I wasn't going to do a blog today as after all the excitement of the Scarecrow Festival and the Abba day I thought that anything I had to say would be so boring. Today started off normal enough. I got up, had a bath and breakfast, got dressed and decided to do some housework. After dusting, hoovering and joy of joys, shopping at Sainsburys I settled down for a night in front of the telly. Just as Eastenders theme music began to play I decided to check my emails. I don't know what prompted this as I wasn't really expecting to receive anything particularily exciting.
Well was I in for a surprise! In a previous blog I mentioned that I had been lucky enough to be involved with filming a tv programme with Lynda Bellingham. When I checked my emails tonight her assistant, Hannah had copied me in on an email sent to the director at Cogges to say that the programme featuring Cogges is going to be aired on ITV1 on September the 12th. She included a couple of photographs that had been taken on the day and I'm in one of them. When I started my new beginnings I definately didn't expect to end up on telly lol.
But on that note, now might be the time to share how it all started. In 2006 I gave up work for health reasons. Over the next few years I became a bit of a couch potato and during this time I got hooked on Loose Women. Watching it made me feel connected to the world in a funny sort of way. About 3 years ago they ran a competition where the prize was the chance to become a Loose Women for a week. Well of course I entered! Sadly not only did I not win, but I didn't even reach the short list of finalists. To say that I was disappointed would be an understatement. I was absolutely devasted! Even I knew that my reaction to this was completely out of proportion. However, it made me realise that my life was going nowhere and that I needed to make some changes. Hence the new beginnings.
On the day of filming with Lynda at Cogges I actually told her that story. I know how embarrasing! But actually she was lovely. She told me that she thought it was very important for women in later life to do something that defined them other than simply being wives and mothers and shared with me something that she herself was doing to stretch itself- but it's a secret. If I told you I woukd feel like I'm betraying her, my new best friend lol!
So I hope that you will tune in to see me make a fool of myself on national tv on September the 12th, if I haven't been edited out that is. Goodness knows what tomorrow might bring hee hee. Meanwhile here's a photo to prove that this blog is not a complete fabrication.
In this blog I'm writing about the Abba day I attended last July. Last year as part of my new beginnings I joined the West Oxfordshire Academy of Performing Arts Adult Singing Group, Woapa for short. I've previously blogged about some of the experiences I've already enjoyed since joining. Brian and Lou, the lovely couple who run Woapa decided to organise a day when anyone who wanted to could attend and spend the day singing songs from Mamma Mia. My idea of Heaven!
Sunday dawned with the sun making one of this summer's rare appearances. I was going to miss it as I would be inside all day, but did I care? Not at all; I was going to be spending the day singing Abba songs :). You may have sensed by now that I was just a 'teeny weeny 'bit excited, although there was a part of me that was dreading it at the same time. This was due to the fact that I had, in the spirit of challenging myself, put my name forward to perform a solo! Many, many moons ago, in my youth I had been part of the St Ninian's Concert Party who put on variety shows and pantomimes and sang my first solo, Singing in the rain, at the tender age of eight years old. I then progressed to a Gospel choir but ill health and children put a stop to my singing days.
But I digress, back to Abba. I guess there were about 30 of us, mainly female but with one brave male, apart from Brian and his son Eddie who operated the sound system. Everyone was as excited and pleased to be there as I was. Bizarrely we began the day by going outside and doing some exercises led by one of the Woapa dance teachers! We then went back inside to begin the real business of the day. After doing the usual voice warm up exercises the session began with a very nervous and brave young lady called Phoebe stepping forward to take the lead solo in Honey, Honey. She started off very tentative and quiet but as her confidence grew there emerged a lovely youthful melodic sound. After she finished she was rewarded by rapturous applause and cheers from the rest of the choir who had been singing the backing parts. Before the day we had been sent a list of the songs we'd be singing. Honey, Honey was first on the list. Second on the list was Money, Money Money, the song I had been given as a solo. If we were going to be doing the songs in the order set out in the list, that meant I would be next! It was with this realisation that a feeling of dread settled itself in the pit of my stomach accompanied by a nauseous feeling. When we had sung Honey, Honey to Lou's satisfaction, the shaking started. This was it! Lou then announced that we would be singing Dancing Queen next. Instead of relief I actually felt disappointed and even more nervous as by this time I just wanted to get on and get it over with. Once we'd finished Dancing Queen, Lou then said that we should take a 15 minute break. Was she deliberately trying to torture me!
