A celebration at Chez Mary
Haven't really touched this journal in a couple of months. Not that I was ever that prolific, but it does seem to have gone downhill a bit since I joined Twitter.
Anyway, I spent the bank holiday weekend, plus several days either side, up in Manchester to celebrate maryrperkins' birthday; an event which this year carried some extra significance. For one thing, although I've stayed there many times as a friend, it was the first time I'd attended her birthday as her boyfriend.
For another, in the light of our relationship Mary had also invited my parents. They first met Mary three years ago and got on very well with her. But they were nevertheless a bit taken aback when I announced to them that I was now in a relationship with a partner who was poly, and indeed already engaged to someone else. I couldn't help but worry that the party would be a bit of a culture shock for them.
But Mary's parties are nothing if not friendly and they got along fine. Dad, in particular, has a love of engaging with people which has stood him in good stead in his years as both a university lecturer and as a Methodist minister, and it wasn't too long before he was deep in conversation with welshlad about the nature and reliability of truth in the age of the Internet, with particular reference to the editability of Wikipedia.
And finally this was to be the last party held in this house, as Mary and timpootle had bought a new place and would be exchanging keys the following week.
Given a sizeable back garden and no neighbours within hearing distance, Mary's parties have usually involved live music. Tonight it started with Polytix, which consists of housemates and friends. It originated as an activity they could do together even though none of them (barring doctorstewie on drums) had any previous musical experience, and then set itself a goal of playing a set for Mary's birthday, which it has continued to do for the last few years with varying lineups. Tonight they had a 7-song set of mostly 80s cheese (dictated by having a keyboardist but no guitarist), and me on drums instead of Stu. I'd rehearsed with them on my last couple of visits, so we had the set about at tight as it was going to get.
Then came The Petrol Club, which was fronted by Stu on guitar and vocals while I played drums again. We played five songs, one of them Stu's own and previously unperformed. This was more impromptu, having basically come together in the last three days.
And then, after our traditional drum duet, Stu performed with his regular band Suzy Does It. At his suggestion we led out of the drum duet and into their opening song, for which we would play drums together. We'd only discussed this idea earlier in the afternoon, so it was tremendously satisfying when we did it live and unrehearsed and it came together perfectly.
Special hats off to Suzy Does It frontman Tim, who provided guitar accompaniment for Stu, trialia and myself to do impromptu open mic songs after the main set, and to welshlad, who took up bass in order to play with Polytix and has somehow gone on to join and perform in public with Suzy. And was therefore the only musician to play all three sets that night.
Aside from the party I joined Mum & Dad as they took the opportunity to visit various National Trust properties in the area. At Lyme Park we came across an extraordinary piece of sculpture being exhibited: the Aeolus. It's an arc of pipes, some of which have wires connected to their ends which are strung out to distant poles so they will make the sculpture sing as they are blown by the wind. You can see how it looks here:
Sadly we didn't get to hear it sing as the rain had dampened the wires, and the video doesn't really show that either. More info can be found at Aeolus Outreach or at the sculptor's webpage lukejerram.com.
And I spent some time over the next week assisting in demolishing an old shed at flirtydaz's place and levelling the ground to make way for the larger and more structurally sound shed to be moved from Mary's to take its place. The large shed was dismantled on friday, and by mid-afternoon we got the whole thing in the rented transit van in one load. After which I backed out as gracefully as I could in order to head home. Felt a bit wretched about not sticking around long enough to help unload it at the other end, but I had a long drive ahead of me. Utterly shattered by the time I got home and knew I'd made the right call.
So that was my holiday. Going back to work will be a comedown as always, but after shed duty it won't look quite so bad...
Anyway, I spent the bank holiday weekend, plus several days either side, up in Manchester to celebrate maryrperkins' birthday; an event which this year carried some extra significance. For one thing, although I've stayed there many times as a friend, it was the first time I'd attended her birthday as her boyfriend.
For another, in the light of our relationship Mary had also invited my parents. They first met Mary three years ago and got on very well with her. But they were nevertheless a bit taken aback when I announced to them that I was now in a relationship with a partner who was poly, and indeed already engaged to someone else. I couldn't help but worry that the party would be a bit of a culture shock for them.
But Mary's parties are nothing if not friendly and they got along fine. Dad, in particular, has a love of engaging with people which has stood him in good stead in his years as both a university lecturer and as a Methodist minister, and it wasn't too long before he was deep in conversation with welshlad about the nature and reliability of truth in the age of the Internet, with particular reference to the editability of Wikipedia.
And finally this was to be the last party held in this house, as Mary and timpootle had bought a new place and would be exchanging keys the following week.
Given a sizeable back garden and no neighbours within hearing distance, Mary's parties have usually involved live music. Tonight it started with Polytix, which consists of housemates and friends. It originated as an activity they could do together even though none of them (barring doctorstewie on drums) had any previous musical experience, and then set itself a goal of playing a set for Mary's birthday, which it has continued to do for the last few years with varying lineups. Tonight they had a 7-song set of mostly 80s cheese (dictated by having a keyboardist but no guitarist), and me on drums instead of Stu. I'd rehearsed with them on my last couple of visits, so we had the set about at tight as it was going to get.
Then came The Petrol Club, which was fronted by Stu on guitar and vocals while I played drums again. We played five songs, one of them Stu's own and previously unperformed. This was more impromptu, having basically come together in the last three days.
And then, after our traditional drum duet, Stu performed with his regular band Suzy Does It. At his suggestion we led out of the drum duet and into their opening song, for which we would play drums together. We'd only discussed this idea earlier in the afternoon, so it was tremendously satisfying when we did it live and unrehearsed and it came together perfectly.
Special hats off to Suzy Does It frontman Tim, who provided guitar accompaniment for Stu, trialia and myself to do impromptu open mic songs after the main set, and to welshlad, who took up bass in order to play with Polytix and has somehow gone on to join and perform in public with Suzy. And was therefore the only musician to play all three sets that night.
Aside from the party I joined Mum & Dad as they took the opportunity to visit various National Trust properties in the area. At Lyme Park we came across an extraordinary piece of sculpture being exhibited: the Aeolus. It's an arc of pipes, some of which have wires connected to their ends which are strung out to distant poles so they will make the sculpture sing as they are blown by the wind. You can see how it looks here:
Click to viewSadly we didn't get to hear it sing as the rain had dampened the wires, and the video doesn't really show that either. More info can be found at Aeolus Outreach or at the sculptor's webpage lukejerram.com.
And I spent some time over the next week assisting in demolishing an old shed at flirtydaz's place and levelling the ground to make way for the larger and more structurally sound shed to be moved from Mary's to take its place. The large shed was dismantled on friday, and by mid-afternoon we got the whole thing in the rented transit van in one load. After which I backed out as gracefully as I could in order to head home. Felt a bit wretched about not sticking around long enough to help unload it at the other end, but I had a long drive ahead of me. Utterly shattered by the time I got home and knew I'd made the right call.
So that was my holiday. Going back to work will be a comedown as always, but after shed duty it won't look quite so bad...