A Leap Of Faith...My First Musical Intro.

Hiya, good to see you!
Do you know the feeling that sometimes Life gives you a nudge, and that when you do not react fast enough it gives you an almighty shove in the back?
This happened to me, today.
I saw an invitation by American singer Melody Gardot, to join her in a choir on her new CD. It immediately fired up my enthousiasm, for I so love to sing! 'All' I had to do was record my voice, upload it into a transmittable file and send it to her via email.

GarageBand is a feature of my Macbook Pro, but I hadn't used it for years, too busy with life, work, family, blogging, gardening and learning to play the guitar. So it took a while for me to suss out how to record, save, upload and then send in the sample of my voice.

Whilst I was struggling with this alien matter (well, to me...I am not a natural born computer nerd), I found a recording I had made years ago, out of boredom during the lunch breaks at my (then) work place.

I listened to it, and had wild idea, all of a sudden.

Here I am, a blogger, lately about music.

And I had produced some form of music.

And now I am taking an immense leap of faith.

And am inviting you to hear it. If you dare.

Here it is:

Do let me know if you like it.

Viggo's Philosophy

Hello, Viggo fans all around the world. Hope you have had an amazing day! By popular demand Viggo has dictated his words of wisdom.

Right. Hi. Hello.

My woman has asked me to speak to you directly. Basically because she is too skint to ask some reporter for yet another interview, so this time I am taking the trouble to talk to you cat to man, so to speak.

It being October, and those leaves falling, and humans getting all soppy and melancholy, she asked me to try to get my philosophy across to you.

For I am, according to her, the most laid back cat around. And she has asked me to whisper my secret into her ear.

Here goes.

First of all. It is all in the limbs. You humans are much, much too uptight and stressed and stiff.

Take a good look at a cat. Ever seen a stiff cat? 

Now, okay, right, I don't mean one of those cats which you are trying to get into a cat carrier in order to take it to the vet. Now those cats are stiff as a board, but they are thus for a purpose...Namely to stop you shoving them into that carrier in the first place.

No, I mean a cat in its natural habitat. On the sofa, say, or in a beam of sunlight, or in the tall grass next to a gently running stream, or...

Sorry.

Perhaps I'd better provide you with a visual. You humans seem fond of those.

My point exactly.

You roll on to your back, you stretch, put the paws loosely apart (as wide as you like, we cats know no shame), take a deep breath....and...purr.

See?

I assure you I am as loose as a floppy rug in that photo. 

One caution though: you must stretch again before turning right side up! And for Frith's sake do not attempt to lick yourself between the legs in the first lesson. You would only look very silly and probably have to be carted off to the hospital (and see if you like being put into a carrier - I bet you'd go extremely stiff yourself!)

Yes, I do a bit of teaching, in between my naps and meals.

Have a look at this session with Gina. She's quite a dedicated student!

Okay, once you've mastered the relaxed-back-position, you are ready for a touch of the mind set.

You start by realising you are master of your own universe. To obtain this realisation, I want you to find yourself a quiet corner (a cardboard box will do nicely, or if you don't have one large enough you can always shut yourself into a dark cupboard or hide yourself under a bed) and imagine you are into The Zone. The Zone needs some explaining, I suppose.

The Zone is a state of being which comes natural to cats. All our senses are heightened, our whiskers are quivering like antennae, our ears pick up the tiniest scratch of a mouse's claw or the rattling of the jar where the cat food is kept in, and we see things you humans do not see.

Do NOT believe we see dead people or some such nonsense. We don't. We do see auras though. That's the reason we can stare at a point just south of your head for minutes on end. We don't look at your head per se, we watch the energy field around your head, which tells us what kind of mood you are in.

I've asked one of my pals to demonstrate this for you. This cat is definitely in The Zone.

It takes dedication and practice, but if you apply yourself, you will be able to source The Zone. Eventually. After a lot of hard work. Perhaps.

Anyway. As soon as you have access, you are ready for lesson three.

Assert yourself.

Whatever you do, keep repeating this mantra:

Master, Master, Master, Master.

A good way to put this to the test (are you giving it the right stress?) is to jump onto the head of the person nearest to you and to firmly put your claws into the hair.

When they scream, curse or start crying, you know you have got it just right.

