Christmas: a part of the Shiny Season
The white-and-blue LEDs I acquired at a discounted price within an hour of arrival at Upwey station last week are fabulous, and possibly better than any present I received.

I knew it was a cheap Christmas, announcements to that effect were made many weeks in advance, though after Mark had purchased gifts with value massively exceeding the anticipated amount (and, indeed, after I'd done the same to him). The real fun was guessing my presents, for I only placed one thing on my list: the Wicked OST, placed on the suggestion of Carly (after telling her that the sensory issues were probably all that could stop me from actually going to go to a production). Got that...

What did I - or rather EJ - say about musical theatre roles for female voices? Nobody told Stephen Schwartz. Three songs besides Defying Gravity have made me cry so far - the bad news is that our choir's doing one of them (For Good) at the next concert, and that's going to mean a few emotionally draining Sunday evenings. But we'll come back to those in a bit.

The main present was a new watch. It's in silver, and undisputably counts as a Shiny to me. Also acquired; a book of aerial photography of stadia (most or all of the 92 of 2006-7, plus the SPL grounds and Wembley Building Site/Millennium Stadium/Hampden Park) along with potted histories; the Private Eye Annual 2007, that's a three-in-a-row streak of getting that without specifically asking for it and being somehow surprised each time; a mousemat with calculator; assorted other nonsense. Quite happy, and not having a list valued at just shy of the amount planned to be spent on me made a rather significant difference.

Possible purchases for early 2008, aka 'what to do with money no longer spent on singing lessons': some earplugs that maintain more clarity than foam (these are a possibility, I believe they're sold in different packaging for about £16 in a music shop in Soton); probably more charity shop CDs, knowing me; an LED desk lamp (I have a tinny battery-powered one that is of little use); train ticket to Bristol, with the intention of using it to go to the Bad Shirt Casino and beat some sense into someone from a few rows back in the audience while observing if an unedited Noel is really that manipulative (answer: presumably, yes).*

* He says, hopefully. At the taping of FTROYL I attended, I started to offer advice (aka: 'stop at the fourth white in round one, damnit!' when Nicky seemed to be practically inviting some, and the warmup man stopped me. I forget if that was the couple that got away with it or not; I think it was, and after the fifth white the entire audience was crying 'STICK!'. They couldn't silence that one, and indeed the players did stick. However, GAMBLING PARTY has an established culture of audience interaction, even if much of that is done in a non-neutral manner.

We revert back to an earlier point about Sunday evening choral rehearsals; I have decided to seek a solo at the next concert. Hopefully of something written myself, but failing that it'll probably either be Iris (the sheet music for that, and the idea of performing it as a piano ballad, is one very good thing I got out of Shylo), I'm With You (which would also work well in such a form) or a musical theatre number of some description. This has a neat benefit besides the performance opportunity; I'd get to rehearse this separately with our accompanist, a certain Chris Allinson who was nearly my voice teacher anyway. Result; the undoubted positives of his approach, but with less formality and without the concerns over stylistic constraint to some extent. Oh, and for the bargain price of £0.00. Without a doubt, that plus any reasonable use of money previously allocated to singing lessons is a net utility increase.

Also hoping to write two pieces for the concert that others will perform; one SSA a capella piece (probably rather short) and one solo for NI. My ambitions are definitely growing, and hopefully learning some more of the rules will help me greatly. Some substantive collaborative project may also be a good idea...