A Long Lunch

Why does my life involve so many Saturday mornings when I have to get up early?? Today was another Chorus recording session and the call time was 9:30am. Ugh! Still, it was a short session. We were at the Cadogan Hall, off Sloane Square, but we only had it until 1pm as another group had it booked this afternoon.

The recording all went well but towards the end it was quite comical: We were finishing up with a beautifully atmospheric piece called ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ which gets quieter with each verse until the last one is sung almost sotto voce. However by then we were all getting rather hungry and I’m sure that there will be at least five different people’s stomach growls on the final few takes.

After the recording, Brett and I were invited back to Mark G’s for lunch with a few of the other choristers. We stopped off at a Sainsbury’s on the way for provisions and then headed on to the small, but beautifully decorated, top floor flat he shares with his partner Chris in Pimlico. There we dined on charcuterie, cheese, fish and humous accompanied by a variety of fresh breads and pink champagne with strawberries. It turned out that this was the unofficial housewarming party, as they had only moved in three weeks ago. It was a most enjoyable afternoon – and reminded us that we need to get our entertaining organised a bit better. But then that probably goes for most of the rest of our lives too. Ho hum.

After a long leisurely lunch and engaging conversation we made our excuses and departed. Brett headed off to Putney to collect his comics while I went home via Waterstones, in the hope of finding the second book of the series I am reading at the moment. They didn’t have the book, so I came home and ordered it from Amazon (and the two books that follow it!) as I want to make sure I have plenty to read when we finally do go on holiday!

One pleasant surprise when I got home was a neatly typed envelope, stamped ‘Private and Confidential’ and addressed to me. It was an invitation to an interview for appointment as a Magistrate for the London Courts. It’s only taken eighteen months to arrive, but now it’s finally here I need to prepare for it. Need to buy a new suit too. I haven't needed to wear one in a couple of years and the ones I have are pretty threadbare anyway. Time to splash out I suppose – and hope I do well at interview so I actually get to wear it some more!