Photos!

Hello blog readers, I am pleased do say that Douglas and I are both feeling much better :-) Thank you for those who sent sympathy, love etc. We appreciate it!

I've had a busy day looking after the little monsters (neice and nephews) so its great to relax for a while.

Here are the promised photos of the Street Choir festival.

This photo was taken on the steps of City Hall, Sheffield on the Saturday of the Street Choir Festival. It was lovely to see so many people just soaking up the sun and atmosphere, and enjoying each others company.




Looking through the programme of events. Later that day people were paddling in this fountain as it go so hot!




This is hundreds of people watching me and hundreds of singers, standing (and sweltering) on the steps of city hall waiting to sing some songs we had practiced. If you look carefully, you can see all the singers reflected in the mirrored doors of the building in the background. It was a great feeling to be one of many, singing to many!





I have saved the best till last! After our mass sing, each of the 35 choirs went off to do their own bit of busking. This is my choir, Body of Sound singing in the Winter Gardens, a wonderful glorified green house with attached art gallery.

A week of mixed fortunes

On Tuesday at work I felt very odd when I went to work, and then felt sick at about 2pm, but having had some time out to have some fresh air, I felt better enough to carry on to the end of my day.

On Wednesday again I felt rather odd, and a bit sick first thing, but went into work expecting it to pass over.

An hour into my working day, I realised that I just wasn't going to make it through, so I packed up and came home and curled up in bed feeling rotten :-( By Wednesday afternoon, it had turned into a full fledged tummy bug - I wasn't well enough even to attend choir that evening (!)

By Thursday evening I was feeling a little better, which was great because on Friday afternoon I had promised to help out at the Sheffield Street Choir Festival - 35 choirs from all over the country (and from Germany!) gathered to sing. The choirs have a definite Socialist/Feminist feel to them, so as the last song in our massed sing we sang The Internationale. At the end of it I was a little surprised to see many people raising a fist as a sign of their strength and protest I guess!

I have found a link to this very song being sung in 2007 when Manchester hosted this street choir event!! Have a listen here!

I'm still not 100% better.. I managed the morning rehearsals, the massed sing, and our busking slots (all of the choirs busked all over town yesterday lunch time) but went home instead of catching the afternoon concert and crashed out, returning for part of the evening concert where Body of Sound were singing.

It was a lovely day! Douglas, my parents and Martha (who is staying with them for the weekend) came to listen to the massed sing, and then to the first of our busking slots.

Photos will follow soon :-)

26th/27th June- Green Fair and beyond!

Yet another busy weekend for me!

SATURDAY

Douglas and I went to Sheffield Green Fair, an annual event now in its 40th year run by the Green Party.

I went in two capacities, firstly with Freegle, my recycling group, as we had a give and take stall there, and secondly, with my choir, Body of Sound.

We set out at 10.15 with loads of stuff junk and some books for the give and take stall, collected a fellow Freegler and some of her junk, and soon we were at the fair with the others, setting up our stall.

During the day we chatted to loads of people, explaining all about what Freegle is, and how its great to get rid of things from fridges to tellys to unwanted gifts and old books, and to ask for things that you need, like garden equipment, or maybe a microwave when yours goes "bang" unexpectedly.


We sent out 38 invites, which is the best we have ever done at an event, gave out loads of leaflets, and shifted a goodly proportion of our stuff.

During the day, Douglas helped to talk to people, then went off int
o town for a while, wandering into Waterstones, of course! He came back with a first aid kit for us to take to events, and a few books to keep him happy.

The Green Fair, as you would expect, had lots of eco friendly stalls, quite a few local pressure groups and entertainment (of a green nature) even the local green funeral directors were there with a bicycle hearse which Douglas and I thought was great! I didnt have much time to look round, but what I saw I enjoyed very much.

My older brother John was also at the Green Fair, as his alter ego Professor Fiddlesticks. Whilst unicycling round the site, he fell off and injured his ankle quite badly, making him pass out with the pain for a while. The on-site first aid came to his rescue, supplying ice, sympathy and elevating his leg to reduce swelling.

The family obstinacy gene was apparent as John put his boot back on, and managed to do some balloon modeling for the children as planned, although his ankle was still giving him a lot of pain. He kept smiling though!



He got home that evening, on his bike with all his juggling gear, and went to the hospital Sunday morning when his ankle was put in a cast due to the tip of his fibula having broken. Poor John!!

Douglas and I got home at about 6pm, not realising quite how tired we were until we sat down.

It had been a wonderful day, but we were cream crackered!! (err for Americans reading, this is rhyming slang for knackered, which in its turn means exhausted lol)

SUNDAY

Douglas opted for a day at home, and we both had a relaxing morning, but by Midday, I was up past the Northern General Hospital at Fir Vale fun day for another Freegle stall!!!


This event was very different as we expected.. the Green Fair is highly specialised, so we were bound to pick up a lot of members. the Fir Vale fun day was a general community event, with some community groups present, but an awful lot of tombola or car boot like stalls!

Im glad to say we still got quite a lot of interest, and a whole load more of our stuff went. People find it very difficult to get their heads round the concept of taking an item/items from our stall and not having to pay for them, but once they get the idea, some of them come back for more and more!! (Oh, and we frequently get asked if our laptop, that we use to show people the website is free too!!)

This is what the fun day looked like. The weather was wonderful again!



Our youngest helper, Sabi is pictured below looking very cute. Shes good at crawling, and good at standing up. For the first time ever, at this event, she took her first (unaided) step! Her mum was delighted!!! Sabi is wearing the latest designer cake crumbs round her mouth, having just polished off a rather nice cupcake from the stall next to ours.





I went home at about 4pm, happy to spend the evening relaxing in Douglases company.. and then the weekend was over again!