After sharing some very special hugs with some of my choir family, I went off to join my own wee family (minus Gordon, who’d headed off to join his pals) in the crowd. It’s a few years since we’ve all been together for the bells at Hogmanay. Ever since they’ve been old enough to go off and do their own thing, we’ve made it really clear to the kids that they’ve never to feel that we expect them to stay with us for occasions such as this. We’d much rather they were doing what they wanted to do, rather than what they felt obliged to do. So, it was lovely that Gemma and Ross chose to bring in 2012 on the Castle esplanade with their auld maw and paw and we had such a rare time! My home town did itself proud with a line-up of 100% Scottish acts; our choir, an up-and-coming band called The Three Blind Wolves, Eddi Reader and The Red Hot Chilli Pipers. We loved them all and were thoroughly entertained. Alex had made up a wee drink in one of these ‘camel’ things (basically a wee pouch you put on your back with a long tube for sooking from. It’s meant for water top-ups when he’s out running, but was just perfect for our wee New Year dram or six...) so we sang, danced and were very merry by the time the countdown to the bells started! We cooried up, counted down with the crowds, wished each other and everyone around us a Happy New Year then cooried up again for a pretty spectacular firework display. Big well done Stirling council! You’ve redeemed yourself from the mistake of having Wagner play the Castle last year!

Right after the bells, I’d managed to get through to Gordon and Mum on my mobile to wish them a Happy New Year. And I’d held my hands on my heart and whispered, as I’ve done every New Year since 1993, “Wish you were here. Promise I’ll do my best to do you proud again this year. Love you so much Dad.”

After a brilliant finishing set from the Chilli Pipers, we headed off for home; very wet and very bedraggled (the heavens opened just after midnight!), but very happy!

I’ve just received a text calling for Mum’s Taxi, so I’ll finish quickly by wishing you all the very best you could hope for in 2012. I'll leave you with this little snapshot showing just how much I enjoyed my last few minutes of 2011. I'm the mad wifey that's jumping around and 'wooing' about 20 seconds into the video.....

Mulling over my festive highlights

I usually enjoy Christmas, and luckily this year’s been one of the usual. There’ve only been a few years that I’ve not really enjoyed Christmas; the year my Dad died; the year I had a bad dose of gastric flu; the year one of our main contractors went bust and we were struggling to keep our heads above water...anyway, this year I’ve had a great Christmas and I’m trying to decide what to note down as the highlight.

Hmm. Let’s think.

It could’ve been Christmas Eve. A meal out then the movies with Alex, my mum and the kids. I love that we all still enjoy doing that together. I also loved the banter afterwards as we argued about whether we should open our presents at midnight or in the morning. I was doing an early morning SAMS shift and wouldn’t be home till the back of nine on Christmas morning. Alex and the boys were going off for their traditional run up Dumyat (a local hill) with other members of our athletics club at ten thirty – would that hour and a half window be enough time for us all to open all of our pressies?! It’d already been decided that we were doing the round-robin-one-pressie-at-a-time thing, so with six of us taking shots each, present opening was going to take a while! Come midnight, we still hadn’t come to a decision but, fortunately, it was kind of taken out of our hands; after hugging and wishing each other a Merry Christmas, Alex left us to sort it out while he went to the loo (or so we thought...) A few moments later, me, my mum and my three over-sixteen-year-old kids had our conversation interrupted by the sound of a bell ringing and a loud “Ho Ho Ho!” coming from the hall. In a cloud of snow (the wee round paper bits that collect in the base of a paper-punch) in burst Santa (Alex in full Santa gear) himself! “Merry Christmas!”, Santa shouted, quickly followed by, “Shit! I forgot my beard!”.

Off he ran, as quickly as he’d appeared, leaving behind a lot of laughter. Take two was more successful, when Santa re-appeared wearing his big white beard. Once he’d adjusted his tummy stuffing, he proceeded to hand us all wee presents from his big sack. So, at midnight, we opened our Santa presents – the rest could wait till morning! I’ve come to the conclusion that as our kids get older, Alex definitely gets younger – at heart anyway! (Though, you’re never too old for Santa....)