If you do this often enough you will come to believe yourself to be a proper master of the house. People will jump up to open doors for you, imagine that! They will vie for your attention! They will tempt you with treats! You will be able to sleep wherever you want, whenever you want. 

Oh...just one thing. Beware of cat flaps. I have it on good authority that humans are better off using doors.

Next time I'll teach you my hunting techniques, shall I?

10,040 Readers?! Wow-wee, So Nice to See You!

LWhen I started this blog on November 24th 2013 I didn't dare dream that so many people would bother to read my stuff!

I thought that if I could scrape or drag in a couple of readers a week, it would be lovely.
Not knowing that I would have hundreds a week, and sometimes more than 1,500 a month at any given time.

And the parts of the world that you live in amaze me as well. Hundreds of readers a week in Ukraine? I mean...sure, great, wonderful that you are reading my blog folks, especially in the event of politics going on (I try - and mostly succeed - to stay away from politics; I'm certain that you have noticed); keep it up by all means.

On the subject of statistics:
my American readers are the most numerous, 
closely followed by my own countrymen,
very closely followed by people from the Ukraine
and the rest is quite evenly divided between Australia, South-Africa, India, Germany, England
and the occasional reader in France, Poland, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Greece, Latvia, Russia, Ireland, Canada, Rumania, China, Thailand. 

Now wouldn't it be wonderful to have, say, Hawaii, or the Solomon Islands, or anywhere in Africa, or Surinam.

Anyway. For ALL of you, I have looked up one of the funniest little videos I could find. It is about cats... They are one of my pet interests, simply because I think they are so inscrutable and always doing their own thing. So if you hate cats, skip it.
(Although...you could try it anyway, perhaps you'll surprise yourself by laughing out loud)

Link: I dare you to watch this without at least smiling.

Well? Bet you smiled, or even laughed out loud!

Have a wonderful evening, until next time.

Stop Your Messing Around...?

Good morning to you (Yes, Ukraine, especially to you! 119 readers in a week? Wow!). Last night I went to a great Ska concert.

A Message to You, Rudy

Click on the link and enjoy the long-lost music of The Specials.
It is such a shame that this wonderful music genre has all but disappeared from our radios. But, thankfully, not from our collective memories!
My local theatre, TweeHondjes, had reserved their largest hall for a ska concert by the Dutch ska band Peen! and it was filled with two kinds of people: youngsters who have been turned on to Peen! and oldies like me who have lived through the Seventies and Eighties and who have fond memories of the brief Ska revival (after all, the original ska came from the fifties I believe).
And it was wonderful. I was dancing non-stop.

This Sunday morning my knees are protesting and my back hurts, but it was worth it.
For those of you who do not know much about Ska, let me educate you (a bit).
One of the best known artists is Desmond Decker.

Live BBC footage of The Israelites

And we Dutchmen got acquainted with Madness in the early Eighties and locked this bunch of English madmen into our hearts. Let me show you why. And do sing along, the lyrics are provided!

Boat on the River Nile

(Bicycle Road Trip - part 1) Prep, prep, prep...rain,rain,rain...

Planning a cycling adventure whilst it is pouring with rain, does have an atmosphere all to itself...
Still, we have a saying in the Wetlands: 

(S)he who says A, should say B as well...

So: ignoring that special wet atmosphere and the echoes of nagging thoughts like "you fat idiot" and "you must be joking" and putting positive thoughts in their place like "it is an adventure", "you've always loved to cycle" and "staying at home and watching the rain is boring", I had packed my two plastic Lidl bags (ready to be inserted into my brand new bike bags) and had mapped the first day of my route (knooppunten system).

What did I pack?

- a track suit from my long past tennis days (slightly too small)
- a rain cycling suit (seemed wise)
- 2 t-shirts
- 2 cycling shirts (one of which I will wear at a time)
- my padded cycling shorts (which I will wear, so technically they weren't packed but laid out)
- a legging and t-thirt for sleeping in
- a cardigan
- a pretty smock (you never know where I would end up)
- underwear (always handy)
- long pants
- warm socks
- toothbrush etcetera (little etcetera!)
- my knooppunten maps
- my mobile, broken as it was...
- my mobile charger
- my e-Reader (absolutely essential!) with 3 new novels
- sunglasses (well...always the optimist)
- credit card
- phone numbers for the people I wanted to visit
- bug spray (they love me) + anti itch salve
- my e-bike battery charger
- energy bars
- energy drink
- mints
- Paracetamol sups

I was looking forward to it, but was apprehensive in a major way at the same time; because of the weather and because, of all times, I was having trouble with my back.
I hoped it was because of standing in the North wind at the tennis courts, and that it would pass. But I slept very badly, I can tell you.

