right brained muso hippie librans of the world rejoice.

Ha!
I had an inkling that this would be my result, but now it's confirmed. Yay for random emails taking me to odd test sites first thing in the morning. If I had already ingested my morning caffeine I'm pretty sure I'd just delete straight away, but every now again my guard is down and I find myself randomly completing online questionnaries... Are you an Optimist or Pessimist?... What's your IQ? (and I'm not telling you!)...

Anyway, this one was Are you Right Brained or Left Brained. Well, come on... I'm a musician. My hobbies are making jewellery and writing and I like to spend my days off wandering randomly around the city looking at pretty parks and buildings and people-watching from cafes... so I think without even taking the test we can tell, but here were my results.

(in case you're wondering why I'm not writing something more blog-worthy... it's been a very busy month! More actual news soon to follow, but for now I'm going to sit in front of my email with my coffee and morning mohawk and enjoy the brief hour I have before running off to my next appointment. News in Brief: Easter means many gigs, some dubious performances of St John and St Matthew Passions and some fantastic things like tours to Milan. Now happily no travelling for next few weeks until my BIG audition on 27th April. This means practise practise practise until then in between gigs whenever possible. And that will be my life in its entirety till then!)


The Final Conclusion About My Brain

Most right-brained people like you are flexible in many realms of their lives. Whether picking up on the nuances of musical concerto, appreciating the subtle details in a work of art, or seeing the world from a different perspective, right-brained people are creative, imaginative, and attuned to their surroundings.

People probably see your thinking process as boundless, and that might translate to your physical surroundings as well. Some people think of you as messier than others. It's not that you're disorganized, it's just that you might use different systems to organize (by theme, by subject, by color). Straight alphabetization and rigidly ordered folders are not typical of right-brained behavior.

You are also more intuitive than many. When it comes to reading literature, you probably prefer creative writing or fiction over nonfiction. And when it comes to doing math, you might find you enjoy geometry more than other forms like algebra.

Happy New Year

Strange the way moods and creative urges go... I do realise that I haven't written anything particularly personal in here for a while, and the desire to sit down and go all stream-of-consciousness for a while is definitely growing stronger. Am starting to wish that I had one of those yuppy-esque blackberry things so that I could write whenever I think of it, rather than waiting until I actually have some uninterrupted time at home. Yup, new years resolution to indulge in more rambling... the only problem today is that I just don't have time!

I've hardly been home for the last month. December was all non-stop touring (almost all of which seemed to be in Spain. Lots and lots of late night tapas and indulgent spending of my per diem ensued)... and I returned to my neglected little flat with a verry snuffly cold on Christmas Eve, so spent the next week on the sofa feeling woozy and watching the entire BBC series of 'Rome' on DVD.

Now hey presto and in the blink of a eye it's 2007 and after booking my ticket yesterday (never let it be said I do things last minute!), I'm off to Australia tomorrow. Craziness.

Really looking forward to some Sydney sun and a good chunk of time there 'cos I'll be working there until March. Yay!!! Might finally get to see one of FourPlay's( http://www.fourplay.com.au )gigs as well in Feb which is frankly long overdue on my part, haven't seen Tim and Peter shaking their groove thang for a few years now, since I always came back to Oz at mistimed intervals!.... and am going to try to get to Perth at some point in January to spend some much needed time with my sister and gorgeous gorgeous nephews...

Managed to have a pretty much perfect New Years Eve, if one has to spend New Years Eve away from any possibility of passionate midnight embraces... my flatmate and I went to our favourite bar (the Dragon Bar in Old Street) where she occasionally works... she got us in for free and drink on staff discounts all night (this meant that with prices like 2 cosmopolitans for £3 my walk home was not entirely steady). We spent the evening watching our friend DJ with just enough people there to not be too squishily uncomfortable... and when our feet finally begged for mercy, we retreated to the private upstairs level that was open for staff and friends of the bar. All in all just what I felt like. Having been suffering from such a yucky cold-y type bug all week I was really glad to just be able to chill out with some friends. Have also concluded that the tastiness of late night chips on the way home increases in direct proportion to the number of vodkas consumed.

SO, in lieu of actually writing anything myself, my offering for today is an article that I picked up of Yahoo this morning.

Staff at the national tourism agency VisitBritain have been left scratching their heads at some of the questions posed to them this year.
These include such clangers as: "Are there any lakes in the Lake District?" And: "Is Wales closed during the winter?"

Half a million holidaymakers every year drop by the information office of national tourism agency VisitBritain seeking advice on how best to use their time in the UK.

At the Britain & London Visitor Centre on Regent Street in London's West End one visitor wanted to know: "What is the entry fee for Brighton?"

Another asked: "Do you have any information on (former Page 3 girl) Samantha Fox?"

Unimpressed by the planning behind royal homes, one tourist wanted to know: "Why on earth did they build Windsor Castle on the flight path of Heathrow?"

And taking the name of London Underground stations perhaps too literally, another person asked: "Can you tell me who performs at the circus in Piccadilly?"

Other geographically-challenged queries included: "What Tube line runs to Edinburgh?"

Encounters could be just as strange north of the border at the help centres of VisitScotland, where questions from tourists included: "What time does the midnight train leave?", "Which bus do I get from the Orkney Islands to the Shetland Islands?", and "Is Edinburgh in Glasgow?"

Some of the other daft questions posed to VisitScotland staff included: "Can you tell me where the mountain is in Scotland?", "Are there any curves in the roads here, or are they all straight?", and "Are there any Sheena Easton museums in Glasgow?".

Another tourist wanted to know: "What time of night does the Loch Ness monster surface and who feeds it?"

Happy New Year everyone!!!

My favourite pics and places from 2006

I love love LOVE taking photos, as any of my friends and family will testify to... and these are some of my favourite pics of places and beautiful things in 2006 (actually, the Venice ones are from Nov 2005, but they snuck in there). I have many great ones of friends and family too, but today I just wanted to remind myself of how many beuatiful places there are in the world.

Aussies take over the BBC Proms

If you go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/listen/ , go to 'Listen again to the Proms' and click on Prom 72 before Friday you can listen to the Radio 3 broadcast of the Prom I played last Friday with OAE. I'm listening to it now (you never really hear the whole picture in the adrenalin rush of performing!) and it's so weird to listen back. We played the Haffner Symphony so bloody fast and it sounds GREAT!!! Listen to Part 1 first, because that's the Haffner Symphony. The Mozart C minor Mass is in the 2 nd half and it's quite a bit longer!

Sir Charles rocks in a huge way. If I can stand in front of an orchestra in a proms concert for 3 hours when I'm over 80 it'll be a miracle.. and this guy does it every week, in world class performances!

International Flattery Day

Today is International Very Good Looking, Damn Smart Woman's Day...


I was informed of this in an email today from my flatmate who had, in turn, received it from a guy friend in India. She forwarded it to me saying over coffee this morning, very flatteringly, that I also fitted the bill.

We are renaming it International Win Brownie Points With Female Friends Day.

It did, however, include the advice to remember this motto to live by: Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, wine in the other,
body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!" Have a wonderful day !

and amongst the usual Oprah-esque pearls of wisdom that come in these sorts of feel-good emails, there was this nugget of truth, which was a good thing to hear before going to my rehearsal this afternoon...

Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission. -Eleanor Roosevelt-

repenting made easy with new igod

ha!
check this out:

http://www.titane.ca/concordia/dfar251/igod/