The adventures of Miss Despina

With only two months until I go to Prague, I am beginning to panic:

• I have never worked in a library in this country, let alone anywhere else.
• My Czech is very, very limited, despite my efforts to learn. It is a very difficult language, and I’ve only ever studied romance languages. So far I can just about do the pleasantries and after that I’m lost.
• I think that English people deserve the stereotype of being inherently ignorant when it comes to learning other languages - I don’t want to reinforce this stereotype.
• I have heard that some people go to work at 7 or 8 in the morning. It’s just not going to happen for me without a superhuman effort.
• Although I can be fairly outgoing, sometimes I am incredibly shy. This makes things difficult, especially when there’s a language barrier.
• I am not really very good at looking after myself.
• My boyfriend will be in the UK for most of the time I am in Prague.
• I often make social blunders, so times this by ten for when I’m in a new culture.
• I need to find a singing teacher for whilst I’m there.
• I’m scared I’ll be ill when I’m over there. This is probably my biggest worry.
• I don’t have a lot of cash, as I’ve been too ill to work much recently, and people seem to think that I’m so desperate to be heard that they don’t have to pay me for singing gigs. (Sunday not included in this generalisation, by the way.) Oh, and an ex who owes me somewhere between £1,500 and £2,000. If I’d had any sense I’d have charged interest. Actually no, if I’d had any sense I wouldn’t have lent him the cash in the first place, nearly two years ago… closure?
• And that’s about it.

Thanks for listening.

D x 

The combination of all of this gave me the feeling of being in the hills in Tuscany, not in the middle of Lancashire. This feeling was added to by the Latin Mass and the piety of the service. It was delicious.
The music went very well. Anthony had worked so hard to get us all together with appropriate music. He chose a very straightforward Victorian mass and anthems, for which I am grateful, considering that we began rehearsing at 9 o’clock. However he looked after us wonderfully well with tea and bacon butties before, and champagne afterwards! It was a really good sound in a delightful building, and as always I met new singers who I hope I’ll get chance to sing alongside again. I love that first sing after I’ve been ill for a few weeks, it feels so good!

Sarah II
Originally uploaded by Jez.

Congratulations Sara and Terry!

You read it here first!

Friday was a gorgeous day for a wedding. The sun was shining onto the lawn outside the castle, with only a slight breeze, which meant that Sara and Terry could have an outdoor ceremony. This was really very special. There were only 30 or so guests, a piper, a string quartet, the minister and his wife, and the photographer. It was not a traditional wedding, thank goodness. Everything ran really smoothly and the ceremony itself was beautiful. After the vows - which were specially chosen - Terry’s sister and Sara’s children read, I sang, and then we all had champagne and canapés before going into dinner. It all seemed to be over very quickly.
Sara looked stupendous in her purple and platinum dress (shame you can’t see her wonderful shoes here), and the men looked great in their kilts, especially Terry. I think those two are the most sickeningly well-suited couple I know. It was such a pleasure to share Friday with them.
(Incidentally, our journey was a nightmare, we only just made it in time - Jez has never seen me get ready as quickly as I did when we got to our hotel half an hour before the wedding began. Bloody caravans! Then we meandered home along country roads, but as I don’t drive I was just feeling increasingly guilty, and when we finally got home, was forced to admit that I had no idea it was so far. But well worth it!)