Musings on slow living, literature, opinions, and simple pleasures
“The places we have known do not belong solely to the world of space in which we situate them for our greater convenience. They were only a thin slice among contiguous impressions which formed our life at that time; the memory of a certain image is but regret for a certain moment; and houses, roads, avenues are as fleeting, alas, as the years.” (Proust, Swann’s Way)
I have, within the past year, joined a choir.
This is quite a big thing for me, as I don’t think I sing very well. Indeed, the only time I think my singing is amazing is when I have my earphones in and I’m belting out lyrics along to whatever song is playing on my chosen Spotify playlist at the time. When I take the earphones out, oh dear. Poor neighbours.
It’s not like I am tone deaf – I can read music as I play the piano (and am learning the ukelele, but that’s another story). I just have such a wabbit wee voice that is as far from the strident tones of the singers I am accompanying. Their voices are powerful waterfalls, mine is a tiny rivulet. My husband has such a strident voice and so, as a result, I tend to keep my singing to the times when I am by myself and am certain that my neighbours are out.
However, I joined a choir. This was all down to a nurse at the local vaccination clinic, when I went for one of my COVID boosters. We got talking about why I am deemed high risk, and I mentioned my faulty lung (one of my lungs has a degree of fibrosis/scar tissue as a result from it being a site for one of my lymphoma tumours). I mentioned how, at times, I find it hard to breathe properly; my peak flow measurement is absolutely pathetic! She then suggested I should join a choir, as the breathing techniques required in singing may well help with my breathing issues. I said to her that people would pay not to hear me sing, but took her advice on board, and thought it over.
My husband had joined the Stay At Home Choir during the pandemic lockdown, and had sung some amazing pieces with them. What happens with this is that you download the score for the pieces you are singing, have tutelage and rehearsals online via Zoom, film yourself singing your part, and then send it in via a special portal on the SAHC project page. After a few months, the people behind the scenes compile a Youtube video featuring every single person who participated – and the sound is amazing! So you’re in a choir, but you can rehearse, record, and submit your piece without being in danger of someone picking you out for singing something wrong. What is even nicer is that the members of the choir come from all corners of the globe!
So, I joined the choir last January, and tend to sing Soprano 2. So far I have participated in four projects: one which involved Norwegian ‘yoiking’ with composer Frode Fjellheim: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avCgULB3UIY
I have also sung Handel’s ‘Zadok the Priest’, a recording which was subsequently dedicated to the memory of the late HM Queen Elizabeth II: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wz9oazzWjQ
Can you see me?
My latest project was participating with the choir in singing Thomas Tallis’ ‘If You Loved Me’. This is due for release on Valentine’s Day, and I will post the link here when it is available. It was a beautiful piece to sing, if a little complex!
Next up, we are singing Christopher Tin’s ‘Baba Yetu’ – one of my favourite songs. Rehearsals start next week, and I am so excited for them!
And finally, I have also sung with the choir in two pieces which will be included in Karl Jenkins’ forthcoming album ‘One World’ (released in the summer). Karl Jenkins is my favourite modern day composer (I have all of his Adiemus albums) and so being able to participate in singing two songs for his new album was so thrilling!
All of the pieces that the choir have sung prior to my involvement can be found on the SAHC Youtube page. They are all wonderful pieces of music – two led by Gareth Malone were especially written for the choir to perform.
Now, I am loving singing and I don’t care who hears me rehearse! I think it has even helped my breathing a bit too. I still think I would hesitate joining a real-time choir though…….. I need a bit more confidence for that! If you have been reading this and are interested in signing up for future projects, keep an eye on the SAHC webpage. Then you, like the rest of us, can enjoy the music you have produced whilst searching for your own wee box on the screen when it is released on Youtube!
