Changing Places No 124 W\C 29th June 2008

Tears and washing powder were in much evidence at the Georgie Insull Choir concert last Friday. We gathered to sing our hearts out for a charitable cause and raised €1000 for a children’s centre for mentally and physically disabled children in Palma. The choir all considered their elegant ‘beige’ blouses and realised that they were all different shades of that most flattering of colours. This was a mystery, the whole set of blouses having been bought at the same time. Then the culprit was found – washing powder and the temperature of the water. Do you wash at 30, 40 or 60 degrees because it was quite evident that our members were equally divided? Then a philosophical discussion took place about whether those that wash at 60 are trying to be cleaner than all the rest and if so why – what are they trying to cleanse themselves from? In the midst of the beige ness a vision in blue appeared, a princess in long blue gown with a pretty face and a voice that made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

The concert got underway with the beige choir doing their best in spite of varying shades of beige ness. Then the tears started, Alex – our vision in blue and Sebastian our stunning male soloist made their entries. Young, pure voices resounded into the hall and the choir and audience were dabbing away with the tissues. Conway Jones their teacher and mentor was having real trouble as the tears fell on to his hands as we was playing the organ. This was a magical night and those voices will go far – Alex is already on her way to Music College and Sebastian has his own fine ambitions - we were proud to share that moment with them.
The choir put away their beige and reflected on the concert that ended this terms work. The night was filled with music (the title of the first song we sang), tears were shed at the beauty of the voices and then just as we were contemplating the summer break we got the word. The choir has another ten weddings to sing at before the summer is over, each with their own choice of music – so guess what - twice weekly rehearsals continue. Re-locate to Majorca and spend every spare moment singing…….what a great thought.

This is the week that Jay and Matthew collect the van. The days of the hire car are nearly over since their own bit the dust. The hire car business is a fickle one, the companies love the locals with car problems but as soon as the season starts in earnest they are not so sympathetic to the resident’s rate for long term hire. The hire car was a little twingo with no obvious ITV registration which was interesting to the local police who are having a purge round our way. They pulled Matthew over to check the papers were in order and then because it was a part of the deal a breathalyser was thrown in for good measure. No alcohol – no problem and he drove away. A blue Berlingo van is the vehicle of choice and collecting it the highlight of the week!

The tomatoes have got the blight in our bit of Soller. There is much wringing of hands and gesticulating. Our market garden neighbours are watching this summer’s profit going black and shrivelling up before their eyes. They are always giving Trev advice about tomatoes and telling him what he does wrong but this year they are being very quiet about his lack of tomato growing prowess. We are told that the reason is that the excess rains we had earlier in the year caused the roots to grow too big and tangled and that is the cause of the blight. What will I do without the kilos of plum tomatoes that usually sun roast in the oven waiting to be made into tarts? I’ll have to buy tomatoes instead and that is definitely against the Soller religion. We did feast off lettuce yesterday, Trev has grown three different types and when they are washed they look like the best that Marks & Spencer can offer. The melons are coming on a treat and we can look forward to the rest of the summer being self sufficient in lettuce and melons. How’s that for the townies from North London.
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