Thursday 3 November 2005

An entertaining day. The students at the RSAMD were very alert and intelligent for 10am: more alert than I was actually - they successfully convinced me it was Friday. Anyway, when lecturing as when playing, if you get a response from your audience, it helps a lot.

A lunchtime phone conversation with the Inland Revenue charities department has netted us some money - not a king's ransom, but for two phone calls and five minutes looking up some old accounts, quite a tidy sum. And then off to the RSNO which was very entertaining indeed, but mostly for the wrong reasons. Stage space will be tight at the Usher Hall tomorrow, so after a long circumlocution the orchestra's head of planning suggested I play on an electric keyboard rather than the harpsichord. I suggested he find another keyboard player. I only play in orchestras on the condition that it's fun (it's certainly not for the money), and I'm especially not prepared to do it if it means looking like a tit on stage. It's bad enough having to dig my tails out of the cupboard and dress up like a 19th century lackey. Magically, space was found for the harpsichord. Hee hee.