13 July 2013

The last post...

It is with great sorrow that I blog the last blog, detailing the honest exploits of Dorset For Singing, aged 5 years! The blog began in the January of 2009 when choir had been going for one term, and only had one blog post to boot! So I offered my dubious wordy services, and these days I am not even moderated!

This blog post is about a hot windy day in the rose garden, where songs were dropped, timings were changed (organisers fault) and handbags were applied to the music stand as stand-in sand bags! (Weather fault)... Sophie even weighed her folder down with a lump of cake.

I am going to miss sharing our adventures with you until halfway through September! The summer holidays looms large and long. I suppose I should finish putting that new zip into Mrs Ed's waterproof trousers before the rains come...

This delightful panorama I shall leave you with, another iPhone greatness featuring disjointed ropes and children with missing parts. Some things just can't be improved upon ....

Have fun, and keep singing, I will always love you xxxx

4 July 2013

The one in the common room!

It was very hot in the common room, so Jack fetched out a wobbly fan and my kids sang into it for that crazy Doppler effect! But it was still hot, and very little warm up needed, as Ed did not have a key board. just that wheely-boogie- box speaker and a smarty-pants phone that goes on and plays the next song all by itself, for that seamless concert pleasuring .... 

So due to the fan blowing warm air about, we all sang our songs looking like babes from 80's pop videos. Even the men! and we had a good go at all the problem areas, as this is our last practice before the rose garden, on the 13 July. Because next week is party time, so get thinking what karaoke number you will do! around the mouthful of Jenny's lovely buffet ... I will be back to blog all the best fun from the old music room, of course ...

And in September when we finally reconvene, its party time, 5 wonderful years have passed since we met in that music room to learn out first songs together. i joined three weeks in, and them began to blog in the new year, how long have you been a DFS babe? See you Thursday, BIG LOVE, Cat xxx

29 June 2013

The one in the rectory garden...

When Linda dragged back the audience....

She wrote in our facebook group, "Well done choir again at our latest gig! Thanks Ed and Harry for the musical assistance, we all had a great time and looking forward to The Rose Garden do in July.

"I managed to stop some people leaving before we sang and made them `go and sit down or you`ll miss a treat`! I don`t know if they`ll get over being forced `fed`! I think they liked it !! See you all Thursday XXX"

Just sharing the love, here!

27 June 2013

The one with the dishcloth shirt....

The keyboard was shoved right into the naughty corner, underneath the screen, so no playing with that tonight. Little jack-corner was tucked away behind a pulled-out mixing desk, spaghetti-wires everywhere!

Get your words printed from the worldly-wide-web for Saturday's concert. The following songs are blogged in running order, as performed, and for your convenience! 

Dancing queen was fun when the incomplete words swept off the screen. Jenny might well be in the dog house for only sending part of the words, but she did better than Ed who brought only an empty memory stick! Still, his strip tease made up for it!!!!

Oh what a beautiful morning was all In it's own time. Not ours. At all! It was lovely hummed through though! We got it eventually. Phew!

Dancing in the street went AWOL but then burst gallantly out of the school speakers, scaring away any remaining little brown mav'ricks! Moo. 

Rose had to lose the yobs, and with a bit of gentleness and tummy support, they left the building. That's a relief because we don't want any rugby-versions of our songs appearing, from the football shouts!

Flash dance with groovy backing was given an equally groovy run through. 

Tonight needs good strong t-sounds at ends especially. Don't forget this on Saturday. No Oklahoma accents here, no sir!

If I loved you was nearly perfect!

Finale was our 'angry men', you can thank my kittens for that title! Night night, god bless, and remember I love you. See you Saturday! Xxxx

20 June 2013

The one with the keys ....

Dancing in the streets is in F but it has rather too many words in it. Ron and Mrs Ron needed to know who would do parts  and Ed had the smart idea of dancing. Oh dear. There was a problem with the Philadelphia and so we slipped in Laughing Cow...

Dancing queen falls into the original key, and we are staying with the cheese tonight. This was good because everyone knew where the words fitted. 

Tonight is in G for starters! Ed said, Oooooh for rather a long time, admired the balance in the volumes. Then went on to improve our diction. Nice!

Do you hear the people sing we know the key of very well. So we stood and sang out loud! But we were a bit short of anger and passion and must all name fists. I tried it. It made me frown though. Sorry Ed! And I got nail marks in my palm...