I have been thinking about this subject over the past week in preparation for this blog post, and it has been quite tough to choose one thing over the past (ahem) 50 years which, to me, has been the most important (to me) invention. Since the 1970s, we have seen the emergence of the mobile phone, the internet, more sophisticated computers, online shopping, ATMs, CDs and DVDs (now eclipsed by Blue-Ray discs), MP3s, eBooks, and automated machines which can tell you everything from the news headlines to playing a favourite song just by the sound of your voice wakening it up. Life in the 2020s seems to be more ‘plugged in’ than I can remember it as a child and I’m not necessarily sure if this is a good thing.
Yes, I have multiple Spotify playlists which I listen to on a daily basis – probably listening to music through this platform more than actually putting one of my hundreds of CDs into my CD player. But that’s because it’s more convenient. And, although I still have a CD Walkman, carrying that about when I’m exercising outdoors isn’t really practical. Yes, I’m writing this blog on the internet (more out of wanting to document my thoughts as my reach with this blog is pathetically low), and I do get some shopping online. It’s very different studying for degrees nowadays than it was when I was a nursing student in the 1990s; to write essays we had to scour little drawers in the library to find the particular article we wanted and then, armed with that info, you went in search of the journal or book. Tough luck if someone else had it out on loan/borrowing it at the time. It was even more fun when your whole year group was writing the same essay – 30 people trying to gain access to one article was a bit like trying to be first into the January sales!
Nowadays, libraries have everything a log-on away. Everything is a lot more instant – which can only be a good thing, right? Social media means that you can have immediate conversations with people you have never met on the other side of the globe (or even in your town) – surely that has to be good for loneliness? Personally, I am weaning myself off social media – I very rarely use my Twitter account any more (it’s too full of celebrities seeking the most followers/validation and such like. I’m going to be deleting that platform soon), and I am rarely on my Facebook. Instead of easing loneliness, it actually makes me feel worse. When I see people who I thought were friends meeting up for events that I haven’t been invited to, or someone I know ‘unfriends’ me [once a real-life acquaintance who I had known for 30 odd years blocked me on Facebook because I wished her a happy anniversary. Ehhh?? By the way, she was still happily married to the same man so what was that about?], or I am forced to see the wondrous evidence of everyone else’s perfect lives (or so they like to depict them), it makes me feel inadequate, sad, and that I’ve done something wrong. Have I said something to make people not like me and not want to be friends with me? Why isn’t my life like that? And why is it that people who ‘cut you dead’ when you see them in the street ask to be your Facebook friend? It’s all a bit beyond me, I’m afraid. So, I keep my Facebook and Instagram use to the bare minimum and am hoping to purge myself of them completely within the next few years.
But, on the flip side, social media has helped me gain contact with a lot of my old school friends (I loved my school days) and I enjoyed a wonderful reunion with them all again last summer. I have also met some remarkable people who have helped me raise shedloads of cash for charity that little introverted me would never have managed to raise by myself. Additionally, over lockdown, being able to go online (Youtube) to join the services from our church gave a form of constancy and much-needed solace. I do think, though, that social media can never replicate actual face-to-face conversations. I do enjoy hearing news of people directly from them in person, seeing facial expressions, etc, rather than impersonally over the web. Same with shopping, I’d much rather go into a shop and buy things rather than get them online; the latter seems so impersonal. I prefer to live ‘in the moment’ and enjoy real life around me than to live through what I see on a screen. So, although the internet is good for some things, to me it isn’t the greatest invention of my lifetime.
Mobile phones – again, I could quite happily live without mine. I am slowly downgrading the type of phone I have and am wanting just the basic remodel of the Nokia 3310. I only have one friend who calls me (I know – I seem not to have many close friends just now!) but otherwise I only use it to call my Dad, or to make appointments. I don’t need the internet on the go, although Google Maps is useful sometimes when I get lost (a frequent occurrence!), as is Spotify (for listening to music on the go. I’m not really a podcast person). When waiting for a bus, or an appointment, nearly every other person waiting has their phone out and are aimlessly scrolling. Meanwhile, I whip the book I have brought along with me out of my bag. I’d rather hide in some quality fiction than in the fiction of social media!
