Something to savour on Sunday morning

Well good morning Sunday. I have finally dragged myself out of bed and now sit at my computer drinking my green vanilla tea in a most civilised manner while I contemplate my sinus-aching face, headache and all round general snottiness. I have also begun to cough. I believe this to be a good sign because all of the highly authoritative material on the "common cold" that I have read on the internet tells me that this is one of the final stages of said cold.

Enough of my whining. What else has been happening in Spiralling Shape land? Well, the teaching term ended on Friday. I spent the week helping my beautiful students with their final piece of assessment which was a researched essay on a topic of their choice. It had to be a contemporary Australian issue. As a result, I know now quite a lot about the human impact on the Great Barrier Reef, childhood obesity, eating disorders, substance abuse, drought, problem gambling, ADHD, smoking and a number of other topics. I am sad to see this class leave us for they have been delightful to teach, hard working and dedicated to changing their lives for the better. As always, they have taught me a great deal in the process of me teaching them. If you're not sure exactly what I do, here's a link to a story that aired ABC Wide Bay which describes it beautifully. The student voice is strong.

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/05/25/3226544.htm?site=widebay

So we had a little farewell party for them on Friday afternoon. They bought the food. I bought the congratulatory certificates and small gifts for those of them who had managed twelve weeks, five days a week without missing a class. Impressive!

On Friday evening I then went to a lovely concert at the church in town that has the most uncomfortable pews in the whole wide world. Still, the music made up for it, particularly the performance of the Bach Double Concerto for Oboe and Violin which is one of my many favourite things. The soloists were Barry Davis and Kirsten Kerr. Barry has "retired" to Bundaberg from years of professional oboeing around the world. Never mind that he works like a trouper and is involved in all sorts of music making in town. We are fortunate to have him here indeed. Kirsten is a stunning violinist who grew up in Bundaberg and then went on to bigger and brighter things before settling in Rockhampton with her family. She is famous for teaching me the violin when I was a girl. Actually, she's not really famous for that at all. The other professional achievements on her resume far outweigh that glory. The Bach was beautifully stylish, cleanly articulated and the second movement soared clearly through the church. For those of you who don't know it go directly to youtube, do not pass go and do not collect 200 dollars and look it up. I will finish with a little taste of it here. This is something to savour on a Sunday morning.

and your wii age is.....

48! That was a pleasant discovery last night after I had spent an hour fiddling around with cables and remotes and other bits and pieces to finally get the thing set up. As the Wii kindly informed me that is 11 years older than my actually age. Yes, thank you very much. I can do basic mathematics. Still, it was fun setting my little picture in the settings. I gave myself glasses and a happy smile. Then I played around with the stepping activities for a bit. I was quite uncoordinated the first time. There is a reason I stopped dancing lessons as a child. And then I sat down again because no matter how old and unfit I am there was no way I going to miss Tony Martin and Ross Noble. I am naturally a lazy, non-athletic person so we'll see how this new exercising lark goes.

gushing I know....

Where's Wendy? I'm sure this is question you've all be asking yourself as you obsessively check The Spiralling Shape to see if I've managed to write a new post in the last two weeks. My apologies. I have no single excuse. Life is getting hectic with a week until the end of term, an assignment of my own to finish (for which I now have a much needed extension..thank you kind lecturer), wrapping up the Eisteddfod, teaching the piano, blah blah blah.

Television wise I have been delighted with Angry Boys and expressed as much in the link below last week. Last night's episode was even tighter and more astute.

http://theconversation.edu.au/articles/mockumentarys-beautiful-confusion-animates-chris-lilleys-angry-boys-1698

I simply cannot express how much of a genius I believe Chris Lilley to be. If he never makes any more television he will have already done more for Australian television than most. Yes, gushing, I know. I shall stop now.

Just now, I had another piece pop up. The link is below. As a regional television viewer I took umbrage when I found out about the Nine/WIN divide that occurred in Monday evening's scheduling. I must credit our local paper for alerting me to this yesterday. Monday evenings I go to choir so I was unaware of the late change that had been made. Read on.

http://theconversation.edu.au/articles/not-all-television-viewers-are-created-equal-or-so-says-the-nine-network-1947

Exercise wise this week saw the my return to the netball court after some 25 years. The last time I played netball I was in primary school. I cannot remember the last time I ran anywhere voluntarily. It was great though. I scored 3 goals out of 5. However, my body is now paying for this sudden, unexpected exertion. I feel like I have done 100 situps and my knees are creaking when I go up and down the stairs. I am what they might call "very unfit". I plan to start remedying this sad situation.

the end of a little era

The Bundaberg Music Eisteddfod is over for another year. I spent the weekend sleeping in a bid to recover from a hectic week. For the last 10 years I have taken on the official position of "music coordinator" on the Eisteddfod committee. This year I decided that I had done enough and finally made the decision to step down. I will continue to be involved with my students, perhaps some accompanying and a little bit of volunteering during the week, but no longer will I be responsible for getting out the schedule of competition, timetabling the venues and sessions, photocopying the program, taking it to the music stores for sale, monitoring our email account and answering numerous queries from music teachers, parents and students. I also won't have to look after a week's worth of prize money, ferry adjudicators from venue to venue all week, organise the start of most sessions and fill in at the last moment when volunteers don't arrive. There will be much less lugging of boxes of music and folders up and down stairs, and more enjoying of the music. It's the end of a little era for me.