Christmas comes early

After a two week break, I headed off to see my autistic musicians.

I unloaded the instruments from my elderly mercedes as microphone boy hovered in the heavy rain, peering through the vehicle windows and wondering whether he would be able to get in the car without me noticing; but the call of the microphone was too much for him and as soon as I put it down on the table inside the music room, he abandoned the car and hurried in to take possession.

He has a side effect from his medical treatment which causes him to salivate profusely and, as I watched the cupped end of the plastic microphone start to glisten, I decided that he was welcome to keep hold of it for the duration of my lesson. He is always very lively and inquisitive, and he eagerly began to explore the keyboard as I plugged it up. It started to get a bit slimy and I wondered about electric shocks...

The rained pelted down outside the window and we began with a few songs on the guitar which I usually improvise with the first thing that comes into my head. For some reason I found myself continually drawn to the general theme of fluids and before we knew it the song was about the whole of the hospital being subjected to a flood and microphone boy turning a table upside down, and using it as a makeshift boat to rescue himself and his companions. On reflection, I probably stole this idea from Map and Lucia

We all rather enjoyed this and then I approached the electric keyboard with trepidation, hoping that it had dried out a bit. Microphone boy tapped his head with the microphone to feel the vibration of the spring inside it and accompanied me to the keyboard. He put his ear on the speaker to absorb as much of the sound as possible, (he likes low frequencies) and I kept an eye on the direction and volume of any leakage from him to avoid earthing the national grid.

By accident, (my usual way of playing the keyboard), we fell upon the drum pattern for Jingle Bells. We had all five rousing verses about dashing through the snow, while the other two students hit tambourines and other percussion intruments randomly but with gusto.

The french electrical grid emerged unscathed and I put my instruments back in the boot as yet more rain fell on my head.

A visit to England and a farewell...

Having to travel to England for a sad reason, a family funeral, it was still possible to find some consolation. Our little family of four was travelling and spending quality time together for the first time since the teenagers had left home.

As is usual with teenagers, I got the impression that some of them hadn't eaten since we had last seen them...

We went on a very fast boat which only took a couple of hours.

It only took a couple of hours because it jumps from the top of one wave to another rather like a show jumper at Hickstead. There were a lot of brown paper bags available for those with weak stomachs.

Here is Mysweet holding on tightly to stop me from being bounced off the back of the boat.

The ceremony was a christian one, and we are not christian.

The teenagers agreed to take part in the musical aspect of the service in spite of this and I was proud of the way that they were able to respect other people's beliefs even if they did not share them.

Of course, some of the musicians were very pretty...

There were some aspects of the service that we found difficult, (an evangelistic sermon), but it did have the effect of making me re-examine my own philosophy, and finding it not much changed after all these years: never be sure about anything, expect the worst, and hope for the best!

Passing of an Era

We have had a loss in the family recently. Mysweet’s mum, who lived to the grand old age of 98, has finally quietly left us. It doesn’t matter how much the event is expected, it is still shocking to be reminded of how brief (however long!) is our time here with the ones that we love. Here is a photo of her at her engagement, when she was 18 and in the full flower of youth. She was very beautiful wasn’t she…

My autistic musicians had their usual uplifting effect on me this morning. I determined to live in the moment, as they do, and give them the best time I possibly could . The new boy is very taken with a large plastic toy microphone. It is completely acoustic with a big spring inside it which makes it reverberate in a very satisfying way when you sing into it. He has discovered that if he hits himself gently on the head with it it makes a similarly satisfying sound...especially if you cant speak. He keeps looking at my head wistfully as though he would like to find out what it would sound like if he hit me with it... but so far so good.

Mmm he still doesn't have a name yet. "The boy who would like to hit me" doesn't sound quite right...

The autist musicians return in force

Yes, they are back. Or rather, I am back. I had taken on rather too much work in the last couple of weeks, so I couldn't get to see them until recently.

The hospital area was surrounded by mountains of rubble as I arrived. Heavy machinery was throwing rocks about in such a cavalier fashion that I wondered whether it was one of the sheltered workshops getting some work experience. I know the gardeners are all "in-house"!

My students are starting to get a bit old, they are between 18 and 22, and occasionally they move on to adult institutions when places become available. So I wondered who would be left.

The news was good, the same groups, except the boy who makes a noise like a chainsaw had to stop doing music because his parents wanted him to do horse riding instead. Apparently he is very good at riding; and I have to admit, between ourselves, that a chainsaw can be wearing at times.

