30/9/2006
Why do I never give warning in advance when I'm going to run away for ages? It would've been a lot more helpful to say a fortnight back that I was off to Italy on an orchestra tour than to just leave the page blank for no obvious reason...
Anyway, said tour was fantastic :-D. The town that my school is in is twinned with the Italian town of Potenza Picena, so Potenza is the focus of the tour, and their Grappolo D'oro festival was mad. After we'd played four concerts in the first two days we were free to party for the weekened (although the hockey team and the tour's "rock" band did still have some productive things to do). Essentially the festival is a weekend-long piss-up, with quite an array of things to entertain you in your drunken state.
On saturday night, as enormously surreal carnival performers circled the garden which was the centre of the known world as far as Potenza's youth culture, I had the good fortune to pop into the judo club. In there I found a band with superb taste in the tracks they covered, and great energy in putting them across. Yes, my enjoyment of the event might just have been heightened by the very reasonably priced beverages available to all and sundry, but I'm sure sober or not I'd have enjoyed hearing Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Cure as a welcome antidote to the rubbish we'd largely been playing in our concerts. The band's keyboard player, Andrea, was the star of the tour for many of us - as he was hosting one of our happy band (Ollie) we saw him around quite a bit, and he never failed to entertain with very impressive wit, especially for someone who probably wasnt fully comfortable with the language he was speaking. Unfortunately the best lines were either based around "in jokes", or NSFW, so you'll just have to take my word for it ;-)
Although coming back was, of course, a great disappointment in many ways, after such a fantastic week, I was grateful to discover that I've only fallen a couple of years behind everyone else at school... Being back in the country also allowed for another hugely positive musical development: a county Flute Choir has been newly created this year, and I've been invited to join. The first rehearsal was the day after my return from gallivanting across the continent, and it shows rather a lot of promise. I suspect it'll take a couple of weeks for me to really feel like I've fitted in, especially as I'm the only bloke there - I was expecting more girls than boys, as is always the case with the flute, but I wasn't really prepared for being outnumbered by such an extent. This notwithstanding, it was quite a joyful experience: not only did I get to try out the bass flute (it's quite a monster, by the way, and although fun I didn't really fall in love with it straight away), but there was also the supreme advantage of finally playing real music in an ensemble - having languished in a school orchestra who's stock material consists of such wonders as "Aint No Mountain High Enough", "Sleigh Ride" and (new for this term, joy of joys) "Elton John's Greatest Hits". Mmmm, taste the sarcasm in that sentence... Unfortunately transport home afterwards seems to rely pretty heavily on the parents (buses around here suck badly), and when said parents aren't around it may prove impossible to go (or at least to get back). Even more unfortunately, next week looks like being such an occasion, and missing only the second rehearsal would be less than brilliant :-(
Suggestions gratefully received...
9/9/2006
Dan Hills doesn't wear a watch, he decides what time it is.
It's that time of the year when we try to find some suitable people to elect as Head Boy/Girl & deputies. Of course the contest immediately becomes one of popularity to most of the voters, and the rest of us decide based on how funny the candidates campaigns are... So all in all it's pretty similar to most national elections. One campaign that's going particularly well on the comedy front is that of Dan Hills - a thoroughly good chap, and, according to his campaign team, capable of some quite astonishing feats.
In an average living room there are 1,242 objects Dan Hills could use to kill you, including the room itself.
(I should explain that these phrases aren't actually originally devised for the campaign - a selection of facts have been picked from a website about some fellow called Chuck Norris. This meant that they could produce an incredible number of the facts almost instantly - try it yourself with a random friend's name).
Dan Hills sold his soul to the devil for his rugged good looks and unparalleled martial arts ability. Shortly after the transaction was finalised, Dan roundhouse-kicked the devil in the face and took his soul back. The devil, who appreciates irony, couldn't stay mad and admitted he should have seen it coming. They now play poker every second Wednesday of the month.
The only downside to this superb campaign is that Dan Hills isn't actually standing for election. He was for a brief period, but decided against it - I understand that the plan from his campaign team is that they'll get him so many supporters that he'll be elected even without his name on the ballot paper.
Dan Hills crossed the road. No one has ever dared question his motives.
6/9/2006
Back to school today - at the second attempt... (marked on the calendar as being yeasterday, so off we went, drove the half hour to school, found no-one there, turned round and came back. I had to wake up for that!). I think this year's going to take quite a lot of getting used to: not only are we suddenly the big kids, but the year 12s (with whom we'll now mix far more, theoretically as one big happy sixth form family) are really quite scarey :-( Some are quite normal, good people, but on first impressions this doesn't seem the case for the majority :-P
Of course, now I'm going to discover that half the school reads this page, so is suddenly hugely offended. Unlikely, I suspect :-)
However, generally speaking it's good to be back with some really good people. Although I haven't missed them hugely over the summer, that was largely because I was with other wonderful people instead (mostly at greenbelt - the rest of the time the good people were in my head ;-)).