St. Patrick's Day.

 Forget Hairy Bert's Birthday, that was yesterday. Today is St. Patrick's Day!

St. Paddy evidently drove snakes out of Ireland.

Our secondary school ('our' refers to all the old bloggers around here) was named after the snake remover. 

Okay, enough about Paddy.

I didn't get any practice done yesterday. It was one of those days when things kept popping up. We had a plumber here for quite a while. It turns that things are more complicated than I thought. Evidently, the guy who put in our bathroom hand basin plumbing got it all wrong. The plumber is evidently coming back today to put it all back together. Also, the toby that controls water going to our property is broken. This needs to be fixed by the council before the leaks in our two hose pipes can be fixed. I'm glad I didn't try to fix those things myself.

I've got to touch up a few spots on our house with paint but, apart from that, I intend to put a lot of time into music practice today.

I asked Peter who won the golf yesterday and he replied, "God."

I can only assume that he meant God helped Rob win. Well done, Rob. I guess Peter has a lot more practice to do, even more than me on my violin.

Okay, that's it from me this morning.

Vai ad allenarti a golf.

Ciao.

And now for something completely different.

 No coffee for me this morning.

No mention of raccoons.

No mention of Berhampore.

No mention of weathermen.

No mention of the one true god.

Okay, what does that leave to talk about?

This.

Today is going to be quite busy, but I need to find time to focus on my violin. It feels great to have the original chinrest on with no shoulder rest. For me no shoulder rest gives the violin a feeling of freedom. Just like someone about to play golf Just like someone going to a gym, I'll start with a warmup.

• Long bows.
• Bowing slightly to the bridge side of the centre of the space between the fingerboard and the bridge.
• Playing some chord progressions from those 10 unaccompanied tunes and the scales that go with them.
• Playing over the entire fingerboard.

Hey, a coffee would be nice right now.

Then I'll run some of those 10 unaccompanied tunes. 

Okay, I guess that's me for this morning.

Time to do some jobs. Hey, I've got my elder grandson to pick up later this afternoon too. Then I'll probably spend some time with my younger grandson.

Enjoy you're day. Unless you're losing at golf somewhere.

Ciao tutti.

Golf match of the century!

 

Monday 16th March - Peter Vs Robert at Berhampore Golf Course, 572 Adelaide Road.

Both golfers have been practising furiously for this match that will settle old scores that go back to the 1970s.

Peter (far right) with two other golfers
(Mike and Tony) in the 1970s.
Robert is not in this photo, but
was probably taking the photo.

The result of Monday's match will put a lot of questions to rest. 

• Who is the better golfer?
• Does God help Catholics win at golf?
• Do weathermen have any effect on golf results?
• Did Robert drive to Levin to buy butter or a putter? (You can never trust the spelling on Robert's blog.)
• Should golf be featured at a Catholic mass?
• Will Peter wear his raccoon hat to the match?
• Will the two old boys have enough golf balls, or will they have to search for more before the match?

This match is correctly referred to as the 'golf match of the century' because the last time these two old boys played against each other was in the twentieth century. Fifty years ago!

I'm not sure if this match will be televised. 

Possibly.

Saturday.

 In the beginning there was the weatherman. He couldn't really see everything that was happening in the future, but he could make intelligent guesses on what the weather might be like for any given day. 

The weatherman didn't create mankind, nor did he create angels. One can be fairly confident that no weatherman (in recent times anyway) was even nailed to a cross and later rose from the dead.

Chances are that this is not a weatherman.

Okay, moving right along.

I have nothing to tell you about the violin this morning. Except that I certainly will be doing some practice.

Okay, moving right along again.

I don't really know what my plans are for today. Maybe daddy will pop around with my good friend Harrison? I'll no doubt make a trip to the supermarket. I should make an effort and go for a walk, if the bell is being well behaved.

I see that Peter and Robert are planning a golf match. Do they call it a 'match'? Thankfully I wasn't invited. There might be a god! Robert has bought some clubs and is practising. We might get a post about the game, once it has been played. Robert will be thanking God, and quoting from the bible, if he wins. Peter's post, should he win, will be put up in about June. 

Well, that's it for today.

I have nothing more to say.

Ciao tutti.

Black Friday.

 Friday 13th is traditionally a very unlucky day.

It doesn't seem to get much attention these days. In fact, it now appears to be the name of a shopping day when things are discounted. Work that one out!

I haven't touched my violin yet this morning. Present me is wondering if changing my chinrest was a wise move. Well, I guess I'll find out soon enough!

I think I need a coffee.

Ah well, what's one more trip to the bathroom? I'll be back shortly.

Back.

There's nothing nicer than coffee,

When you're up but the sky's not blue.

It's good to sip the nice warm juice, but

Then it sends you to the loo.

It's a wet morning in the Nui. I bet it has been raining in Moera and Raccoontown too.

I decided to only drink half of my coffee.

For the ways of the Lord are straight and virtuous men walk in them; but sinners stumble and drink all their coffee. Hosea 14:10 & 14.11

In his latest post Rob tells us, "The more astute of you have noticed no quotation marks. The practice of using quotation marks for anything in the Bible has fullen out of fashion. Also it's likely that the writers of the Gospels didn't quote Jesus exactly. How could they? Mark, who wrote the first Gospel, did so early in the fifties. That's twenty years after Christ died and rose again. So it goes."

This is actually good news. Mark was obviously writing from memory, or what someone had told him. Imagine if he had 'fullen' into the trap of using some of the strange words that Rob uses. It wouldn't make Jesus look that smart. Better if the actual author takes the blame.

Hey, Good Friday is on April 3rd. That's a more positive name than Black Friday. Good Friday, if you're anywhere near a Catholic church, is a day when you should avoid expressions like, "Nailed it!" 

It's probably time to give that chinrest a run.

No! That's not the one!

Ah well, I'll leave you there for this morning.

Enjoy your Black Friday.

Ciao tutti.

AFTERNOON, after 3pm.

All back to where I started from. After 1 hour, 20 minutes of try out time. Right back to where I started.

Ah well, we live and we learn.

Give it a rest!

 My previous chin rest is back on.

I spent 45 minutes today fooling around with a shoulder rest and how comfortable my chin rest felt. I finished up putting my old chin rest back on and placing my shoulder rest back in my 'instrument parts' drawer. 

My old chin rest fits comfortably under my chin but doesn't contribute to holding the violin up without using my left hand. Violinists seem to like to do this as a sign of total control.

Hey, Niccolo' Paganini didn't use a shoulder rest OR a chin rest, so I know I'm following the best!

I'm going to go with that setup and play for 15 minutes more to settle that in. 

Sfortuna se la mia decisione non ti piace.

The Mission.

 

I want to get some pretty serious practice done this morning. That means that this post is going to be pretty short. I don't care about gigs anymore, though I will probably do any that come along. It's all about getting my violin playing where I want to get it to. That's the mission. I don't really care if people like my repertoire (and playing) or not. That's for them to worry about.

I'd better get on with it.

Più tardi.