Getting awfully good at stepping Backwards!

Well this thing, what ever 'this thing' was is taking a while to shift. The coughing is better but still not gone and I still don't feel 100%. Needless to say I have taken a massive step backwards and feel as though I shall be starting from scratch all over again. I am, as I type contemplating a slow walk on the machine for this afternoon, really don't think much more is going to be possible. I am feeling incredibly frustrated at the moment. I think massive doses of vitamin C are going to be the order of the days to come.

On a positive note, I do have the next week off which is lovely and on Tuesday I am going for a little trip down memory lane when I visit my best friend 'ever' in Bishops Stortford. I haven't seen her for tens of years so it's going to be great to catch up.

The 'first edit' of my book is now complete and I have to go through it again so that it can go back to be completed. Hopefully it won't be too long and I can get it out there making some money for the Association for International Cancer Research. I had best stop putting it off and get on with it now!

What is it with all the Colds!

I'm loosing count now, can't remember if this is number five or six since Christmas. This one though has come with a nasty twist ... a hacking cough!. Woke up on Sunday with an 'odd' kind of throat and thought that this must be a hazard of being a pro singer but then when the coughing, aching and breathlessness started I decided this couldn't be 'singers flu'. Since then it has been downhill and I feel awful now. Needless to say, no running has been performed since Saturday and I can't see much being done for a little while yet. Was only thinking today that I have never been so unhealthy as I have since I took up running. I was expecting to be glowing with health and buzzing from the frequent endorphin rush but I don't seem to have experienced either. Just how much running do you have to do?

A stressful couple of Weeks - Part 2

Well, when I say stressful, following 'A stressful couple of Weeks - Part 1' this really shouldn't have been stressful at all but, when I arrived for the Annual Discord Concert there was a little trepidation about the hours that were to follow. Again I recited to myself 'you've completed a marathon Viv, you can do this' and, like all the other Discorder's, of course I could.

Much of my stress had been caused by my own stupidity following our last rehearsal on Wednesday. We have graduated now to singing a particular song - 'California Dreaming' in what I believe is known by musical people as 'in two parts'. We have all been given a number and we all know (well knew) which part each number related to. Having established on Wednesday that the two people either side of me were singing the opposite part to myself, we set off. Just a few bars in I became aware that all three of us were in fact singing the same part, convinced that I was right and they had both, independently got it wrong (which one of us had completed a marathon?) I continued. There then followed a period of very odd looks, a bit of pointing and a slow, painful dawning, that marathon or no marathon, I was the idiot on this occasion!. Now you would think that it would be quite simple to just simply swop and sing the correct part but it wasn't actually, for me, that simple and I ended up, for a short time singing both parts which soon became impossible because the parts in places overlapped. It was then a case of bringing my folder up far enough to cover my face and limping to the finish. But, you know what they say about bad rehearsals and on this occasion, using big bold stars, underlining and explicit instructions to myself I managed to sing the right part and I think it sounded quite good.

The entire concert appeared to be a triumph for Discorder's, the audience and most importantly for EACH the brilliant charity supported this year by Discord. We sang songs that spanned several musical genre. Starting with the upbeat 'This is the Life' by Amy MacDonald we then moved on to one of my favourites, 'Perfect Day'. There was plenty of scope for mistakes in the Chess hit 'I know him so Well' with some of us taking on the role of Elaine Paige and others singing the Barbara Dixon part, but again, all sounded well from where I was standing and everyone, singers and audience appeared to enjoy it. We then brought everything up to date with the Killers 'Human' and then the superb male contingent took the lead for everyone's favourite 'Any dream will Do'. Another personal favourite 'Hallelujah' sounded great and I think we all avoided the glaring pitfall and got the short and long, high and low hallelujahs in the right places - few!. The first half was rounded off with the exhausting 'You can't stop the Beat' that feels a bit like a runaway train on speed when you are in the middle of it. You just have to hope that your mouth will keep going fast enough and that you breathe in all the right places.

After an interval of teas, coffee's and ice-creams with proceeds going to the Friends of Chernobyl's Children, another great local charity. Plus the mandatory raffle we set off again. A moving rendition of 'Lean on Me' was followed by, among others, Coldplays 'Viva la Vida' and McFly's 'All about You'. The evening was rounded off by a Les Miserables medley. I think from the way everyone let's rip this has to be a unanimous Discord favourite moment with 'I dreamed a Dream' followed by the rousing 'Do you hear the people Sing' for a short moment I was French!. Not only was I French but I was part, a very, very small part of a fantastic group making an incredible noise. No-one could help but feel uplifted. Following an encore of 'Shine' the evening was over and everyone left. Hopefully like me, everyone in attendance left feeling at the very least a little more uplifted than they had felt when they arrived. I know for all Discorder's the high was very high and I hope we managed to share a little bit of that with the audience.

