I don't like Mondays (actually, I do!)

Now, many people are gonna say I'm a total and utter nut when they read this, but Monday is one of my favourite days of the week. This wasn't always the case, especially about two years ago when I was still working at "The Firm" where non-stop pressure, deadlines and bosses breathing down your neck were the norm. No, back then, Monday was definitely not on top of my favourite days of the week list. It was number 7, just behind Sunday...

But now, I love Mondays and can't wait for them. More specifically, I can't wait for 8pm on a Monday night. 'Cause that's when choir starts.

Lots of people ask me, "how did you find out about your choir?" Well, I found out about it the same way people find out about anything these days - on the net. It was just after a holiday in Australia and I decided, I have to sing again. So I typed "tecaj pjevanje Hrvatska" (singing course Croatia) into Google and my kappellmeister and his choir were the first thing that popped up. I have to say that it's the best net discovery that I've ever made.

Our choir ain't no ordinary choir. For a start, none of us can sing to save our lives. We all sing a bit out of tune or too nasally or don't open our voices enough or whatever. No Celine Dions or Andrea Boccellis in sight. But you know what? We don't give a toss! 'Cause the beauty of our choir is that we do more than sing there. We talk, we laugh, we cringe (especially when we do solos, which our kappellmeister invariably forces us to do at least once every couple of weeks. It's definitely something that everyone should do as often as possible. Nothing better for building your self-confidence). But most importantly, we listen. And believe me, in this day and age, listening is a lost art, something that we all have to practice every so often. As our kappellmeister says, it's easier to sing a solo than to listen to someone else do it.

The exercises and singing technique are based on the work of Valborg Werbeck-Svadstrom and her book entitled "Uncovering the voice". I won't go into too much detail here, I'll just say that the exercises to the novice are more than just a bit bizarre - from the tongue exerices, where you have to sing "hrya" on four tones while slowly sticking your tongue out so that it touches your chin to singing an octave of "brr", like a horse when it whinnies, while moving your head from left to right going up the scale and from right to left going down the scale - and she felt that singing could change a person for the better. And I totally agree with her - if everyone sang just 10 minutes a day, it would do wonders for them and believe me, the world would be a much nicer place to live in!

So, if you ever happen to be on 239 Vukovar Avenue in Zagreb of a Monday night at around 10 pm and you see a group of people humming with huge smiles on their faces and a spring in their step as they make their way towards their cars or the tram stop, you'll know it's our choir.

If you want to find out more, go to http://www.orpheus.hr/index-english.htm

I see trees that are green, red roses too...

Today my husband (officially!) became a Doctor of Philosophy. Now, he's had his PhD for about two years but the Uni of Zagreb decided to give him the piece of paper that he worked four long hard years for today.

The ceremony has, in the words of my daughter, become a bit "posh" of late. It used to be held at the Chancellory to an audience of zero with the PhD's attired in their, more or less, everyday workgear (nice clothes, preferably, but not necessarily, with a tie). Now the ceremony is more akin to an Illuminati/secret society meeting - perculiar hats and robes, men bearing sceptres and chains around their necks, lots of latin being spoken, pledges of obedience...but I have to admit that, despite the Illuminati overtones, I like the latter version more than the former...reminds me a bit of my graduation...sigh!

But the highlight of the day (to me anyway!) was the Chancellor's reception afterwards in the Zagreb Botanical Gardens. Now, while hubby was mingling with the Illuminati, the kids and I went off to explore the gardens. I'd been to the gardens a few times before but I hadn't been in a while. And I have to say that it was nice to be in them again. They're not gargantuan compared to Sydney (I sometimes could not actually find my way out of the Sydney Botanical Gardens!) but they are lovely nonetheless, an oasis from the hustle and bustle of the city, with inspiration for photographs in every nook and cranny. Here are a few that I took today:

Jools, ever acting the princess, waiting for her frog prince to leap out of the water...

This is the band that played today, a saxiphone quartet. They're students of the Musical Academy in Zagreb and were real cute. They played a wonderful rendition of West Side Story. I think "Officer Krupky" was their favourite - they sort of played it again and again and again...would have preferred "Tonight" or "Somewhere"...

The main lake

An exhibition of pressed leaves, something hubby did during his undergraduate days...he doesn't have fond memories of the botanical gardens 'cause he always had to sneak there and steal as many leaves as he could for his collection...woe to him when he got caught...

The pavillion with cactii and insect eating plants inside...and the Illuminati outside...

A water lily, one of my favourite flowers...apparently, it is a symbol of purity of heart

And one of my favourite photos taken today, one I entitled "flowers smiling at the sky"...

Congrats, dear hubby! Thanks for the lovely day!

Happy Birthday Davor!