What else has been a highlight? Hmm. Let’s think.

It could’ve been speaking on the radio on Christmas morning! When I got in to the car to drive home after my Samaritans shift, I switched on the radio and Des Clarke (the Capital Radio Breakfast Show DJ) was saying, “I’d like to hear from everyone that’s been out, or is still out, working this Christmas morning. The text number is...”. I don’t think I’ve ever contacted a radio station before in my whole life, but I thought it would be a good wee mention for the SAMS, so I quickly sent off a text just saying that I was on my way home after a SAMS duty and would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. The drive home takes around twenty five minutes, so I listened intently to Des’s chat – hoping for that wee mention - and singing along to the songs in between. By the time I was turning into the village, I’d given up hope of hearing the SAMS mentioned. To be honest, I was a bit miffed as Des had given a mention to some bloke working for a charity looking after stray dogs. Now, I’ve got absolutely nothing against stray dogs but I was like, ‘Come On Des! Surely if you can say hello to the guy at the stray dogs shelter you can say hello to the wifey at Samaritans?!’. Next thing, my phone rang. I just assumed it was someone phoning from home to see when I was coming so that the pressie opening could commence. “Helloooo! I’m nearly home! Two minutes and I’ll be there”, I shouted. (Am I the only person that shouts at the hands-free thingy in their cars?!) “Oh, Hi Jane. Merry Christmas! This is James from Capital Radio. Would you be willing to go live on air and have a word with Des...?” Next thing I knew, less than a minute later, I was pulling in to my driveway and Des was on the line saying we were about to go live. Now, here was a golden opportunity to raise SAMS awareness and chat about all the folk that struggle at this time of year. But, the adrenalin took over, I got all over-excited and spent the whole two minutes that I was on wishing everyone and their granny a ‘Merry Christmas’ and plugging every Heart of Scotland choir gig that came in to my mind!! It’s the second time that I’ve spoken to Des Clarke (I wrote about the first time on a previous post), and both times I’ve been just a tad over-the-top! I’m hoping that some day I’ll get the opportunity to show him that I’m actually quite normal really! So, yup, that was good fun and – even though it was a bit of a missed opportunity to raise SAMS awareness, it let me give a bit of a plug to something else that’s very close to my heart – and was definitely one of my highlights over Christmas.



But that wasn’t the only highlight on Christmas Day. Let’s think, what else?

Opening our pressies; waving the boys off – clad in Santa hats and carrying mulled wine and mince pies in rucksacks – as they left for their run up Dumyat; making a start on the Christmas dinner preparations with my mum and Gemma while the boys were away – it all made me feel toasty inside. Gemma made a rare job of spreading the butter under the turkey’s skin (a job that gives me the heeby-jeeby’s) and mum made a rare job of making the lunch time soup. But we all contributed equally to the plentiful blethering! Yup, that was definitely a highlight of the day.

There were definitely some others though.

I’d taken an executive decision that we all had to choose an ‘activity’ or ‘something’ we could all join in with on Christmas Day. I’d said it could be absolutely anything, as long as all six of us could do it together. I’d said that we weren’t allowed to tell each other what we’d chosen to do until Christmas Day, and I’d said that nobody was allowed to complain about anybody else’s choice. I’m Mum, I make the rules.

My mum had taken the word ‘activity’ a bit too literally, so after our soup we all found ourselves in the lounge, lined up in front of the telly, doing Mum’s Weight Watcher’s exercise DVD! It’s safe to say we laughed more than we exercised and all had a whole lot of fun. I stood at the back and soaked in the sight of my seventy five year old mum leading me, Alex (dressed as Santa again with the red trousers replaced by his running shorts) and the kids in a routine of side-bends and stretches! So, a high benchmark was set by Gran; the rest of us would have a hard job matching her chosen activity in the 'good fun' stakes!