Talking of books – eBooks. Now, I have numerous Kindles. I have about 1000 books on them (most stored on the ‘cloud’). My Kindle is great for taking on holiday when I’m scared I might run out of reading material, or for reading during the night when I can’t sleep. But, there is nothing that beats a physical book. So, I could live without my eBook reader – I would just have fewer books.
So, what is the most important invention in my life-time, in my opinion? I think it has to be the advances in the medical world, particularly the invention of the MRI (imaging machine). Cancer can now be cured, or better controlled, and so many new procedures (such as laparoscopic surgery) have meant that fewer people have to have open surgery for appendicectomies or for gall bladder removal, etc. Due to my extensive medical history, I have had so many CT scans that I am not allowed any more in my lifetime. Instead, I have to have MRIs. Indeed, without my latest MRI, the cancer I had would not have been diagnosed so accurately. They’re noisy brutes – I wasn’t even offered earphones or music for mine – but extremely effective. And what is more important than diagnostic tests to enable individuals to get effective and prompt treatment for their illnesses? I am hoping that I won’t need any more scans – but should it be necessary – I will be indebted to Paul Christian Lautebur. Without his invention being trialled in the medical field, in the year I was born, I wouldn’t be here now. And nor would many millions of others.
So, three cheers for medical advances and, especially, Magnetic Resonance Imaging. The one thing in the past 50 years that I literally could not live without.
If anyone is reading this blogpost, it would be interesting to know what you consider to be the most important invention that has emerged in your lifetime.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind” (Cervantes, Don Quixote)
Reading
Other than reading extensively for my thesis, and starting my final chapter, I have tried to dig myself out of a reading slump by attacking the pile of books that line the floors in my study. As we are putting the house up for sale in a few weeks’ time, most of my thousands of books will be going into storage, and so I am trying to read as many of the books I want to read most before they disappear until the summer.
In January, I managed to read 7 books (some are pictured in my Goodreads sidebar thingummy to the right of this post). Unusually for me, I only read five books last year – some of them before my Mum passed away and so seven in one month this year is a little victory! I had bought Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible years ago and, like most of my other intended reads, it got put in one of my bookcases and left to mature until last week. The urgency of having to pack things up suddenly hit me, and so I retrieved it and committed myself to reading it when I wasn’t writing or doing other things. My tutees have had 3 weeks off during their Prelims, so it was an excellent time for me to try and see how much of the 600-odd page novel I could get through, before I picked my next one.
I finished it on Monday, taking only just short of a week to read it. Beforehand, I knew nothing about the history of the Congo and so I found this text very enlightening historically as well as very lyrical descriptively. Doing a surface review, it was an enjoyable read if a tad long. I think it would have been better being about 200 pages slimmer than it is. However, it was nice to spend a cold and dark January reading about the hot Congo, albeit including the much more primitive living arrangements the characters had to endure.
I’ve now rescued another book from one of my many storage boxes: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clark. It’s another novel I bought years ago but it started calling me asking me to spare it from ‘the box’. It’s also another biggie; it’s over 1,000 pages long. I’m about one-fifth of the way into it and am LOVING it so far. It’s my treat for when I manage to write a decent amount of my chapter!
House-selling Prep
This feels like running through custard with lead boots on. Man, are we hoarders? I don’t know if the attic will ever get cleared. Plus we still have rooms to paint, a new bathroom to be installed (after them cancelling our start of January fitting), and some roof work to be done (again, the company have been ‘kicking the can down the road’ with us since October). The storage boxes have arrived, and we are starting to pack some of our clutter away so that when we can access the storage facility in a couple of weeks, we can shove them on the van and be done with them. As mentioned above, I need about 50 boxes alone for my books (I am obviously keeping my PhD books, and my nicely bound ones) but trying to choose which ones to keep with me is like trying to choose which of your children you want to banish for 3 months. It is a nightmare. A nightmare, I tell you!