Finally, after the break Lou said that we were doing Money, Money, Money and that I had very bravely, (more like foolishly) said that I was going to be singing this as a solo. With fear and trepidation I stepped forward to the microphone. Oh yes it was all done in a proper show biz manner. They had been gentle with Phoebe and everyone had sung her song through together to begin with, but Lou said that I was going to sing it through first and then she would teach them the backing parts! Ok, this was it. When practising at home I had realised that the backing track Brian had sent me was in a lower key than the Mamma Mia CD I had been singing along too. It was at the very bottom of my range but I could do it, although I would have been more comfortable if it had been in the slightly higher key. My first attempt was not the success I'd dreamt of lol. It proved too low for my voice at 11am in the morning. I stopped and apologised to Lou. She, bless her, said that it was quite low but that I'd sounded sexy! I still laugh when I remember this. I started again and with practise my performance improved, I just kept thinking 'sexy' when singing the low notes. When we finished my song I too was rewarded by claps and cheers. everyone was so nice and supportive. One lady said that she had cried when she heard me sing. Not sure how to take that!
The rest of the day passed very quickly with more brave souls stepping forward to sing solos. some like Phoebe and myself sang the main part of the song with others sharing a few lines of songs like Mamma Mia itself and Thank You For The Music. All too soon the day had come to an end. At least the practising. Family and friends had been invited to arrive at 7pm and we were to perform all the songs we had been practising during the day. Time for the nerves to kick in big time!
When we were all gathered Lou announced us and explained that as we had only just learnt the songs that day, it was not a concert as such. More like a group of children showing their proud parents what they had been learning at school that day. Phoebe started us off again and was amazing. This time I was second up. Being mindful that I was among friends I decided to not be nervous and just go for it-and go for it and I did. Only too early! In my eagerness to perform I came in too soon. Lou looked at me shaking her head, at making cutting gestures across her throat! I couldn't believe it. Not once during the 4 times we'd rehearsed it had I got the timing wrong. Never the less, like the true trouper I am lol, I came in at the right time and the rest as they say is history. Despite my little faux pas I really enjoyed the experience. I love singing, always have done.
The rest of the performance went by in a flash. Brian and Lou had once again performed their magic and turned a group of all ages of women, plus Tom, into something reasonably like a choir. We ended the evening with a performance of Waterloo to which Brian had taught us some choreography. This involved us standing in pairs alternately facing each other, standing back to back and sometimes facing the audience. Organised chaos is the best way to describe this but everyone just laughed and gave us a massive applause anyway.
Thus ended our day of experiencing what it's like to be Abba. It was a fun filled and challenging day and I can't wait for the next one, whatever it may be. Thanks Lou and Brian for fulfilling this Flash Mobbing Granny's fantasy of being a star for a day.
Can't believe it's been 5 days since my last blog. The days go fast when you're challenging yourself! My last post was cut short as I had to go and make a scarecrow to be used to promote Cogges Manor Farm's Scarecrow festival this weekend. I'd had the idea for a Dame Edna scarecrow for some time. This all started with an electric blue sparkly long dress that my hubby had worn to a fancy dress party when he went as the Dame. It had been sitting in the back of our spare room wardrobe for about 20 years. so on Friday afternoon armed with the dresss, a hessian sack, a pink wig and Dame Edna glasses from the local joke shop, I made my way to Cogges to begin my creation.
I'd had it all planned out in my head how to go about it for weeks. Well, surprise! surprise! things didn't go as planned. I began by securing two long poles together in a cross shape as I'd seen in other scarecrows. Then I stuffed the sack with straw to make the body and secured it by tying some twine to stop the straw falling out. First problem. How was I going to attach this to the poles? So I had to undo the cross and open up the sack so I could place the pole through the body. After a few minutes of very un-ladylike language and the loss of one of my recently done gel nails, this was acheived. I then reattached the pole across the shoulders for the arms. Next to put on the dress. I carefully placed each end of the 'arm' pole in the sleeves and started to pull down the rest of the dress. C**p! It wouldn't go down as the arms were in the way! So once again I had to undo the pole, after removing the sleeves of the dress, pull the dress over the body and once again attach the pole and put the sleeves of the dress on. Sounds easy doesn't it? Well naturally it didn't work out that way. It turned out that I had made her too fat for the dress, so I had to undo the bottom of the body remove some stuffing and do it up again before I could dress her. By this time I was drenched in sweat and wishing I'd never started this :S.