Next, it was Gordon’s turn. He’d decided that we were to sit round the kitchen table and play a card game of Monopoly. I didn’t know you could get Monopoly as a card game, but it didn’t make much of a difference; I was just as rubbish at the card game as I am at the board game! It wasn’t long before I was completely bankrupt and Alex had cleaned us all out to win the game. More importantly, we got through the whole game without anyone falling out, without anyone being accused of cheating and without anyone complaining that it wasn’t fair. Probably a first in the history of Milne family games, so it was another hit in the Christmas Day activity stakes!

We had a wee break so that Gordon could play with his new toy for a while (Gordon got an iphone from Santa. He’d no idea he was getting one and it’d been brilliant to see his reaction after opening several boxes within boxes. Ocht, you’re never too old for boxes within boxes...) and I could do a bit more dinner prep! Then it was my turn to tell everyone what my chosen ‘thing’ was. Anyone who reads this blog regularly could probably have predicted my choice, so the rest of my family weren’t at all surprised when I told them we were all going to have a sing-song together. Now, that’s not all that unusual in our house, but I’d decided we weren’t just going to sing, we were going to sing in harmony! So, I took Alex to one corner to teach him the low harmony part, Gordon took his Gran and his big brother off to another corner to learn the melody and Gemma took herself off to another room to learn the middle harmony part; twenty minutes later we all got together (picture the Partridge Family except much cooler and without the big white teeth and perfect timing...) and sang the Milne version of one of my favourite choir songs. Aw, I know sounds a bit naff, but I just loved it – and my wee family did Annie’s arrangement proud!

As if that wasn’t enough excitement for one Christmas Day, we still had our dinner to get through. It was definitely a case of “it’s not what’s on the table, but who’s sitting around it that matters!” All the fun and frivolity throughout the day meant that the turkey was a little bit overdone, the spuds were a wee bit soggy and the gravy was a big bit lumpy! But the wine was just right and - on top of the little aperitifs we’d been supping earlier (t’was thirsty work doing all those activities..) – it ensured that the volume of the chit-chat and laughter rose steadily as the meal progressed! Even though the food wasn’t up to my usual standards, Christmas dinner was one of the highlights of the day.

Now, there was a time that the Master of the Milne house’s Man Drawer would’ve contained every type of battery imaginable. Alas, that was when the kids were little and had all sorts of toys that required all sorts of batteries. Just for a laugh, Ross had bought a kiddie’s game that required 2 ‘C’ batteries – none of which were to be had in any of our drawers. So, Ross’s choice of ‘thing to do’ (‘Elefun’, which involves trying to catch, in little nets, little paper butterflies that shoot out of a long, blue elephant’s trunk that’s attached to a motorised fan disguised as a toy elephant) had to be abandoned. Alex did have a go at trying to set up a sort of Heath Robinson contraption with one of our electric fans, but it failed miserably. The whole palaver was so entertaining and watching Alex and Ross trying to get this wee kiddies game to work was priceless. Nope, you’re definitely never too old for kiddies games at Christmas...

By the time we moved on to Alex’s choice of ‘something to do’ it was fairly late in the evening and the wine and other festive spirits had been flowing for quite a long time. Alex doesn't like the board game 'Cranium', but the rest of us do. So, none of us were too surprised when he announced that that was his choice. If you’re familiar with the game, you’ll know it helps to have a bit of artistic talent. It involves making wee plasticine models, drawing doodles, doing charades, solving anagrams - it's like a load of different games rolled in to one. So, as the least artistic members of the family, Ross and I were delighted to come up trumps as the winners. It was just as well that the game ended when it did as some of the plasticine models were becoming just a wee bit inappropriate...! Laughing at Gordon trying to keep his cool while his sozzled Dad tried to act, make models, draw and spell; and at Gemma being the most patient I’ve ever seen her as she made sure that her Gran didn’t feel too inadequate with her acting, model-making, drawing and spelling, and sharing lots of laughs with my team-mate as we romped home to victory - all contributed to making it such a great highlight of my day.

