Stuck at home

I've been getting a bit frustrated this week, my daughter has been struck down with the dreaded lirgy, and since my wife can't take time off work I have stayed in with the young one. Having planned a full week out in gardens not only am I getting a bit stir crazy but also I'll be missing the money that I would have been earning.

On a better note (pedal C that's one of my favorite notes) I have been out to a rehearsal with a band I play with occasionally. The Surrey Yeomanry Band http://www.surreyyeomanry.com/ used to be the regimental band, but have now survived the Regiment but quite a few years. Not so long ago this band was struggling both with lack of players, and lack of ability. A new conductor and a few new recruits has transformed the ability and sound of this Band. They are now playing some challenging music, but more impressive to me they have a "sound". The sound they have is in the model of a Guards band with a wall of sound, big warm and mellow. This is not so surprising really since the conductor was trained in the Irish Guards, and quite a few of the players are ex-guards as well.

Just to add to my fun it was a real treat in an amateur band to sit next to a totally competent tuba player, again since the guy in question is currently with the Coldstream Guards again his playing was not a surprise, but finding players of that quality in a local amateur is a treat indeed.

Tonight I will be with my own band, Croydon Symphonic, http://csb.watchfresh.com/content.html This will be the first rehearsal after our last concert, so it will be interesting to see what music we will have out for the next concert which will be in Greenwich Park, then a more formal one in St John's Smith Square.

The photo on the right is from our Christmas concert last year, we played to raise money for a locally based charity Five Talents UK. www.fivetalents.org.uk

If you have been thank you for reading - I will post more tomorow

Bysantium

The other day I went to the excellent Byzantium exhibition at the Royal Academy. http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/ There was some truly beautiful stuff on display, and the whole thing was very interesting. Certainly as well as enjoying some lovely works of arts I learnt much about the Eastern Empire, and the development of art, especially Christian art.

In particular the whole thing with icons made me think, about how we represent historical religious figures, how we use images in our worship, how figurative art is uniquely Christian within the Abrahamic religions. While on a purely visual level I enjoyed the pictures I did find it disturbing to find that the images themselves were acknowledged as having religious significance, indeed many were accredited with having miraculous powers. This seems to me to be an obvious case of setting up Idols, directly against the second commandment.

4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments." (Exodus 20:4-6 NIV)

Because God has no physical form, any Idol intended to resemble Him would be a sinful misrepresentation of Him. Since other gods are not to be worshiped (the first commandment!) making Idols of them would be equally sinful. Clearly then the veneration of images is just a big no no, but how about some of the wonderful Christian art that has been used to illustrate the Bible, Michelangelo's David, any number of "Madonna and Child" paintings and statues, pictures of Jesus, these are representations of God when He was in physical form, so can they in themselves be sinful - I think I am coming to the conclusion that it is the attitude of the viewer as much as that of the artist that is important in this. Therefore we should ensure that we only worship God, in all His glory, not any images, not crosses, not alters, not stained glass windows, not TV or bloggers. All these things and others can remind us of God's glory, like books they can help us, but they should not in themselves be worshiped.
Don't get me wrong I love art in all (well most) of it's many forms, and I would deplore the idea of anything like the destruction of religious art that followed the reformation in England, I just found the the whole Iconoclast / Iconaclist thing rather challenging.
All bit heavy for a rainy Monday morning, but if you have been - thank you for reading and please do comment.
Paul

Love

We can now safely put Valentine's Day behind us for another year, the price of flowers can go back to normal and tables will be available at restaurants again. But it has made me think about love, what is it? how do I express it? who do I show or give it to?

In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul says quite a lot about love,

"Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud; love is not ill mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs; love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth. Love never gives up; and it's faith, hope and patience never fail."

That gives us quite a lot to live up to when we tell someone we love them. If I was to put me name in the place of of the word love it would read "Paul is patient and kind; he is not jealous or conceited or proud; Paul is not ill mannered or selfish or irritable etc. etc." well I can only pray that one day this may be true, but for now I think I, and most of us, fall well short. Can this be because I don't really love? Well last night I certainly told my wife that I do love her so what does that mean?

