I can still appreciate the funny moments--

Last night after dinner I was doing the dishes, and Simon mentioned having emptied the dishwasher when he got home from work.  I almost didn't think anything of it until I remembered I emptied the dishwasher that afternoon.  So I said, "No you didn't, I did before you got home from work!"  So he asked why I left all those dishes in it... to which of course I responded that I had put some dirty dishes in after emptying it. 

Simon then proceded to (what seemed almost randomly) open cupboards and take things out and put them in the dishwasher.  We both couldn't stop laughing. 

Oh modern conveniences...

Note to guests: you may want to avoid dining with us for a week or so.  :-) 

 

Things are changing thick and fast... today it was the car--we traded in the yaris for an 02 corrola 3 door hatchback. 

I don't think it's fully sunk in yet, as we only recently just started thinking about getting a new car.  But the yaris was going to need a new clutch, and we figured we'd want a bigger car eventually anyhow, so it made more sense to sell it than get it fixed.  We had hoped our next car would be a corrola, but also briefly considered getting a ford focus.  When I was younger, though, I had told myself that I would never ever buy a ford... so even though foci are supposed to be really reliable, I knew that any little (normal or abnormal) problem we'd have I'd always be thinking, Damn Ford!  So I think it's for the best. 

Apparently the exhaust was also coming apart on the yaris, which I hadn't noticed, but explains why it was sounding so loud lately (I just thought I had forgotten how loud it could be because since it's been so long since we could have the windows open). 

So yeah... it was the first car we looked at, and I think it was a fair price and within our budget, so that's good.  I'm sure we could have gotten more for the yaris selling it privately, but with the move and the impending trip, it'll be nice to not have to worry about that. 

Things are good. We had a lovely Christmas with my parents visiting during a remarkably cold yet clear portion of the winter. (It has since warmed up slightly and begun to drizzle again. Someone told me yesterday this is forecast to last a month. I don’t know if they can really look that far ahead, though).

It was a nice time to pretend to be a tourist. 

We spent the last couple days of their visit over in Paris. We got a good deal on eurostar-hotel tickets, and the train journey there was really easy. And as an added bonus over flying, the eurostar is carbon neutral. Paris had apparently been quite cold, but we found it about the same as London. In addition to walking around the city and outside places like the Louvre and the Musee D’Orse, we also went in to the Musee de l’Orangerie, up the Arc de Triomphe, and into Notre Dame. Overall is was simply great: Notre Dame was spectacular, the sights from the top of the Arc de Triomphe were awesome, and I really liked seeing Monet’s “surround sound” water lilies in l’Orangerie. We had only one complete day there, and we woke up to snow that morning. It continued to snow all day, which was a completely picturesque way to see Paris. We also heard it felt much warmer that day than it had previously. The day we left we woke up to pretty frigid temperatures, and toured around area at Monte Marte and went into Sacre-coeur. 

Then it was back home, parents to the airport, and me back to work. I was lucky to ease back in, so I’ve only been full-steam ahead since last Friday. I’ve given up one extra-curricular activity that I was starting to resent last term, so I’m enjoying not being quite so busy.
 

Although my livejournal might be slightly misleading, most of this term has not been spent out gallivanting with mating deer, but actually working. 

Playing seems to be going well; last week I had 5 gigs.  Actually, 5 paying gigs: one of them was paid well, and two of them not too bad, one not much at all, and the last not quite enough to cover expenses.  Still, it's something!  The most exciting one was Monday night, when I drove to Clacton on Sea (at the mouth of the Thames) to play with a big band made up of all women.  I was playing with some of the best musicians I've ever heard, let alone played with.  It was a bit scary, sight reading a lot of it in the concert, and I found out on the day that the woman who usually plays bass trombone was actually filling in on lead, sitting right next to me.  That was kind of disconcerting, knowing that she knew the music backwards and forwards, and also that she got bumped off of her main instrument so that I could fill in... She was very nice, though, so hopefully a good contact to have made.

Teaching is also really busy.  Simon and I are both doing lots of Wider Opportunities classes--where we introduce a whole class to playing brass instruments, usually 3rd grade age, but last year we had one 4th grade class, and this year we have a class of 2nd graders (yikes), and they all have either a trumpet, baritone, or trombone.  We see them for 8 weeks, 45 minutes each week, and in our 8th session we put on a concert. 
We actually took on 2 extra classes to cover someone who is away for bereavement.  It's a lot of work, but it's pretty rewarding.  Today we asked a class of 30 who would want to continue learning next term, and 26 of them said yes.  This term is different for us, because some of the schools are letting the children take the instruments home to practice.  This week I put together a practice pamphlet to help them remember the notes we have learned, and the songs we are learning.  This was a bit tricky, because a)we haven't been using proper note names, as trumpets are transposing instruments, so everyone playing a "b flat" actually wouldn't work.  Instead, we use numbers--note 1, note 2, and note 3.  and b) obviously, with such little time, we don't teach them how to read music.
So in addition to getting everything written down, we had to come up with a new kind of music notation, one that would hopefully be completely intuitive. 
One girl came up to me last week, saying "Holly... last week I took my instrument, and I was just practicing the notes we've learned, and on accident, I didn't mean to (I'm thinking... oh great, she's dropped it, i'ts broken...), but I accidentally learned Mary Had a Little Lamb."
That was sweet.  She was really proud, and played it in front of the class by herself.

Besides Wider Opps I'm also doing a bit more brass teaching, and started at a different school that's a bit further away.  That's been really enjoyable, as I get to work with them individually for 30 minutes, and also have a brass ensemble.  Crazily, it's a state school, and they get tons of money from the government (I've heard that it is because they have failed their government inspection so many times).  So in addition to them having a really nice miniature performing arts centre, they own a full set of brass instruments, and the kids only have to pay £15 for a whole term of lessons.  The kids there are basically junior high and high school aged.  I'll leave you with a quote from one of the boys, which offers insight to weird cultural views about Miss, Ms, and Mrs, and some slang too.

"When we saw you were going to be our new teacher, we were all really afraid and didn't want to be the first ones in.  We saw you were Ms Bull and we thought you must be divorced, and really mingy and horrible.  But then we met you and you were wicked!"

I'm sure he'll learn to control the verbalization of all his thoughts as he gets a bit older.  But still, nice thought in the end. 

We got back from our trip yesterday, and all of our new camping gear was a big success!  It was very different for me camping with pretty much all new gear.  I kind of felt like we looked like posers.  Or even worse, yuppies.  Our small, London-sized car sort of reinforced that, but it's only a 2001, so that could have been worse.  But as the trip went on, I was really glad we had stuff as sturdy as we did when the weather turned sour. 

Here's Simon as we started to try putting up our tent.  Once we got the 3 main poles in it got lifted by a gust of wind and flipped upside-down over the rope in the background.  It was even partly staked down, but they got ripped out easily.  We felt really lucky that nothing broke.  


We had some really nice weather for the next two days, and went on some amazing walks along the coast.  We went swimming at some amazing beaches, too.