Saturday morning, at 6 am, I was itching to go albeit drugged up with Paracetamol. I had packed my bike, glad of the help my husband Theo gave me with fixing the knooppunten route holder (aptly named ' Bikepointer' by the ANWB) onto my handle bars. After a last cup of coffee and a kiss on the head of my still sleeping kids, I hugged my husband and turned onto the cycle path near my home. It was dry!

Five minutes later, it was raining. Rain wasn't the proper name for that wetness - it was a cold lashing shower.
My first lap was via the ferry at Rozenburg to Maassluis, and then through the greenhouse-filled Westland to The Hague.

At the ferry quay, I shared a dripping tree with the mailman, also dripping, and two youngsters with their hair plastered to their heads. We told each other it was a great day for cycling, in the manner of people who are trying to keep their spirits up.  They were going into Maassluis, and were awed when I nonchalantly told them I intended to reach at least The Hague that day. 
When I paid for my ticket on the ferry the ferryman grinned and told me I was bonkers to be out in this weather. As if I didn't know.
Which reminded me of an Irishwoman, Maira, who told me years ago that she always  ignored the Irish rain, since she might as well have dug her grave if she let herself be stopped by it.
Hey there, Maira, was determined to think of you whenever the non-stop rain threatened to dampen my spirits!

From Maassluis I swiftly raced to Schipluiden, where I had a quiet biological coffee and almond cake and a pee, and then on to Delft, where I promptly got lost. Due to road works my knooppunten had been removed or covered up, and it took me ages to find them back again. Delft on a Saturday, when you are trying to find your way, is not a good place to cycle. But I did manage to get to the outskirts, where I reconnected to my knooppunten system. Hurray!

I had envisaged a stop in Wassenaar (the posh seaside part of The Hague where our King and lovely Queen Maxima have their residence) for the first night. Well, was I making a mistake!  The annual fireworks show was on in Wassenaar/Scheveningen and all the b&bs and hotels were full.

Now, you could argue that I was a fool for not booking a bed in advance, but hey, not booking made it a much better adventure! So there!

So I cycled on, to Leiden (another one-and-a-half hours, groan; my bum was making its presence felt) where I treated myself to an expensive but luxurious room with a view at a Van der Valk Hotel. It came with a bubble bath and bath salts, yay! And, not un-importantly, with a lock-up for my bicycle. 
After bubbling away my threatening muscles ache and my ever present backache, I took a short wet walk, and then went and had dinner at the hotel. It was lovely. The mussels and Chardonnay were great, the waitresses were sweet to me, the restaurant was warm and cozy and filled with happy people, and around 21.00 my eyes started to droop so I took myself off to my room, after admiring my view one last time.

The first day over, I tried to ignore my aching back and read a couple of pages in The Luminaries. But somehow the adventures in Hokitika took a backseat to my own adventures, so after rinsing out my special bike t-shirt and hanging it over the radiator to drip dry, I decided to plan my knooppunten route for the next day.

My tip for wanna-be knooppunten cyclists: pick a dry week!

It is on!! Bicycle,bicycle, I want to ride my bicycle!

Right folks, this is it!

Will be riding this beauty from tomorrow onwards, using the knooppunten system, all the way around the IJsselmeer.

There's two uh-ooooes:

1. the weather forecast is atrocious. Rain predicted for every day, almost all day, for the coming week. Okidoki. I don't call it the Wetlands for nothing, don't I? The wind is having fun as well: force 4 to 5. But from the South-West, meaning I will have it from behind for most of the first stretch.

2. My one-year old Samsung smart phone has today decided it will only upload with major hiccups, and only if I don't use the word 'I'. Seriously! The i doesn't work and if I want to use it anyway the phone makes lightning-strike noises. Can't be good.

