Rehearsals, assignments, things to do

Yup, it's busy.
And I'm not sleeping that well. Unfortunately. I also sometimes don't know what I do with my time, to tell you the truth..!
I've been doing that get-up-early-to-practice thing, usually starting somewhere between 7 and 7.30am. Till about 9am. Because most days, my first class is at 10am.
At least it's been a good way to get my practice done. I'm really trying to get about 3hrs a day. And having piano lessons is good, they give me focus.

So, it's been a busy week.

At Piano Class, I kinda wanted to volunteer to play. For several reasons. It'd be good to 'air' my pieces, to try them out and see how they were progressing. And to get to play the nice piano! They're very nice to play on, and we are very priveliged, having three Steinway concert grands! And just to prove that I could play Bach too!
But a friend of mine played my P&F, so I thought, "Well, can't play that now..!" and the next person played my other idea, the Toccata (from 1st yr) and so that idea went down the drain...my hand stayed firmly down after that! Pity....
And I'm unfortunately not very confident with Mozart....mmm....we'll see.

Ran into Andrew and Sam afterwards, as they headed to horn class (also love how Geoff just walks over from Royal Pde with his horn under his arm! Hehe..!). Andrew caught me and asked if I could play for him on Friday in performance class; at least it was just the slow part (the first adagio bit) of the Schumann. And then we tried to schedule a rehearsal. Oooh...this took about five minutes, as I stood there umming and ahhing thinking and asking "Can you do....no, that doesn't work for me......erm what about....no........." till we finally decided on a time!

The soiree was on Monday night - I attempted to play my Ravel from last year; I thought it went quite horribly, due to my nervousness of having a memory slip, which has never happened before, but because I thought it...it happened! How terrible. Oh well, I made it through to the end!

Met up with Erica on Tuesday morning - the session went really well. :) Then went to CU, met a few new people, which was totally cool. Then I met my Con mentees in the afternoon. Unfortunately, only two came. But alas, they were cool.....they're both at college, and both international. And they're both really nice and were really enthusiastic! Mmmm...hot chocolate! Had a rehearsal with Julie that night, which went well. Had an awesome Bible Study that night, ably led by Ace and Tim. There were nine of us, which ISN'T all of us, so how awesome is that?! And we were in Ben's flat, so it felt much more home-y and very comfortable; everybody was talking so that was really great!

I met up with Steph for lunch on Wednesday, which was awesome. She even came to Queen's and all! Had a lesson, which was good...gave me lots to work on! Eeek....! I am really trying to increase the speed at which I learn stuff, not that I was terribly slow before, but I really think I could do with some more pushing and learning lots of stuff to get it under my fingers. Then had a rehearsal with Andrew, which went really well! I really enjoy playing with him, because he gives me heaps of feedback, and we both know when something goes wrong and try to fix it together. And he's incredibly patient and encouraging, so that's really good!

I didn't go to the ICC Ball that night, which was probably good, because it was very messy and there were lots of dramatic events. However, a bunch of us who didn't go to the ball went to get gelate on Lygon St that night. It was very nice and lots of fun! We went to Freddo's, and we were all overwhelmed by the choices! Even though I've been there before, I never cease to be amazed by the choices hehe :P We all got gelate, and wandered over to the park at Argyle Square and sat along a wall, all eleven of us, looking at the Ferrari display! It was fun! We played Chinese Whispers - with hilarious consequences! We talked about random things. We tried to do a Mexican Wave (which didn't quite work out). We posed for a camera (on a phone, I really should have brought my camera; it crossed my mind, but I thought "nah...!" pity! all 11 of us on a wall!) and watched a couple make out for the longest time... :S And we played that green man/red man game across the road, where we have to cross the road in the action of the light that is flashing. So, if it's a green man you have to jump along , impersonating the green man; yes, that means sideways, arms out. If it's red man, it's front on, jumping along..! Must have been a sight..! We even had two 'teams' with captains! (Malcolm reckons his green man impersonation was fantastic. Raj vowed never to do it again...) I tried to demonstrate to Nick the next day....he probably thought I was retarded...!

