(no subject)

[selenay]

I'm back!

Did I miss anything important? Any good fic out there? Commentary on anything that I'd be interested in? A week of LJ is a lot to catch up on :-)


The holiday was absolutely fabulous. I spent a week in Sidmouth, Devon, at a folk festival. It was what I've always associated as folk music - meaning the cultural music, dance and crafts from all over the world rather than just the Gaelic stuff that most music stores now classify as folk. terrylbirch provided wonderful company all week, which made the whole thing even more enjoyable. There were literally dozens of workshops that I could have attended so the one of the big tasks was narrowing it down to a not exhausting level - I managed to attend workshops on Gregorian chanting, storytelling (definitely one of the highlights) and beginners fiddle. My lovely sister has agreed to lend me her violin so I'm going to be attempting to learn said fiddle :-)

There were, of course, concerts to attend and again it was a case of restricting myself to a few really good ones rather than exhausting myself at four a day. So there was African/fusion (Boka Halat), a fantastic Polish band (The Warsaw Village Band), very good Irish music (Lunasa), bluegrass American folk (the Cole Porters - an amazingly professional group) and The Mrs Ackroyd Band who are simply hilarious. In the sci-fi world, much of their stuff would be described as filking with a folk edge. Their song about a little dog is simply...indescribable ;-))

Our hotel room had the perfect placing - we were on the sea front with a balcony. Not only did we get to wake up to the sound of the ocean, but there were musicians out there from 9am until midnight so we got an incredible range of music all day long. One of the things that I really enjoyed was listening to the youngsters, particularly a young saxophonist who couldn't have been more than thirteen, and hearing how much they improved over the course of the week. It wasn't a technical thing - although the daily practise for the determined must have paid off - but the confidence some of those kids gained through the week really showed in their playing. We also got some quite unusual sounds - saxophone and didgerydoo duet anyone? And our balcony also gave us the perfect vantage point to watch the dance displays along the sea front. Recommended if you can get it.

Although I didn't spend a massive amount of my week sleeping, I returned feeling very relaxed and much happier than I had been. I hadn't realised how stressed and exhausted I'd been until I'd spent a few days just enjoying myself with no pressures. Although it probably won't last long (at least judging by the way today's first day back at work went), it's brought home that I can't keep up the kind of stress-levels and pace that I've been maintaining over the last few months. Things need to change and that means trying to take some action over what's been going on at work. Although I'm still looking to leave my current place, I need to make some changes there if I'm going to survive until I find the right job.


In the spirit of my new plan to be less stressed and exhausted, I'm now going to sign off and eat scones and jam with the lovely Devonshire clotted cream that followed me home from Sidmouth. I may watch TV or I may read, but I'm going to relax and recover from today's exhaustions rather than attempting any more work :-)

Comments

[paranoidangel]

That sounds like a really good holiday - and you picked the right week for the weather too. It would have driven me mad though because I can only cope with a certain amount of music before I really, really want to play.

I've been away, so no idea what's happening - I marked most of my feeds as read without reading them. But I wrote fic, does that count? :)

[blue-adagio.livejournal.com]

This sounds wonderful. I'm glad you had so much fun, and good luck with learning the fiddle! (My sister also plays the violin, but she's only ever used it for playing classical music.)

Hope you can find a way to balance things at work until you can find a better job.

::keeps fingers crossed::

[gmul.livejournal.com]

Sounds like Sidmouth could be an excellent replacement for Cropredy for that week next year. Fantastic line up this year by the looks of things.

"Gaelic". Probably meaning the twiddlydiddley Irish stuff. Yuk. Far too much of it around for my taste.

May I commend either Trowbridge Village Pump for next year, or Towersey for a couple of weeks time? The latter can't be terribly far from you, in the grand scheme of things.

[gmul.livejournal.com]

So, you've got a year to practice then go along and join in some sing/playarounds. Such things happen at both Trowbridge and Towersey (coming up this BH w/e) and I'm sure happen other places too...

[paranoidangel]

Somehow I don't think I'll be that good in a year - I've only been learning for a year and I still need a whole bar's time to change chords :)

[gmul.livejournal.com]

I started with classical guitar, couldn't really get the hang of chords. Much prefer playing an instrument that only does one note at a time by design! I started singing lessons last week too. :-)

[paranoidangel]

I'm doing acoustic. The teacher took great delight in telling us in the first lesson that it was the hardest to learn!

[historyterry.livejournal.com]

Aww! I forgot you'd brought the cream back. Am feeling all jealous, and not sulking, no way. :-)

Hope today goes well sweetie.

x

[selenay]

It really was a fabulous holiday :-) And the weather was just right - sunny, but not too warm and any rain happened mainly at night. The fun thing is that half the people around you have an instrument with them so there's absolutely no reason why you couldn't play if you want to :-)

You writing fic counts, though :-) Will be reading that when I get home!

[selenay]

Heh, learning the fiddle could be an interesting experience! My sister was also a classical violin gal, but fiddle music just sounds more interesting to me :-)

A better work balance is about the best that I can hope for at this stage so thank you for the crossing of fingers :-)

[selenay]

Sidmouth is a fabulous festival :-) The variety of music is a big part of the attraction and the line-up was great.

I do enjoy the the more typical Irish folk stuff (big fan of Cherish the Ladies, so can't say too much about it...), but I wouldn't want to spend a week listening to just that. Going to folk festivals as a kid, there was always music from all over the world and that's what I've associated as folk rather than the fairly narrow description that seems to abound now.

Going to another festival so soon probably isn't feasible, though :-( There's the time issue, the exhaustion levels...and the trip to Canada in October to save for :-)

[selenay]

I can tell that you're not sulking :-) It's very good cream!

Today is so far going suprisingly well. I'm waiting for the other shoe to fall. At this rate, I might be out of here at 4pm and taking a lunch break!

[historyterry.livejournal.com]

That's it. Keep rubbing the cream thing in.

Um. No.

I want scones! I want I want I want!

Txxx
No way interested in instant gratification whatsoever.