just another morning here

I had better write something before the second week of the holidays is over! The first week of the school holidays had long been booked out for The Russian Visit. When we went to Russia with Exeter Children’s Orchestra in 2010 it was always with a view to receiving a reciprocal visit in Exeter, and some of us had been planning it for about a year! We hosted a group of dancers ‘Dans-Capella’, as well as an accordion & bayan orchestra ‘Yaroslavichi’, all young people from Yaroslavl, Exeter’s twin city in Russia. There were a few accompanying adults too; dance tutors and musical director, as well as the Principal of Art School No. 1 – Yaroslavl’s top school for the arts, one of the venues we performed in when we visited.

The Russians were hosted in families from the orchestra, or families who had travelled to Russia with us in 2010, and that all seemed to run smoothly – a lot of people relied heavily on google translate, what a wonderful invention. One friend of mine even gleefully used it, along with copy and paste on her phone, to send texts to her guests *in Russian* – very impressive. I confess we didn’t have to use it that much – one of the girls who stayed with us understood enough English to relay everything to the other one, and between them they managed to gesticulate and use enough English to make us understand most things!

Over the first weekend they spent time with ECO in rehearsals and then on the Saturday night we got together with a couple of other families within walking distance for an evening meal – one of them was hosting the bass balalaika player so we had some fun playing with that!

On the Sunday they performed together at our Spring Concert – EYO managed to accompany some of the dancers, and the accordions played with ECO in one of their pieces – as well as separate performances from everyone.

On the Monday, the dancers spent the day at Exeter College, with the performing arts dance students there; they exchanged traditional folk dances – the English taught the Russians some Maypole dances, and the Russians taught the English a traditional folk dance as well. We also had a civic reception from the Mayor in the middle of the day – in Russia the culture is very different and everything is controlled by the city council, so this was a diplomatic effort on behalf of our Lord Mayor – even though ECO organised and paid for everything, she was wonderful at ‘officially’ receiving the group.

Back to the college for rehearsals in the afternoon, and tea laid on by the college catering students, then a performance at Exeter College in the evening. It was actually incredible to see the dancers ‘close up’, having seen them on the big stage the night before – a totally different experience.

Tuesday was a day trip for the Russians, down to Dartmouth then a boat ride to Greenway (Agatha Christie’s house). Tuesday evening was meant to be with host families; we’d planned fish & chips but then our girls wanted to explore the city instead, so they did – on foot – and got the bus home! They seemed to get on fine, although they did end up eating in McDonald’s, but I shouldn’t mock as I remember some of our party eating there when we were in Moscow (not us, I hasten to add )!

Wednesday was a partial day out – we visited the Norman Lockyer Observatory in Sidmouth. I confess to sleeping through most of it (well, these presentations happen in darkened rooms and I just can’t help it) but the telescopes were interesting. From there we went to a hotel in Sidmouth for a lovely lunch, then the Russians shopped in Sidmouth while we sat and had tea in the hotel After that we travelled across to Exmouth Community College, whose deputy head teacher was a member of ECO in his youth, travelled to Russia with them back in the 90s, and still plays the balalaika now – so he had offered to host a performance as well.

We were worried that we might not get much of an audience but we ended up with a full house which was brilliant. The dance and music was incredible all over again, too – we were just blown away by the accordions – videos don’t do them justice!.

Thursday was a day trip to the Eden project for the Russians, and then a Ceilidh for everyone. Excellent fun here – by now everyone had relaxed and made friends, even the adults – there was some vodka consumption in one corner No photos of this from me unfortunately!

Friday, their last full day in Exeter, was spent mainly shopping! The day was broken up by lunch, some gift giving, and an afternoon concert for the accordion players, and then we arranged for them to go and busk outside as well.

More shopping after that, and then a final evening with host families before setting off on Saturday morning for some time in London before going to Heathrow for an evening flight.

An amazing week really – as I have said in other places, I am so proud of ECO all over again, for being the sort of organisation that can pull off hosting such a brilliant week for people. It was very interesting to watch how the Russians relaxed as the week went on – from some tricky negotiations over the concerts/rehearsals on the first weekend to them being completely at home by the end of the week and not worrying about the details because they trusted us more (I felt). Host families were wonderful, as were key people playing organisational roles. Still, it was good to get to the end of the week and breathe a sigh of relief to send them on their way, in the knowledge that they’d had a brilliant time – there were tearful farewells between some families and their guests on the last morning, which just went to show how amazing an experience it had been.

