Monthly Archives: June 2004

We got to Haddington in record time, nicely without any drizzle, rehearsed for 2 hours (ugh!), then had dinner across the street at a hotel…then back to St Mary’s church (acoustics were fabulous!) where we did our almost 2 hr concert with intermission for about 10 guests, not including our “groupies,” bus driver, & tour courier. Ah, well…! We still gave it our all, and here’s the best compliment from courier Nick about Graham the bus driver…”Graham usually listens to the first half of ACFEA concerts, then leaves at intermission, but this time he STAYED!” Haha! Shenandoah was Graham’s favorite song ever and he loved our performance of it! Nick said he was very impressed at what an energetic performance we gave for such a small audience, which was good to hear, since we were trying our best. Daniel said he had to choke back tears of overwhelmed emotion three times, and several choir members also were moved to tears…awwww…

St Mary’s is a beautiful stone church, which a very large graveyard in front…those of you who know me well enough of course would guess what I did next…photos of gravestones for Halloween research of course! There were quite some impressive & intricate stones, so I am already inspired to make more gravestones for this coming Halloween…

We got back too late for the last of the Edinburgh ghost tours, alas, and now it’s a question of the hotel bar or venturing out elsewhere…since we must be packed & checked out by around 8:30am to leave by 9:30 for Ravenscar, it can’t be too wild a night…but you never know…at least no concerts tomorrow so our voices have a break! 😉

Until next time!

Sorry I didn’t get to update last night, but didn’t get back to the hotel until after midnight & I forgot there was the internet 9p/minute by the bar until I was already in bed… 😉

Anyway, the concert went very well yesterday at St Giles, with my new DV camcorder & my stereo mic up high in a balcony where one of the stained glass windows was being restored…I’m so glad my wide angle lens came at 4:30pm before I left work last Friday because it was definitely worth it for all the architecture and stained glass inside the cathedral!

After the concert was over, it was a whirlwind bus ride back to the hotel, with only 15 minutes to change clothes, then a whirlwind lunch at the St James Mall food court before our guided bus tour of the city with a cute-voiced woman named Jean. The tour ended at Edinburgh Castle, which was great of course…I’ve yet to be disappointed by any castle of course, even though I had seen Edinburgh back in 1997. We had been lucky so far with weather, but it started sprinkling as we left the castle, so instead of staying on the Royal Mile because shops were closing anyway, most of us took the bus back to the hotel, then met again around 6:15 int he hotel lobby to leave for dinner…(Melanie left on a train for Glasgow to meet her friend Jo)…

So, Peggy, Sheila, Mark, Asa, Will, Ben, Steve, Michael, Keith, Jack, Johnathon, Galt, Robin, Juanita and I took 3 vans to the Claremont Pub at the east end of the city. We walked in, I looked up at the decorative shelf above the bar to see a Trek commbadge clock, a few starship models (Defiant, Enterprise, Voyager), and upstairs where we ate, there was a whole collection of Star Trek “fact guides!” hahaha…I had a steak pie with “jacket potato” (baked potato) with a pint of Blackthorn cider on tap but I only ate half of each…but I did share some chocolate mousse with Sheila…yummy!

After dinner, we sang (yes, Market Woman) even though Robin was the only soprano there, then moved along to the recommended Newtown Pub on Dublin St. They had these vodka mudshakes, in caramel, chocolate and mint…I had the mint at it was so yummy, Robin decided she had to get her own…Peggy, Sheila & Keith left us soon after…since some of us wanted to dance, CC Blooms was recommended, but when we got there, we realized that we were the whole party, so we left pretty soon…but what would you really expect on a Tuesday night anyway? 😉

Even though I knew it would be a long walk, it hadn’t been raining since the afternoon, and it was a nice night, so I suggested walking through town down Princes St so we could the the castle and other nice buildings lit up at night…it was quite a long walk, about 45 minutes, but it was almost balmy – for Scotland anyway! 😉 Many photo ops were taken by Robin, Juanita and myself (both still & video for me), and the tenors took the opportunity to have a walking sectional on the Vidu section of one of our competition pieces…boy were there strange looks from passersby! hehe…

