For the next few weeks I will be spending my Monday evenings with The Harbour Capital Chorus, as I do an ‘Introduction to Barbershop Singing’.

Tonight was my first attempt, and it was great! Being able to hear all the different harmonies, and ‘tags’ (embellishments at the end of pieces). Apparently I have a good range on my voice and could fit into Lead/(strong)Baritone/Bass and probably Tenor if I pushed my falsetto. This is the range for Barbershop, in contrast to the traditional Soprano, Alto, Tenor or Bass (SATB) of more conventional choirs.

I’ve throroughly enjoyed it, and they even let me stay on and take part in their main rehersal too! So LOTS of sight-reading, and site-singing.

Bet None of you lot out there thought I’d EVER do anything like this huh?! Well….neither did I to be honest, but if the opportunity arrises to do something new, you’ve gotta give it a go right? So, I have!

Woohoo!

*Strikes No. 56 - Sing with Barbershop. off list of things to do before I die…*

I must have gone through a bottle and a half of Bourbon, the number of singles and doubles I had on Friday night, all started innocently enough on the Gold Max Beer… but as soon as I hit the Bourbon that was the beginning of the end, I have to say it MUST have been a good night, because I have a few pockets of amnesia! Somehow I managed to have the presence of mind to get a taxi home sometime around 3-4am (the night started at 5.30pm the day before by the way)…at least I didn’t wake up in a gutter at around 5.30am and start chucking my guts up - like ’some’ colleagues I could mention!!

As you can imagine I didn’t get up too early on Saturday, in fact lets just skip Saturday ok..? It’s full of not feeling so well moments, and flashbacks etc…

So….Sunday! Today, another day of rehersal, marching practice and more rehersal, and just so we get the marching drill right, we had some pointers off the drum major for the Central Band of the New Zealand Royal Air Force! So we learned a little about dressing by the centre and by the right, and of course check pacing; I think if we all just concentrate on the day we might just pull it off!! We also have to memorise the march - apparently we will get more points for that!

And that’s my weekend done… next stop? BRISBANE!

I’m on a “Aprisma Spectrum” course all week, which is basically a network management tool for the uninitiated. Looks pretty tidy too in the latest flavour, using java and web front-ends to great effect. Certainly much better than what I have been used to in the past!

In other news….2 dimensional time! Fact or fiction? Itzhak Bars seems to think this could be fact as he postulates around the standard physics model and the quantum model, bringing together a number of similarities, and “symmetries” explained by having another dimention to time, one not quite so tangible as the one we are used to. Certainly enough to make you think. This world is changing at an incredible pace…our perception of the universe, time and space, and even our own mortality.

My view is to keep things simple, and not pretend to know any of what I’ve just been talking about. There are a great many things “out there” that we can niether see nor comprehend. Now if scientests want to give these things labels so be it, but it isn’t going to change the type of cereal I eat for breakfast in a hurry, or make me any smarter….whether you label something as a UFO, or a natural phenomena, or an extra dimension - it doesn’t really matter - all these things have always existed and always will in a standard and uniform way, the only thing that seems to be changing is our perceptional language as we try to come up with ways to explain those things we can niether see or know. As scientests all over the world continue to search for the elusive theory of everything I will offer my own simplified equation here and now:-

Everything in the universe = status quo ad infinitum

….yes I admit it….I’ve been reading New Scientist again….

In order to improve chances on Wednesday evening (Thursday morning NZ), I am continuing to do homework.  Not just the technical side - although that would encompass the majority; given this is a phone interview across a large distance I appreciate they will want to build as close a picture of my character as possible, this will likley be done through a certain level of behavioral questions - which they have kindly forewarned me will happen.

Whilst it’s difficult to be right or wrong in these types of situations it has allowed me the opportunity to sit down, and gather some examples of different situations in the past of certain skills - for example: working towards a goal, or under pressure.  In fact I recommend anyone going for an interview to give this a go, because if nothing else it will give you plenty of relevant things to talk about in order to qualify your application, plus it’ll add confidence to your approach!

In my opinion a large proportion of failures and nerves in an interview is through lack of preparation, and in some cases people simply not knowing “why” they are there!  I’m lucky I have a circle of friends and colleagues who push me in the right direction mentally all the time :)  (maybe they just want rid of me????   He said in a paranoid tone!)…

Nuff said, anyways - I “could” stay up all night as I am really that fired up about all this now, but that wouldn’t do my clients any good in work tomorrow, so I’m off to get some sleep.