I like Lord of the Rings, probably a little more than the next person but I’m not extreme. I don't feel a need to be from middle earth, dress up and teach myself Elvish.  Even though it’s not PC I think there’s fine line between weird geekery and a genuine love for a body of work without needing to participate.

I’ve read the books and listened to them on audio, watched all the movies and extras and listened to the podcasts. Over the last year I’ve really enjoyed these podcasts and having something intellectually stimulating to listen to while I while away the hours on public transportation or do the dishes.

I figured that while I was here in the UK I should look into what events are happening in relation to my interests of music, history and literature. I found this event called The Festival in the Shire, which looked really promising. It would have a festival of booths and activities for families, a fan expo with talks by experts and a legit academic conference with scholars presenting papers. How great does that sound? And Corey Olson, of the previously mentioned podcasts was going to be there. 

I went back and forth as to whether or not I was going to go but finally decided, hey I’m here, let’s take advantage of the opportunity. It took a lot of coordination and a bit of money to get housing, train tickets and the entry tickets since it was out in the middle of no where in Wales. As it got closer I started to notice little things that made me think that maybe it wasn’t going to be as cool as I imagined it to be. I was hoping for an expansion on the discussions started by the podcasts and some Comic Con like displays, but it was not to be. Add to that that the same weekend was the first ever Single Adult Conference in Manchester and the fact that this turned out badly makes me feel guilty about not going to the conference. Bother. 

I spent Thursday taking three trains out to Aberystwyth (Just say the ‘y’s like ih and you’ll get it.)  and during which I finally finished the first Artemis Fowl book, did some finale entry and slept. We arrived at the end of the line, around 3:30. I found the bus stops out front and hopped on the number one up to the university campus. I didn’t know if there was more than one stop on campus or not so I got off at the first one, just in case. The campus is literally perched on the hillside above the town and once on campus I had to wander about up the hill to find the residence halls, and then the reception. I checked in and went to find my room. While I’m glad that I never lived in university housing I think it’s a great accommodation alternative. It’s cheap like a hostel but safe, clean, private and franchised like a hotel. My little room had a bathroom with a shower, single bed, desk etc, your basic ensuite dorm room. It was on the third floor with an incredible sea view.   

I hopped back on the bus to go get dinner, pick up festival bus passes and check out the town. It was 4:30 and I knew that the last bus back up the hill was just after 6 so I didn’t have a whole lot of time to explore. I looked at lots of shops and surveyed all the food options and then noticed that everything started closing at 5. I suppose that’s reason enough for the buses to stop running. So I grabbed some dinner from a stand on the shore. 

It was a bit cold and very windy which made eating outside a bit tricky. I ordered a chicken salad sandwich, which I expected to be like tuna salad but it was just chicken with greens, cukes and tomatoes. It was fresh and huge and I couldn’t finish it so I asked for a bag- only to discover later that the may leaked right through and all over my purse. I also ordered a strawberry ‘thick’ shake, which was not thick, it was milk. Oh well.

Catching the bus back up was a bit tricky because the buses would come into the lot with one number, drop people off, move to a different station, change their number and head off somewhere else. Fortunately I did get this figured out in time to get back. I stopped at the grocery store by campus for some snacks and then was back in my room around 7. It’s a good thing that they had free wifi otherwise I would have gone mad.

Friday morning I caught a private bus out to the festival location. There were only 7 of us on the bus. It was a 40 minutes drive inland, absolutely lovely but I couldn’t stay awake. We arrived and checked in and I ended up heading in through the back door. The main building had one huge space that was divided into two spaces. One was a stage complete with sound system and band set up the other was for the festival vendor stalls/exhibition.

Main Hall Projected

Main Hall Actual

Art Exhibition Projected

Art Exhibition Actual

In the corner was the entrance to the fan expo art exhibition which wasn’t open yet when I arrived. I could tell walking into the room that I would be able to walk through and see everything that they had in about 15 minutes, and there weren’t buses going back to town until 6 and I was planning on staying two days! I knew then that one day would be enough, I would head home tomorrow and be able to go to church on Sunday. 