Gemma’s game was put onto the back boiler as we’d kind of forgotten that there’s a limited number of hours in a day. Even Christmas Day. So, knowing Gemma, we can look forward to some sort of imaginative and challenging activity in the Milne household in the not-too-distant future!

It dawned on me, as we all stumbled off to bed, that the telly hadn’t been on all day (except for Gran's exercise DVD!). I liked that. As I settled down for the night, I had a bit of a fuzzy head and a bit of an aching tummy; I’m not sure if it stemmed from the not-quite-up-to-scratch dinner or the non-stop laughing. Either way, it didn’t stop me going out like a light with a smile on my face and quietly thanking my lucky stars for my wee family. I love them all very much and they’d all contributed to a Christmas full of far too many highlights to mention!

I woke up the next morning hoping that another batch of festive highlights would ensue when more of my family, along with Alex’s family and our oldest friends came later for our traditional Boxing Day gathering. I wasn’t to be disappointed! Now, let’s think, what was the highlight of Boxing Day?

Hm, on second thoughts, that’s maybe best left for some other time....!

Writing a wee poem about the Bertie

I think I should apologise to anybody reading this who doesn’t belong to the Heart of Scotland Choir. Yes, I am still harping on about our concert the other night!

I've not been sleeping all that well since Saturday (surely it can’t still be the adrenalin?!) so I spent some time late last night writing one of my wee poems. I’ve found - in the past - that scribbling a poem about an experience can help to unravel my thoughts about it. So, here's my thought-sorting ditty about the Bertie experience! I’ve recorded me reciting it as it doesn’t really make as much sense when you read it without my intonations (which is the same for most of my poems – and that’s why I’ll never win any prizes for poetry!!). However, Youtube's playing silly buggers with me tonight and I can't get the video to upload. So, the written version will have to do for now!

My thoughts on The Bertie Experience

When the choir last performed at the Bertie,
I was sat watching TV,
I’d never heard of Heart of Scotland,
It really meant nothing to me.

But luckily Gordon had gone along
With a crowd of his pals from school,
And when I went to pick him up
He was like, “Aw Mum, that was SO cool!”

So when we got home we looked on the web
And checked out the songs on Youtube,
I was like, “Wow, they’re awesome!
I didn’t expect them to be THAT good!"

Now, fast forward to nine months later
(As the whole story would take me an age)
To the choir’s next Bertie performance,
And there we were – up on the stage!

We first sang 'I’m So Excited'
As an opener, the perfect song
As all of our friends and our families
Could clap, cheer and sing along.

'I wish' I could bottle that feeling,
- So high you could 'Rule the World' -
By the time we sang 'Viva La Vida',
All tension and nerves had unfurled.

We sang 'Lean on Me' acapella,
And sounded like 'Angels' above,
It was just 'Like a Prayer' had been answered
As the audience showed us their love.

The appreciation continued
When we sang the next song in the show,
'This is Now' which was written
Just a few short weeks ago.

It's another one written for the choir
By Ray's two talented daughters
They write and support one another
Like a 'Bridge over Troubled Waters'!

The Simon/Garfunkel classic
Was a favourite at the Bertie, I’ve heard,
Jane and Drew sung so beautifully
And many a tear was shed.

The next song we sang is a belter,
It’s always sung out loud and proud,
So 'Firework' sung at the Bertie
Went down a real treat with the crowd!

I’ll pause here to mention how talented
Our choir leader Annie is,
Time and again her 'True Colours' shine through
And the gig at the Bertie showed this.

Not only did Annie play piano,
And direct so we knew what to do,
And sing with the choir and sing solos,
And chat to the audience too.

She’d also arranged nearly all of the songs,
In her own special wonderful way,
And 'Somebody Told Me' she’d taken the Juniors
Earlier on in that day!