Anyway.......
So, Thursday was a fairly big day (as Thursdays, particularly at the Con!) are.
Had a rehearsal with Julie in Melba that morning, feeling pretty good about it all. Then played in Concert Class, which went pretty well - I was really proud of her! (Especially because it was her Concert Class debut). I talked to Tom backstage during the class - I haven't caught up with him for a very long time! It's always nice talking to him - he's so happy and encouraging a lot of the time! I've noticed that a lot of people are very surprised that I'm not in Performance this year! Oh well....I've gotten over it, and I'm doing lots of stuff anyway without the Performance bit to it! Sinfonia was fun too - playing Sibelius for two weeks, including one of his symphonies (I've totally forgotten which one though...), Spring Song, and Finlandia (hehe.....I 'cheated', I've played this before...!). But it was lots of fun to play such awesome music! And no doubt, Edwina Hookey was leading that day....and Michael D was leading the cellos...talk about fairly star-studded kind of orchestra for that week...! This is quite unusual, but it was definitely very good!

Also, this week was Assassins week at college. I clearly had no time to go 'assassinate' my victim, but unfortunately, I was entering South on Thursday evening, backpack loaded, violin on my shoulder, balancing my dinner on a plastic plate, when I was assassinated by Kev! And I thought it was already too late! Oh well, I would have been eliminated anyway, but...! I talked to him afterwards, and apparently he hadn't done any work all week because he'd been trying all the time to get me! On Monday night, he waited on the East stairs (right next to my room) till 1am! And that he'd had an elaborate plan with Alex to get me but that fell through. And on Thursday, he'd gotten Raj and Ace to call me to lure me to 2nd north....! And on Wednesday night he'd even tried to get me before he went to the ball and Helen had rushed to him to tell him that I'd just gone up the stairs! In the end, he didn't even need anybody's help to get me... :P All worth the laughs though...hopefully he's caught up on some work! Dedication...!
Mind you, I would have probably killed him if I'd dropped my dinner.....I did tell him that, but I think I would have scaled it back to yelling (although Raj reckons I'm too nice to do anything like that....!). At the very least, I would have demanded he get me a new dinner, to which he replied something along the lines of 'You wouldn't have had to ask...!' Considerate!

Had an assignment/test due on Friday, which I submitted on Thursday night, so I felt quite proud of myself! Played for Andrew in Performance Class. I sat there for a little while feeling like quite a 'fake' because I was sitting in this class when I'm not a performance student! Haha. That's all good...some people think I should be there anyway..? Oh well! I told Andrew this and he was like, "We are insanely awesome". Which felt totally good! Hehe. Claire Cooper was doing accpt for the class (she'd prepared with a few people, not for some and that went amazingly! She is a 'mofo' of an accompanist - Amy's words, not mine! But my thoughts exactly. She'll just get up and play like she's known it all her life! She's totally amazing!) So, I kinda felt like I'd be compared to her! But there wasn't much time for talk, but all good. Andrew stuck his hand up very fast, very high, when Mardi asked if there was anybody else who had an accompanied piece and another accompanist (apart from Claire). Andrew's words: "I have little Gladys here!" Hahahahahahaha.
Anyway, so we played the Adagio from the Schumann. It went pretty well! I wasn't too nervous, which I normally am when I do get up on Melba Hall stage and start imagining playing one of the Steinways! I have to say, working with Andrew this year has been totally amazing. This is just the start of it all, but so far it has been really good. I've found that I've had to learn stuff very quickly and to learn to play even more together very quickly. Okay, I'll shut up about Andrew now (if you are reading this, sorry I've blabbed on...! I totally mean everything that I've said so far! And it has been totally awesome so far to play with you! To everybody else reading this: Andrew is totally awesome at horn! And totally cool. And we are insanely awesome! Hehe :P )

So, I finally made birthday invites. I know, it's like a month away, but there are lots of people having 21sts this year, and weekends get booked up very quickly, so I have to get in first!
And I've already shared my thoughts about my rationale about why I get so excited about my own party...!

Speaking of parties, next weekend is going to be pretty crazy.....
Friday night: Gina's 21st. (What do I wear??!?!?!?!?!)
Saturday night: Invited to Belle's 21st in Geelong. Told her I could go because Gina's was going to be on the same night (turns out otherwise) so then I said I could go. But then, Julie and BJ's housewarming is the same night. Either way, Belle hasn't gotten back to me.....hmmm.....
Sunday: invited to Lauren's baptism in the morning, at her home church in Ballarat. At any rate, I don't think I'm travelling across Victoria in one weekend.....Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat, back to Melbourne. Could be very difficult...

If anybody has thoughts/opinions/solutions, I would llike to hear them! Please post comments with these! :)