But I have a new student. I was surveying him with interest last year when he arrived at the school, because, although he is not verbal himself, he understands a lot of language and uses signs to communicate with great urgency. He is very curious about his environment and reacts to it with pleasure. There seems to be a lot going on in his head, although it is not always obvious what it is... And most importantly from my point of view, he clapped his hands in time with the music and danced in his seat during my lesson. It feels as though the year is off to a good start!

The head of service is retiring soon. I do hope that his replacement is able to keep the wonderful atmosphere that this school has created. We'll see...

Something cheerful for the weekend...

There has been rather a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth lately, at the top of our little green hill. In the odd moments when no-one was in hospital, the anguish of the long term has been gusting round the hill top and it's been feeling a bit nippy. Of course we all have to get old, if we are lucky, and adapt ourselves to waning powers. It is when this is combined with waning income and increasing expenses that tossing and turning starts to wear out mattresses.

I think there is something about the start of the scholastic year that induces even more stress.

The nightly chorus of voices in my head;

Will I have enough students to keep my courses going? Have I done enough preparation?

Is what I have prepared too easy/difficult for them?Will they be any good? Able to sing even remotely in tune/read music, cope with the english, able to clap on 2 and 4 instead of the dreadful french habit of 1 and 3....(I blame the accordeon myself...)

Of course, all this goes away as soon as I see how enthusiastic they are.

And last but not least, will I be earning enough or will I have to take in washing...

So far, so good.

Just as long as no one makes any more impulse purchases...

like caravans...

or a

drum kit...

Pass the soap powder...

Nice to see them happy though, isn't it?

The English Patient

Well, yes I have had to be patient with the patients.

After the wedding celebrations, some of us found that we had lowered our immunity considerably and so it was that I spent a lot of time sitting in doctor/ clinic and hospital waiting rooms while everyone tried to decide whether Darling d had appendicitis...or just an enormous hangover.

Apart from Naomi Campbell, she must have the most photographed body on earth...but on the inside. She had ultrasound and was bombarded with x-rays, which were still not conclusive. She seems all right now though, so it must have just been a gastro bug. The French medical system is slow but thorough and she staggered off to university with a giant bag of medicine.

While we were at the hospital, a clown arrived in the emergency waiting room in full regalia, but with a doctors bag as well. He prescribed a red nose and applied it directly to Darling d's face. I told him that we had just been to a wedding of a clown and asked if he knew her. This seemed to perturb him and he made off quickly...

No sooner did I lose one patient, when illness struck once more. This time it was Mysweet with back pain so intense that the poor dear was unable to stand up straight. We got him into the car with great difficulty because he was fixed in an unmovable position, or rather when he did change position even slightly it was accompanied by screams. We prised him out onto a trolley which I accompanied to the very familiar waiting room.

The clown was lurking by the reception desk, but for some reason he ran for it when he saw me...

UPDATE...Mysweet is expecting to come home on Saturday, and is feeling much better.

when a Breton clown marries a German sound engineer......

...it is bound to be an international event.Here you can see Mysweet revealing his 10 years in California with his shirt choice, and Darling D is establishing diplomatic relations with a german punk, while a tyrolean looks on bemused in suede hot pants. The most impressive thing about that costume was the gap in his socks (summer version?).

The bride arrived on the arm of her proud father, to the sound of John Lennon singing "love", which of course had us all sobbing almost immediately. I will use this as an excuse for the blurred quality of my photographs, although it was really because my intelligent camera was incapable of deciding that I really meant portrait even though the setting was scenery...

The mayor made a speech which was not as long as it might have been, and also had a few jokes in it...
The vows were exchanged and then the young couple struggled to put rings on each other's fingers. They both looked lovely and very happy by the way, and it was all very moving.
As you can see, my camera tactfully went out of focus at this point.

The simple ruse of leaving three microphones in a row switched on in a wedding tent full of performers had the effect of turning the wedding breakfast into a delightfully bizarre eurovision song contest with entries from Germany, Tunisia, Spain, Scotland, Italy, France generally and Brittany in particular, with us representing England as a trio, and then individually. If I have forgotten an entry, please forgive me, ( the champagne was good...). Particularly touching were the performances of the brides mother, then father, then children!

And what a joy to catch up with friends and aquaintances that I hadn't seen for ages.