I really hoped that the talks later would be worth it. They finally did open the art exhibition and it was pretty small- def not worth paying more. It was around noon and there wasn’t much scheduled until 1:30. At noon there was an italian pianist who is apparently amazing and just recorded a CD all inspired by Tolkien. He played (it was miced too loud) and I wasn't particularly intrigued. Then there was a lady who sang Celtic folk songs and played the guitar. She was a fine singer, but once again, not overly impressed. Then there was a storyteller who told the story of Beren and Luthien and it was pretty good. When she was all in character it was quite good, but when she broke character, not so much. They had some food vendors and so I went and picked up a chili baked potato which I tried to eat while listening. There was a Corey Olson session on the program that overlapped with this one, and then they tried to squeeze it in. It was super cool to see him in person and I couldn’t help but grin. But at the same time it was a little lame to have a 20 minute little discussion about the Hobbit with a handful of audience when I’ve already listened to 3GB or 48 hours of podcast lectures and know that there’s more too it.

After this I found out that the Fan Expo talks were taking place in the next building and I headed over there. They were a little behind due to some laptop/projector technical difficulties. It seems like every time anyone uses a laptop/projector combination there are huge delays. You’d think that we’d have come up with a solution by now. The first talk was given by a young woman who I must assume is a student and who’s first language is not English. It was painful. It was scripted and predictable and yet at the same time impossible to follow. Full of quotes and buzz words but with out substance or direction. She looked the part but then leaned against the stage and read from her notes. I tried really hard to concentrate but it was just painful. They were a bit behind schedule and the conference runner was trying to subtly get her attention to tell her to wrap up. When subtlety didn’t work he sat in the front row, then stood up, then actually stopped her to tell her to wrap up. Okay, and then she went right on at the same speed forcing him to finally just have to cut her off. Painful.

Nearly the whole weekend was saved by the next speaker. Tom Shippey, professor for 45 years, prolific writer, great speaker- thank you, that’s how it’s done. I thoroughly enjoyed it and got online and found a few other talks he’s given on itunes U, much of which echoed when he told us.

The next speaker had written a book on the friendship of CS Lewis and JRR Tolkein. I’ve listened to a few lectures on this topic and so was rather well versed and interested. The speaker was a stereo typical English Professor complete with slightly crazy dark grey beard and hair and tweed jacket. He started out a bit stilted reading from his notes but once he started just talking extemporaneously about the pictures in the slideshow it was much better.

Then I headed back over to the main building for what was supposed to have been a staged singing/acting presentation but when I walked through and nothing was happening I headed back to the talks to hear some from a Dutch Collector. It was interesting to get his perspective on working with collecting a variety of things over many many years.

The final talk that I thought I would have time for was on Tolkien and the Welsh language by a greek professor who teaches Tolkein at a University in Wales. She used a power point and read from notes but read like I would- animatedly, clearly, loudly and too fast. It was dizzying to follow. After that I headed out to wait for the bus. It was there but we weren’t getting on yet. Corey Olson was standing there chatting with various people and I’ll be kicking myself for a long time that I didn’t just go up and join in. That would have most likely improved the weekend. I’m just so painfully shy and spend so much time alone that sometimes I fall into a habit of doing more observing than participating. [Per Elder Bednar’s warning.] 

I overheard someone say that they were going to hold the bus until the last talk was over and so I popped my head in to hear the last talk by an artist. Unfortunately the bus didn’t wait and I saw it drive away just as I came out. ARGH!!! So I had to wait and hour and a half for the next one. There was nothing on except for that Italian pianist again and a french blues band that had next to nothing to do with Tolkein. 

But I was cold, my fingers were blue, so I went inside and read my book until 8. 

Was I too hard on them?  It was their first year.  Would it have been better if I was able to go to the scholarly talks?  I thought about staying but it seemed like a lot of the fan talks were going to be repeated on Saturday. I think I mostly had expectations that were too high and was cranky about having spent more money than it was worth.  Don't mess with me and money.

The drive back through the sunset was absolutely gorgeous. 

These pictures don’t do it justice because they were taking through the windows of a bus in motion. Back in town I dragged my self up the mile hill back to campus, 

got some more snacks and settled in to watch Top Gear clips [specifically challenges] on youtube to make myself laugh. Hopefully I learned a few valuable lessons this weekend...

So Saturday I actually had to get up at a certain time to get to my voice lesson. It took a bit of work to get moving, tided up and prepped for the day. I was wound and worried about the next two months and doing well in my recital and if I would ever be able to apply what I had learned to actually being a performing musician and so I had a good wallow and then plucked myself up and got to it.


I knew that going to my lesson I should head in having thought about tunes, because I knew what kind of questions Louise would ask and I wanted to be able to answer them. I managed to flip through the fake books as I stuck them in my bag and make a hasty list of possibilities. My plan had been to sing through a few so I would have a real idea but that didn’t happen. But as I started to think about possibilities I could feel blood flowing to my brain again and fell my singer self starting to come back and I knew if I could get her all the way back we’d be up and moving.