Next the head. which I made by stuffing a pillow case with straw and placing it on the top of the vertical pole forming Edna's spine. (You may notice that as the process progressed the scarecrow has gone from being a thing to a person lol). Finally, with the addition of the wig, the glasses, a sparkly necklace, rubber gloves as hands and using my "skills" as an artist (not!) to paint a face, Edna was ready for her tv debut! I went home on Friday feeling exhausted but very proud.
Saturday morning dawned, the day of Edna's unveiling. during the night i woke up and realised that i had forgotten to give her a tiara! I had one that I'd worn to my then to be daughter-in-law's hen do. After lunch, it always takes me a while to get going on a Saturday, I headed to Cogges with the tiara only to discover that I was too late. Witneytv had already been and poor Dame Edna had been filmed without it. Never mind, at least she will have it for the festival next weekend when she will meet her adoring public.
As a result of my choosing to do a Dame Edna scarecrow, Laura the Operations Manager has decided that the theme of the festival is to be the Royal family! I have been requested to make another one, possibly Princess Anne, to sit on a horse 'thingy' in the stable. but I think that I have used up all my creativity for this month. You can watch the clip by logging on to Witneytv and searching for the Cogges Scarecrow Festival archive. But I've attached a picture of my Edna for you to admire hee hee. I'm a proud mum!
In my next blog I will write about the Abba day I attended on Sunday.
My nail is fine by the way! I was able to stick it back on with false nail glue which I always carry for such an emergency :))))))))))
Well, how to begin! When I started my new beginning I certainly didn't expect to have done half the things that I've already done this year and it's still only August. In my first blog I mentioned that I had joined a choir. It's actually called a singing group and was initially set up just for fun. We certainly have fun but something unexpected has happened. Just before christmas we were asked to sing in a local pub, performing some of our set list and finishing with a few carols for everyone to join in with. That was ok, we could do that we thought. Then, a few days before the event our choir leader emailed us with 2 bits of information.
1. the local tv would be there to film it for their Christmas day broadcast.
2. We had been asked to sing a song to be played in the background of a video that a local farmer was filming to thank all the customers of his farm shop.
The first one was bad enough, at least we'd been practising, but for the second one we had learn new words to 'I am a cider drinker' i.e. 'I am a Foxbury Farmer' and then turn up on the night and record it with no rehearsal!!!!!!! Being the professionals that we are (titters) we managed 'no problem'. It must have been ok because the video had about 850,000 hits!
Little did we know that this was the beginning of a close relationship between us and Witneytv. So far this year we've been filmed singing at the Witney Music Festival, Beer Festival, a local music festival called Battstock and the 'piecé de resistance' doing a Flashmob in a shopping centre in Oxford. Now that may not sound too strange, after all flashmobs happen all the time. But when you consider that I won't see 50 again and I know of one choir, sorry 'singing group' member who is one year short of 70, it kind of conjures up a different picture :).
My tv appearances don't stop there though! Intrigued? Let me explain. Another one of my new adventures was to begin volunteering at Cogges Manor Farm. This is a beautiful old Manor house some parts of which date back to 1264. It has all the old farm buildings and a wonderful walled garden that is being lovingly restored by a group of volunteer gardeners. I hasten to add that am not one of them. Gardening and having your nails done once a fortnight don't mix! What has this got to do with me being on tv? Well, about a month ago Lynda Bellingham came to Cogges to make a programme for tv. Carol one of the cooks who can be found making Welsh cakes on the range in the kitchen at weekends 'challenged' Lynda to make a Victorian meat pie and she made one too. When they were finished some of us volunteers were filmed tasting the pies and choosing the one we liked best. I even have a speaking part as I commented on the pastry of each pie, if I'm not edited out that is. I found the experience very exciting and as this happened only 2 days before we were due to do the flashmob, I was so high my hubby practically had to scrape me off the ceiling by the end of that week.
