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Saturday 29th April: I left home about 10am and my first stop was Caulfield to pick up Jess, my company for the 4 hour drive. We drove along the Princes Freeway & Hamilton Highway and had a toilet and lunch stop at Lismore. We found this little cafe called Swaggies Rest so we stopped for a little while there. The toilet here was in an old railway carriage. After potato & leek soup with bread, raspberry lemonade, nachos, & cappuccino in a mug we were very well satisfid and headed up to Hamilton.
Arrived about 4pm in Hamilton and checked into my hotel, "Hamilton Townhouse Motel on Shakespeare". It was a lovely motel. Once we arrived we contacted Felicity to see what sightseeing they were doing. They were coming back from some falls and we met them at the Hamilton Art Gallery. There were vases, paintings and fine china being exhibited. I must admit, artwork does not give me a huge appreciation at this point in my life although I think I might be gradually growing. Maybe we'll revisit that thought at the end of the year.
We then ventured back off to the motel and we had 40 minutes to spare before rehearsal at the Lutheran Church at 5.30pm. (I discovered that I had fox sports 1 at the motel and that the Broncos Raiders game was on at 9.20pm. I then began to plan the evening based around the thought of been back at my motel room to watch the game). A few of the choir members did not arrive until about 6pm so Douglas, our conductor, was not too happy about that. We were seated in the arrangement of two choirs. It was very strange because we usually stand near the other sopranos and altos but basically all we could hear were altos and basses from 2nd choir. In one of the pieces there was a three part division for the basses & Tom (who was right behind me) sang this very low F. It gave me shivers up my spine and still does thinking about it. After rehearsing for about an hour we then had a break, dinner and then changed for the concert that would start at 8pm. During the break I nursed Mitchell and he spewed on me.... then he fell asleep on me!!
The concert we were singing at was entitled "CORONATION MUSIC", however not all the music that was performed was originally part of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation.
Choir programme was as follows (not necessarily in order):
1. We wait for thy loving kindness, O God - William McKie
2. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace - Samuel Wesley
3. O Clap your hands - Orlando Gibbons
4. I was glad - Parry
5. O taste & see - Vaughan Williams
6. The Old 100th tune - Vaughan Williams
7. Zadok the Priest - Handel
There were also two organ pieces and a string piece that were played as well and were playing splendidly. Overall the concert was a huge success although there were a few glitches, especially in the debating over the correct pronunciation of some vowels. I was so confused I don't even know whether I sang it right or not in the end.
Concert was over... job here for the evening was done... time to party & relax.
After the concert we had some wine and nibbles. (Time went by and I was still at the church, I guess I didn't really want to watch the game that much. I knew Katy was taping it for me). It was great to mingle with all the people that had attended the concert.
We then headed off to find somewhere open that would serve food. Slight problem here in that it's a country town, 10pm and Saturday night so limited amount of places opened. We found this pizza place "La-Piato" but they were only doing takeaway so we went in ready to order and go back to the motel rooms to eat it. Well they saw the number of people and said we could dine in. I shared a pizza with Richard, which was a supreme without olives and extra onion. I also had a chocolate milkshake too. Dinner was very yummy. Some of tdefectedsters difected to the commercial hotel instead of the pizza. We kept on sending SMS' to Ric saying "Pizza...hmmm....yum...." I also sent him a message to tell him that the Raiders had lost against the Broncos, just to rub it in. Once our appetites had been fulfilled some of us called it a night and some headed off to Commercial Hotel to meet Kate, Ric & co. We stayed for about 1/2 hour and then ventured off to beds
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Sunday 30th April: The agenda for today was to sing at church and then venture on back to Melbourne. The choir members that made the trip up (less Tom, Will & Lizzie) were divided into two choirs so that we could sing at the Uniting & Anglican churches. I was singing at the Anglican church. I really miss the traditional communion service each week and all the "smells & bells" associated with it too. We were meeting at 8.45am for a quick run through the music. I picked up Kate & Ric from the place they were staying at. We met a couple of others and started to rehearse. There was five of us but then with about five minutes to spare a group of about another five joined us. We wore robes, men had blue rope belts too and women had red ones and red scarf like things around our necks.
After the service we headed out to the hall to get have some morning tea that the lovely ladies had made for us. Highlights were profiteroles and carrot cake. I then took some photos and then had to venture via the Uniting Church to pick some people up to drive them back to Melbourne. I had a quick detour to the Lutheran Church. I had Allan in my car for the trip from Hamilton to Mortlake. We had decided to meet in Mortlake for lunch as it would be more likely to have something open. We arrived at Mortlake and ended up having lunch at this lovely place called the "Celtic House". It was a coffee shop & bakery with cooked had home cooked meals. Outside there were some interesting looking plants with painted shoes as the pots. One set even had the plants growing out of the toes. I ordered Chicken Parma with cappaccino in a mug. I was served nearly last, as is usual.
The boys then had a quick fly of the frisbee and then we continued on our journey back to Melbourne. I ended up with 3 boys in my car as they live in close vicinity to me than the others, which also ended up full. I had stops in West Brunswick, North Carlton, Mel Uni and then my home.
It was such a great weekend to spend with some lovely people and I really cannot believe that I considered not going the previous weekend.
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