Thursday, May 22, 2008

A day filled with not-so-exciting news

I'm now an organist again - it reminded me of how difficult playing organ can be, as well as how surprisingly hard I have to work on playing what should be simple 4 part harmony. I went with the organist I'm subbing for to the church today and he walked me through their service formats and general things. I have a key to the church and organ = I really really wish I had a car so I could go and practise there, but it just out of the city and awkward to get to.
Finding an organ to practise on is proving difficult - organists in this town are very possessive of their church organs and none of them in my area are open to letting me practise.

The buses in London are techno-upgrading - the bus I rode today had a ladies electronic voice announcing the next stops. It's a big step forward in the right direction, but there were some problems. Mainly the stop is not announced with sufficient time before the actual next stop - it should follow European practises and announce the next stop AS it is leaving the previous stop. The bus driver was treating things like nothing had changed, but once, a passenger heard the stop they wanted, pulled the string, but it was too late, so they ended up at the next stop. The bus stops are too close together to make it worthwhile, the voice is yelling at you every 10 seconds, literally.

I now have an office - on the basement floor of Talbot College. I'll be sharing with about 2 other people (there are 2 other desks). I know there is at least one other person currently(ish) occupying the office, but there's nothing on the desks to indicate which are taken - I don't want to invade anyone's territory, but I want to start decorating - there's a gnome head that needs to be hung on an office wall! Also, the more books and paperwork I move there, the less I will have cluttering up my bedroom. There are lots of shelves there, so I can store lots of paperwork. It's perfect, I have a place where I can leave books locked up at the school so I don't have to carry them back and forth from home.

2 comments:

Jonathan Evans said...

The buses here have voices, and an electronic LED display on them, and it's never too late. I'm assuming the technology is rediculously simple by now, makes me wonder why they wouldn't have it on everything. Maybe it's because everyone in Canada still drives a car and there is no money spent on buses upkeep. Just maaaaybe.

Michael Park said...

yep, that sounds like a logical reason. They also have the digital display on the buses, but they show up at the same time...