It's my dear, dear friend Davor's birthday today. Hope that all your dreams come true, mate! And don't forget what Richard Bach said: Bad things are not the worst things that can happen to us. Nothing is the worst thing that can happen to us.

Have a great one!!!

Plaisir d'amour

One of my favourite classical (wince!) songs at the moment is "Plaisir d'amour". It's a beautiful and very moving song of lost love written in 1780 by Jean Martini (aka Johann Scwartzendorf, of all things!) to words by Jean de Florian. The song inspired Elvis Presley's "Can't help falling in love with you". I've been practising it for a while now but still can't quite "open" my voice on the high F's and G's. But, as my teacher says, it will come with time, and I know it will. I think it's a must for the CD I'm planning to record.

The lyrics of the song go like this:

Plaisir d'amour ne dure qu'un moment,
Chagrin d'amour dure toute la vie.
J'ai tout quitté pour l'ingrate Silvie,
Elle me quitte et prend un autre amans.
Plaisir d'amour ne dure qu'un moment,
Chagrin d'amour dure toute la vie.
"Tant que cette eau coulera doucement
Vers ce ruisseau qui borde la prairie,
Je t'aimerai", me répétait Silvie.
L'eau coule encore, elle a changé pourtant.
Plaisir d'amour ne dure qu'un moment
Chagrin d'amour dure toute la vie.

Pleasure of love lasts only a moment,
Chagrin of love is lifelong.
I left everything for the ingrate Silvie,
She leaves and takes another lover.
Pleasure of love lasts only a moment,
Chagrin of love is lifelong.
"As long as this water will run gently
Towards this brook which borders the meadow,
I will love you", repeated to me Silvie.
The water still runs, Sylvie changed, however.
Pleasure of love lasts only a moment,
Chagrin of love is lifelong.

Being the philistine I am, I only discovered it recently, a couple of months ago to be more or less exact, on my friend Davor's blog. Joan Baez did a version of it, as did Brigitte Bardot, Charlotte Church and Andrea Boccelli, among others. But my favourite version is by Nana Mouskouri (the one Davor posted). Now, I'd listened to Nana as a kid (growing up in Belmore, at that time a very heavily Greek populated suburb, it was more or less obligatory that my friends and I sat around on Saturday mornings watching "The Greek Show" where Nana made many guest appearances) but had never heard this song before.

And see, that's the beauty of blogging to me. Besides getting some personal satisfaction from writing my own blog, I get even more from reading my friends' blogs and learning something new with every post - about the world we live in, about a new song, about a new artist, and most importantly, about them. I feel privileged to be able to take a look at what's going on in their lives and get to know them better. Some of my friends are a suburb away, some are on the other side of the world. But this blogging, perverse as it sometimes may seem putting our hearts and souls "out there", is something that, even though continents apart, keeps us close together.

So without further adue, here is the lovely Nana Mouskouri singing "Plaisir d'amour". I might take her lead and sing it in D too instead of F so I don't sound like a cat in heat on those high F's and G's!

Thanks for the inspiration Davor! And thanks again Ross for inpiring me to sing anew!

A change is gonna come

I listened to Otis Redding today. Now I haven't listened to Otis in at least 2 years. But I needed his earthy, soulful voice today to take the edge off. I've been feeling terribly tense and stressed out these last couple of days. See, I'm entering a very important astrological phase at the moment, an astral triad. Now don't ask me to explain what exactly it is, which planets it involves and whatnot. I just know that it's a more or less once in a lifetime occurance. This is the time to either be or not to be, it's now or never, this songbird can either spread her wings and fly or stay roosting in her nest until God knows when. And I don't feel like roosting no more.

But big steps have to be taken if I want to take flight. I know where to start - I have to contact my friends at Radio 101 to see how I can go about recording a CD. But what if they laugh their heads off when I sing with my treacly, quasi Julie Andrews voice? What if I fall flat, bang on my face? What when they ask me, what songs I wanna sing? What style? I think I can do a max of 5 - 6 songs at best. Which ones, which style, I've no bloody idea. I like a lot of stuff - jazz, classics (wince!), soul, folk, Frenchie stuff...now besides the tension in my neck and back, I'm starting to get a headache...

Then I need a pianist. Where the hell do I find one of those? I don't wanna record something with a bloody backup tape. I want the real deal. I want someone who's gonna follow my moves, who waits for my pauses, who keeps my pace. Yeah, I love how Eva, Edith and Ella do their stuff, but I don't think it's right to copy them word for word, letter for letter, note for note. Then it wouldn't be the Knitting Songbird singing, it would be a very, extremely, horribly bad imitation of some pretty phenomenal women! But who's gonna want to accompany my treacly voice?

