A seafaring Saturday

Hi everyone

I’m back after my bout of Sea fever, though I still don’t fully have my sea legs or even more importantly my sea lugs. I didn’t want to miss too much, so managed to make it back for our day at sea.

The warm-up was hard work this week I thought. Not really a warm-up, much more of a hot-straightaway. It gave me a sinking feeling, but I managed to play on until the end 🙂

Honestly miss two weeks and things change. We’ve got a new number, a few more lines to learn, and a new Captain who we all hailed. I made some great scribbled notes in ‘Let the River Run’ and used an upward pointing arrow followed by the musical notation – eh? – a few times. So the low bits where I falter and wobble are now replaced by high bits where I falter and wobble. I think I might dig out my ‘sing it no other way version’ from a few years back.

In ‘Shenandoah’ as evidenced by more scribbled notes, my concentration must have been dwindling. If I follow my scribblings exactly it means that I can’t take a breath for about 45 bars, which will probably feel like sev’n long long years. So forgive me if I go blue and peg it at the end (though it would be a talking point, and I suppose it would also fit in with our Titanic theme).

Only 45 more bars to go ......

I’m beginning to like ‘The Sea Symphony’ although I’d definitely be at sea and bailing out if there was a call to be off the books. We started at the end with work on our limitless heaving breasts, which will need a big breath – sorry I have to say it – “big breath? yeth and I’m only thixteen”.

As we worked through ‘The Sea’ backwards against the tide I was guilty of minging too early. I seem to have lost the power of counting to 6, well 7 if you count the first rest. I tried counting in my head, on my fingers, tapping my pen, I nearly tried tapping it out on my teeth. But no I’m destined to be an early minger for now. Luckily though I can still count to 2, so managed to get in or out of port safely.

The men deserted us like rats off a sinking ship and the Upstairs Ladies (formerly known as the Downstairs Ladies) moved downstairs to sit with the Downstairs Ladies (formerly known as the Upstairs Ladies) to sing ‘Under the sea’. I thought we were in for a bit of the old Gary smutty humour as there was lots of potential for innuendo. It was there on a seafood platter, but left floundering and untouched.

Just as well really 😉

So there was no talk of where it’s better, which would have taken the sting out of my mention of KY jellyfish. No chance to mention rude mags for water-based creatures – ‘Frog’s porn’. Or not even a chance to tell you about the crab who went to a nightclub and pulled a mussel.

So lack of smutty jokes gentle innuendo instead gave me a chance to concentrate on singing our part correctly. Doh! I managed to play an underwater version of Brucie’s ‘Play your cards right’ with every note – “higher or lower what do you think?” My underwater warbling, which is probably more commonly known as drowning, was surely a naval destroyer which helped take out the Alto 2 line completely. I managed to reel in nothing but impressive whoppers and need to relisten to our tuna. I still liked singing it, even though I was completely wrong. Sorry to anyone who was in earshot of me.

I’m jealous of the sopranos though. I want to do the du dus too, so share them you shellfish lot. I’m pleased that this song introduces a new character, a distant relation of our old friend Perky Do Do……….

Ms. Calypso Du Du

As we run through all the numbers the strands of the Titanic theme are beginning to come together. We all know an iceberg plays a large part in the story, and we also know that 90% of an iceberg is ‘Under the Sea’. Evidence I think that we can’t really be devotin’ full time to floatin’, and we need to be vigilant for cod’s sake!

la la la - Doh!

 

See you all next week. Waving not drowning ……. Lorraine x