On Sunday night last week, Jodie and I went to a Van Gogh exhibition - the only photo I was allowed to take is shown, and that’s about as far as we go with that because I think I described this already in a previous post. I can’t access it because I’m sitting in the lounge at home, and it takes about an hour to load each page. I just don’t have the patience! 

The Royal Academy of Arts

Tom’s sister came to visit us this week, and we took her out to La Tasca on Monday night. We decided to order a pitcher of Sangria, which was sooo yummy. Apparently, the amount of food consumed hadn’t been enough to soak up the alcohol and some of us became rather giggly.

Tom and me in La Tasca

Ellie and me.

Tom and Elllliiiieeeee

On Tuesday morning I had my last SCR breakfast with John, then got mocked on a walk round Hyde Park in which Toby tried to teach me how to throw a gyroscopic thing, and also learned that the weather is never too cold for ice-cream.

Polo at Fifield Polo Club

Last week, following a conversation with my riding friend Giuseppe, I decided I was going to try polo. This was possibly the most hilarious thing I have done all year. The pony they put me on was an old nag, and after a short lesson in how to hold a 2 metre long pole, I was let lose on some red inflatable balls and told to do my worst. Well, my worst was, in all honest, pretty bad. I think I hit about two balls, and Carlotta shouting “That was REALLY GOOD!” at me made me burst into hysterical laughter. I think they all think I’m a bit crazy, because I kept trying to hit the ball, then missing (and hitting the pooor pony in the head in the process) and bursting into laughter. It was good. I might go again sometime.

Corrie revises

Wednesday found me incredibly stiff from all the bending down and trying to hit the ball, which didn’t really help when I woke up and tried to pack. I made my bags extremely heavy using all of my lecture notes, and struggled to carry them. We met the horsey people in the Union, and headed off to Trent Park for an Easter Egg hunt. This was really cool, we went hacking in the woods and found easter eggs!! I tried to offload some of the chocolate on Beppe, but he wouldn’t take it, so Tom found himself eating Mini Eggs later in Waterloo while we were waiting for my train.

Ash sleeps

On the train home, Ashton found himself with a free upgrade to first class, thanks to my resourcefulness, and promptly fell asleep while I did some revision. Our gran picked us up and we stayed the night with her, then headed off to a farm this morning after Ross came into the house secretly as part of a birthday surprise. All of her friends met us at Riverford Farm Kitchen for a surprise party. It was incredibly successful.

I am now sitting in the lounge, by a hot fire, two dogs at my feet, with birthday chocolate and for once, plenty of rest behind me after a sneaky afternoon nap. Deja vu if you read my Christmas blog, but hey. It’s really good to be home.

My gran with her nephew and friend.

Spring has sprung!

On Friday night my term ended for good – in fact, apart from those damn exams, third year is now over (but it’s only five weeks and counting, eep). This was after another week of deadlines, in which we hastily learned how to do business plans, all wrote presentations and gave them.

Saj trying to pay attention to other groups presentations after two all-nighters in a row.

We then had the Sinfonietta end-of-term concert, which went really well – I think it’s the best Sinfon concert I’ve played in (even though I messed up, a lot). Lucia, Minyi, Kathy and Luisa came to see it, which was very kind, particularly as Lucia doesn’t really like classical music.

During the interval, looking far too happy for my own good.

After the concert, the girls retreated to the RSM while all the Sinfon lot packed up…I was being v bad and skiving from my exec position, oops. I’m just going to add a disclaimer right now – mum and dad, and any other family members, if you are reading this and don’t want to know about all the naughty things your daughter gets up to, stop reading now. Please. I’m going to add another picture to give you time to close the window…

Lucia finds a big book in the RSM cafe which is pretty cool.

OK. So Lucia bought some tequila, which has become our favoured drink of choice, and we decided to do something really stupid, and drink the whole thing in an hour. This is one of those famous ocassions where I don’t know my limits very well, over-indulge, and vow never to drink ever again, lasting about six months before peer pressure and exam-end fun kicks in. It was fun, until I got very sick. I’m only including this for a) the sake of honesty and b) a warning to anybody who thinks that drinking is cool. It’s very, very not when you do this, and I’m incredibly embarassed and annoyed with myself over the whole thing. I won’t say exactly what happened, suffice to say the Union staff were trying to persuade Tom to take me to a medical facility more capable of dealing with me.

Changing in the RSM to party clothes.

Continuation of the party.

I know everyone thinks ‘yes, lets go to uni and be students, we can drink all we like and do what we want.’ It’s bad, but I’m going to stop preaching now.