I took the number 2 to Chapel Allerton and then managed to find the stop for the 91 to Headingley. It was really fun to drive through a new neighborhood and see new things. It was also a lot easier to find Louise’s house in the daylight and not on a snowy Boxing Day evening.

I was a tad early but dropped off my bag and accompanied Louise on a wallk. We picked up a prescription at the local surgery, dropped it off at the chemist and then went for ‘tea’ next door.
We had a really good chat about her job, my family and what I did at home, my last recital and possibilities for my final recital. Then we headed back to her house

I love Louise’s house. It's a row house but it's double wide. There's a large foyer entry way to the staircase in the front. Then on the ground floor there's a large living room, dining room and kitchen. On the next floor around the landing there's a huge bathroom with a clawfoot tub and three bed rooms, one of which serves as Louise's studio and another as her husband's office. Her studio is a large bedroom with a piano and a desk and two corners of tall Ikea shelves filled with music and books of every variety. A large mirror is hung over the piano upon which she’s drawn vowel shapes with a dry erase marker.  On the next floor three more bedrooms. There’s a garden/yard in front and in back, opening on to two different streets. Both are stone lined like patios with outdoor furniture and overflowing with all kinds of greenery.

We finally got to work and played different songs for each other and created a list of possible tunes which to my surprise and delight included three Kurt Elling epics and a Mel Torme style medley. Woo hoo! Then I sang through most of A New Body and Soul. It’s still rough but I was impressed how much I remembered without looking. Then we spent some time working on improvising over it. I recorded about a half hour of that session. I’m just kicking myself for not recording all my lessons all year, that would have been invaluable.

I had a lovely moment as she played and I sang, looked around her studio, looked out the window at the gardens and stone houses surrounding us and I thought this is what I wanted, this is what I have- love it more. Afterwards I felt much better because I have a clear idea of where to start working on probably 2/3 of my program and I’m excited about the tunes. That’s major!

Then I accompanied her down to her allotment to help harvest some of her veggies. It was absolutely delightful!! The day had finally warmed up (warmer than my jeans appreciated) and we walked out to this giant field of gardens. it was surrounded by trees but you could see houses and steeples here and there but it really didn’t feel like it was in the city. I wish I would have brought my camera. Everything was blooming, bees were buzzing, sun was shining. All cliche but absolutely true. We picked loads of beans and some peas and rocket and lettuce. She also showed me her sun flowers, courgettes (zucchini), artichokes, leeks, chard, mint, oregano and fennel. It was really fun. Gardens are amazing.  I'll get around to planting one eventually. Then she sent me home with a HUGE grocery sized bag of beans longer than my face. 

She needed to prepare to head to Edinburgh tomorrow so I headed off, after about 6 hours of chatting, working and hanging out. It had gotten uncomfortable warm and my back pack was full and I was really tired but I was determined to make the most of my bus pass for the day. I headed into town and braved Primark to see if I could get a new pair of £1 sunglasses, but they all looked ridiculous. I got some groceries at Sainsbury’s and tried to stay awake on the bus on the way home. 

I love London and that love was bit tested on this latest trip back. The day started out a bit hectic with me packing and Suzie frantically trying to finish up her giant final until lesson plan due, in Ellensburg at 5pm.  Dad went on the final Walmart run with me, I returned to the library the books that I didn't get to this time around and Nicole came by to hang out.  She ended up propped up on the couch with a bad back.

I drove Mom's car to the airport where she dropped me off.  Right after check in I went to check the time on my pedometer and realized it wasn't in my pocket.  I've gotten out of the habit of wearing it this past month and left it at home. But never fear I used the handy dandy SeaTac wifi to request that the parents sent it to me.  I need to keep up on my stats.

I indulged in a burger and fries for dinner which may have been the biggest mistake of the day.  i think it made me sick, and sick it not what you want to be on a 9.5 hour flight + 1 hour tube ride+ 2.5 hour train ride + 25 minutes bus ride. 

I like window seats because I love to watch take off and be all tucked in for sleeping but I don't like being hemmed in and not able to get up and move as often as I would like.  My legs started to feel uncomfortable before we had even taken off. There were fewer good movies to watch.  I ended up watching Clash of the Titans and fast forwarding most of the violent bits.  I just have to laugh at Ralph Fiennes as Hades.  He looks like a Klingon Voldemort. I started Sherlock Holmes but didn't get into it and watched Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  I had As You Like It on my ipod but couldn't concentrate.

