Quirks presents...

4:51pm: When KP gambles, you know he's got a conviction and a half
£1.88, Russia win, 3.00
50p, Russia win 1-0, 7.00
50p, no goalscorer, 6.50

I admit I'm still 13p down in the event of a 0-0, or if England win courtesy of an own goal. But 13p to make a tedious match more interesting would have to be considered a good investment. Indeed, £2.88 is less than most people will spend on alcohol to make this match more exciting, and there is the prospect of a return far better than liver poisoning. (A Russia win courtesy of an own goal would make all three bets hit, total profit just shy of a tenner.)

Let's be honest, it's still better than GAMBLING PARTY on the other side. At least I'm being more fiscally responsible than Mr Edmonds, who is taking about the same attitude as me to sums of money but three or four orders of magnitude higher, sums of genuine significance for more than a few minutes.

Edit at half-time: Lawks, England have only gone and bloody taken the lead. Sod this for a game of soldiers, not playing this nonsensical game anymore. I feel like I've lost £288, not 288p. I am reckless.

Somehow have to clear my head before the trial with Chris at 1830...

Edit at full-time: 'you had two hundred and eighty-eight pence. You could have stayed away from the betting shop...

...you've just won FIVE HUNDRED AND SIXTY FOUR PENCE!' *Strachan music cue*

8:04pm: Everything old is new again: Chris, 1830-1900
Well, here we go again then, and I was imagining rolling news style vox pop interviews with myself on what to expect from Chris - essentially asking the question 'is he going to be dogmatic?' The answer appears to be 'not necessarily in the way I anticipated'.

The location's superior in terms of convenience, it's right on campus, and that's under ten minutes' walk from my place to the very room I'm in. Fabulous, that's over twenty minutes each way saved over Shylo. Advantage one, but that I knew about.

Chris is comforting, I instantly got chatting to him (well, it wasn't my first meeting after all) and my jollity over acquiring a small amount of money shone through. And, indeed, there was no charge for this trial lesson, whereas Shylo's (admittedly longer) trial cost One Geordie. Advantage two.

Lesson begins with facial warm-ups, which were present in Gemma's lessons but not in Shylo's trial. Advantage three.

This doesn't look good reading for Shylo at present does it?

The inevitable letter-finding. Generically done, though differently from Shylo's generic approach inasmuchas the scale is longer and on a different note. Earth-shattering! One other exercise, generic and uninspiring enough I neither remember nor noted it... ah, was probably a different sound, yes it was... and then back down the other way with another exercise, this time a pleasant 'ee-aa-ee-aa-ee'.

Do we chalk that difference from Shylo up as a reason for this one? Here we go... E2-E4. Yes. I have apparently gained a minor third to the lower end of my range in five days (having just as easily lost it in the presence of Shylo). Apparently even F4 was produced in a not-really-usable manner, and that would be the first time I've produced more than two octaves in one register ever. Advantage four? But it seems as though he has me down as a bass, though before the lower notes he was thinking baritone, and suddenly I worry that his somewhat classical/constraining pigeonholing - he mentioned specifically bass-baritone, which may be accurate but sure is constraining - is going to limit me. Disadvantage one, and they don't come much bigger. But he's aware that voices change a lot, especially young male ones. Advantage five.

Chris is very squarely a classical teacher, of the somewhat-dogmatic-but-I-see-the-reasoning 'any deviations will be into musical theatre, and it's not what I do best' breed. I'm not about to criticise him for it, indeed I praised it - for providing a contrast to the stylistic chameleon Shylo, and thus a major decision. Advantage six and disadvantage two at once.

I'll be taught pieces in foreign languages - advantage seven? - but nothing much similar to what I actually sing at present, disadvantage three.

This is actually going to be one heck of a decision. Both Chris and Shylo are excellent teachers and excellent people, and to reject one is going to hurt. Essentially, I have to choose; to follow the learned classical path on campus with Chris, or to wander through Southampton Common to be sent on a musical wander of multiple styles with Shylo?

Ooh 'eck. This one is difficult. Heart says Shylo, head increasingly says Chris.