On Monday 18th it was the SYO (Shropshire Youth Orchestra) concert which I was in. We have been rehearsing every other Saturday since the beginning of term and have been doing some quite nice pieces! Unfortunately, we still had to have a whole day rehearsal although we did get an hour and what we thought, an extra half!
In the break, everyone from the orchestra disappeared into town and so Lucy, Charlotte P, Charlotte O, Bethan R and I decided to go to the Peach Tree as we were in the Abbey and we couldn’t be bothered to walk anywhere else! We all walked across and although many people had doubts about whether it was actually open, Bethan and Charlotte pushed the door and went in, only to run out screaming ‘IT’S THE BAR BIT! IT’S THE BAR BIT!’ I have been to the Peach Tree before and calmly explained that it was NOT the bar and was just quite a posh cafe! With nervous looks, we stuck our head round the door and crawled in. The two Charlottes sat down while Lucy, Bethan and I ordered…. We all had cookies (chocolate chip YUM!) although being modest, Bethan and I only had one each while Lucy scoffed down three! Apparently, she had only ordered two and the waitress had miscounted. Hem hem…
I then decided to ring my ‘mother’ as I was getting sick of the ‘children’s giggles’ and we decided that she would take us all to Bannatynes, a heath club on the Meole Brace roundabout of which myself and my mother are members! As you may have realised, including my mum there were 6 of us, and a bog standard Ford Fusion does NOT have the capability of seating 6 people….UNLESS Holly goes in the boot….what a silly idea……NO?
I had an uncomfortable journey in the boot for about 5 minutes, while Bethan patted the air above my head ( no other explanation other than a dog being in the boot, because everyone kept on leaning over their seats…good doggy….)
We arrived at Bannatynes and blissfully watched people swimming as we all played cards and ate our toasties (the Charlottes sneaking their sandwiches from under the table). As I have reminded by Lucy, Charlotte frightened us all when she calmly announced that Mr C(form teacher) had walked in. This was a very ’scary’ moment for us all although we did crane our heads around and watched to see if he entered the pool. We didn’t see him and I have been informed that it was indeed a look-a-like! Then, after a panic from Bethan and Charlotte P (both at Church Stretton) when they saw their science teacher sitting opposite us, we crept out of the door at 6:15.
Now, one of the items in our concert was a choir piece accompanied by the first two desks of each string section in the orchestra (none of our group included). It had been announced that the ‘Strings’ should be back at 6 to play this Bach piece and that the rest of the orchestra should be back at 6:30. Now, when I heard ‘Strings’, I assumed that it meant the first two desks only of the string section as they were the only ones playing at 6, and so we arrived in good time to start at 6:30. HOWEVER! To our dismay, as we walked in, happy and jolly, we saw the whole orchestra sitting and listening to the Chamber group… whoops, naughty Holly…
However, this did not stop the concert from running very smoothly, apart from a slight panic when we pulled the handle of the door to our ‘dressing room’ and had to bang SOS on the door for someone to open it from the other side!
As an extra addition to the abbey’s concert, big screens were put up in various places to allow people at the back of the church to see. The orchestra were filmed and these images put up on the screens, these images including some alarming closeups of Charlotte!
All in all, the concert was ‘quite’ enjoyable and I wont mind doing it again next year!