France (being hosted by the OJHB) next Easter, that might be a little bit easier

Another fabulous production week ends today; I’ve just come home from dropping the girls’ food round for the after-show party. We actually went to see them in Cinderella on Wednesday (first night) and I helped with the Front of House team today – the girls have been rushed off their feet all week. Abbie had her first ‘principal’ role as the back end of Dobbin the panto horse, as well as being in the chorus for a few songs, while Anna was in the chorus with a couple of extra songs to perform in – singing and playing her cello too.

The whole show was very well done as usual, but the stars of the show for me were two of Abbie’s friends who played Cinderella’s mice, Bubble and Squeak. They were simply brilliant throughout and sang their song (Anything you can do I can do better) stunningly! It was fab that the producer/musical director wrote in the cello song; another of Anna’s friends in the chorus did some proper pointe ballet as part of that piece too – so everyone’s talents were involved even if they didn’t have a main part. Oh and the little ones were just gorgeous – there were a lot of them and they looked so, so sweet on a number of occasions!

Josiah, as usual, was serious throughout and said at the end ‘well, all pantomimes are just the same, aren’t they?’!!

Can’t say I’m sorry it’s over, though, as the girls can do with their time back. We’ve said that Anna has to have a year off next year for exams but I can see me dithering about that when the time comes because they do enjoy it so much and get so much out of it. Anyway. Tomorrow is a catch-up-with-homework day as a result of a very very busy week.

We got home to find upheaval at home as Steve had decided to make some, erm, home improvements. The less said the better, as I was unprepared for this and I find the upheaval of his changes rather unsettling, to say the least.

Photos to follow …

Well, it’s not the second pantomime week ever, but it is the second one that we’ve been involved in! The girls have done really well this week, although I’ve hardly seen them, as generally Steve has collected them from school and packed them off to panto before I’ve even been home! So I’ve been waiting up until 11pm to chat to them – and by then we’re all exhausted.

However, as predicted, it’s exactly like pregnancy and childbirth – during December when rehearsals hotted up, we were tearing our hair out bemoaning the time they were taking up, how awful it was, and telling both girls that they didn’t have time for this another year – yet now we are in the performance week suddenly it all seems worthwhile! Both of them are talking about Next Year’s Panto already and I haven’t the heart to stop them as they have such fun, and the panto crowd are a fabulous bunch of people, too, so all in all it’s a winner (who needs to do school work anyway?!!).

I couldn’t help with Front of House during the week but I did help this afternoon for the matinee, and this evening we went to watch the final performance of Aladdin, along with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunty Esther Abbie did very well in the chorus- especially the Panda bits! Anna was playing in the band all the way through, so fairly invisible but also fairly indispensible! Josiah (bless him) did not smile or boo or hiss or anything the whole way through, even though I assure you that all around him we were entering into the spirit of things – so I can safely say that the Cathedral Choir is definitely the right place for him! He only ‘sort of’ enjoyed it …

Of course we are biased, and by now we do know a fair few of the cast, band, and production team, which makes it all the more fun to watch, but I thought it was great – well done Pinhoe Pantomime Society on another successful show

The first weekend of the school holidays is almost over, only five more to go! We’ve been busy as usual though with different things going on …

On Friday night we went to Exmouth, along with some other families, for an end of term BBQ. Well, we didn’t BBQ as that would have meant being organised; we had chips on the seafront instead. Everyone else was far more civilised than us, of course. Miss White even joined us for some of the time, which was lovely- possibly the last time we see her! The kids had a ball, and it was very chilled for us grownups as well

Yesterday Steve took all his employees on a jolly down to Haynes Race Track, so muggins here covered at the garage. It was very quiet although I did see one genuine customer – but a quiet day suited me as I had some time to think about planning for next year – not that I actually managed to get any work done, but still. The children spent a pleasant day with Grandma We were meant to go to Exmouth again with different friends but I made an executive decision that I was too tired so called an early night all round.

Today the girls went off to panto for the day, while Steve, Josiah and I went into town, then out to Wiscombe as spectators for a couple of hours – a novelty for Steve! Since he blew his gearbox up yesterday he had little choice

Anyway, back to the girls – over the past few weeks they’ve been involved with a mini-production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by the ‘Juniors’ of the Pinhoe Panto Society. Well, we thought it was a mini-production but actually it was pretty major! Considering how little time they’d had to rehearse it was an amazing show, with all the kids involved, some great singing and dancing too – and they all had such fun doing it, which was obvious in their enjoyment of the performance.

Afterwards all the panto families went and sat in the park and chatted while the kids played, lovely