strange_complex | Entries tagged with bournville

Hmm - OK. I just Googled "bournville + carols + green" to find the starting time for the Christmas Eve lantern-lit carol event we've been going to for the last couple of years, only to find that my own journal is Google's number three hit for that query - above the parish church's official page which actually answered the question. Doesn't anyone else who goes blog the event?

Well, for anyone who finds themselves here as the result of a Google search: it starts at 6pm.

Today's been a pretty quiet day in the Goodman household, after last night's excitement. My Mum was apparently so hyped-up by it all when she went to bed, that she couldn't get to sleep for hours, but instead kept having the giggles over things which had happened at the party: one recorder player stopping and asking what on earth was going on when she found herself playing an unexpected (but perfectly correct) solo in the 'Amen' chorus; the piano-player making a swift and judicious change of key during at least two of the carols, and all the singers heaving a sigh of relief, as it had been far too low before; banter about whether the cracker-whistles were at 414 or 440 pitch (to which one joker replied, 'Both'); and the look on a whistle-player's face when she suddenly realised she was meant to have played her note in the Can-Can about 10 seconds ago.

We've been eating up left-overs, and watching a Channel 4 documentary (on Telewest's 'Teleport' service) about the Noble Whale of London Town - which basically concluded that the whale's death had probably been encouraged, if not actually caused as such, by a combination of changing climate and confusing man-made sound-signals. :-(

And now, I shall share pictures of domestic winter greenery which I also took yesterday with my digital camera:

( Winter greenery )

So, dusk has fallen on Christmas Eve, and here I am, up in Brum with my family. It's somehow taken me a while to 'slot in' to the Christmas spirit this year. Too distracted with book stuff and the unpleasant prospect of term starting again on January 4th, I guess. But it's falling into place now that we're all together here, the tree's been decorated and I've made my usual spray of winter greenery to go over the fireplace. Later on, we'll be going off to sing carols on Bournville Village Green, just as we did last year, so I'm sure that'll do the trick.

Last night, we attended "Christmas by Candlelight", an annual choral concert given by Ex Cathedra in St. Paul's Church, Birmingham. It was OK, but while Ex Cathedra usually tend to gravitate towards early / Baroque music, the repertoire last night was for some reason about 80% modern, and hence not entirely to my tastes. I knew we were in trouble when I scanned down the list of pieces, and noticed how many of the composers had birth-dates after their names, but not death-dates. Bully for them, but I like my composers dead, thanks. I couldn't help but sit there thinking of the concert of bawdy 17th-century Christmas music performed by the Oxford Waits which I was missing in order to be there...

And the night before, I went to see The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe with

redkitty23. I enjoyed it, but wasn't as bowled over as I'd expected to be. The special effects were great, obviously, and certainly much better than the poor old BBC could manage back in 1988. I also very much liked the handling of the battle sequences, and both the home of the White Witch and the castle at Cair Paravel, while I felt that all four children were well-characterised, well-cast and well-acted. But, while Disney have made stellar leaps forward in recent years in terms of recognising that sometimes preserving the inherent Britishness in a story can actually be a good thing (compare their shabby treatment of Winnie the Pooh, which sadly is still ongoing), all the same there was a little more 'Disneyfication' going on than I'd really have liked. I just don't need wise-cracking animals. Ever. Thanks. In that respect, the old BBC series scores more highly. What a pity they just never had the budget or the slick production values of the new film.

Well, Fleur WINOLJ has just rung to say she and her mother will be meeting us on the Green at Bournville. I'm pretty excited now! Time to go off and make sure we have a decent lantern to take with us.