I had mentioned before that I was going to do my tenth parkrun today, but there was no chance of doing it at 9 this morning. After finishing work for Christmas yesterday, I went into town with my parents and met a few friends. We went on a pub crawl around Leicester City Centre and we all had quite a bit to drink!
I mostly drank double vodkas and cokes and had a warm cider in one pub. We went to a total of 6 pubs and the atmosphere in town was great. So many people were dressed up in festive jumpers, as santas, elves and other various wacky costumes. I decided to wear a Christmas jumper and leggings, the same attire I wore for Christmas Jumper day at work last Friday. I really felt festive last night, and drunk by the end!
I hadn’t drunk as much as I had last night since being at university. I woke up at 9 this morning feeling a bit worse for wear, but I’m not so bad now after having a classic fry up. I’m looking forward to singing at a hotel in town later this afternoon with a small group of people from the Leicester Philharmonic Choir. We’ll be singing a couple of carols which will be fun.
So my plan of dressing up all festive for the parkrun didn’t happen, but never mind. If I was very keen and up to it, there are some extra parkruns on tomorrow and New Year’s Day. Doing a 5km run at 9am on Christmas Day isn’t really my cup of tea, but I will hopefully do the one on New Year’s Eve and achieve 10 parkruns this year!
Sorry that this blog is a bit late! I aim to post my goals update on the first day of the month, but I’ve been quite busy recently. I’m normally be at choir practice on Monday evenings, but there are voice tests tonight. I don’t need to do one luckily since I only recently joined the Leicester Philharmonic Choir (lucky me!).
I have a bit of a confession to make- I’ve not been following all of my goals. I’m nowhere near losing two stone for my sister’s wedding (which is less than a month away), I’ve not been writing poetry every day and I’ve not really become more involved with feminism (e.g. joining a society or going on a demonstration). However, I managed to tick off two of the goals pretty early on this year: find a full-time graduate job and join a large choir.
Here’s a reminder of what I set myself 4 months ago!
I’m not going to be negative and bitter towards myself for not keeping up with the goals I set on New Years Day. I obviously still have another seven months until the next New Year, so I still have time to work towards these targets. I definitely won’t be able to lose two stone by 6th June, when my sister gets married. I have a lovely bridesmaid’s dress though which fits nicely, so I’m working on not putting weight on before the big day (it would be nice to lose a few pounds if I can).
I am tempted to change how I write these posts. Rather than looking at how I’ve kept or failed to meet my goals, I’d like to do a monthly blog as a round up of what I’ve done each month. These goals updates are sort of like this already, but I will focus less on the resolutions now. It is challenging to keep up New Years resolutions; it’s easy to forget about them after just a month (or even less time than that). It takes a lot of motivation and determination to keep on top of them, and no one really hears about them after January has past.
Putting the goals aside, April went by quickly. I signed up for a run at work called the Iron Run, which is on Saturday 1st October. You can find out more about it here, in a blog I wrote about four runs that I’m doing this year! I’ve yet to go out for a second run which is more than 10km. I have been keeping up the running though and going to the gym.
I sang in my first concert with the Leicester Philharmonic Choir on Saturday 16th April. It was a fantastic first experience with the choir, especially because we sang a lesser well-known piece by a composer called Paul Patterson, who attended the concert! A couple of my friends also came along to watch, and they said that they enjoyed it.
I wrote my second guest post for Viral Feminism about the ‘Why I don’t need feminism’ movement. After seeing images on the internet of people holing placards with written messages on, explaining why they believe they don’t need feminism, I wanted to write a blog about why in fact we do still need it. I would like to write another post on my own blog looking into the word feminism, it’s connotations and whether we should just be referring to ‘Gender equality’ (even though technically feminism and gender equality are the same thing).
I have a lot of things to look forward to this year, including a 4 day trip to Guernsey this Friday! I’ve never been before so I’m really looking forward to going. The four different runs should be fun and challenging; the one which I’m particularly nervous about is the half marathon towards the end of October as this will be my biggest challenge yet fitness wise!
When did March get here?! It will also be three weeks tomorrow since I have given up meat for lent, which means the ‘lenters’ are halfway there. I’m glad to say that I have achieved another one of my goals and am working towards other ones for 2016.