They brought dinner out and it was then that I knew something was wrong, I could barely eat it.  I couldn't sleep, my ankles were swollen and legs were twitchy.  Then I was worried that my water bottle in the overhead compartment would leak on everything because it only had a snap on cap.  Am I my mother's worry wart daughter or what?

As we started to land the nausea got really bad and thought, "I'm never going to eat food again." As a small consolation the view was fantastic.  We flew in a big circle around downtown London and I was able to pick out all the major landmarks.

[This is Liz Whitaker.  She's out extended family mascot, she travels around with people on adventures.  You can be her friend on facebook.]

We finally disembarked and I could hardly walk.  I walked slowly on painful legs and took deep breaths to keep from throwing up.  I had planned to take the tube over to Westminster to get a pic with Liz and big ben but I was just too sick.  I got on the tube and ended up changing trains half way back just so I could get out and breathe fresh air. Then I got off at Earl's Court and went in search of a pharmacy for some motion sickness medicine. As I walked down the street I was assaulted by every single passing smell. Oi! One of the associates came up and asked if he could help me with anything.  By this time I had been up for over 20 hours and suddenly found I could hardly speak and for some reason could not for the life of me remember the word dramamine.  I told him I need something for travel sickness and he directed me to diarrhea medicine.  No, no not that.  The only thing they did have was some homeopathic stuff which I got and then headed back to the tube station- but not before noticing that there was Tardis out front :)

Mercifully the meds helped some and I made it to the train.

I black out slept most of the way back to Leeds. I was delighted to see Leeds again and carried all my luggage through town, got some groceries and hopped on the bus home. I kept nodding off on the bus and was nearly delirious.  It was a bit tricky navigating two bags plus groceries on the bus.  At home I unpacked, ate some good food and watched a little TV with my feet up to get the swelling down.

And so after 31 hours awake I finally went to bed. It took nearly a week to finally get my schedule back on track.  I was useless for most of that time.  I slept, blogged, didn't sleep, walked around the neighborhood and watched too much TV.  I finally had a voice lesson which helped get me back into school mode.

It's easy to get back into the routine of here or home.  They're both familiar.  It's interesting coming back. This was my little life all alone for so long and now after a home refresher I’m back and it feels different.  It's very surreal to be back and realize how long I was here, how much I did, see again with new eyes, eyes of Charlotte from Seattle but with the benefit of Leeds.

The Wednesday following SMS it was back to it at the American Choral Director’s Summer Institute. It’s two and a half days of reading sessions and workshops down in Tacoma. In the end you come home with a giant stack of choral octavo music from which you hope to glean a few pieces you can use during the year. It’s wonderful to get together with around 200 other choir teachers and learn, talk, laugh, share, catch up and be humbled. I walked away with a greater desire to be a better teacher of singing. That sounds odd but often as a director you can get too fixated on learning parts and on the end result that you forget that you need to teach them how to sing properly. I’ve been focusing on this for a number of years now and I still feel a bit clueless. 

We had a jazz reading session this year which was a bit of a fiasco. There was no other workshop scheduled against it and so five times more people showed up then they had anticipated. Monika and I had a great time sitting next to each other and singing our hearts out, not that any of those particular arrangements grabbed my attention.

One of my favorite parts of the Summer Institute is the salmon dinner on the lawn on Wednesday evening. The food was great and I had a great time chatting and catching up with colleagues and old professors. I didn’t have anyone to carpool with this year but I wasn’t too bothered. I’ve missed driving but by the time I got home Thursday evening I wasn’t exactly jumping up and down to head back the next morning for a half day. I ended up sleeping nearly all of Friday before heading out for an evening bike ride.

After three weeks of head down teaching madness it was time to try and squeeze in a week and a half of summer. I did get one lap of Green Lake,one bike ride on the Burke Gilman, two temple sealing trips, saw two Shakespeare in the Park productions, ran three impromptu rehearsals with my jazz-choir-that-isn’t and read 13 books. 

The big expense of the summer was going out with friends. After a year on my own I was keen to catch up with all my best mates and didn’t probably get to half of them. I went to the Maltby Cafe with Heidi, Cedars with Suz and Michelle [despite the car overheating on the way to the airport to pick Michelle up], more Indian with Barbara, Singles Conference Picnic with Rikayla and Christina, Starbucks/Jamba with Kathy and Wendy, Thai Cottage with alums & students, homemade sushi with Suz’s roommate, friends and missionaries, dinner at home with Lisa H. and out to see Shrek with Nicole. And then on the last night before heading back went to meet the new additions to the Koenig and Johnson families. Whew!