On the Upbeat?

Work seems to be on a more even keel now so I am able to turn my attention back to pro-active projects, which is a whole pile more interesting and less stressful than things have been recently. Today I’ve been working on configuring Microsoft’s latest updates management software and, in parallel, started a concerted roll-out of some client-side software that we need to have in place. The new updates management is reasonably smart stuff; as well as marshalling all of the updates for the Windows system itself it also tracks updates to the Office suite (Word, Excel, Outlook, etc.) and the main back-end server (Email and Database) systems. It’s a new gadget for me to play with anyway, so I’m happy…

After a couple of months away, the Chorus is looming large on my agenda again. Last night I was at the Membership Committee meeting and landed myself a number of action points, the most serious of which is doing some preparatory work for a ‘constitutional discussion’ we are going to be having next month; there are a number of problems with the way the Chorus is organised at the moment which we need to address. Last year I did a lot of work developing a fairly tight set of Election Procedures for the Chorus and found it all rather enjoyable – despite some of the rather vicious arguments which resulted. I seem to have some minor talents in the field of legal-thinking (and hope I know enough to know what I don’t know, so as to not be too dangerous with it!) so I’m quite looking forward to getting involved with reviewing how we are constituted and finding ways to improve it.

Watch this space though, as it is likely to be a lengthy, complicated and probably quite political task, so before you know it I’ll be using my blog to moan about it all…

I’ve also been spending some time in the last couple of days playing around with a new bulletin board system that Brett has been configuring for the Chorus to replace the rather restrictive Yahoo Groups that we currently use for discussion forums. I love being involved with the creation of new systems!

This evening, after chomping my microwaved chicken and rice dinner, I got down to practicing some of the piano pieces I need to work on for tomorrow night’s course. I am doing fine on most of them, but one of them starts on the upbeat (there are only three of the four notes you expect in the first bar) and I am having the worst time trying to get my head around it. I can play the tune (When the Saints Go Marching In) perfectly well if I start on the first beat, but that isn’t quite how it’s written and doesn’t sound the same and it’s doing my head in that I can’t get it right!

I am wondering if I made the wisest choice of course; by going for a night-school course I am in a class of fifteen with only two pianos to work on, so the one-on-one tuition and the opportunities to learn and practice new skills in the class are fairly limited; you have to manage these things by yourself, outside of class, without the benefit of the tutor giving you tips. Possibly when this course finishes at Christmas I’ll look for a personal piano teacher near work or here in Wimbledon. But would I be able to find a teacher of the same class as Haruko though? Hmm.

This weekend Brett and I are driving up to Keswick in the Lake District to join my parents and some of their friends for a walking weekend (well actually my parents aren’t doing any walking while we are there, they have one of their agricultural shows on the Saturday so will only be in the Lakes for the dinners on the Friday and Saturday evenings!) I am in two minds whether I want to go. I suspect I could do with a total get-away weekend and the fresh air and exercise would likely do me good, but at the same time I could also enjoy a couple of long lie-ins and doing some of the tasks I keep putting off ‘until I have time.’ At least the weather is forecast to be reasonable and I’ve finally found my own walking boots – last time I had to wear a borrowed pair which were slightly too small, gave me blisters and bruises everywhere and resulted in one of my toenails falling off!

I am missing Brett. I’d just gotten re-used to having him around to talk to and let off steam with and snuggle with and now he’s off in foreign parts again. At least this time it’s only for a couple of days every couple of months, but right now I really feel the lack of him.

Bah. Time for an early night I think. I am not in the greatest of moods.