One thing I am sure of is that love is not a feeling, no that slushy warm feeling that we sometimes confuse with love is sentiment. Love is about decisions, and actions. Love is a choice we make to put the considerations of another before our own. If we rely on sentiment alone to build our relationships, they cannot last maybe this is one of the reasons why so many relationships end early, certainly any marriage that ends before the death of one of the partners ends early. I mean sometimes we have to chose to love whether we feel like it or not, and maybe those are the times when we truly show the greatest love.

Sorry if all this is a little confused and not fully thought through, but then that could a description of it's author - if you have been, thank you for reading

Work

Well the weather here in South London has been cold and wet with far too much snow. I understand that the snow we have is much wetter than in colder climates, my Icelandic friend tells me that although the temperature is higher in London than at home it feels colder because it is wetter - I don't understand either, but I do believe it.

The point is that we have finally had a couple of dry days so I have been able to get out and start catching up on some work. Although snow is very pretty and great fun for the children, it is no fun at all for gardeners. So it is something of a relieve to be able get on with some meaningful - gainful - work. The only trouble is that I have been far to weary to make any posts.

Hopefully I shall get something a bit more substantial than this later, until then - if you have been - thank you for reading

Rugby and stuff

At the moment a lot of men and women in Europe are obsessed with Rugby. On Saturday the six nations championship got underway, and over the weekend we had three matches of very different standards. Now I am a Rugby enthusiast, I played the game for all the years I could until injury and age caught up with me, so I was glued to the screen for all three games.

It always used to be that most of the people following Rugby, either club or international were current or ex players and their families. Now we have a lot of nationalism creeping in. I don't mean the political far right neo fascist type, just those who want to watch one of their country's team win a game. This leads to support for the team being more important than support for the game. I watched one really poor game and two really good ones, and will admit to being nationalistically pleased at the results of two of them. (Since it is a bit early to start alienating people yet I won't say which ones!) but shouldn't I be more pleased with the quality of the good matches and disappointed with the poor one.

Now my country's team (England) did win, but played badly - I think it is a sign of growing maturity that this didn't either make or ruin my weekend. But there are many Italian, French and Scots men who are really upset this week - about a game.

On a different level I just came across this blog a T Revival: Just When You Think You Have It Bad III: Military Suicide no comment I make can add to this, just to say be open minded about the writer. She is writing from a trans gender perspecive but I think that the truths she is bringing out are universal.

Finally Started

Well this is it, after thinking about it for around a couple of years I have finally got around to starting my Blog. I'm not at all sure why I should have the arrogance to assume that anyone else would be interested in my musings or activities, but here we go anyway.

I suppose as good a place as any to start is to explain my title, at least the who is "Me" and who is "Mrs T"

"Me" is a keen amateur tuba and trombone player running my own business as a maintenance gardener, and waste consultant specialising in recycling - well that is enough for anyone who knows me to identify me!

"Mrs T" is definitely not the Mrs T that will come to mind of most Britons over a certain age! No not Mrs Thatcher but a rather grand BBb contra bass tuba, to be specific a Hawkes and Sons Emperor Sonorous Superior cavalry model. Yep that's her in the photo!

Why "Mrs T" well after working with one of the UKs premier German Bands for a Canadian Company in Seville at Expo 92 it was time to fly home. Having got a lift out to Seville with a drummer the journey home was my first flight with a Tuba. A seat was duly booked and ticket issued, however to actually get on the plane a boarding card is needed, to get a boarding card a name is needed, so I just gave the name Tuba, then they needed a title so I settled on Mrs, somehow "Mrs Tuba" stuck and then got contracted to Mrs T. The flight staff had much experience of cello's but this was also their first Tuba, in end she ended up occupying a full row of three seats, the one thing that still rather rankles after all this time, is that I never did get the complementary drink for her seats!

Although Mrs T is no longer my prime instrument she still has a special place in my life. So a nice catchy title for my blog, although Mrs T may not feature too often I hope to tell of my musical exploits as well as observations on gardens, people and life in general.