Everybody smiles

I am utterly exhausted! My feet have literally not touched the ground since I woke up at 9am. That's a lie. Of course they've touched the ground. They've done nothing but pound the gound. What I mean to say is that I haven't yet sat down... Apart from in front of a piano, which therefore means I have sat down today. It's just my brain hasn't stopped. Well, a brain never stops, until you die in any case, but you get the general impression of a man who is so tired he's become slightly manic. I’ve been formatting scores, sending letters, taking phone calls, ignoring phonecalls. My rehearsals started at 1pm, and went through til 10. Individuals first, and then the first rehearsal with all of the choir – well, half of them, because some were ill, others were away on holiday. I haven’t had lunch, or an evening meal. I’ve had 50 cups of tea, 3 slices of toast and 4 biscuits. I am hoarse. I’m buzzing and probably won’t sleep tonight.
I guess the rehearsal today made it all seem very real. There were eight of us – two on each part – and at times I had a glorious sense of what this group of people could become. We’ll need a few gigs to get ourselves sorted and for the sound to blend, but the singers are so utterly versatile. I can ask the women to belt, and they open up their lungs like proper gospel singers, and then I can ask for the sound to be go much more church-like and mellow, and they all oblige. Sure, it’s rough around the edges, and in a 3 hour rehearsal, we only made our way through about half of the material, but I am excited. There’s a seed of something very special in the offing.

I can’t write too much else. I’ll fall over.

350 years ago, and Pepys ate a chine of beef and a dish of marrowbones. What was he? A dog?