Flash Dance might sound like toilet duck but it isn't. And Ed didn't say anything about a key. He went through the backing vocals for us. 

If I loved you - A-flat-minor! A different kind of passion in this one. The second time we had to be violins. No not squeaky, badly played violins. 

Oh what a beautiful morning! Standard key good for the men to stay off in. All together!

Rosé Is a-plus-4. Probably means its better than red, then! After our first run through, we worked on some harmonies until Ed wept at the very beauty of the thing ...Really DFS, we have come such a long way in our 5 years ... 5 years! Which reminds me, party time soon but what shall we do? KAREOKE? FOOD? LES MIS? 11 July is out last session, it will soon come around so jump on the forum and leave your ideas!

Love you, Cat XXXX

13 June 2013

The one with the new warm up .... The good, the better, and the best! And the opportunity to get three of your 5-a-day with mangos, bananas, kiwis!

We revisited the old friend of rosé, which was nice, and we did so well it was added instantly to our repertoire. Ed struggled a bit completely playing the right bit at the wrong time, but after two fails, Michael put him right and all was well again in the world!

Dodgy moment as Ed almost went into interpretive dance when we tackled the theme from flash dance, which we have had a shot at before of course! The ending was hard enough to grasp with it the buffering issue! Oh how we love YouTube! And speaking of YouTube, i have hung onto this blog post as i wish to share the video Ed made on his phone at the end, when we stood to perform two songs, but he hasn't yet put down his kebab, and i am still waiting to share ... It is rather nice to have a fun, multimedia blog after all!

What this space, and see you Thursday!

6 June 2013

The one with Ed's poem....

Which (apart from reminders of our concerts and a vote for a weekday coffee meetings) formed the best part of our notices this week! See bellow to enjoy it all over again! And again! And the fact that I've recorded it and slotted it into a nice video should just about make up for the fact that this weeks blog is low on words! i must have over blogged myself last week, following our trip!

A new song for us, Dancing In The Street! And then a really new song, Titanium, or ***anium according to an app on me smarty-phone! It was so new that its even in 'the charts' which makes me feel very old indeed!

I who have nothing ...ready to perform after just one session! Man we are getting good - we should go away more often, perhaps? Well, more than once every five years that is ... Keep singing, get your you tubes out!
Cat xxxx

29 May 2013

The one with the Australian passport!

Here is our lovely driver Diane, all ready to take us as far as Fleet services where we would change driver!

But first the Coach needed refueling. I never appreciated before just how much diesel one of these babies can guzzle. Diane had to use her purse as a wedge as the clip was broken. It takes a little time to pump that much fuel into these tanks!

How much? Even the whole of DFS, together with Ed, didn't drink this much on the whole time away! Glad I wasn't picking my nose in that reflection, there!

With the sun shining, DFS and Diane headed for Calais, and some shopping time, with a quick comfort stop on the way so that we wouldn't miss our ferry! 

Lots of delights were to be found in Carrefour. From kitsch souvenirs to something for tea on the coach. I ate some of these before rejoining the coach, ready to pass through customs. If I had fed some to Linda, we might have got away sooner perhaps ...

Which brings us to the passport in question, as one of our choir members was actually born down under. Her new Australian passport was lacking anything that said she could reside in the UK, or even visit there, and neither did she have a drivers licence or the old passport. Officials started talking sternly to her. The driver stayed in customs with Linda, and Ed acted as a go between.

Meanwhile, back on the coach, we all made the decision to wait for our friend, at the risk of missing our ferry, and a dear friend of mine (I was busy texting) and I, prayed that common sense would prevail, so we could be on our way. Time ticked by and we did miss our ferry. Diane and Ed made important calls to tour operators, and we we told that there would be space on the next boat. I had to turn my phone off to save enough battery to let folks at home know when we would be back, following the change ... so no more photos were taken!

After threatening Linda with deportation to get their message across, common sense prevailed and they released her to her loving DFS family! We all cheered! The DFDS ferry we managed to catch, was bigger and much smarter than the one we went over in, and I only felt a lighter shade of pale-green this time! And there were no vocal football fans either. So it all turned our very nice again indeed!

And for our next Trip? Watch this space! See you after half term Singsters! Cat XXX