We missed the Classical Brits last week as I had a family funeral that day but do watch next week when it’s on telly as we arranged the John Barry medley at the end of the show.

This week’s been busy so far. James is in Denmark working so I recorded Michael Ball on my own on Monday. What a lovely, talented man. He is also a 1-take wonder. In and out the studio within the hour, leaving me with a first-rate vocal.

It also turned out to be the week that Arthur had 3 different hospital appointments, one of which was the dreaded bloods at GOSH. He still has the most reluctant veins on record; even after 2 packets of chocolate buttons there was still not a drop of the red stuff. One of the nurses told me to warn her next time we were coming in so she could book a day off.

James back next week thank goodness. I don’t know how working single Mums keep all the balls in the air.

We got back from recording sessions in Prague at the weekend. In time for the boys 2^nd birthday and the  making of the ridiculously over ambitious train cake. When will I learn?  They were recently discharged from physio which is great and Seth has even been heard saying Mamamama in the last few days. Definitely a step towards that all important naming of yours truly!

Here is a photo of our very stressful trip to buy them new shoes. It was my second attempt as Arthur doesn’t much like new places or people (nor having his feet measured it turns out). James came along this time but we still ended up guessing his shoe size and opting for open toes incase we were wrong!

Finally, here is something to keep you guessing. We are soon recording a rather famous English singer with a career spanning over 40 years but not in the classical world. I’ll spill the beans next week, don’t want to jinx anything! Mind you, it would have to be the day before my concert.

Arthur studying a Brian Ferneyhough score

James and I are having an ongoing argument. What could it be about? Money, career, children perhaps?

No, none of the above, something far more serious.

He insists on singing Seesaw Marjory Daw to the wrong tune. Now that may not sound like such a terrible crime to a non-musician but I can assure you that no son of mine is going to get the tune to a nursery rhyme wrong. If James persists, not only could this become a reality, but he is also putting our sons in a very difficult position.  Obviously I’m looking to the future once they can actually sing, or even talk, but the time will come when they will have to make a choice. To choose between their divided parents. Will they side with James and sing his version or will they work out who bakes the cakes and choose mine? For those of you with an opinion (and I realise I may not be addressing anyone from this point on) it’s the 2nd line, Johnny shall have a new master that is causing the main disagreement.

Just hum it through. Notice the 1^st line of Seesaw M D is basically 2 notes, a third apart. But of course, I hear you answer, it’s designed for 2 yr olds to sing. My point exactly. No nursery rhyme should be difficult to sing with tricky intervals. but it is at this point in the song that James launches into the 2^nd line with a full octave range and interval leaps up and down. Despite my protestations, he is standing firm and says he will not sing a version he considers is “dumbing down” the tune.

He’ll be singing Thomas Adès opera at them next. The photo is of Arthur studying the score of a new composition by Brian Ferneyhough which he (James that is) recently conducted. Impossible intervals and not a tune in sight I might add.

BUT…

it’s jolly dull to learn and sing. Such long, repetitive, sustained, repetitive (sorry did I say that already) phrases.

James took the boys to the park this morning while I did some notebashing of the Taverner for the concerts in Brighton on 1^st/2^nd April.

He returned an hour later, white as a sheet and shaking. Apparently all was well until he got Arthur out of his swing, popped him on the ground, and tried to do the same with Seth. Seth has a very effective way of avoiding being lifted out of the swing. He tucks his feet under so that no amount of tugging can get him out. He employed these effective tactics on James who was caught off guard and only managed to get him half out. Something made him turn to look for Arthur at this point. Arthur, who despite only having had 10 seconds or so to himself, was walking out of the park gates and onto the pavement. James screamed at him as he wrestled with Seth,  but he carried on towards the road. He had the dilemma of letting Seth hang upside down, knotted in the swing (risking possible severe head injury or strangulation at best), or allowing Arthur to risk walking across the  road.

As Arthur’s left foot hit the road, James managed to ram Seth back in the swing and ran to get him. Arthur was completely unperturbed by James’ shouting, he didn’t even glance back. Needless to say, I bought some reins today.

Trip to the park? Give me dull, repetitive Taverner to learn any day.

Brighton Dome

For those of you who used to read my diary on the website, you may remember that James and I did an arrangement of O Holy Night for a concert he conducted in Denmark last year. It was a duet featuring Michael Bolton and Katherine Jenkins. Not the most likely of combinations but it turns out that both have an album out at the moment and both have included our arrangement on their CD so can’t complain.

