Gone Racing

Hi!

Well either the weather has been very good, or I have just been busy. I hadn't realised just how long it has been since I last put up a post. I know self discipline has never been one of my strong points but I did think I would manage better than this.

Any way- today has been largely taken up with motor racing, and not just grand prix on the telly! No today the Goodwin family went to Brand Hatch to watch truck racing. These are the most powerful racing machines with great track presence and lots of overtaking, for more checkout http://www.motorsportvision.co.uk/brands-hatch/news/article.asp?NewsID=4547

For the last couple of seasons the trucks have been the first and last meetings of the season at Brands, their races are mixed up with National Championship races for Pick up trucks, and Legends. The Pickups are identical purpose built racing vehicles with 2 litre Ford or Vauxhall engines, Legends are five eighths scale replicas of 1930's American sedans and coupes with 1200cc bike engines, both give lots of good quality close racing with lots of overtaking.

Normally I would say unlike Formula 1, however I have just watched the highlights of the Australian GP on TV and what I saw looked like an excellent race - I may be biased having been a Button fan for ages, and hope that he will now live up to his early promise. with a name like Jenson he has to be fast!

The Jensen Interceptor was a great car and one of my person favorites ever since I got my first Dinky model of one around 40 years ago! To find out what I'm talking about have a look here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jensen_Interceptor

Well, sorry it's been a while since my last post, I think this goes to show that I have a lot more time when the weather is bad. Over the last week I have been pretty busy on all fronts, work, music, watching rugby, and even some time with the family.


On Saturday I played a concert with a local orchestra, and was reasonably pleased, there were quite few mistakes but I think most of these were down to a combination of lack of concentration and nerves. Any way the program went reasonably well and the audience were either very polite or enjoyed the evening.

Personally the most interesting part of the concert was the Weber Konzerstuck (literally Concert Piece) for Orchestra and Piano. This is basically a concerto, only with no breaks between movements, the interest for me came from the orchestration only one trombone is used, and it's the bass. Now for a any trombone it is very unusual to be the only one but for a bass trombone this is unheard of - anyway although it felt a bit bazaar the orchestration really worked, and I think we all enjoyed this piece. We also played the Beethoven "consecration of the House" and Brahms second symphony.

Although I have nothing in the diary at the moment I hope to do a lot more orchestra playing this year, both on Tuba and Bass Trombone - so come fixers make that call.............

Tuba!

I just had a look at how many members of "Blogger" list Tuba as one of their interests - 388 - now that seems like quite a lot for what is a pretty esoteric sort of interest, but then there are a lot of people out there in cyber land, and if there are 388 members of blogger interested in all things tuba then I hope some of them are reading this - let me know if you are

I copied this picture ages ago and can't remember the story behind it, but the instrument looks truly awesome if you know anything about it let me know - please.

Apologies

First things first I owe Jim an apology I put him in the wrong regiment, and of course the Grenadiers are a very different outfit from the Coldstream. Sorry Jim!

When I started this blog I thought I would record my journey in music, but looking at what I have written so far I seem to write about just about anything but. Maybe this is just a reflection of what is really on my mind, or how I actually spend my time. Certainly now that my main income comes from Gardening rather than playing music things like weather play a much bigger part in my life. The other side of it is that at the moment there is not a lot actually happening with my music.

Of the two orchestras I am a regular player with one, the London Charity Orchestra ( http://www.londoncharityorchestra.co.uk/ ) have decided that this spring the concert will be classical music - Mozart and Schumann - so no need for Trombones and Tuba, this is a shame for me since I enjoy this orchestra so much I always play Bass Trombone with them since they seem to have loads of good tuba players but struggle to find mediocre Bass Trombones!

The picture shows the LCO in a concert we played at LSO St Luke's a while back, this was a big orchestra since we had the Planets on the program.

The All Souls Orchestra ( http://www.allsoulsorchestra.org/ ) are a christian orchestra based on All Souls Church Langham Place - next to the BBC - and call on players from across London and the South East, for the first part of this year they have decided to use younger players and since there is only ever one Tuba or Bass Trombone this leaves some of us older guys out of it.

This is of course an admirable idea and in theory I absolutely applaud it. However in practise it has left me with a few issues to deal with, there is a definite feeling of rejection, as well as disappointment at not playing at some events that I really enjoy. Maybe this means that I have been thinking playing with ASO too much as simple music performance rather than worship, and putting myself at the centre rather than putting God at the centre.

Still I do have a few things coming up other the next few weeks, including a concert with a local orchestra I haven't played with for about 20 years, so in effect new ground. So plenty to look forward to.

Yesterday

Well yesterday didn't go quite to plan, I am in the middle of re-mortgaging with the good old RBS, I know that as self employed with out accounts I could be said to fall into the "sub prime" area, but really the amount of trouble this is causing you think that I was related to Sir Fred!

Anyway after escaping from the black hole of banking I managed a couple of jobs I have been meaning to get stuck into for ages, including trimming a hedge. I don't think that hedge had been touched properly for a couple of years, so it was just as well that I had the chain saw with me as well as the hedge trimmer! Today I hope to do my first bit of grass cutting this year so lets hope the weather holds.

I know some of you would like to comment on some of my posts so just to clarify, at the end of each post there is a small pink bit which says "links to this post comments" click on comments and this takes you to a new page and a comments form, just type up what you want to say.

If you have been thanks for reading

Lent

Well we are now a few days into lent, and the old self denial is beginning to hit home. I have decided to give up booze for lent, and have to admit that it is not easy.
But then that is part of the point isn't it? The reason for giving something up is at least in part about sacrifice, therefore that sacrifice needs to be costly in some way. If it were easy to give up then there would be no sacrifice.
This is just a quick post beforfe going off to work - I CAN the sun is out - more later