I have been travelling for work. I am on day 9 of 18 consecutive days’ work… but who’s counting? I work periodically as a music examiner. This is the first time I have travelled for work and it’s been pretty interesting.
I’ve seen nervous kids, happy kids, sad kids, worried kids, scared kids, ADD kids, bright kids, dim kids, big ones, small ones, tall gangly ones, ones blissfully unaware of what is really happening, ones with the soles of their shoes hanging off, ones in high heels, lots in their first communion shoes, a girl wearing Linx, and a six year old boy wearing aftershave. There have been sparkly shoes, sparkly jeans, sparkly tops, sparkly nails, sparkly eyeshadow, sparkly hairbands and sparkly hair.
There have been anxious parents, pushy parents, late parents, early parents and the parents with four children under three who consider it a success to be there at any time. I have met crazy teachers, funny teachers, nice teachers who have brought me tea and biscuits, defensive teachers who insist on telling me their life story to reassure me that they’re worth a dime and friendly teachers who just want their students to do well.
My days have been full of try it one more time, give it another shot, yes you can start again, have a guess, let’s try again, thank you, please, clap it back, sing it back, have a look at this, have a seat there, well done and good job! I have heard singers singing sharp, singing flat, singing funny words because they forgot the proper ones, singing so quietly that the birds outside the window are actually louder, singing so loudly that my ears throb. I have heard violins squeak, violas warble, double basses grunt, and clarinets honk louder than any horn, siren or duck I have ever heard.
So far I have waited approximately 4 hours for public transport (Monday and Tuesday were bad days), been rained on three times, knitted two socks, had eleven conversations about the weather, drunk 27 cups of tea and coffee, 18 litres of water, eaten 3 illegal real biscuits and stolen a chocolate finger.
9 down, 9 to go. Dare I think ahead?
God that brings me back, London College for the first few and Associated board for the rest. Did as far as Grade 8 violin and I haven’t opened the case for about 2 years. I never realised that the examiners could even have a real life or be real people but then again I was 17 when I did my last exam so I was probably only about 8 or 9 when I did my first. Hope the rest of the time goes pretty fast for you.
Hilarious. Stick it out, you never know, somebody might bring you a beer.
Oh gosh Aileen you brought me back to some of the most terror-filled days of my youth! Grade 8 Associated Board still awaits me, never got up the guts to go back and finish. Was it my conspicuous lack of sparkly eyeshadow I wonder that made it all so much tougher? Hang in there, sounds like you’re doing a great job!!!