A mercenary outing

I went to Salisbury Cathedral yestarday, to sing evensong with the mercenary choir - also known as camerata. It went very well, though I felt very under-rehearsed. Philip and Charlotte had sent the music to me a few weeks ago, but it seems that got nicked from our mail box as well. Still, I coped and didn't make any really noticeable wrong notes! We sang Darke in F, Sanders responses and 'Lord let me know mine end' by Maurice Green, as well as an Aspden psalm chant. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy singing music like that, with a really good group of singers, in a beautiful building. I like the feeling of keeping up a great tradition as well - evensong has been sung there for hundreds of years and I'm part of that now.

It was good to catch up with all my old friends again as well. I mentioned the wedding date to a few people - we were hoping that Philip would be able to play the organ for us. Unfortunately, Camerata are booked to sing evensong at Coventry Cathedral on the 7th May! Ooops.

There would be a photo of salisbury Cathedral here, but the battery had run out in the digital camera ;-)

Home sweet home

I've just got home after two and a half days in Bremen, Germany. Travelling on business is great - if the company is paying you can afford to splash out a little! On our first night we ate in the hotel restaurant, which was rather posh - I had shark steak in a white chocolate-chilli sauce, and very nice it was too. The chef actually came out to talk to the people at the next table and he was huge - they do say never trust a skinny chef, and by that reckoning he was the most trustworthy man ever!

The meeting was fine - I won't bore you with the intricate details of aircraft rear end modelling discussions. At one point, the Spanish and German representatives started having a bit of an arguement about something - they were sitting at either side of a U-shaped table so for those of us along the other side it was rather like watching a verbal tennis match. Thankfully there was a good umpire who kept the discussion moving, and the meeting actually finished early!

I spent this afternoon visiting Airbus Bremen, who were having a greek party in their canteen - very bizarre.

Aside from that, I walked past a shop called Pfaff - if only I'd had the camera with me! Oh, and the german nick-name for Smart cars is "elephant's rollerskates" - something you always wanted to know ;-)

Whilst I've been away, Tim has bought the "Way Out" tube map - it tells you which carriage you should sit in to be next to the exit for each stop on the underground! So he can now spend ages working out the route around London, and save about 10 seconds when he gets off the tube... he's off to London tomorrow so I'm sure he'll let you know how it goes.

Assorted relatives at Samuel's baptism a week or so ago. Samuel is the one in the middle wearing red, being held by his mum, Tim's sister, Rachel.

Suits you...

Tim actually suggested we went shopping today - a very unusual occurrence! We were looking for a new suit for his new business lifestyle. Is it just me, or do all suits look almost identical after a while? Apart from the linings that is - we found some lovely ones in debenhams with a fluorescent orange lining. We ended up buying a more discreet suit from Moss Bross, with the aid of a very helpful shop assistant. He even pinned up the trousers to the correct length - I'll be doing some sewing this weekend then...

We also treated ourselves to a miniature digital camera - not the greatest resolution, but it's fun. We're still working out how to get pictures in focus, but I'll see if I can upload a couple of shots on to here later on. Should brighten things up a bit!

On the wedding front, we went to see Jim the Minister to get the Church stuff sorted. Not that we've got many plans yet - we know we'll have some hymns, and some music, but don't know which ones yet. We've got the hymn list down to about 20, which is probably a few too many!

Elspeth

Jobs and that.

I'm slightly disappointed that I have only managed to be a kept man for one month before obtaining a job. After 2 interviews and a breakfast meeting I have been offered a job as part of the business modelling team at PricewaterhouseCoopers. I'm probably starting at the beginning of November, if HR can get the contract out to me in time. Importantly I'll be earning more than Elspeth, and I'm looking forward to actually earning a salary! I'm looking forward less to the daily commute to London Bridge. As part of the offer PwC are sponsoring me to take the CFA professional qualification. Now, in a Balderdash-style quiz question, what does CFA stand for?

Tim

Autumn mornings

I do love Autumn weather - it was lovely and crisp this morning on my walk into work, and now the sun's out. My office window looks out onto a field with a tree in the far corner. The leaves are still green, but have been turned golden yellow by the sunlight.

Mind you, I'd rather be at home today. Tim bought me a couple of new computer games for my birthday, one of which is rather addictive. I've just managed to kill the seamonster by resurrecting the turtle using the glowing life crystals and then hiding a bomb inside it. Trust me, it makes perfect sense within the game!

Elspeth

Birthdays and badminton

I'm in the office very early today, so I thought I'd fire off an entry while no one's looking. Mind you, in my new office I can type as loudly as I like and no one complains. Sean is a loud typist as well, and Craig knows some very good swear words for when his work's going badly, but we're all getting along fine. I'd forgotten how nice sharing an office can be - I no longer dread getting in to work in the mornings! It does mean I'll no longer have a store of amusing office mate stories though.

Hmmm. Hope she never reads this!

Anyway, on to other stuff. I got home from work last night to find the badminton raquets lying in the middle of the floor. Tim had put his foot down and decided we would finally go to the social badminton at Church. Hmmm. It wasn't the most competitive game we've ever played! There were two pre-teenage girls, their mum and gran, and Graeme who runs the club. Tim was by far the best player there, and he was playing very nicely rather than competitively. I don't think we'll be going back, not when we can go jiving instead and get a much better work out!

Theoretically it's my birthday today. However, I didn't feel like celebrating/opening presents at 6:30 this morning so I've decided my birthday starts when I get home from work. Some ****** vandalised our mail box when we were away on holiday, and I've since found out they must have taken the cards sent by my Aunt and Pop - one of which contained a cheque. I suppose that's what comes of living in a non-desirable part of town!

Everything has to start somewhere...

Well, we're back from our holiday, so it's time to start our blog. Don't know what we'll write about yet, but I'm sure we'll mention the wedding plans at some point. It's all booked for May 7th 2005, so we've got a deadline to work to! Plus there's my singing and Tim's tuba playing. I'm sure they'll make an appearence as well. No digital camera yet, so I'm afraid the blog will be pictureless for a while.

So, the holiday... we had a week in Sidari in Corfu, which was lovely. Or apartments were set on the outskirts of the town, with a great pool and amazing views out over the cliffs and coves. Sidari itself was a bit British (full cooked English breakfasts in every bar, and the soaps on the tv in the evening!) but the bit we were staying in was quieter. We hired a car for two days and had fun driving round the scary mountain roads, in the process covering the car with tar from an unfinished road, but that's another story...

Back to work tomorrow - not looking forward to it after two weeks off! Tim is off to London again on Tuesday to talk job terms with PriceWaterhouseCoopers - very exciting...

Elspeth