I had a voice test last week and passed, so I am now a member of the Leicester Philharmonic Choir! I sing first soprano i.e. squeaking all the high notes. I can’t wait to sing in my first concert with the choir in April. We’ll be singing John Rutter’s Gloria, a couple of pieces by Henry Purcell and Paul Patterson’s Magnificat. Last night at rehearsal we found out that Patterson will be attending the concert, so no pressure! Patterson’s Magnificat is very challenging but once we get to grips with it, the piece will sound magnificent.
As mentioned in my first goals update blog, I got a full-time graduate job as a copywriter. I have been working in this role for just over two weeks know, and I’m enjoying it. I still have time to write blogs as I can do this on weekday evenings and during the weekend.
Poetry wise, I’ve lacked creativity recently, or rather I haven’t found the time/gotten round to writing new material. Ideas used to flow into my head when I walked to work, but now it is a short drive to work and it’s difficult for me to think of creative ideas when you’ve got to focus on the road. I have mentioned recently that walking to my new place of work is an option, so hopefully I’ll do that soon and assist the creative juices in my brain.
I went to the poetry night Find the Right Words last month in Leicester which was amazing! I didn’t read out any poetry because I didn’t have the time to practice reading it out at home. I have some works which I really want to perform across to the audience without having a paper copy to read from. There is some fantastic talent at the monthly poetry nights which is inspiring, especially the way people read out and perform their works. I’m going to Find the Right Words this month, on 16th March and I will aim to read out some poetry this time.
I must admit, I’m feeling pretty fit at the moment. I’ve been getting down to the gym more frequently and I can push myself harder now in certain exercises than I could before. The muscles in my upper thighs are starting to become prominent again, and I ran 7.98km in one hour at the gym last week! My body weight is starting to shift now as well, which is a very good sign. I need to push myself a lot harder though, particularly in my eating habits, to lose two stone by my sister’s wedding in three month’s time!
Regarding feminism, I wrote my first guest blog for Viral Feminism!  The article critiques the new line up for BBC’s motoring show Top Gear, since there is only one female presenter out of a cast of seven. It seems to have been well received which makes me glad, because I spent a lot of time doing research as I am not a motor sport person. I learnt about the history of women in motor sport and their fantastic achievements over the years. Before this article on Top Gear I was featured in a blog on the first anniversary of Viral Feminism, where I describe what feminism means to me. I will definitely be contributing more posts in the near future.
Before I know it the next month will be here, so I’d better get cracking with my goals. Easter will be over by the 1st April, so I’ll be able to eat meat again!
Where has January gone?! It’s been a month already since I set myself goals for 2016. You’ll be glad to know that I’ve been working on some of them, and I’ve already achieved one of my goals! At the start of each month I will be posting a blog like this one to let you know how I’m getting on in achieving my resolutions for this year.
The first goal I have achieved is finding a full-time graduate job. I had an interview for a Product Copywriter role last Friday and received a call yesterday with an offer of employment! I was pleasantly surprised, as I didn’t expect a response so soon and it was the first interview I had for a copywriter role. I’m absolutely thrilled to have got a foot on the career ladder and I will be starting this new venture on Monday 15th February.
Music wise I am doing pretty well too. Another one of my goals is to join a large choir. While I was a student at the University of Hertfordshire I joined the Hertfordshire Chorus. I miss being in a large choir which give amazing opportunities to its singers, such as singing in a world première and travelling abroad to tour, but also the vibrant community which is formed through large choirs. I have been to three rehearsals so far for the Leicester Philharmonic Choir and I’m enjoying the music which we’re singing at the moment, including a favourite of mine, John Rutter’s Gloria. I will hopefully be auditioning in the very near future and fingers crossed I become a member of the choir as a soprano.
On the other side of the coin, weight wise I’m not doing so well. I wrote a blog a few weeks ago about my body weight and I’m glad to say that I have maintained it, which is currently 15.9 stone. I started training last week for the races I have this year by jogging 10km and attending my first body blast session at the gym. My legs still hurt from Saturday but they’re not as bad today as they have been (maybe a Radox bath will do them good). Once I have recovered from the body blast class I intend to do another 10km jog, and then start extending it gradually throughout my training, by jogging 12km, 15km, 17km and then finally 20km. I guess as I’m training this will help with body weight loss, but I’ll need to do some more intense exercises like the body blast to burn some body fat as well in conjunction with my training.
