So from the sublime….That’s not to say  I wasn’t delighted to see a dog win Britain’s Got Talent at the weekend. I’m disappointed however, that there’s unlikely to be an album opportunity with a dog for us to pitch for when we meet Syco next week!

We’re meeting  the powers that be at Syco for the first time which should be interesting and  hopefully fruitful and also going into Decca and Warners about possible recording projects. Our home studio should be finished in a couple of weeks so it would be great to start work in it straight away. We’re also meeting some orchestras to finalize who will perform our new orchestral children’s piece The Great Enormo at next year’s Brighton Festival. Then there is the small matter of writing it to be addressed.

We’re also attending a 12 week course run by the NHS for parents of autistic children which has already proved to be enormously useful with Arthur. I’m so glad we got a place on it as I wouldn’t be surprised if these kinds of things lose their funding in the future. It goes without saying that early intervention with autism puts in place lifelong skills and strategies which can mean that there’s much less need for intervention and support as an adult which in turn means less demands are made on limited NHS resources and social services in the long run… But often a quick fix seems more instantly gratifying than long term gains.

Arthur’s latest self-taught skill is to type in YouTube ‘Singing in the Rain’ on the computer.  He then watches the routine at least 30 times or until we can’t bear it anymore (and I’m a big fan). I can’t work out whether, aged 2, this is autistic behaviour or an early indication of his sexuality! I guess we’ll know more when he discovers old Judy Garland videos.

Sir Colin Davis

James has been working with Sir Colin Davis, the London Symphony Chorus and the London Symphony Orchestra this week rehearsing for 2 performances of Der Freischütz at the Barbican. The 2^nd performance is tonight. Weber was apparently an amazing pianist although you hardly ever hear any of his piano works performed these days in the standard repertoire. This opera, however, has always been a favourite with audiences from the moment it received it’s 1^st performance. The young Wagner was even inspired by it.

I was lucky enough to be conducted by Sir Colin whilst at the Guildhall and he must have been about 70 then so it’s frankly quite amazing  that he has the energy to stay awake until 10:30pm let alone awake and conducting over 200 people on stage in a world class musical performance.

Don’t know Der Freischütz? But not got the time/inclination to listen to the whole opera (must be 2-3 hours)? Then the one aria you should download to get a taster is called “Leise leise fromme Weise”. Sang it at my sister-in-laws wedding and it’s lovely.

We were in Cambridge last week meeting the Britten Sinfonia about the new Children’s orchestral piece we are writing with Michael Rosen. On that subject, many thanks to Robbo for the suggestion of sucking the wine up through a long straw. You are quite right, much easier to play the piano that way. The Britten Sinfonia has a very impressive line up of musicians, with some of the very best players in the country working for them as orchestral members, soloists and chamber musicians. They have the luxury of being based in Cambridge but have a London presence by being Associate Ensemble at the Barbican.

The chapel at Trinity College where I learnt to sing

It’s been a long while since James and I were at Cambridge as students and although we’ve both been back for various concerts over the years. We were struck by how little sign of recession we saw there. Lots of new builds going on, very busy shopping area full of exclusive shops doing a seemingly roaring trade. As for the one-way system, it seems you need a degree in something other than Music to get around the city. It was also very noticeable that the student population these days are getting younger and younger. James tried to suggest that we might be getting old but I put my hands over my ears and sang very loudly – I need to get some more singing practice in after all.

Ten Tors Orchestra and University of Plymouth Choral Society, St Andrew’s Minster Church

http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/pages/view.asp?page=28283

June 24th, 7:30pm : Crystal Palace Garden Party – Jubilee Proms

Crystal Palace Park & Bowl, Crystal Palace, London

www.crystalpalacegardenparty.com/pages/main.html

July 1st, 7:30pm : The Armed Man – A Mass for Peace by Karl Jenkins

The Guildhall, Royal Parade, Plymouth

www.plymouthphilchoir.org/concerts.htm

July 29th, 7:30pm : The Last Night of the Hallé Proms

Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

www.bridgewater-hall.co.uk/performance/19078.aspx

Building-wise we are in the hideous “why did we buy it” stage. Our time is spent sorting out endless building nightmares with planners, engineers, buildings regs and architects who keep ‘forgetting’ their original estimates etc etc. We rather naively thought that 4 records in the top 15 and a film in 2011 would lead to lots of work in 2012 but like every other industry, it’s tough out there.

There is of course our composition “The Great Enormo” with Michael Rosen to be written but as it’s not being premiered until May 4^th 2013 in the Brighton Festival (plug plug) it’s proving tricky to motivate ourselves to write it after the kids have gone to bed, even with a glass of wine in the hand. (Actually, the glass of wine in the hand makes it very difficult to try stuff out on the piano.)

Still, maybe it’s just as well because we don’t have anywhere to work at the moment other than the living room of the bungalow we’re renting. This is tricky as Arthur is obsessed with all technology so he keeps playing with the equipment.

A plus point of Arthur’s autism is the fact that although he is only 2, he can now help me with childcare by entertaining his twin brother when I’m trying to get something done. He turns on my laptop, enters a password, googles cbeebies or finds one of their favourite programmes on iplayer . Don’t ask me how he does it, I’ve certainly never shown him. Hoping to have him work for us as a studio engineer to earn his pocket money in a couple of years if he’s not already been snapped up by Bill Gates.

I realized today that we never heard much real birdsong in our old house near Deptford although the irony is we are spending a small fortune on trying to soundproof out those kind of country noises, or rather soundproof my singing in as the neighbours don’t want to listen to James learning the modern opera King Priam by Tippett or me singing half an hour of repetitive scales. We used to work in the basement of our house so it was much easier to soundproof  (we were looking to eliminate police sirens there rather than birdsong). Mind you, the rather low ceiling of the basement did have the drawback of Julian Lloyd Webber nearly hitting his head whenever he stood up (he must be over 6ft 4”).

At least with the garage we can see where the cash is going unlike the large amount of money we have been told we have to spend on rewiring and replumbing the house. We were supposed to be saving money by moving out of London…

Anna has settled well into her new school. I had a look through her homework last night and couldn’t help but point out a mix up between ‘there’ and ‘their’. Her answer?

“Oh don’t worry about that Mummy. Teachers love it when you make mistakes, it gives them something to do.”

On the home front, we’ve finally got a landline. It ‘s taken 3 weeks to get BT to simply do their job, meanwhile we’ve been put on hold for over 3 hours in total. The result of the phone line saga , move stress, box unpacking not to mention flatpack furniture hell,  is we now have 2 yr old twins who walk round and round saying “Bollocks, bollocks, bollocks”.  I blame James, he blames me. We both blame BT.

Oops.

So clearly not a trumpet cake, more a ‘trumpet case’ cake. Needless to say the lid collapsed several times too but luckily 9-10 yr olds don’t notice that kind of thing.

Many thanks for the good wishes posted for our move. I won’t say it was a fun event and I will certainly scream if I see another cardboard box but job done. James flew back from Alfie Boe’s tour for 24 hours to help. We realized after the house was packed that our daughter’s cuddly toys were accidentally ‘packed’ too. She needs them to sleep (sadly I’m not exaggerating).  We found them in the end but had to open many, many boxes first.

We’re now desperately sad to have gone, nothing like a surprise party, your supper being cooked and delivered and tears at the school gates to make you worry you’ll never find such a lovely community ever again…

Can a big garden really replace that?

Having said all that, however stressful the imminent move is, what’s keeping me awake at night is the trumpet cake I’ve been commissioned to make for Anna’s birthday party next weekend. Now that’s stressful!