So yeah, I've got the tension, I've got the headache, I know I could fall flat bang on my face, but I know that if I don't do it now, I'll never do it, I just know it, astral triad or not. I'm bloody 37 years old, for Christ's sake! And I'll always think of what could have been. This songbird needs to dust off her wings, she needs to fly, she needs to sing no matter what...a change has gotta come, man...

And here's the wonderful, fabulous, king of soul himself, Otis Redding. Yeah, I like Sam Cooke's version of this song best, but Otis does a pretty bloody good version too!



Take care,
The Knitting Songbird

Stuff - no comment

I ain't gonna write anything today. All I'm gonna do is reaaaally urge you to watch this video. Fascinating but bloody scary stuff...where the hell are we going, man, I wanna know...?

Please pass this on to your friends, colleagues, family, everyone you know...we really need to change our consumer oriented societies and buy less stuff...especially stuff we don't need...

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Take care and think about your stuff,
The Knitting Songbird

Since Eve ate apples, much depends on dinner (Lord Byron)

My husband tells me quite often that I have too much time on my hands - too much time to think about silly things! One silly thing that I thought about recently was - which meal would I request on my death bed? There's sooo much good food out there, what would I like to be the last taste to transport me from this world to the next? And I would have to answer moules frites (or steamed mussels with chips) - followed by some cheese and, of course, some chocolate for desert! Nothing gets my taste buds going more than moules frites.

I'll never forget the first time I had them. It was about 4 or 5 years ago and the company I work for was going through a re-branding process. There was a whole plethora of things to re-brand, from office stationary to brochures to the web to shops to name tags. You name it, it had to be re-branded - and there was looooots. One of the items that I was responsible for re-branding was boxes. So we asked our purchasing department to put out a tender and together with them would choose the best bidder. We chose a bidder from Rovinj, a lovely picturesque town on the Istrian coast of Croatia. I was to go there with our advertising agency in order to overlook the printing process and approve the first print-outs. There were over a dozen boxes to be printed and each one had to be approved. Now, if you know what the printing process consists of, you would know that this was going to be a very long day and night. We ended up working from 12pm until 7 am the next day, without a wink of sleep and only a break for dinner. As it was my first time in town I asked the guys from the printing house to choose something for me for dinner. I was too bloody tired to choose anything anyway! Well, we went for a walk to a nearby konoba (the simple explanation for konoba would be restaurant but the proper meaning is much more complicated than that. Croatians even write songs about their favourite konoba, they're sacred places!) and they chose moules frites. Now, I'd never had shellfish before, was always a bit too chicken to try it out really, and the first thought that went through my head was "They don't expect me to eat this, do they???" They did, and I didn't want to be a bad guest by refusing. Let's just say that after that first timid taste I was hooked for life and never looked back.

Maybe my husband is right - maybe I do have too much time on my hands to think about silly things! But when I think of moues frites, it reminds of lots of lovely times I've had. Like when I had some with my dearest friend Maro in a lovely French restaurant in Sydney (I think the restaurant was called "Sel et Poivre" - correct me if I'm wrong Maro!) or when Ivan and I went to Paris a few years back and had some at a little brasserie just off Notre Dame (where the waiter was soooo horribly rude) or when Davor and I had some in Saint Malo (totally disappointed with the city but the moules frites knocked our socks off allright!) Think it was one of, if not the, best meal we had on our recent trip.

So requesting moules frites as my last supper is more than a final, worldly taste experience, rather, a remembrance of wonderful times had with lots of very special people.

If you feel like giving it a whirl at home, it ain't hard at all to make. And tastes absolutely scrumdidiliumpcious (in the words of Willy Wonka!)

Moules frites (serves 4 - depends on your appetite!)

2 kg mussels - cleaned, scrubbed, beards removed
50g butter
1 large onion - thinly sliced
1 clove garlic - thinly sliced
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 glasses white wine
Salt, pepper
A bit of chopped parsley

Melt the butter in a large, heavy bottomed pot with a tight fitting lid. Add the onion and garlic and fry until translucent. Add the wine, herbs, salt and pepper and bring to the boil. Add the mussels, put the lid on and "steam" for 5 - 7 minutes.

In the meantime, make the chips (if you don't feel like eating or making chips, bread's a good way to go too!).

Place the mussels and liquid in large bowls (discard any mussels that haven't opened), sprinkle over the parsley and serve with chips or bread on the side for dipping into the liquid.

Here are a couple of photos of Saint Malo. I say we were a bit disappointed with it but it was only because it was almost completely devoid of life (i.e., people!). Looking back, I wouldn't mind going there again, but maybe when the weather's a bit nicer and during the day when there's a bit more hustle and bustle...