Ganeida's Knots

I don't know what happens to me on stage.  Something else seems to take over. ~Maria Callas

There is Liddy ~ & then there is everything else.  Life does not stop while we sort Lid out.  In just a few days Star turns 16.  As Aussies will know that means a whole lot of government paperwork lands on your doorstep, all of it to do with numbers.  I do not do numbers so I am getting a little wild about the eyes. It means that, in just a matter of days, the girl can go get her Learners!  Ummm....I don't think I am ready for this.  I don't think Australia is ready for this. *sigh* 

We did manage, after innumerable stops & starts & interruptions, to actually finish of last term's work.  We have yet to begin this terms!  Life just keeps getting in the way at present.  Luckily our supervisor is lovely & understanding & from past sad experience I do know it is possible to cram a term's worth of written work into just a few short days!  It's the showing what we're doing that causes all the problems.

Oh, & the music, which just eats up wads & wads of time.  Like yesterday, which was a performance day.  OK, so we tied in our government paperwork with going into town but forget schoolwork on a performance day.  Seriously, it consumes the entire day, starting with the starching & ironing of the white shirt which must then be carefully hung in a coat bag out of harms way, to the compilation of the necessary music, the shining of shoes, the ironing & careful scrutiny of the black pants for stray cat hairs, the finding of stockings & hair ribbons, bobby pins & hair spray; the careful application of make~up & the stowing of such in her music bag for the later touch up & we have to leave a little extra time all round for the careful handling of the uniform so it doesn't get crushed or creased during transport ~ & we are in & out of cars, on & off boats so that is something of an effort no matter how often we do it.

I tend to end up just focusing on the next thing that needs to be done, systematically working through my day until I turn of my computer & crawl into bed at the end!  So having had the foresight to look at a map well in advance I was prepared for the fact we had to cross Brissie river & deal with the tangle of one way streets that Brisbane calls its city.  On the plus side, while we had not been to this particular street before, it was in the vicinity of somewhere we'd done twice so Star had some idea of the grid patten we would need to implement to get us to where we needed to be.  I had left us plenty of time because if we got the right carpark it was going to cost us nothing ~ & believe me with the cost of car park parking that is no small bonus so I was prepared to drive round & round just to make sure it wasn't going to cost me an arm & a leg to park my car!

This was supposed to be an AVAE event but as all of AVAE are still in school & our call time was 4.30 there were always going to be a few missing faces.  As it turned out there were lots.  School day in the middle of the week so not really suprising & Exaudi came in & plugged the holes to make up a 4 part ensemble.  Bass is usually the missing line in AVAE but Exaudi are all very experienced so most of AVAE sang alto.  Star is racking up a lot of performance time; she very rarely misses any performance as performance is the best part of what she is doing & so important when you get thrown in the deep end & expected to cope.  She has learnt that Alison is not joking when she expounds the virtues of being able to not only read music, but to sight~read on demand.

The mother of the only other younger child to turn up & I took ourselves along to the Jade Buddah to chat while we passed the time.  I don't do this sort of thing all that often.  Five kids, no income means not many opportunities for dancing on the tabletops come your way so I was duly appalled that one glass of white vino & a cappuccino cost $13 AUS!  Thirteen dollars for a small cup of not spectacular coffee & a half full glass of wine! OK, the view really was spectacular, looking straight down the river with the lights starting to prick the glowing sunset & stream across the river in colourful ribbons but not worth $13 either.  Please, consider where I live.  My own view is a thousand times better.  Actually, so's the coffee!

We had a lovely time just chatting ~ about, of all things, education!  A subject I can cheerfully rabbit on about till Armageddon overtakes us. And I was reminded, for the 2nd time in a matter of days, that Star has, in fact, been extremely well educated!   Like many homeschoolers I'm sure, I tend to be overfocused on our weaknesses & those areas we're struggling & forget the compensating strengths but last night I was sharply reminded that what my child is reading for her own pleasure, books I would consider the bare minimum for a well rounded education, are books many consider difficult & impressive ~ & not only does Star read them, she understands them & can discuss them in an intelligent & informative way.  What's more, she really grasps metaphor & simile & can use them in her own writing, has excellent general knowledge & is adept socially with adults while many of her peers are awkward & uncomfortable. 

And to round it off, my whirly~girly giddy~girl danced off~stage glowing because they had an assessment done of stage presentation & she was one of the top two!  No surprises there, at least not to me.  I've watched a lot of performances now & Star's lack of nerves means she relaxes pretty quickly on stage & it is immediately obvious she is having a ball & wants everyone to join her party.  And I live with this!!!

To~day is the last OM prayer meeting before Liddy goes & we have a lost wallet to go deal with so I am hand~holding all day.  Drama, drama, drama.