Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and lots of water

I am sitting in a lovely Georgian pub called The George Inn, on my way to Bristol airport. I am picking up M from there and then we will drive the last 33 miles to Cardiff! It is her audition tomorrow morning as 9 am (A dreadful time to sing I fear!). There is a crackling fire in the grate and typical old wooden pub furniture, higgledy piggledy and ill matched, but suits the place enormously. I have ordered a steak and kidney pudding for my lunch as the day is grey and heavily overcast, and the wind is howling around the sash windows. I have driven across country from Petworth, and feel in need of some good old pub substinence !

We are, hopefully, meeting up with T this evening. Our Paradise leading lady of past summer shows R, who has just started her second year at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, now lives in Cardiff with her husband T, whom I taught for many years, and also a fine baritone. She, it seems is caught up in a rehearsal so is away this evening, but T and her brother have invited us for a take away! It will be great to see them, and perhaps I will have an opportunity to see R tomorrow!

The new building which houses the RWCMD is, by all accounts, quite wonderful and has all mod cons which any self respecting Conservetoire would want to have at its disposal. I will view it with much interest and report back my findings.

I watched my grandchildren play their respective string instruments in a concert last night. C is becoming very competent on her (newly fitted up) half sized cello, and I must say her bowing is just beautiful to watch. She learns with a fine teacher and adjudicating colleague of mine who happens to live very close to her home when she is with her Papa, and will be taking her grade 2 next term. W, who is only 6 and playing an eighth sized violin, did some pretty plucking, but not always in the right place, or the right time. It was his first outing after about 6 lessons, so he won the prize for cutest player in the orchestra by around 100 miles, and when he fell fast asleep for the rest of the concert sitting in the audience, he was Ahh'd at by almost every parent in the hall!

I am now back from Yorkshire, having got flooded in down at Littlebeck, there was the Yorkshire Armageddon going on, walls of water, downed trees, waterfalls where usually there was a garden, and sadly some water infiltration in one of the buildings. I decided that my little car would be washed away if I tried to plough through the deep and fast running rivers and lakes where normally one saw roads !

I came South today however in sunshine and relative peace on my route, so am now happily back and ensconced in Sussex.

We had a fruitful and pleasant day in Cardiff at the very impressive Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. M sang well and was put through to the second round, which is pleasing, although she will not know any results for another 3 weeks or so, keep everything crossed ?!


The magnificent lobby of the brand new RWCMD !