Blinking tenors!

Is it cold or have I recently turned into some kind of little old lady? I'm sort of wandering around the house looking for extra layers, terrified to turn the heating on because that would be acknowledging winter! This, I am aware, is very much the behaviour of a geriatric!

The sun has been shining all day, which probably explains the low temperatures; no cloud cover to keep the warmth in, and not enough heat in the sun to warm the ground. I went for a lovely jog up into Highgate village at about 3.30pm when the sun was really low in the sky and glinting on myriad windows. From Waterlow Park, the views were spectacular. The sky was blue and all the buildings were the colour of Nice biscuits!

I met up with an old friend at lunchtime. Dear Michelle Turkie. (Yes, that really is her surname!) She was one of the first people I spoke to at university, and she looks just the same, except her (once Easter-yellow-scarf-filled hair) is now greyish around the temples. Just like me.

We had a lot to catch up on. Five or so years of gossip and chat, but it felt so easy. So easy, in fact, that time flew past, and suddenly it was time for her to return to work. We immediately arranged to meet the following week.  There's no way I'm going to allow her to drift out of my life again! She's so much fun.

Whilst nattering away to Michelle, I took a phone call from the tenor we'd booked to replace the tenor we'd booked to replace Stephen! It all gets rather confusing...

Sadly, having told me he was free and thrilled to do the session, he now tells me he'd entirely forgotten about another rehearsal on the same day. He wondered if perhaps he could do just half of the session.  What am I meant to do? Chuck away half the cost of the studio whilst we wait for him to turn up, and send the other tenors down the pub. When I said that half a session wasn't an option he asked me to consider him
for future work and I thought "what kind of person messes someone about like this and still expects to be considered for work?" I'd spent an hour on Saturday night formatting files for him and changing music to suit his range! Why do people just not say no immediately?!

On the bright side, twitter went almost viral with pleas for a tenor, and this evening I find myself spoilt for choice trying to work out who to approach first! A lot of musical directors and composers have come forward, which is pleasing in a way; they'll know a lot about music and will also understand why it's often important to do someone a favour! The flip side, of course, is that there are never recordings on the internet which show them singing, because they don't tend to do it professionally. That said, MDs tend to be very fine singers indeed. I probably just need to take a punt!

Right, that's me! I need to do another half an hour on Brass before bed. I'm about to kill someone off in the script! Need to focus!