Of course none of this would have been possible without the talent, commitment and motivation of Michael Dann who works tirelessly to put these concerts on. You don't have to be a genius to see the colossal amount of work involved in putting on an event of this magnitude. We are told of the stressful moments but we only see the humour and the fun. Discord was set up over two years ago, the idea was to sing for well being, that well being now spans six Discord groups and hopefully touches each audience member of every performance. It also weaves it's web to encompass the many charities it supports. It's one heck of an achievement for one man. I'm hoping that Michael woke up justly proud this morning.

A stressful couple of Weeks - Part 1

Over the past couple of weeks I have been awake at the 'blogging hour' on very many occasions but as luck would have it my laptop hasn't been!. We suffered a serious melt down of the technical kind so I have been unable to blog so there is a little catching up to do.

As far as the running is concerned I have continued my endeavours to increase my speed going more for quality than quantity but as appears to be the norm, it gets no easier!. Yesterday I managed intervals of two and a half minutes at 8.5 km with a one minute walk in between, I kept that up for 15 minutes - really not very long at all. I'm trying to do some 'muscle strengthening' exercises too but rather than helping it simply seems to have increased the size of various parts of my body so that my already sparse wardrobe has become a simple choice of a pair of black jeans or some jogging bottoms. I appear to have burst out of everything else with about as much finesse as the incredible hulk!. The problem when you continuously see no improvement is that there is little to encourage you back into the 'running tights' day after day and it just gets harder and harder. Anyway, there is a date, a finite number of days to reach my goal, I know that I can and have at the very least 'loped' for 13 and a bit miles so I will continue in my efforts and somehow get round on September 15th.

Now, a couple of weeks ago at work, a job came up that I have wanted to do for quite a while now. Without really thinking and because time was quite tight, I applied. I spent hours and hours on the application form determined to give it my best shot. I managed to get an interview which due to the Bank Holiday was at quite short notice and allowed me no time at all to pick the brains of anyone who might have a clue about what they might ask.  I was styled and coached by Jan who gave me invaluable advice on the more general questions as well as a large portion of her wardrobe and I spent the majority of a very lovely Bank Holiday weekend indoors, trying to digest the rules and regulations related to the subject in question. I shall spare you the suspense ... I didn't get the job, but I did ok - didn't come away feeling like a complete prat or wishing I had never put myself forward in the first place. Despite not getting it the experience was quite a positive one. It was though a really scary one, it wasn't until I had got the interview that I thought about how long it had been since my last interview and it was many, many years ago. It wasn't until the days and long nights preceding the day itself that I realised the true value of the 'slightly mad' challenges that we set ourselves and achieve throughout our lives. The times I said to myself 'Of course you can do this Viv, you've completed a marathon for heaven's sake' and it really does make anything (with the exception of possibly of a triathlon) possible. Got me thinking just how important it is for our young people to see themselves achieve in something, anything. How many of our kids leave school feeling that they have never actually succeeded in anything at all. I have spent all my life trying to be good at something, trying to get someones attention because when you're not good at very much you don't tend to get noticed by anyone but actually, it's not about 'being good' at something, it's about setting yourself personal goals and achieving them, so that when you do need to be good at something you have positive experiences to draw on to give you belief in yourself. I wonder if teachers are taught that in their training, I don't believe any of mine were and sadly I don't believe any of the ones I have come into contact with my own children were. I hope in time that changes, so that it's not just the brainy, the loud, the ones with 'teacher worshiping' parents or the 'teacher worshiping' children that get noticed. I hope that in the future teachers are taught to make a point of noticing the quiet kids in their class so that they don't get to 55 before they realise that they are valuable too.

2 Forward, 3 Back!

Well, as usual it hasn't gone quite as I had planned and following on from the marathon I had a couple of good 'going forward' days followed by several not so good 'going backward' days. There was a reason for this, a good one, not an excuse. On our return from London I became aware that my nose hurt to touch, as though someone had punched me in the face type of hurt!. Over the course of the next few days I began to take on the appearance of Cyrano de Bergerac as my nose swelled, spread across my face and became more and more red. Breathing was at times not so easy and I didn't feel altogether well - it was very weird and of course meant that I didn't get back on the machine for a few days. Anyway, more or less in the same way that it arrived it is now getting better and I have been running again for the last few days, well, when I say running, I did do a 30 minute fast walk yesterday lunch time but that was ok, at least I moved.


Last night I went to Discord, I had to go alone and I'm not very good at going anywhere alone but it was fine and I gave myself a little private pat on the back for making it. We are preparing for a concert next weekend and I need all the practice I can get, I couldn't afford to miss the evening. One more practice to go - it's really not enough but so long as I remember what bits to mime I'll be just fine!.