To Blog or not to Blog

A few friends have adversely commented on my lack of blogging, it is a big commitment, and especially challenging when I'm busy in the summer. There is also always the worry that have I actually got anything interesting to say! Well this year has provided many of us with plenty to comment on, the Pandemic; our political leaders failure to deal with it; in the UK the Governments failure to live up to their promises and reform the Gender Recognition Act, the cancelation of Pride and so much more. To be honest I have just felt too busy getting on and dealing with it all to want to write about! Much of my energy has been taken up with simply keeping my business afloat!

I have been vacillating madly about whether I should restart Paula's Place or just leave in in dignified retirement, I am still not convinced! But primarily to satisfy a couple of friends, and to see how I get on, here goes!

To say it's been a challenging year has to be one of the understatements of the century! I suspect that pretty much everybody in the world has by now been impacted to some extent by the Covid-19 pandemic, of course I am no exception to that. I have to keep reminding myself that I am very much one of the lucky ones; I have been able to keep working throughout and while business, and therefore income, has not been what I would have otherwise expected Government support has compensated for that.  The challenge has come for me with the original ban on communal music making.  

Allegra Concert Band in rehearsal

I think that first four months was the longest I have gone since the age of 8 or 9 not making music with other people. Things are better now, both the bands I conduct are able to rehearse, even if we have nothing to rehearse for. It is difficult when there is no goal in sight, no performance to be working towards, but at the moment we're just so pleased to be able to be playing.   It all feels a bit strange, instrumentalists have to be separated from each other, which does affect the sound as well as simple things like turning over the pages! We have to have windows or doors open and I have to wear a visor, so yes it feels strange but not as strange as not playing did.

We're a long way from being back to normal, the Band I play in won't be rehearsing this year, and my orchestra can't yet play as an orchestra, only in sections, and I've no idea whether, or how we will hold Pride next year. But we are all learning, we're learning values, what really matters to us, we're learning the importance of human contact, we're learning what we can and can't do without, and we're learning about commitment, community, and consideration.