Tom and I went to the cinema on Saturday, in an attempt to forget about the previous night. We saw “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”. Neither of us had read the book, and I had noo idea how grim it was in terms of explicit content…but the film was really good despite the graphic scenes and rather scary bits, and I recommend it if you have a strong stomach!

On Sunday, my friend Jodie and I went to see the Van Gogh exhibition I mentioned a few months ago. It was really good – sadly, mum couldn’t make it cos she developed an illness, but I really hope she will get a chance to see it, and if you are so inclined you should definitely make the effort. I loved it, and Jodie did as well.

I’m now starting exam prep in earnest, copying notes of the few lectures that I missed and starting to count up how much I have to do before I get back on the first day of term, for my first and possibly hardest exam. I shall post regularly – just perhaps not so regularly, it depends on how the panic goes!

In honour of our concert on FRIDAY AT 8PM IN THE GREAT HALL, LEVEL 2 OF THE SHERFIELD BUILDING (tickets £3 concessions, £6 adults available on the door) I’m going to tell you alllll about Sinfonietta, much as I did the Riding and Polo post a few weeks ago.

The orchestra in a rehearsal (not our usual venue - this is in fact a primary school...read to find out more!)

Who?

The Imperial College Sinfonietta, one of the orchestras at Imperial – not the flagship orchestra, but better!

Why?

Well, I learned to play violin. I used to be quite good, so I thought, yeah, good idea, I’ll join an orchestra!

What and Where?

The horns and a clarinettist.

We meet once a week in the Great Hall, Level 2 of the Sherfield Building. We rehearse from 6.15 to about 8.45, with Dan Capps, our fantastic conductor whose fulltime job is conducting the Royal Opera House. He started the orchestra years ago, and it’s still going strong.

We tend to play a pretty big orchestral piece, a slightly smaller one and a concerto-type each term. At the moment we are playing Mahler 1, Finlandia and selections from La Boheme. We do really good stuff, and have fun doing it too – we recently did Elgar Enigma Variations, Tschaikovsky 6 and a load more which I can’t remember (my memory for pieces I’ve played is rubbish).

We sometimes rehearse on a Sunday, and normally have an extra rehearsal before the concert.

One of the best things about Sinfonietta is that we get free biscuits and tea in the break between halves of the rehearsal. Win!

In the summer term there are only a couple of rehearsals, as most people have too much to do by way of coursework and exams. It works out pretty well, and nice to have a reunion when we haven’t seen each other for ages!

Social?

Some of the boys busking in Berlin.

After rehearsals on Mondays we go to the Holland Club, a rather exclusive privilege as it’s normally only open to post-grads. This is open till 11 pm, and normally well attended.

After Sunday rehearsals there is normally a social (we do a barn dance at least once a term), and these normally have extra-special tea breaks.

We also do a weekend away, having been to Salisbury the past two years and Canterbury the years before that. The whole orchestra decamps to the town on a Saturday morning (very early) and rehearses during the day. The night involves a quiz, partying and ‘sleeping’ in the youth hostel, followed by a light rehearsal on Sunday. The last two years has given members of the orchestra a chance to conduct, to stop everyone thinking it’s so easy!

The school-hall at Salisbury, milling around before rehearsal.

TOUR! I’ve never been on one, cos I’m super lame and not prepared to spend £300 to go on what is effectively a booze fest. That’s not to say that people who don’t drink can’t go, I just hate big crowds of people and also don’t really want to spend £300 to go practice for five days in a foreign country. Again, I’m super lame. All the people who go love it, and they have a lot of fun, by the looks of the pictures and the tour banter. Everyone comes back all chummy chummy, and it is apparently a good way to spend the money! (I’m still not convinced, sorry guys. You should probably ask someone more interested in it than me, so if you want to know, email me and I will get you in touch with more enthusiastic ones!)

Concerts?

We do one in the winter and spring terms. Summer term is mainly just tour rehearsals, and in a typical tour we have two or three.

Audition?

Principle oboist does her thing.

If you’re a string player, you don’t have to audition (undoubtedly the only reason I’m in this orchestra – I did try get into ICSO, but failed miserably, and I’m not bitter, no, no, not at all….). Yay! For this reason, we have about 40 desks of second violins, and 29 firsts…OK, so I’m joking, but it is near. The woodwind players do have to, and I think some of the brass do, but others don’t…not really sure on this count, but if you don’t play a string instrument you can pretty much count on it to prevent disappointment!

Cost?

You pay £17 (roughly) for the whole year, which includes all rehearsals, free tea and biscuits and the chance to play in a proper orchestra.

The weekend away is around £40 and the tour roughly £300 – we are possibly going to Portugal this year, watch this space!