This will make for very interesting blogs, I'm sure!

So. This is what I will do. I will post a photo or two every day, but will write the actual blog after I've arrived home. For those of you who are amongst my FB friends; I'll post those photos on my timeline as well. See if you can suss out where in the Wetlands I am :P

So watch this space!

See you in a week or so.

Viggo Speaks Out! An in-depth interview.

Good afternoon to you all!
The tale about my black tom Viggo destroying the tuning part of my guitar as a statement has sparked quite a few comments.
So I decided to allow a quick interview, to set all your minds at rest.

(Viggo on one of his preferred resting spots in the garden)

- You destroyed your woman's guitar by kicking it off its stand? Can you tell us something about this?

V: First of all, she is not 'my woman'.

- Sorry?!

V: I adopted her when she came to the animal shelter, all needy, and I liked the look of her. She smelled good. So I decided to go and live with her.

- The guitar?

V: Yeah, well, I came in through the balcony doors, it was cold out, and I felt a bit peckish. So I did my usual wake-up call, but she refused to wake up. So then I decided to make a statement.

- Was there no other way? I mean, that guitar was supposedly brand new. It's a bit harsh, don't you think?

V: No, not really. I did try to wake her up. I even was quite gentle about it, I only tugged her hair once. She hid her head under the duvet. What could I do? So I jumped up on the bookcase ledge, at just the right height for the guitar. It was easy, a kitten could have done it. All it took was one nudge. Just a nudge. Reports of me kicking anything are definitely untrue.

- She said it was an almighty crash. And that you did it out of spite for not jumping out of bed and feeding you.

V: No comment.

- Well, is it true that you tend to destroy books in order to get fed?

V: Who told you that?

-Your wo...Sorry. The woman you adopted.

V: Look, sweetheart, a cat's got to do what a cat's got to do. I have needs. You have to understand I patrol the garden all night long, to keep the strays out. And I catch at least three moles or voles a week, that's hard work, right? I need to keep my strength up.

-Yes, but books! They are...

V: Sacred? Rubbish! They smell funny. And she has taken to putting the newspapers straight into the wheelie bin, so I cannot get to them anymore. So I have to take what's handy.

-You don't look all that macho. In fact, she has told me she adores you and that you decidedly have a soft side to you.

V: She knows how to rub my fur in just the right way, yeah. And I do like to get my belly tickled. Okay, okay, I admit it. She's quite a catch, as adopted women go. She hardly ever denies me anything, and she isn't one of those soppy "Ooooooh-kitty-kitty-kitty" kind either. She leaves me in peace when I have to digest my food. And I come and go as I please. So, yeah, I do purr a lot, she seems to like that. And in the cold weather she's nice and warm to cuddle up to on the bed.

-Don't you feel just a little bit sorry for all that trouble she had to go to with that guitar?

V: No.

-Is there anything you would like to say to the people who read this interview with you?

V: Send cat food. Oh...and send salami. I have recently acquired a taste for that. And a bit of catnip never goes wasted.

-Thank you.

V: You can leave now!

To All People Who Cannot Wait for the Summer Holidays!

Hi,
Wait for it....wait for it...
Have a Glorious Summer (holiday) (link)

Thank Frith for Small Mercies! And pupils...

Hi all!
As sad as I was yesterday, today I started the morning at work with a belly-laugh. Let me tell you what happened.

I arrived early at school, as usual. But, unusually, there were already two pupils (15-year olds) waiting outside my office. They turned out to be waiting for one of my colleagues, who would arrive in about 15 minutes time.

One of them took out a bottle from his backpack, and as it was an unusual shape, it caught my attention. He twisted off the cap, and took a healthy (and prohibited!) slug. 

Before I had the chance to scold him (no drinking in the corridors!) he spat out the liquid and held out the bottle to me, doing his utmost to keep himself from gagging.

"Miss! What is in this, can you tell me what this is?"

I took a good look at the bottle. And translated the English text for him that was printed underneath the cheerful lemon-in-the-sunshine.

" Lemon-oil salad dressing"

After the first shock he was able to laugh with me and his pal, who was practically rolling down the corridor. We all agreed his Mum could do with an English lesson.

And how is Life treating you today?

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Slowly Coming Back to Life - a little something to make you smile.