'What a Wonderful World' she’s created,
Along with her talented sis,
In the truly special and magical thing
That the Heart of Scotland is.

The song that came next at the Bertie
Was the anthem that Greig sings so well,
Representing a story
Only 'Movin on Up' can tell.

And then it was nearly the interval,
Time to head back up the stair,
But not before we’d rocked the hall
With 'Livin on a Prayer'!

A quick chat with pals and a wee drink of juice
And plenty of plaudits already,
Before we went back to our place on the stage,
Though this time our nerves were more steady!

The opening song of the second half
Had the audience all going “Bless!”
When the choir weans lined up at the front
And gave 'Give it Away' their best!

Everyone was looking forward
- Choir and audience alike -
To hear Annie sing 'Here You Come Again',
A highlight, for sure, of the night.

We all clapped, were delighted to see
Our Annie take centre-stage,
With Steve on piano, Becky on drums
And the lovely Laurie on bass.

The musicians that night were all awesome,
We saw just how talented they are,
Including Dianne with her tambu
And John with his 'Babylon' guitar!

Team Sting then sang 'Every Breath You Take'
And they certainly did themselves proud,
Then we sang one of my favourite songs,
Annie’s 'Above the Clouds'.

It sounded just 'Perfect' and everyone gasped
When it was explained to them all,
That Annie had written this beautiful song
When she was just 13 years old!

'Don’t Stop Me Now' was another hit,
It’s a song that I really love,
The choir and the soloists just let themselves go
T’was the stuff that 'Sweet Dreams' are made of!

'Fix You' was lovely, and sung with such heart,
From the audience there wasn’t a peep,
Then Greig, Drew and Paul raised the tempo and roof
With the awesome 'Rolling in the Deep'.

Ruby had featured throughout the show,
But she captured everyone’s heart,
By enchanting us with her rendition of
'Flower of Scotland' right from its start.

Then it was time for 'Second Summer',
The song that we all adore,
But that meant the show was nearly done
And we would be singing no more!

The crowd weren’t ready to let us away though
Not quite that easily,
So we popped on our cheery Santa hats
For our special wee 'Christmas Medley'!

And then, that was it, the Bertie was done,
We bowed and walked off to the right,
We said our Goodbyes then we headed off home
To reflect on our fantastic night.

From learning the songs at rehearsals,
To finding the perfect red gear,
I loved the WHOLE Bertie experience,
And cant wait to go back there next year!

(13 December 2011)

....I’d hoped that doing this would give me a better chance of a good sleep tonight but, in a moment of madness, I agreed to let Gordon have the ‘after-party’ following his Senior Dance. Thirty odd sixteen year olds will be descending upon us at midnight - clad in their kilts and posh frocks and still raring to go - so I think the chances of me (or Alex) getting a good night’s sleep lie somewhere between slim and none! Ocht well, there’s always tomorrow night.....

...Several hours later...

Video has uploaded at last (though not sure I should be posting it as I'm looking pretty scary!)

Lots of things in a busy weekend - and chatting to Des and Jennie!

I’ve got up this morning feeling happy knackered and looking forward to another busy week ahead.

Saturday was spent up in St Andrews with Gemma and Alex supporting Ross in the Scottish Uni Cross Country Championships. He had a brilliant run and I was so proud to see him coming in as a counter for the Strathclyde team – the cherry on the cake was a silver medal for his efforts! Being up there on Gemma’s ‘Uni’ home turf somehow made the day even more special and we really enjoyed spending time with her over a chatty lunch after the race. I was spoiled, having Gemma at home for a full week a couple of weeks ago, and the house has been feeling too empty ever since.

