Toasted Town

I know I have commented on the blogger spell check before, but on my last post it wanted to change Croydon to crouton!

For any of you who don't know Croydon it is a south eastern suburb of London, however with a population of over 200,000 it qualifies as the UK's tenth largest town. A couple of time Croydon has tried to become a City, but keeps losing out to more high profile towns like Brighton

Too many tubas?

Well on Sunday I was in the worship band at Church ( www.anerleyteamministry.org.uk ) and I had to decide which tuba to use. Now this is the first time that has been a problem since I have always used the EEb, but this time I really wanted to play with my new toy. Well I had a quick toot and had to admit to myself that I was not yet up to standard, and that sight reading would be a problem, so the CC stayed at home and the EEb came down from exile in the attic.

Just as well really since we had the usual with singers wanting to change key, no way could I have transposed into E on sight.

Next week I will be playing three different instruments on Wednesday the Croydon Symphonic Band ( http://csb.watchfresh.com/content.html ) starts rehearsals for the autumn term so I shall have the CC out for that, on Thursday the All Souls Orchestra ( http://www.allsoulsorchestra.org/ ) have a rehearsal for our trip to Llandudno next weekend, when I shall be on Bass Trombone. And then at the weekend I will be playing with the Croydon Brass Band again so Mrs T gets yet another outing.

I just hope that I don't fry my brain in the process of trying to remember which one is which and which fingers to put down.

Mrs T out in Public

On Sunday, we had an outing! we played with the Croydon Brass Band http://croydonband.co.uk/ at Canbury Gardens in Kingston upon Thames. This is one of my favorite venues in London, the bandstand is nothing that special, but the park runs along the bank of the Thames, and lots of people come out on a Sunday afternoon, stop and listen to the band. And when all is said and done it is the audience that actually makes the concert.

The photo above is a library picture of the bandstand not of the Croydon Brass Band, but it does show what a nice venue this is.

Playing with the Brass band is just about the only time Mrs T comes out these days, although she is the tuba I have had longest, and have the most emotional attachment to, the EEb and now the CC are just more generally useful. They have a wider register and more dynamic range, yet somehow, the Hawkes BBb still has a special place in my heart

Singers

Those of you with eagle eyes, and nothing better to do with your time will note that I have made a change to my profile. Under interests I have added Singer Cars. It is a sadness to me that many people have simply not even heard of the name Singer in this connection, yet before the last war they were one of the major UK motor manufacturers, later becoming part of the Rootes group ending up as sort of up-market Hillmans. - If you havn't heard of Hillmans either then you have probably stopped reading already!

So far I have owned at least three Singers (since I was a car dealer for a while I can be a little sketchy at times) my second car was a 1963 Singer Vogue series I, many years later I had a fantastic little Singer Chamois coupe, but these were just old bangers, quite recently I was quite distraught when I had top sell my beloved "Jade" a 1966 Singer Vogue series IV Estate

It doesn't show in this photo but she had git to the point where work was needed, that I could not undertake myself (lake of time and ability) and could not afford to have done professionally. It was time for her to go to another who could give her the attention she needed. Although that was now a few years ago I still miss her, and the whole classic car scene. I still hope to have another classic, preferably a Singer, but must wait until time and finance are a little more available.

A little Trip

Well, I have just got back from a little trip, my Daughter is away for a few days at Soul Survivor, so my wife and I thought we would have a little trip of our own.

Just a couple of days and the one night away, we spent the night at Chichester, a charming and friendly little Cathedral City on the South Coast of Sussex. On Saturday morning we went and had a look around the Cathedral and were rather surprised to find a flag stone commemorating Gustav Holst. Now Holst is one of my favorite composers so I was rather surprised that there was no more information about the man, or the commemorative stone on display, especially when there was a lot of "bumf" on other "notables" whose achievements seemed to me to be of a much lesser status. I think I would have expected something on the great man's compositions and his connections with the City and Cathedral. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Holst gives a good little potted history Holst's life and career, but again nothing really on his connections with Chichister, so any info on this please let me know.

Interestingly - for me anyway - the blogger spell check does not recognise Chichester, but suggests Rochester as an alternative. Since Rochester and Chichester cathedrals are quite similar in Character does this suggest that those nice programmers at blogger are fans of ecclesiastical architecture? Anyway we have Chichester on the right and Rochester below.

In the mean time I am anxious to get back to my new toy and get on with learning CC fingerings. Ironically my next outing with a tuba will be next Sunday with Croydon Brass Band, playing BBb at Canbury Gardens in Kingston upon Thames, so once again it will be me and Mrs T. Of the Orchestral playing I have booked at the moment it is all on Trombone until May so that should give me plenty of time to find my way all around the new toy!

New Toy

I am very excited, my new toy has arrived!!! This is the birthday I promised myself last year (it was the big one,, 50) and I have now managed to get it, even it is nearly 11 months late.

The new toy is of course a new tuba. I have wanted a European style tuba for years now and have even tried buying a couple of cheap ones on e-bay but they haven't worked out. I now have a brand new (well a few years since made but never played) Conn International CC four rota.

I have had a play and it works well nice big sound and true intonation throughout the register, now I have to get down to work and learn the fingering before everything starts again in September.

More on the new toy and some pictures later, must now go to work and try to pay for it!

Who am I

I have just been reading http://www.madnessandbeauty.com/ in particular her piece "Um Canada", on the vagaries of nationality. This is something that has crossed my mind even though I rarely leave the UK and never yet Europe. Being very PC many of my employers over the years have had questionnaires asking for such useful data as ethnic origins. Fearing accusations of racial stereotyping - or worse - we get such riders as " we are not asking for your race or country of birth, but the cultural group to which you feel most akin" to this I always tick the box for other and then add "Londoner"

My rational is simple I feel more culturally akin to a Black West Indian Londoner than I do to a white European Scouser or Brummie.

However the over all point is not so simple, what is it that makes up our identity, I would hate to be classified by my occupation, I am not what I do any more than I am where I come from, so who am I.

Well certainly I am my father son, and my wife's husband, but more than that I am the total of my experiences, but when asked where I'm from what's the point of saying Anerley when no one has heard of it? after all it is only a place between other places for putting houses.

At least as a Canadian there is a strong identity - at least to Europeans - as a "Brit" I'm no longer sure what our identity is. Plucky underdogs, arrogant colonists, industrial urchins, victims or oppressors, maybe we have too much history and can no longer create a single identity from it, I know I have Saxon, Bavarian, maybe Spanish blood, when it is boiled down maybe I'm just the bloke who plays Mrs T.........

If you have been thank you for reading, it wouol dbe nice to know if you are.......................