Another goal which I haven’t quite met is writing poetry once a week. Job searching took up some of my creative time, but I did write three poems in January, which I don’t think is too bad considering. Two of these poems have been posted on my Poclaretry blog and the other one I’m still working on. Despite not reaching the writing poetry target I have been becoming more involved in poetry. Once a month in Leicester there is a poetry/rap night called Find The Right Words, where people can opt for open-mic slots to read out their works, and there are always two excellent guest poets. I went to a few of these nights last year but I intend to make it a regular thing for 2016, since listening to other people’s poems is so inspiring and it’s always a fun night as well. I want to read some of my recent poetry at the next Find The Right Words event, which is on Wednesday 17th February.
I haven’t had a chance yet to get more involved in feminism. I’ve been so busy focusing on other things but now that I don’t need to do job hunting, I can do some research into what’s around in Leicestershire feminist wise. I also still need to write a guest article for the blog Viral Feminism.
All of these goals are a good way to further improve my time management and organisational skills. I also hold the belief that life is short, so I want to achieve great things and really make the most out of my life by setting goals and targets.
Throughout my education, I have always joined clubs and societies that are music orientated, extra-curricular activities and music groups outside of school/college. Â At one point, I was a member of three choirs and two orchestras, which all had rehearsals on a weekly basis and concerts every term. I still wonder to this day how I managed to do all of that alongside my GCSEs and A levels!
It is through music that I have received amazing opportunities, such as performing in prestigious venues (the Sage Gateshead in Newcastle, De Montfort Hall in Leicester and the NEC in Birmingham), participating in competitions and, best of all, meeting new people.
When I ventured down to Hertfordshire to study for three years, I was looking for music groups to join. There was the de Havilland Philharmonic orchestra, but I was no way at the standard they were looking for, but the Chamber Orchestra was set up during my second year at university. I thoroughly enjoyed my experiences with this society at university.
In the New Year of my first year, I heard about the Hertfordshire Chorus– I couldn’t believe it! I looked into the choir and it was just my cup of tea. I went to an open rehearsal where anyone is welcome to come along and have a go. I still remember that night when the choir sang Mendelssohn’s Psalm 42, Op.42; it’s been on my choral/classical playlist since then.
After a few rehearsals, I auditioned and was pleasantly surprised when I was offered to join as a first soprano! Never before had I auditioned for a choir, and the Hertfordshire Chorus is a prestigious one. I felt honoured to become a member and eagerly looked forward to what was in store for the next 2 ½ years.
It was great to be part of a choir that was outside of the university. The singers are friendly and talented individuals from all over Hertfordshire, some even from London! It was with this choir that I’ve had some of my most memorable music experiences, such as going on tour (something I had always wanted to do!) In April 2013, the choir went on tour in Prague, where we sang in three lovely churches and got to do plenty of sight-seeing. For the first time ever for an indoor concert, the choir members and I wore coats because it was so cold inside the church- the audience gasped when the conductor took his coat off, which he put back on after a while!
Another exciting opportunity I got to do was sing in a world premiere, which is currently on my CV as an achievement! In the summer of 2013, it was announced that a composer called James McCarthy had commissioned a piece called Codebreaker for the Hertfordshire Chorus. Codebreaker is a fifty-five minute piece of music, split into fourteen sections, which uses poetry and other literary texts to commemorate the life of Alan Turing (1912-1954). Turing was a British codebreaker of the Second World War who managed to crack the Enigma codes used by the Germans, which significantly helped with the war effort.
The commissioning of Codebreaker was exciting news for everyone in the choir, and to promote the music, a small bunch of us went to Bletchley Park for the day in September 2013 to make a promotional film to advertise it. It was at Bletchley Park where Turing worked alongside other codebreakers, a place which was kept a top secret during the war. Even after the war, everyone who worked at Bletchley Park was not allowed to reveal anything about the work that they did!
Filming at Bletchley Park! (St Albans Review) [You can just see me at the back]After three months of rehearsals, the Hertfordshire Chorus performed Codebreaker for the first time on Saturday 26th April 2014 at the Barbican in London. My mum and her friend, some of my university friends and members of the Chamber Orchestra came along with hundreds of other people to witness this emotionally moving music by McCarthy.
Another member of the audience was Benedict Cumberbatch! He tried to make himself discreet, but he looked like Sherlock Holmes! It was absolutely amazing to see the actor there, since he played the role of Alan Turing in the film The Imitation Game (2014).
Allstar/Black Bear Pictures/Sportsphoto Ltd
Codebreaker is so emotional because it musically travels through Turing’s life, his love interest for Christopher Morcom who died of tuberculosis at eighteen years of age, and when he was persecuted for being a homosexual (it was illegal to identify as one in Turing’s time). In 1952, he was offered a choice of sentence: prison or chemical castration. Turing chose latter, and suffered from the effects of this for the next two years.