Saturday night was spent in Larbert singing with the choir at a gig to raise funds for Kidney Research. One of the girls in the choir, Pauline, had arranged the evening to celebrate a family success story. Her gorgeous wee niece had received the gift of a kidney from her own Dad - Pauline’s brother - just over a year ago. The night was made so much more special by being able to see a successful result of the fantastic work that renal units do every day. And, aw man, the Bellshill Sally Army Brass Band were playing too. I love the sound of a big brass band, but they were in a league of their own! Honest – they were brilliant! They did spine-tingling renditions of things like the music from Lion King, Andrew Lloyd Webber songs and the most beautiful version of My Love is Like a Red Red Rose. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the hall. I never could’ve imagined that I would write a blog post about how good it made me feel to be sharing a stage with the Salvation Army on a Saturday night! I love life’s unexpected moments of lovliness! Great car-chat on the way home with my buddy, Christine, topped off a fabulous night.

Most of Sunday was spent in front of the computer doing some work for a charity placement scheme I’m applying for, but I had a lovely break from it in the afternoon to sing with the choir at the switching on of the Christmas lights in Stirling. Annie had been told, by the organisers, that only a few people could stand up on the stage so my wee section – the low harmony group – were up there, undercover, with Annie. It felt really weird looking over to the rest of the choir - standing in a cordoned off area outside in the intermittent rain - and just not being all together. As ever, we just all got on with it and Annie made sure we made the best of a difficult arrangement – it certainly can’t have been easy for her, having to coordinate us all while we were spread all around. However, as professional as ever, she just got on with it and made the very best of the difficult situation. We always sing live, with no recorded backing tracks or anything like that, and that can sometimes make things much more testing – especially in an outside environment, or when there aren’t enough microphones provided – but if the Heart of Scotland choir are asked to perform, they perform live. That can make the performance technically much more challenging, but Annie and Jane are never afraid to meet those challenges head on.

It was the first gig that Ross has made it along to. I felt so great when I saw him standing there, out in the rain, looking knackered (he’d had a late night out celebrating the events of the day before with his running pals), supporting his auld maw doing her wee thing. And, he’d really enjoyed it -even with the sound issues at some points during our set - he heard enough to give us a big seal of approval! To round off the excitement, I had a hug and a chat with Des and Jennie!! You know who I mean? They do the Breakfast Show on Capital Radio. Anyway, when we came down off the wee stage, they were standing waiting to go on. I made a bit of an arse of myself (remember, the endorphins are always flowing when you sing, so I was a wee bit over-excited!) by being a wee bit over-zealous in my chat to them, but they were really lovely and humoured me by chatting and telling me they thought the choir sounded brilliant! Feeling brave with the confidence that feeling great gives you, I said, “Aw, that’s so great! I’m so glad you liked it. So, when can we come on your show then?” Des told me to email him the details and, as long as we could sing something modern, he’d see what he could do! Ocht, maybe he was just humouring me, but it was so nice of him to spend the time to chat! I had a bit of a mild panic later, thinking about how it’s not my place to go telling folk we’ll perform for them – but hopefully Annie and Jane didn’t mind too much – especially if we do manage to get a wee slot on Capital, or even a wee plug for our concert in a few weeks at the Albert Halls in Stirling! (10th of December, if you’d like to come along!)

Back at home, a nice meal with the family (except Gemma) followed by the completion – in the wee small hours – of my placement application topped off a really great weekend. I’m heading out for a busy day of bits and bobs shortly, but first, I think I’ll send that email to Des and Jennie – just in case they were serious about having a wee visit from a great choir with a big heart to their studios. And, let’s face it, nothing ventured......

Watching Gareth Malone do his thing

I love watching Gareth Malone at work. D’you know who I mean? I first saw him on the telly a couple of years ago when he took a bunch of bored, disillusioned folk from a deprived area down in England - South Oxhey - and transformed them into a fantastic community choir. I thoroughly enjoyed the series and I remember saying to Alex, ‘I really wish there was something like that here in Stirling. I’d love to be a part of that kind of choir...’.  What a difference a couple of years can make!

