Friday, December 4, 2009

The joys of Christmas

The trouble with holidays is the coming back bit.

Which is to say that yes, you got away from it all, but now it is all waiting for you and clamouring even more loudly for attention. Even my poor neglected little blog.

Don’t get me wrong. I am involved in lots of projects which I am thoroughly enjoying most of the time.

A new collaboration with a new friend on a teaching project.

My singing students are proving to be unexpectedly satisfying to teach as I see their sometimes remarkable progress, and I also get some creative pleasure myself from working out arrangements for their songs. I have been contacted to give several weekend jazz singing workshops, which is time consuming to prepare but a joy to do.

English teaching for adults is fun as the groups become more confident and we can laugh together.

My contact with my autistic musicians is always an emotional rollercoaster. The boy with red hair is having more and more problems and is to be transferred to another central hospital better able to help him control his violent impulses. He has been replaced by the boy who sleeps a lot. The boy who sleeps a lot is a bit more alert now that we have moved to a proper music room, and he is no longer able to curl up on the carpet with a blanket over his head if he wishes to avoid a situation. He spent the first session alternately hiding behind a curtain and approaching to within 3 cm of my face and staring into my eyes. He is exactly the same height as I am, so this is a rather disturbing habit. Although, on reflection, this is not so bad as the girl who bites (she is breast height!).

And then, there is Christmas.

I have decided to make a list of things that I like about Christmas instead of moaning about what I don’t like. It will be shorter.

1…seeing friends and family

2…singing carols (especially the pagan ones)

3…clementines

4…bottle of champagne on Christmas day

5…watching the gorgeous David Tennant in Doctor who Christmas specials. Darling d and I will both be very sad when he leaves

Mmm it isn’t a very long list…Here is a bit of David Tennant in case you've never seen him


7 comments:

Zhoen said...

Have you got a list of the pagan ones?

Rosie said...

let's see, yes my repertoire is
I'm dreaming of a white xmas
we wish you a merry xmas
Twelve days of xmas and
jingle bells,

We wish you are merry solstice hasnt got quite the same ring to it....

Mrs. Chili said...

I am, alas, one of the David Tennant uninitiated (and Catherine Tate, too, sadly). That was wonderful, though; thanks! (oh, and just because I'm a dork that way, I can recite Shakespeare's 116th sonnet in much the same way she did the 130th. It makes my students roll their eyes at me...)

amy said...

After a trip to the Carrefour, where the holiday spirit already had people acting ruder than usual, it was nice to read your list of positives!

Lucy said...

Yes, a good enough list of things. Being orphaned and child-free makes it all a lot easier, i find.

Mark In Mayenne said...

I seriously rate Catherine Tate

alison said...

I love the David Tennant/Catherine Tate clip!
Is he leaving Dr Who - I am seriously behind the times! Who will replace him?