Now A level music was brilliant. If I didn’t do an awful lot in GCSE, then A level was even more fun, as 6th form was the only bit of school that I truly enjoyed. There were four of us for AS and three of us for A2. We spent a lot of time having chair races, three-legged races, hiding from the teachers and playing crazy music. Sadly by this stage, Lee had left for pastures new (a scholarship to Dean Close for 6th form) so Ruth, Katie, James and I had to hold up the flag, along with various people in the year below. We put on some great concerts in those two years and had a great tour to Italy. I will never forget playing the Bach double violin concerto with Ruth in a little village near Florence, overlooking Italian mountains. Here is a not very good picture of the view:

Anyway, there are a few pieces that sum up A Level music for me:

1.  Cordoba by Albéniz (my solo performance piece for AS Level)

2.  The Bach Double Violin Concerto (Ensemble piece with Ruth)

3.  Spring by Vivaldi (One of Ruth’s solo pieces)

4.  Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin (James’s AS piece)

I have a video somewhere of the Bach double and of Ruth playing Spring so I will try to put those up, but here is a recording of someone playing Cordoba – a piece which I still love.

I will try to play it again and record it one day but I am not sure if I could still do it justice!!

Music GCSE… What fun that was!  A typical day consisted of messing around on the piano with Lee, playing the drums, playing the guitar or playing the violin.  I remember one famous occasion where I was playing Phantom of the Opera on the piano and everyone was singing along.  Suddenly, Russell vanished (literally).  We all looked about, only to find him lying on the floor!  He had fainted for the umpteenth time that day (he had a bit of a thing for fainting at the time).  

We had a good laugh anyhow, but this track sums it up.  This is a duet by Christopher Norton that Lee and I played for our ensemble performance.  This is a tape recording (what is a tape?!) of us playing it!!

One new light pull for the bathroom (thank you so much George!!!)

Lampshades: 2 – one from Tim for Christmas (now hanging in the dining room – a very cool Habitat effort) and one in our bedroom

Curtains/poles: 2 sets – I now have beautiful curtains in the study and a set ready to go up in the lounge once the Christmas tree has gone.  The curtain poles were a winner, I got a really nice brushed steel 10ft pole off freecycle (so yes it was free!) which was brand new in its box with a price tag of £79.99 on it!!  10ft was far too long, but it was made up of 2x5ft poles, so we just bought an extra set of (very sparkly) finials and hey presto!  Two curtain poles.

Wallpaper stripped:  Bits here and there

Shelf in study: 1 (IKEA floating shelf in the same colour as our cupboards – also courtesy of Freecycle) – at the moment it exists purely to house my Sony Bravia bunny.  

JT is also the proud owner of his very first garden hose.  He was so chuffed about it that I have decided that we do need to celebrate new year after all, for fear of becoming a pair of old fuddy duddies.  Wild party here we come!

Well Christmas has been and gone and rather swept past me in a bit of a whirlwind this year, due to the house move.  I would like to take this opportunity, however, to thank my mum and dad, who have been heroes this Christmas.  Not only have they had to cater for Granny, my brother, us and separately for Grandma (alongside dealing with her collapsing in the bath, at their house etc etc) but they also sent dinner round for us whilst we moved and had us and JT’s dad on Christmas day.  

So thanks to them, Christmas went fairly smoothly.  It does seem a shame, that for many of us, it is a case of ‘getting through’ Christmas, which is supposed to be a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus.  

It is funny, I find myself reflecting a lot more when it comes to new year.  I have found it very difficult in the Christmas  rush to celebrate Jesus, but as new year approaches, in those few days between Christmas and new year, I always seem to find myself achieving the moments of peace and quiet that enable you to think about life.  Here’s to 2009.  May it be better.

Green shadow carpet in here (stained), with white-ish embossed wallpaper.

These curtains, however?  Magic.

I’m afraid ladies and gentlemen that this completes the tour of the Turner residence.  Can’t wait to show you ‘after’ pics.

Now, I can almost live with these tiles despite them being peach and adorned, this time, with vegetables

…But why on earth would you ever assume that they match nicely with these?!

…And this?!

One of my favourites!!  Wait for it….

Now, the bath is quite nice, because it is new, white and despite the orangey varnish on the wood on the side, it is clean.  However, the peach adorned with random fruit tiles are not to my taste…

…Especially when accompanied by this wonderful 70′s green suite and ’tile-effect wallpaper’ in vile shades of green with leaves. Arrgghh!!

And then, they just couldn’t help themselves.  Let’s get a little ceramic floral light pull.  That’ll go really nicely.

The hallway is very VERY special.

Not only is the front door perfectly adequate for a good shooing, but CHECK OUT THE CARPET!!!!!!  Seriously trippy dude.

Note also the non-matching embossed wallpapers separated by a pub-style dado rail.

The second bedroom (study) contains this lovely piece of ‘wood effect wood’ (what is the point in that?!?)  

Inside the cupboard you will find a lovely piece of blue and white flowery wallpaper.

These atrocities are accompanied by a pink shadow carpet with a hint of white.

And to top it off, some more of our favourite padded wallpaper in varying shades of mould.

Turner virtual tour part II….  The Sitting room!

The sitting room contains perhaps the worst pair of curtains I have ever seen.  Made from that fabric that resembles your granny’s tablecloth (gauze type stuff), they really don’t make the house look too hot.  

Of course, the natural addition to brown and white granny curtains is obviously this stunning display, that calls itself a carpet.  I call it “bad pub meets psychedelia with a little added poo”.

There is a classic lampshade in every room and this one is no exception…  You have to see it in real life to appreciate quite how hideous it actually is.