I suppose, up until then, I’d always thought of choirs as consisting of big groups of classically-trained singers who could all read music, stood in a regimented group at the front of a church or concert hall, moved nothing except their very wide mouths, held matching black folders, wore matching white or black shirts and hauntingly harmonised the kind of songs that I’d never sing in the shower.  I obviously knew about gospel and rock choirs, but if anyone had told me they were a member of a choir, the classical churchy set-up is the one that would’ve sprung to my mind. I remember looking for a choir in the Stirling area and the only ones I could find were of the choral music, traditional sort. One that I came across at the time was the Stirling City Choir, so it was nice to go along to one of their performances held in my mum’s church last night. The evening was called ‘A Festival of Gifts’. In my naivety, I thought the idea was for the church’s members simply to benefit from the gift of beautiful music. What the idea actually turned out to be was to entice the church members in with the promise of some beautiful singing then hit them with a power-point presentation detailing the state of the church’s finances and explaining lots of different ways that the members could improve the state of the church’s affairs in the form of different financial ‘gifts’! Hmph. Still, I had a lovely night. Gemma came along and we joined my mum and her good friend Jan; we were all a bit like the cheeky school-children in amongst the pretty staid audience, but we sat back and thoroughly enjoyed the choir’s beautiful performance (except the part when they got a wee bit lost with their ‘Amens’ during the Amen Chorus). It really brought it home to me though that I made the right choice by not joining a more traditional choir. It just seemed so serious and, well, stuffy if I’m being honest. There just didn’t seem to be any kind of mojo about them. Ocht, I’m sure the members love their choir and have great fun at their rehearsals – and they certainly produced a beautiful sound – but it just didn’t produce the same kind of ‘feel-good’ vibe that I like to think oozes from the Heart of Scotland; the choir that I’m now very privileged to be a member of.

Anyway, I’ve totally digressed from Gareth! When we came home last night we settled down to watch his new series on the telly. Aw man, it was such a good opening programme. This time he’s taking a group of military wives and girlfriends and forming them into a community choir while their partners are away on a tour of duty in Afghanistan. It really brought it home to me just how difficult it is for these women, and their children, when they’re left behind on the base. So, the idea is that Gareth is giving them something to focus on; something that’ll raise their self-confidence and also bring them closer together to support each other through the trials and tribulations of living on a pretty isolated military base while coping with the emotional turmoil of the long wait for their partners to return home, hopefully, safe and sound.

One of the most touching parts of the programme was when Gareth asked the women to audition for a solo part. Initially no one would come forward. You could almost hear what some of them were thinking, just by looking at the expressions on their faces: “There’s no way I’m doing that, I might make a complete ass of myself”, or “I know I could sing that, but I don’t want folk to think I’m a show-off” or “I think I could sing that, maybe not brilliantly, but I think I could just about manage it. But I’m too shy to give it a go”. However, with some gentle coaxing and persuasion by Gareth, some of the women hesitantly made their way to the front and sang the solo audition piece. It brought a big lump to my throat. It’ll seem like such a trivial thing if you didn’t see the programme, or haven’t witnessed or experienced that kind of thing, but it was honestly so inspiring to see these woman find the courage that it takes to stand up and sing alone in front of folk. It's a different kind of courage to the kind required by their partners out in Afghanistan, but it's courage all the same. The woman who, for me, stood out – not because she was the ‘best’ singer, but simply because she sang straight from the heart – was the one chosen to sing the solo. When the time came for the choir to do their first public performance, the companionship, camaraderie, boosted confidence, positive vibe and sheer feel-good factor were almost tangible throughout. It was brilliant TV.

 
I'm so chuffed that, after spending a good while looking, I did eventually find the choir in Stirling that totally floats my boat (I may just have mentioned it in previous posts...!). We have two of our very own Gareth Malones in the form of Annie and Jane, we have a whole bunch of folk who've benefitted in so many different ways from being a member of a very special community choir, and when we sing I reckon we mostly do it straight from the heart. Yup, much of Gareth's programme last night felt very, very familiar....