I’m singing it myself on Sunday with  the RPO in the Brighton Dome; Not that I have done any practice this last week with the horrible cold virus having hit our household. Thank goodness it’s all repertoire I know or I’d be fighting back the rising panic with a concert looming at the weekend and no voice to speak of yet.

Twins bloods were much easier on Monday with an amazing nurse finding a vein in Arthur’s foot so imagine my annoyance when GOSH phoned this morning to say they were very sorry but their tests somehow got lost so we need to come back in for more bloods. Poor old Arthur.

I had a rather difficult visit to GOSH last week as Arthur is still very difficult to extract blood from.  After failing to find a vein after 5 minutes, we ended up pinning him down and repeatedly pricking then squeezing his toes to get blood for a further 10 minutes but they didn’t really bleed much either. He was beside himself, as was I and his brother who was listening and watching everything. All that, only to be told they didn’t manage to collect enough blood to get a result. Next bloods in a couple of weeks so hoping he has a poor memory and it won’t be so traumatic.

Coram's Fields entrance

Although Great Ormond Street is a pain to get to with the double buggy  (it makes all the nearest tube stations impossible to use), it does have one enormous plus, as well as the fantastic care we receive of course. Just across the road is Coram’s Fields which has to have the BEST kids playground in central London. Rather longer ago than I care to remember, when I was still at the Guildhall,  and James had his first job on the staff at ENO, we were both involved in a production of Mozart’s Magic Flute performed in Coram’s Fields. There was no money to book a pro orchestra so he persuaded many of the administration staff at ENO to play; many of whom had learnt an instrument to a very high standard before sensibly realising a salary was much more attractive than suffering for your art. It was on returning there with the boys this week that I noticed the paddling pool which was emptied and used as the orchestral pit for our production. It reminded me of the opening night when several of the woodwind couldn’t play for most of Act 2 because they had uncontrollable giggles. Trouble is those kind of giggles are contagious. It wasn’t until after the performance they showed James what had set them off. He had been conducting right next to a sign that read:

Pants must be worn at all times.

Oh no, not the cooker alarm...

The twins have just had their first physiotherapy session. Now they’ve been officially diagnosed with Global Development Delay it appears we are to receive all sorts of help. We are also about to start regular occupational therapy, speech therapy and portage which is apparently someone visiting us at home.  Of course I do realise how incredibly lucky we are to get all this support but what with our existing visits to Great Ormond Street, Kings and Guys, the therapy and appointments are a full time job in themselves. I’ve realised I have to think very carefully about work I take on in the next year or so as this is such a critical time  for them developmentally.

There is one department, however, where Arthur is terribly advanced and with no help from any therapist. He can set the cooker alarm. We discovered this last night, or rather in the early hours this morning. 2:10am to be exact. I know, because it said it on the cooker when I went downstairs to turn it off.   Genius.

BBC Proms in the Park 2009, Salford

We have a bright red double buggy that sits permanently on the pathway up to our front door. It can just about go through the door at a push, but takes the paint off the hallway and obviously once you’ve pushed it in, you are literally caught between the buggy and a hard place, so we have taken to parking it outside the front door on fine days but using a bike lock to attach it to our fence. Well, we do live a stones throw from Deptford!

I woke up this morning to discover the buggy hadn’t been nicked. Oh no, just the bicycle lock. The thief clearly doesn’t have twins so kindly left the buggy behind. Does that mean I should buy a padlock to lock the bicycle lock more securely to the fence before attaching the buggy to the bicycle lock. Ridiculous.

I’ve uploaded a couple more live dates on the website and I’m glad to say the Proms in the Park is confirmed on September 11thand it will be televised like last year for those of you who don’t live anywhere near Salford. This year’s sing-a-long medley will be from The Sound of Music – does that mean I should wear a nuns habit???

Some good news is Proms in the Park has enquired about my availability for the Last Night of the Proms in Salford again which I feel really pleased about as I’d presumed they wouldn’t want the same soloist 3 years in a row. Fingers crossed they make a definite booking.

The boys have been full on lately – lots of waking in the night. In desperation I took them into GOSH on Monday morning to have their blood levels checked an extra time as I couldn’t believe there wasn’t something wrong. Anyway, got the results today and it turns out Seth has an excuse and is a bit hyper but Arthur (who had me up 4 times last night and then woke his brother up…. ) is completely within normal levels. So don’t be fooled by the cute picture,  he is being a little so and so. (Clearly not the expression I would normally use at 3 in the morning but I didn’t feel I should use that language in writing.)