But my relationship with Witneytv doesn't end there. Oh no! I need to bring this entry to a halt as I have been asked to make a scarecrow to be used in filming a promotional video for a Scarecrow Festival to be held at Cogges over the Bank Holiday weekend. Impressed, well don't be. I've not made it yet and as I've NEVER made one before there is plenty of scope for it going horribly wrong. Stiil, I have decided to challenge myself this year, so here goes.
I so wanted my blog today to be a more positive one but we were greeted this morning by the fact that 13 cars in our street, including mine and my husbands had been keyed by some drunken, thoughtless individuals! Isn't it funny how what someone finds funny causes someone else pain and frustration! Despite this set back we decided to have a nice day visiting a national trust property. so we gaily set out at about 11am to visit West Wycombe Park. We live about an hour away form Wycombe. Guess what it doesn't open until 2pm. Ok we thought, we'll visit Maple durham instead. We arrived there about 11.40am. surprise, surprise it does't open until 2pm either. AAAARRRGH.
Breathe deeply! So we ventured into Reading and bought some sandwiches and drinks and had a lovely picnic by the river. Finally we arrived at Maple Durham on time and had a great time looking round the lovely grounds and topped it off with tea and cake. The day is looking up we thought.
We set off for home, but first of all I had to call by Cogges Manor Farm to feed the cats. My favourite time of day. Only today was the day that the farmer was collecting our adorable pigs to take them to do what pigs are destined for. Amy, one of the volunteers was in tears and pretty soon, so was I. He had brought a goat called Sunday to join our little family but we will still miss Angelica, Basil and all the other pigs we have grown so fond off. R.I.P.
The day ended with a very relaxing pasta meal in the garden, followed by watching the olympic closing ceremony. Here's hoping tomorrow is a bit better!
Today I'm taking the opportunity to have a bit of a rant about unsolicited calls! Despite the fact that we've subscribed to that facility where you're not supposed to get these calls-we get them all the time. I especially hate the ones where you pick up the phone and there's no-one there. Apparently these companies dial several numbers at a time and speak to the first person that answers. Meanwhile I've run down the stairs or even worse hurried things along in the little room (if you know what I mean) for nothing! These same companies usually have the cheek to say on their 'call waiting' messages-"please do not hang up as your call is important to us". I think not or if it is they have a funny way of making you feel important. What's really bizarre is that when you try to phone them back they have usually withheld their number. Do they want to speak to me or not! Mind you it's even worse if you are 'lucky' enough to be the first to answer. Keeping in mind the fact that they called you in the first place and you never asked them too, they will not take no for an answer.
It's got to the point where I never answer my phone at home. I let the answering machine get it and if they leave a messge, which they never do, I'll call them back. My friends and family now say "we know you're there so pick up"! Which is a bit embarassing for them when I'm not. I know that companies need to advertise and sell their products. But why must I feel hunted in my own home. If I want something I can go on the internet or look in the yellow pages! I realise that this is one of the downsides to modern communications. But please, please, please can I be left in peace in my own home!!!!!!!!!!!!
In my last blog I posted about how I am on a journey to do all the things that I have wanted to do or at least try. So far I have completed 2 ou modules on my way to acheiving a BA in Humanities with Creative writing. I'm doing ok but every time I get a good mark for an essay I get even more stressed about the next one! I keep thinking that 'well I got away with it this time, but can I do it again'! I'd hoped that when I got to this time of my life, I'd be over these types of feelings! I've heard lots of mature women saying that they still feel 20 something inside. Perhaps we hold on to all the insecurities we had at that age too.Well, I'm not going to let that hold me back. Scared or not, insecure or not, I intend to keep on going! Starting this blog is one step on this 'journey'. i know that the 'j' word is used a lot these days, but it is a good analogy. Perhaps I could call it an expedition as it will probably as stressful and harrowing as the early explorers found their journeys!
It's been quite fun too! But more of that later!
Night.
Flashmob Granny.
Finally, after much frustration I've managed to get to this point in my attempt at blogging! All this social networking stuff comes easily to my sons' generation, but it's a bit harder for us oldies.
2010 was the year I started my new beginnings. After years of being a bit of a couch potato I decided it was time I got out there and started doing something with my life. So far this has resulted in me signing up to doing an open university course, joining a choir, (who recently took part in a flashmob hence the name), and started volunteering at a local historic attraction. I'm sure I'll write more about these things later. But I've spent so much time getting to this point that I have to go now.