Despite his hard work and dedication during the Second World War, Turing was heavily penalised for choosing to be a homosexual and sadly, in 1954, he committed suicide by eating an apple which contained cyanide.
It was a privilege to perform McCarthy’s Codebreaker, which pays homage to such a significant man, aka ‘the father of computer science’. I was crying towards the end of the piece when I performed it just over a year ago. It wasn’t emotional just for the audience, but for the performers as well.
I left the Hertfordshire Chorus in July last year when I returned back home to Leicester. I greatly enjoyed my time with the choir, singing fantastic pieces of music and getting to know people of varying ages. When I found out that the choir was performing Codebreaker again, I had to go!
So yesterday, along with my friend Cloud Mercury, who I went to university with and who watched the first performance of Codebreaker, we went to the Barbican to see the Hertfordshire Chorus perform McCarthy’s Codebreaker again, and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana.
It was certainly a different experience, sitting in the audience, but I enjoyed it. I got to hear Codebreaker from an audience member’s perspective, and it was truly magical. And Orff’s musical masterpiece was mind-blowing! I could see all performers enjoying themselves.
It was nice to see familiar faces and new ones in the Hertfordshire Chorus, and some of the members saw me and waved. It makes me feel proud to know that I was once part of such a fantastic choir, that continues to thrive and perform all over the country, and amaze all of its audiences!
Last night I went to a gig at The Scholar bar, part of the O2 Academy in Leicester. It said on the ticket doors open at 7pm, so I got there for 6:30, the first member of the audience to turn up. As I was waiting outside in the beautiful evening, I heard a tune that was familiar. For the first time, I witnessed a sound check by the headlining band, Bipolar Sunshine. I had a sneak preview of what was to come, which was very exciting.
The Scholar Bar is a nice sized venue, ideal for new and upcoming bands. The supporting act was called Great Imitation, a four man band whose genre is soul and acoustic. The leading man is a rapper, and he was very enthusiastic on stage (and off stage when he jumped over the barrier onto the dance floor!) He is very good at rapping, but it is just not my cup of tea. Great Imitation definitely have great potential, and I recommend them to anyone who likes rap music.
Great Imitation
Despite not being over keen with Great Imitation, I always like to watch support bands; that is how I came to fall in love with Bipolar Sunshine. I first saw the band support Bastille in 2013 and I searched for their music the day after. Later that year Bipolar Sunshine ran a competition on Facebook, and I won two tickets to see them support Rudimental on Valentine’s Day in 2014! Both times they were superb, and when I found out that they were performing in Leicester, I immediately bought myself a ticket.
The gig was originally supposed to be on the 7th October 2014, but it was moved to the 7th April 2015 instead, due to recording commitments. I was glad of the date change since I had seen Bipolar Sunshine already in 2014. The band’s recording commitments were for an album which is being released later this year; I can’t wait!
The band did not fail to astound me when they performed last night; in fact, it was the best performance I have seen of them so far. Maybe it was because this was their first headlining tour, or the smaller venue where the audience were in touching distance of the band members. Whatever it was, Bipolar Sunshine performed brilliantly!
Bipolar Sunshine
When I tell people about the band, they first ask about the name. I’ve always thought the name as a strange one, but while writing this blog, I had a search on the internet. Bipolar Sunshine is a pseudonym for the lead singer, named Adio Marchant. Now I can tell people why the act has that name, although I still don’t know why Marchant chose that name.
The great thing about seeing bands in small venues is that you are more than likely able to meet them afterwards. A few minutes after they finished performing, Marchant and the guy on keyboard/guitar went to greet the audience. I found it very sweet when Marchant went straight over to a young boy, to have a photo and give the boy a set list.
I got to chat to both band members and have a photo with Marchant; he was really friendly and talkative. I told Bipolar Sunshine about my story of how I first saw them and won tickets. The band messaged me privately on Facebook to tell me that I had won tickets after winning their competition, which one of them had remembered!
The photo didn’t quite work, but never mind :’)
If I’ve intrigued you enough, and I hope I have, you should check out Bipolar Sunshine’s music, and Great Imitation as well. I will definitely see the band again when they next tour; next time I will ask why Marchant calls himself Bipolar Sunshine. I wish them all the best in their music and success!
Clare Bear 