"When did you get back?"

is one of the most common questions being asked of me when I bump into a friend I haven't seen for a while.
which is cool.
For the record, the answer is two weeks.

"What have you been doing?"
is the other.
I usually answer with a 'moving into my new flat' ("Where are you living now?!?!" "Still Queen's"), 'learning to cook', 'hanging out', 'organising o-week stuff', 'organising 2008 and uni and stuff'.
which is all true.

I've met up with some friends for varying reasons. Such as: because they were in Melbourne (as opposed to Perth), just because (they were already at uni), for rehearsals, going to the Queen Vic markets, for MSO (and AYO) concerts! Good fun.

The markets were very exciting, although I have to admit being quite overwhelmed by it all, because there were so many stalls, so many things to look at, so many prices to compare, and this was just the fruit and vegetable section. Go figure.

Had a rehearsal with K on Tuesday for some Beethoven, which was pretty good. I asked her honest opinion on Wednesday whether we think it could work with us and she was confident. And then last night, we agreed that we (K, J and I) were going to do chamber music this semester together, as J and K need groups, and I haven't quite switched just yet, but I shall. Should be fun. I like chamber music very much! I suppose the only flaw I see now is that we're not critical enough and we're all really good friends, so rehearsals may be unproductive to begin with? Hopefully not. And hopefully we're critical enough, purely being professional, and nothing personal.

We went to see AYO last night (they played before MSO at the Music Bowl) which was lots of fun. We had quite a few friends in the orchestra, so it was exciting to see them all, especially because we hadn't seen some of them in a while. A great bunch of friends came along and we all had a lovely time. We were going to go to that place next to Town Hall for a coffee (or equivilent) which a friend has told me is a very feminine thing to do (what do guys do? Go to the nearest pub? Were we supposed to go to Young & Jackson's instead?) - hehe. But then ran into a friend who told us that we should go to Curve Bar which was where AYO people were hanging out. So, we changed plans (sorry J, I totally forgot, we had so many people come and leave and all that) and went to hang out for a little while with them. But we were all tired and went home after a drink or two.

Met up with M on Thursday which was good - we were talking about repertoire and we're still waiting for the Francaix, which is apparently still 'At the Binders' (which the catalogue tells us). Then we decided that we think that we should work on the Gordon Jacob, so we have the parts for that. And then we thought that we should look up other music, which we figured out we'd have to augment our clarinet-viola-piano outfit. Which is cool, we'd just handpick our people (which is what I do anyway).

So, the next week looks similar - meetings (SCR, MSS, Apollo), more library books due, more sorting out of chamber music, more concerts (MSO, AYO, 3MBS to listen in to), hopefully the cricket, O'week stuff at the Con, drinks and dinners to attend. And apparently I'm supposed to be practicing lots. But there's various conference guests and O'Week things happening, and there are silly maintenance works going on at the back of the Con, which makes getting in through the back impossible, and getting into the Basement really awkward. I don't know...!!

And I actually have to fix my enrolment things....

Yeah, so nothing really unusal in the life of G. Still busy as always. Surprise surprise.