Now, I must remember NOT to pack my Anthony Powell books away. Nor my textbooks/ articles files……..
PhD
I have been chipping away at this and the final chapter is taking shape. I’ve found a few little nuggets from my reading, so am hoping that they make sense in the finished chapter. I’m aiming to have this chapter done in the autumn (taking into account our house move etc) and then it’s just the final editing to do. Although at times I can see my thesis far enough, I’m still really enjoying it and am thankful that the uni have given me this chance to follow my dream – even though I suspect I will be wayyyyy too old to pursue my dream job of being an academic/lecturer when I finish. I’m glowering at 2017 me who was certain that she would get this done in 4 years. Hah! Well, I guess with events over the next couple of years, that wasn’t likely to happen. I’m keeping on going anyway. I’m just grateful that my supervisor has the patience of a saint.
TV/Netflix
I don’t actually watch very much TV but this January I was absolutely hooked on The Traitors. It’s a psychological reality show where, within a group of strangers, three of them are allocated the role of traitor (these traitors ‘murder’ a ‘faithful’ contestant every night) and the others (the ‘faithful’) have to try and work out who the traitors are. I ended up watching the UK and the US versions – it was that good. The series’ are still available on BBC iPlayer.
As far as Netflix goes, it was Gilmore Girls all the way. This has been my favourite show since the 2000s and Lorelai is one of my fictional heroines. When I’m having an unproductive writing day, or am having a blue day as I’m missing my Mum, a couple of episodes of GG goes on Netflix and the world is a better place again. I’ve already watched every single episode of every single series (and the re-union) several times but, like ‘Friends’, they are worth a re-watch over and over again. Even more gratifying is getting my daughter hooked on it too; we sometimes share watch-parties, me in my home and my daughter in her flat in Dundee. I want to live in Stars Hollow. Even if it is just a stage set (the same one that was used for the town in the original – and best – ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’). I need a Luke’s where soup-bowlfuls of coffee are served all the time. Nowhere here sells coffee in massive mugs. Big letdown.
I have also been watching Suits, as I have done for years. It’s quite compelling. And the US version of The Office, which I love. But nothing tops Gilmore Girls. Sorry, not sorry.
Music
Music I have enjoyed over the past month has included a bit of Magnum. I have no idea why, in January and February, I end up playing Magnum and Pink Floyd more than at any other time of year. I guess I see them as ‘winter bands’. Odd – that’s the synaesthesia again. Best song, by far, by Magnum has to be ‘On a Storyteller’s Night’. That whole album is pretty darn good, mind you. I’ve also been re-visiting my love of Dire Straits. They don’t make bands like them any more!
Additionally, I always have some ambient music playing when I’m thesis-writing, and have been enjoying albums by Karl Jenkins (my utter favourite), Mythos, Lesiem, and Mehdi a lot. Chill out synth music with lyrics in another tongue – made up or not – which doesn’t distract me from my work. Perfect.
Interesting article:
Here’s a thing I read that I found interesting: There is a saying “you are only as old as you feel”. But, is that actual chronological age, or biological age? Aren’t they the same, you ask? Well, according to this article in the National Geographic, they could differ vastly. Knowledge of the biological age of someone could be “worth a thousand blood tests” in health promotion and disease prevention. How is biological age ascertained? By 3D imaging. It sounds expensive (a basic xray is fairly costly, alone) but the potential benefits to be gleaned from this in the future, particularly in relation to medical diagnoses and treatments (such as those for cancer which, according to the article, can cause premature ageing) are profound. Will it ever take off in our cash-strapped NHS (if, indeed, the NHS still exists in decades’ time), or would it likely be a procedure only accessible to the wealthy? One wonders.
Onward to February, my least favourite of months for many reasons. At least it’s the shortest!
June's Jottings 