As for this morning, I slept in, making it to breakfast at 9:20 when it closes at 9:30, had haggis & oatmeal with a small piece of black pudding, too…then off to the Royal Mile with Daniel, Keith & Keith’s mom Joan…since Joan had knee surgery not too long ago, we took a cab to the castle, then proceeded to make our way leisurely down the Royal Mile, but only about halfway…Dan bought a nice cashmere turtleneck (“poloneck” here) cable-knit sweater on sale, and I found some tartan remnants for 99p each…I got red & green ones for my Christmas decorating, since I already have some Oglvie tartan I still haven’t figured out what to make…

Only 8 minutes left of my half-hour, so I’d better make sure this posts to LiveJournal…we’re leaving in an hour for Haddington (1.5 hrs outside Edinburgh) for our next concert…if we get back early enough tonight, some of us might try a late-night haunted city tour…I took one back in 1997 that was very cool, and in the years since, there are TONS more tours now, so obviously I’m not the only one who enjoyed them…

Until next time!

P.S. Yes Tracia, if I had not been with a tour group where I’d often have to leave my own laptop at the mercy of hotel or bus security, I’d have been more tempted to get it fixed in time to leave… 😉

Well, after a very LONG & cramped flight (my knees were permanently shoved up against the seat in front of me!), we made it to Heathrow without much sleep at all, then the connecting flight to Edinburgh…customs & immigration were nice & easy since our bags were checked at customs for us while we went through the domestic terminal painlessly with our passports & carryons…

After a shower & a short nap for Melanie & me, we all went to dinner at Merchant’s, where we had HAGGIS! Yes, haggis! Not in the traditional sheep’s stomach casing, but a flaky pastry bag…then the main course was excellent moist salmon with new potatoes and carrots…followed by a yummy chocolate cake oddly paired with a bright green applesauce…? Delicious none the less…!

For the geekiest part, though, we are currently sitting in the bar of the Menzies Belford Hotel, sipping port or Guinness, while I’m using Steve Crane’s PowerBook G4 on wifi that I just paid for on my Visa at £6 for 1 hour…we’re going to share the connection, check email, etc, but since I paid, I’m first…can you tell we’re a Silicon Valley choir? hehe! 😉 Check out the pic!

(http://www.britta.com/UK2004/night1.jpg)

Tomorrow is our first concert at St Giles Cathedral on the Royal Mile, with private tour of the cathedral beforhand, then we come back to the hotel, change clothes, then have our tour of the Royal Mile and Edinburgh Castle in the afternoon…

Until next time!

Well, not quite obviously, but close enough! Melanie & I are currently waiting for Jeff Ouye to arrive to pick us up to get to the airport…not surprising to any of you who know him that he’s the one not here yet when he wanted us to LEAVE by noon… 😉

Anyway, I’m all packed, hope I didn’t forget anything…at least my bags aren’t as heavy as Melanie’s! heehee…(granted, she’s staying for 3 extra weeks, but still!)

Thanks to blackwiidow (Fionna), I have printed out the location maps of the easyinternetcafe.com sites in Edinburgh, York & London…but then it’ll be the luck of the draw for internet access the rest of where we’re going…

Until next time!

If you don’t already know, I’m leaving in two days for our UK tour with The Choral Project, hence the “anxious” current mood!

I am going to try my best to leave quick updates here any chance of internet access I get, so check back here to see what’s going on!

Here’s the basic itinerary:

June 27th: leave San Francisco International Airport
June 28th: arrive at Heathrow & immediately fly to Edinburgh
June 29th: lunchtime recital in St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh
June 30th: concert in St Mary’s Church, Edinburgh
July 1st: leave by bus for Raven Hall Country House, Ravenscar
July 2nd: bus to York, concert in Doncaster Parish Church, York area
July 3rd: concert in St Denys Church, York area
July 4th: bus to Chatsworth House and concert in Baslow Parish Church on the way to Lincoln
July 5th: in Lincoln
July 6th: lunchtime concert in Lincoln Cathedral
July 7th: bus to Leamington Spa, concert in All Saints Church
July 8th: bus to Stratford-upon-Avon, bus to Llangollen
July 9th: 11:30am Mixed Choir Competition begins!
July 10th: bus to Snowdonia (mountains), 7:30pm Prize Winners Concert (hopefully us!)
July 11th: leave by bus for Oxford, after dinner, leave by bus for Havant
July 12th: Concert in St Faith’s Church, Hayling Island/Havant
July 13th: leave by bus for London, farewell dinner
July 14th: leave Heathrow and fly back to San Francisco!

Now back to packing!