The choir I belong to did a little 'set' at a concert held at Tavistock College for local choirs this week, all part of the Tavistock Sings Festival.
It was amazing to see how many people out there are loving singing, and perhaps the most impressive (well, apart from us that is!) was the Tavistock College Gospel Choir.
Tavistock College the main secondary school for a vast rural catchment area, our children went there, but with 2000 pupils it's a behemoth of a place to manage and discipline and has defeated several head teachers in recent years. The press this year has not been entirely favourable and the school has currently been placed on special measures, but let me tell you the gospel choir does it huge credit. Sixteen or so teenagers, boys and girls who made a sound that belied their numbers, perfectly pitched, fantastic harmonies, fresh and enthused young faces, and the roof was well and truly raised, as were the audience to their feet, when they sang their versions of Bring on Tomorrow and Lean on Me.
Another choir however did have me biting my lip a bit as they sang Pokarekare Ana, that well-known unofficial anthem of New Zealand, and I was done for and couldn't help but think of the boy again.
All this week's talk of adventurous sons (and daughters) and nephews and godsons... because not everyone has children but most people doubtless know of one not a million miles from them... and I wonder if occasionally like me you also feel that strange and direct emotional connection with the mothers who saw their sons set off for the trenches so readily and eagerly.
I can sometimes see it writ large all over mine...
So of course I miss mes enfants when they are away, but the Kayaker's twenty-seven, still a free spirit and loves to travel, plus we speak on the phone or skype most weeks and he sends us parcels. One arrived this week full of all sorts of New Zealand bits and pieces ...why are other countries' newspapers so fascinating?
And a memory stick full of pics so we've had a great time browsing and lapping up the beauty of the country and the sheer depth of colour, and this time I think I can safely say no dolphins were harmed in the taking of these photos.
Bit of tree-hugging,
Could be be writing a diary....or a book...
Queenstown, I can think of worse places to hoover...
Still doing what he loves best...
and of course as you might expect, fitting in a bit of bird watching.
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