Saturday, March 20, 2010

Week 6 & 7

I have finally discovered, why as a child I was so rubbish at keeping a diary, it is so time consuming!!! I am rubbish at e-mails so my apologies to you all~!

The past couple of weeks have been busy. Finally getting a routine with School, private lesson's. It has been the Eistedffod (not sure if that is correct spelling!) Anyway this is a massive music competition here in Harare for all ages to get involved in. I have had a couple of my pupils enter and have had great results, so far to my knowledge an honours and two 2nd's, I must be doing something right! The School in general is having great results, so the music department is happy all round.

Olive and Paul are having their bathrooms re-done. Chaos has commenced and walls have been knocked down etc, progress has certainly taken shape in the past two weeks, it will look so lovely once complete. Last week John (Sean's father) was in Zim, so it was a very busy week indeed. We went to something called "The Barn Dance" to raise money to Stu's hockey tour in April. It was a fantastic evening of great entertainment all round, I am positive there were a few sore heads in the morning!

We also went to the Tippet's farm (Glenisla) for lunch on the Saturday. Dad you would be proud, I asked for a farm tour. Dave Tippet is a Tobacco/essential oil farmer. It was so amazing to see how the tobacco is harvested and the different stages it goes through to make your cigarettes! I was also driven around the farm, it was simply stunning. To finish off the tour we climbed a hill, this was tough most exercise I have done all year~! Let me tell you, it was certainly worth it, absolutely stunning and I got some great pictures.

My rehearsals over the past two weeks have been very slow indeed. Welcome to Africa - so I keep getting told! Arriving to no power, generator not being set up and using torches to see is a very interesting scenario and one I will have to come accustomed to very quickly!!

We have a band rehearsal this week, which was amazing - I forgotten how much I loved singing with a live band......I actually didn't do too badly either!

This weekend has been very quiet indeed. Had Ted & Carrie for supper last night, they come every Friday evening, so it was lovely seeing them both. Today we went to Marondara (Think that is how you spell it!) again for yet another Kids Birthday Party.......I think this is my 5th in 7 weeks! Claire and I then came home and collapsed after an exhausting day of children and eating far too much food!

Tomorrow - well it is Sunday - so the usual for me.....rehearsal 2-5pm!

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Week 4 & 5!

Well Tara kindly informed me that I hadn't updated my blog recently........I have just come on to see that week 4 never saved.........typical - so here we go again!



Week 4 was a short week at school again thanks to half term......god I love being a teacher, all these holidays are tremendous! I now have a healthy collection of budding vocalists, I am teaching 7 girls from Chisi and one of the teachers as well, so 8 in total! I tell you the easiest money I have ever made - ha ha :)



I have continued helping with the choirs and soloists for the local music competitions that start on March 8Th 2010 (so tomorrow!) it is massive in Zim and all the girls want to perform etc.





I started my rehearsals last Sunday - so far so good, cant complain. Everyone is really nice and I am getting on really well! The director is lovely, he is only 24 and has never directed in his life, think I am teaching him a thing or two on the way along, at least we get on as he is also the leading man!





Last week I was quite ill. Had a couple of visits to the doctors and the pharmacy - joys! I had to go on antibiotics for an upset stomach, due to the water over here - cheers Zim! I also later on in the week had a reaction to god knows what, my hands and eyes were swollen and I was covered in a rash,of course none of this stopped me from partying and having a good time!





Last Friday (26Th Feb) was a great evening. There was a group of us who went to see the "Blarney Brothers" to sum them up, 3 really old men playing Irish folk classics, it was raining and the marquee was soaked (we were wading through water) but this didn't stop anyone from having fun......Claire even managed to loose her flip flops....winner!




This week (week 5) has been good, teaching like crazy and going to my evening rehearsals, they are slow to start and I am always the first there, but you know the tortoise wins, not the hare!



On Wednesday evening we had a girls trip to Marondera (not sure if this is spelt correctly!!) This was a very funny evening indeed. We went to the Golf Shack (basically a very run down golf club!) lots of alcohol kept us amused until closing, then we went to a friends house. Claire and I enjoyed the free toast and tea and decided enough was enough bed. It started off with the two of us, and gradually this double bed filled up to 5 of us.......well that was it we were not waiting for Shelly any longer - the youngest has spoken, rounded the troops up and we headed back to Coleen's, where we were meant to be staying!!!



I was meant to be singing at the international junior swimming championships yesterday, but this didn't happen.....I still got paid, so happy days! The committee were too stingy to pay $30 for a mic system (long story cut very short indeed!) This meant that I got to go for a night out Friday night - yeah!





Friday night I had rehearsals then came home for some supper with Ted, Carrie, Sean & Claire. Claire then took me out to meet some people at Thirsty's bar (terrible name....I know!) From there we then went to Dukes Club. This was an open air club, it was mucho fun. On the way home we the boys I was with managed to get arrested. We had to go to the police station and I had to wait for an hour, it was very comical as all the policemen wanted to be my friend as I was from Scotland............1 hour & $60 later we headed off home!





Saturday was a hung over chilled day, sleeping, eating rubbish and bed very early!





Today the sun finally decided to come out for the first time in about a week and a half, so I did a bit of sun bathing in the little time I had. I had my 3 hour rehearsal this afternoon, went shopping this evening and have really not done very much - heavenly!