Tuesday 28 June 2011

A Trip in the Time-Machine

So, as I alluded to in my intro-post, I spent a lot of my formative and teen years (6 - 18, 2/3rds of my life at the time) singing in the excellent Kinder Children's Choirs of the High Peak. It took up a lot of time and commitment of both myself and my parents, but I loved it, learnt a lot and it's opened a few doors for me (I'm hoping it'll open a few more for me in the future as well!). The only downside was that, just after joining the choir back in '94/'95, we, as a family, stopped Orienteering and Fell Running... I dare say I'll talk about this in the future.

Anyway, the reason I witter on is because this year is KCC's 20th Birthday, and as with any landmark there was a bit of a party. In this case ex-choristers were invited back to sing a few songs at the Choirs' annual Buxton Opera House concert. After minimal practise and dressed up in a rather warm 3-piece we sang the Halllujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah (you know how it goes, it's like this!), You Raise me Up (much better than whoever it was did it with dry-Ice and stand-up key changes, but not quite with the alacrity of this version) and Rhythm of Life (not quite the one from the Guinness advert, but close enough).

Me and Sister (with a rather unsavory looking bloke on her shoulder!)

Afterwards we, as usual, headed to the pub (actually, come to think of it, we did that beforehand and during...), where I managed to remember all the Bass-line Standards as we conducted probably one of the best pub singalongs with 'Nothing Like a Dame' (South Pacific) and 'Kiss Me Goodnight Sargent Major'

Anyway, we all thoroughly enjoyed ourself and it felt great to be back on stage amongst old friends, singing with the organisation which has helped form what and who I am today.
Stephen, Me and Ali B - the actual 3 Tenors (although the latter 2 are Bass-Baritones)


 Anyway, I'm now officially a Boomerang Kid I suppose as I'm back home.
Next time - some more about running!

Friday 24 June 2011

A New Blog. Wow.

I thought I'd try this out. I'm leaving Sheffield in a few days and as I'm googlising my life I thought now would be as good a time as ever! I'll try and keep it entertaining, informative and relevant - as I'm writing about what I'm up to it should be all 3! this may be difficult.

A bit of background.
Lived in New Mills, High Peak, Derbyshire (handy for Stockport and Manchester) all my life.
Sung since the age of 6.
University of Sheffield 2007-2011. Studied for an Undergraduate Masters in Biochemisty and Microbiology.
Joined ShUOC upon arriving in Sheffield, started Fell Running, Orienteering and heavy drinking and never looked back!
Now (soon to be) back home whilst looking for somewhere worthy for me to start my career something to start paying off those student loans and fund my adventures...

The Blog's title - 'Somewhere in the Between', comes from the title of the second (well, maybe 3rd) album from my favourite band, Streetlight Manifesto. I feel it sums up my running, orienteering and drinking endeavours - Somewhere between the fast and the not-so-fast; somewhere between where I think I am and where I should be, and somewhere between pint x and pint x+1.