Paula's Place

Paula's Place

Sunday 19 June 2016

A stich in space-time

Firstly I will agree with my friend Joey and apologise about the shortage of pictures today.

I just feel the need to demonstrate the new levels of stupidity I have just managed to plummet to.

It will come as a surprise to none of my regular readers that I have been busy, and in consequence have been feeling a bit tired.  I have been craving a day off but couldn't really see the opportunity. Loads of performances, lots of work and no few rehearsals as well. Today after Church I was planing to have some lunch and then possibly go to an Orchestra Rehearsal.   That was only a possible as I was not at all sure I really wanted to spend two hours driving for 30 minutes rehearsal!

Well I got home, changed into something a little more practical, then cooked myself a nice lunch and settled down to watch the Grand Prix.   I tend to watch Grand Prix out of habit as these day I find that they are an almost guaranteed way of sending me to sleep.   Today was no exception and after a nice lunch, a couple of glasses of wine and about 40 laps of the Grand Prix I was feeling rather sleepy so decided to have a lie down and a short rest.

Waking up later, I looked at my bedside clock, saw that it was just gone seven! I leapt up in panic threw on some clothes, moved my car (Parking is restricted except on Sundays) rushed back into the flat to make my sandwiches and get everything ready for the working day. It was only when I switched on the radio that it slowly started to dawn on me that it was actually seven o'clock on Sunday evening, not seven o'clock on Monday morning!

Feeling Sheepish from Civion N at Deviant Art
So while I am feeling slightly sheepish about my stupidity, I am also feeling as though I have won an extra (if rather short) day this week!

Thursday 16 June 2016

My Office Today

The other day I wrote that "It's not always playing with pretty flowers" ~ well ~ yesterday it was.

Although the evening did bring a very stressful rehearsal for performances tonight and tomorrow that have turned out to be nothing like any of us in the band were expecting, but more on that later

Sunday 12 June 2016

My Office Today


It's not always playing with pretty flowers, On Friday we took down a fence, with all the hard labour, mess, and resultant rubble and broken old timber that entails.


Then there is all the setting up of the frame work, or skeleton of the fence, and finally the boards before it is all finished.


I actually took these photos yesterday, Saturday, and I expect to be on this job well into Tuesday. After that I will be glad to get back to some proper Gardening.



Sunday 5 June 2016

Sabath!

It seems to me that I am always complaining about being busy, but never actually doing anything about becoming less busy. In some ways I'm just a girl who can't say no, but recently I have been trying to say no occasionally, yet I still find that I am too busy, running on dry and just not quite managing to do everything that needs to be done.   I have also found that I am making mistakes, errors that I would not normally make, I have double booked myself twice, I missed customers when I should have attended to, at the very least cut their grass, and I have turned up for appointments an hour late.  

Now I know I am trying to do a lot of different things, I also know that it is a long time since I have had a holiday, but it dawned on my yesterday that it is a long time since I have had a Sabbath.   we often think of Sabbath as a Holy day, a day devoted to worship, to Religion, to God; but the truth is that a Sabbath is a day devoted to us.   One day a week when we do nothing, just relax, recover and recharge our batteries.    When Genesis tells us that on the seventh day God rested, it is not telling us that the omnipotent creator of all things was tired and needed a rest, it was telling us that we shoudl take a day of each and every week.   With one thing and another I haven't done that for a long time.

So yesterday after my one appointment in the morning I tried to do nothing, it wasn't easy and I didn't do very well, I still did a bit of washing up and some laundry, but I did try to relax.

Today I have been to Church and have cooked myself a nice lunch, maybe it would be nice to just relax for the rest of the day, but as with most Sundays I have an Orchestra rehearsal I need to attend.   I must try to take that day off every week, that way I may just function a bit better on the other six.

Wednesday 1 June 2016

I CAN FLY!

I Can Fly!
I've been away, my first foreign trip for a while and it was great fun. I was on Tour with the LGSO in Cologne we played one full orchestral concert and some of the orchestra played a chamber concert the following day.   However it does have to be said that the focus of much of the orchestra was as much on the social side as on the musical!


The Best Dressed Tuba in Brussels
In short it was great fun to spend so much time with a bunch of lively young people, some of the time I was even able to keep up with them!

Although I may not have had a lot to play I think I managed to get noticed, not least for the size of my luggage, carting a 4/4 Orchestral CC Tuba across Europe by train is not for the fainthearted!

But it was all worth it to spend so much time with such lovely people.   Just seeing each other for a bit getting refreshments after a rehearsal is not the same as being together for a whole long weekend.   I got to know a lot of nice people a lot better, and that's nice.

I was one of only three women on the trip, but was never allowed to feel left out.