Good morning, World!
(I have the right to say this, as I see readers from Malaysia to Russia to Canada to Australia :-)
Lately I've been boring you with progress reports of my flu...Sorry about that.
To cheer you up, and to celebrate that I'm starting to feel better, I'll post a quickie. But it's a fun quickie!
O Fortuna - with a twist

This has made me laugh so hard I nearly choked from coughing.  Poor Orff...I'll never be able to listen to the original again now without thinking about this version.
Have a fun day!

Walk Off The Earth - A Love Letter.

Like most modern music lovers I surf YouTube to find new songs and new bands (and to do research for my own singing). 
There is such a wealth of committed, able, artistic musicians to be found there, it never ceases to amaze me.

A couple of years ago, I clicked "blind" on a cover of a song by Rihanna, because I was researching this song in order to use it at school. The band I clicked on was called WOTE, and I thought what a weird name, not something that sits easily in my ear, so to speak.

But their proper name turned out to be Walk Off The Earth, and their rendering of "Man Down"  blew me away, it was such fun to watch and to listen to. (My pupils, when later asked to compare the original version to the WOTE version, all said that Rihanna is more beautiful, but WOTE was much more fun).

So I clicked on and on, and listened to all of their uploads in one session, spending hours. And golly, are they good or what?! They spend a lot of time on their videos, which are funny, original, and painstakingly edited. And (sorry guys and girls) I often prefer their version to the original one. 
Do you want to see 5 people playing one guitar and sounding amazing? Look for their version of "Somebody that I used to know" (Gotye)

They do play their own music as well, and they do sell it, so check this out!

So, I thought, which song can I upload that will convince you how wonderful this Canadian band actually is? I chose "Royals", by Lorde. The link is at the bottom of this page. 

I love'em.

Walk off the Earth cover of "Royals"

What are your passions?

My natural father (who hasn't played any part in my life, to put it mildly) was a good singer, I'm told. My mother cannot sing without everyone wanting to leave the room as soon as possible; crows sing like nightingales compared to her song, bless her heart.

Choir

My step-father sang in the Rotterdam Philharmonic Choir; tenor. The highlights of the choir's year were the Christmas concert (which I was allowed to attend) and the Matth ëus Passion (which was deemed "too heavy"  for a child), and boy, did I want to be in that choir!

"Wait until you are 18", I was told.

But by the time I was 18, I had moved away from home, and the Philharmonic was a thing in the past. I moved on to other adventures, singing in the amateur choir of musicals and Greek Tragedies, and discovered a passion for music.

But it has taken me 55 years to actually start to take singing lessons. Why? Well, they are very expensive, for a start. But also, it seemed so...extravagant. And all those programmes on TV stress that everyone should be a natural, have a natural talent, the less polished the better.

Photograph by Wibe Koopman

Passions
What made me change my mind was the remark by a psychologist who urged me to follow my heart, and look deep within to find my passion. 

I was on the verge of a work-related burnout, and desperately cast about to stop myself from sliding off the edge.

What were my passions? Singing and writing.

Well, writing was easy. Hence this blog.

Singing took some doing. I tried to find a choir, but none were available that would either take new members or took my fancy (I do have standards). 

But, just as I was giving up, I got a leaflet that told me a respected singing coach was taking new pupils. I got information, nearly went into shock over the price, but took the plunge.

And now I'm preparing to sing two songs at a concert we'll be giving in April, and I've joined the choir she has newly founded.

And it's such fun!

I love it!

This evening, she gave me an aria by Händel to practice. My 'natural' heart songs are blues and jazz, so Händel is way, way, way out of my comfort zone! But I'm going to throw myself into this piece about trees from Xerxes, and I'm going to master it.

The bonus is that I've regained my balance for the best part. And following my passions has played a major part in my recovery. I can recommend it. Follow your heart song!

Merry Christmas from me to you! / Fijne kerstdagen allemaal!

Here's my Christmas wish for all of you in:

The Netherlands - England - Germany - Ireland - Serbia - Morocco - Greece - Australia - The USA - Canada - Russia - Croatia - South-Korea .
Have a lovely time (if you do not celebrate this seasonal thing, have a good day anyway), and remember: Mess doesn't matter - love does!

Lots of love, Renée <3