A Great Day

I finally received notification today of which assessment pieces I have to do for Research Methods (one of my subjects). I am, in fact, doing 3 research method streams: one for Performance, one for dissertation writing and one for music education research. They are all very useful and thought provoking, but there was no need to be assessed on all as that is 3 subjects! So, as I am enrolled as a Master of Music candidate, i.e. a Performance student, I will be assessed on performance research. "It would be beneficial, of course, to do, and get feedback on, the other areas." It just means that I have 2 presentations (Powerpoint wasn't invented when I was last at uni) and a 4000 word paper due in January. Ho ho ho.
Congratulations to the Brisbane Celtic Fiddle Club. I hear you guys did a fabulous support for Catherine Fraser's concert. I'm so proud of you.
My performance at the new student run folk club went well. It has (sensibly) been suggested that some photos of me playing, and not just descriptions should be included. I'll have someone take photos during the concert next week. I might even try to get a video/ sound grab. (Oh I'm such a tech head.) So apologies for the boring entry, but just wait until next time...

Performing

The Bridge is a beautiful Art Nouveau pub in Newcastle. There is a regular folk club held there, and once a month they have "Rising Stars", for the folk degree students. Last Monday night I did a spot. Sandra Kerr starts it off, and then it was me. Vic (my supervisor) played cittern with me. We did quite well. We're playing at another club tomorrow night.

This is all in preparation for...

It's all go now! The first year students are supporting me. I'll be singing with their vocal group and playing in the large ensemble too though. And Chris and Holly, who are living in Edinburgh are going to come and play a set with me; I'm going up to rehearse with them on Friday. The next 2 weeks are pretty busy, rehearsing with so many different groups. But I think it will be a good concert. (Even though it's a little strange to be doing a concert without Tony!)

Festivals

I've been to 2 festivals in the past couple of weeks.
The first was Denham Folk Festival. Denham is a lovely little village in the Scottish Borders. There were concerts, fiddle workshops and dance workshops. I had a great lesson with Mairi Rankin from Cape Breton Island. I played in the Sunday afternoon concert, "Catriona Macdonald and Friends". A really lovely weekend.
Last weekend I went to Edinburgh. I spent Friday in the School of Scottish Studies library (at the University of Edinburgh) and then the rest of the weekend was Fiddle 2007, with concerts and workshops. Unfortunately, I was really sick on Saturday and missed most of the events. I made it to 2 good workshops on Sunday though. Edinburgh is such a beautiful city; next time I hope that my head is working better and I take some pictures!
I had a meal with Chris though at the Elephant House Cafe - the "birthplace" of Harry Potter. It's very cool and much nicer this year with the smoking ban. (Tony and I walked out last year it was so smokey.)
Last night I had a spot at The Bridge Folkclub(hosted by Sandra Kerr). I was at the beginning, straight after Sandra in fact. I was accompanied by Vic on cittern (very lovely). It went quite well. We're doing a spot at another folkclub next week. And then the following week there is going to be a large concert in which I feature. It's going to be a busy couple of weeks I think.

Remember, remember the 5th of November

Monday night was Bonfire Night, in rememberance of the Gunpowder Plot, an attempt to blow up Parliament in 1605.
Now I know the photo's not great, but the glowing blob in the middle is the bonfire. It's about 200 metres away. The tiny blobs to the right are people and a tractor. After half an hour of watching the Bonfire, there was a nice fireworks display.
Unfortunately, the fire was too far away for us to receive the benefit of any warm. A shame, really, because my feet, hands and face were numb from the cold. I had 4 layers of clothing on! You'll be pleased to know that EVEN Maeva, the Canadian, who's been telling me that "It's not that bad here; Canada gets down to -40C in the winter", was cold!
I suggested that indoor entertainment would possibly be more appropriate for this time of year, but...
There were various fireworks explosions until about midnight, as anyone can buy fireworks here. We, from the regulated colonies, carefully chose an official event for the evening. There were a lot of people there. I felt that most of them were underdressed given the Arctic wind blowing up from the river...

Emma and flatmates "sensibly" dressed.

Hull, Friends and TV

After my day in York, I travelled on to Hull, an hours train journey east.

I stayed at Australian friends, Linda and Allan's place. So nice not to explain myself. And we could discuss British beaurocracy ("How did they manage an Empire?!"), diet (mine and the Brits') and theses. Brilliant.

After a great meal we watched tv (Elizabeth featuring Durham Cathedral!). Now this may not seem an exciting way to spend a Saturday evening, but I've not seen tv in 6 weeks...

We spent Sunday exploring. We went to Pontefract (one of the settlements listed in the Domesday Book compiled for William in 1086AD. The important castle that stood there is now ruined, but we looked around the site. The photo shows the baile and motte form of the castle; I'm standing on the baile (flattened area) looking up at the motte (fortified,constructed hill).

In the afternoon, we toured Lotherton Hall, a home that had been left to the Leed City Council by the Gasgoigne family. The gardens were especially beautiful.

It was a very enjoyable weekend.

International Student Society trip to York

I joined the International Students' Society in my first few days here. They organised the walking tour of the city and the cafe crawl in the first week here, both of which were really helpful in orientating me.

Last Saturday they organised a day trip to York (about a 2 hour bus trip south of Newcastle). It's a great city. It's one of the few cities that still has it's wall intact.

Maeva, Mareika and I did an open top bus tour of the city which was really interesting.

The only picture that worked (from the moving bus) was of the ruins of the old castle, which is between the modern Hilton Hotel on one side and a Victorian building on the other.

After a pub lunch (a bit average), we spent the rest of the afternoon in York Minster. Another amazing cathedral. We went on a small tour, which lasted nearly 2 hours. Our guide gave us such a wealth of information; he was great and really brought history to life.
The doors in the top right picture are "original" ie from the 1280s! There are beautiful details everywhere. Some of the glass in the huge stained windows (some the size of tennis courts) is the oldest glass in Europe. Wow.

A Lesson

I had my first fiddle lesson a week ago. I went to Catriona's house in the Scottish Borders. It's very beautiful (the house, the village and the surrounding area).
It was a great lesson, and I've got a stack of Shetland tunes to learn. Yay!
It was however, very cold. At 11:00 am we scraped the ice of the car windscreen! Thank goodness for the fireplaces.
I'm back up there this weekend for a folk festival in the village.

When in Rome

My first field trip.
When one is examining Medieval music performance practices, one should be in the right venue with the right materials. So we travelled 10 minutes south by train to Durham, seen above in a night time postcard.
The Cathedral is STUNNING. I had vague recollections as I strolled around of being here 20 years ago. And it was the setting for much of Elizabeth, the film with Cate Blanchett.
We got to see and use some reconstructions of early organs and examine early manuscripts. The other students didn't even question this, until I told them how exciting it was to BE here, not just seeing pictures of these things.
A very special trip.