What I am reading: Love in the time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I picked it up for $9.95 a few weeks ago in preparation from when I finished My sister's Keeper a few days ago. Love was one of those books that has been on my "To Read" list for a while because of it's classic status. Still in the first chapter due to the fact that I haven't been reading in bed so much this week.

What I am listening to: A whole lot of stuff depending on where I am. At work this afternoon I was listening to Siegfried (one of the operas in the Ring cycle by Wagner), it was the first recording of the Ring cycle on CD with Staatskapelle Dresden. Really super. Two cds into the five and looking forward to listening to the rest of it tomorrow hopefully. At home it depends on who gets to the stereo first. We were listening to Tristan und Isolde over the weekend, but have also been on a healthy diet of Shostakovich string quartets, plus funky stuff from various iPods.

What I am watching: Right now, Family Guy. Funny but so wrong at times. Other than that, I'm not as fussed as I used to be. I've given up Stargate SG-1, but am still addicted to Boston Legal.

What I am happy about: My quartet playing in forum yesterday (in preparation for Tuesday night's concert). We didn't get cut down by anyone and it went pretty well for just under a week to go. And for nice comments from staff and colleagues about our (and my) playing in forum.

What I am Excited About: The two quartet concerts next week, Shostakovich 3 on Tuesday, Shostakovich 10 on Friday. Eeeee! Scary, but exciting.

What I did Yesterday: I did a touch of practice in the morning, then had a quartet rehearsal (Shosta 3) before lunch at the cafe next door, followed by playing in forum. Minus our second violinist, we sat down and had a debrief about the performance, talked about a few things to tweak. Not wanting to do any more playing, I went home, grabbed my bathers and went off to the pool for a swim. First one in aaaaaages. 1km and planning to do more. Must do something fitness related to keep up with the boys, who go to the gym several times a week (currently). Then it was home for dinner (chicken parma), tv, falling asleep on the couch and then crawling into bed around midnight.

What I am about to do now: Still watching Family Guy, drinking tea. Hoping someone gets online, but not holding my breath...hope springs eternal.

Oh and..: One of my housemates was wiggling his ass in a suggestive manner. Very funny!

Hi everyone, have finally made a long-ish update, so log in to read it, or if you're a lurker from somewhere else, friend me and I'll add you.

xx Bead

Not actually, but I just spend the last couple of weeks working with the delightful Mr David Wenham. You may know him from a few films known as the Lord of the Rings trilogy, or perhaps as Diver Dan from Seachange, from the movie Molokai or...well, you get the picture. I could ramble on for ages about how lovely he is (both to talk to and to work with), but I'll save that for another (locked) entry.

And also in that next (long awaited) entry, I'll also fill you all in on the goings on in my life over the past year and tell you about what's on the cards for this year.

Stay tuned!

But I am almost back! I'm even doing a pre-emptive post!

I will endeavour to do a big update in a few days before I dash off interstate, but in the meantime, rest assured that I -am- still around. I know that it's been 70 weeks (apparently) since I last updated, so thank you for those nudges :D

I do still read a lot of you, but my time is kinda limited due to real life and online not really being particularly balanced. But I do still write emails and post comments.

Anyway, stay tuned. Tell your friends that shortly Bead will be Back!

xx,
Bead

Because I'll be overseas! Yay!

I might update from on the road, but I'm not sure because the schedule is pretty tight.

Catch you all on the flip side!

love,
Bead

Hi all,
Just to let you know, I'm kinda not here at the moment (ie, that's why I'm not readily replying to comments and things) because my shoulder has been getting sore sitting infront of the computer again. That, and more practice for various gigs and tours coming up - lots of music to learn!!

Try me via email for better results, sorry for delays!

Bead

He just did his live appearance on Rove Live (a tv show here) and man is he hot. This I knew before though, ya know. He's like, Hornblower. And he was wearing jeans, black t shirt, black leather jacket. Rawr.

Then, Rove asks him what his "amazing talent" (party trick) is. He shows everyone just how versatile and long his tongue is.

Oh. Dear. God.

*faints*

(and we still have the James Marsters interview to go... I don't know how I'll manage)

I was just trying to reply to some comments using my bright new shiny Opera 7.51 browser (just updated from 6.05 on this compy).

I had the two pages loaded, had just typed teh replies and hit "post comment", one of which comes back with the usual "you are not logged in" blah blah.

The other one comes back with that page, with the added line "Prove you are a human below". WTF?
I scroll down, and there's one of those random mishmash letter assortment things that you have to type the sequence into the box (like when you sign up for a new email account or similar), accompanied by "Type the letters and numbers you see below, to prove that you're not a spam robot."

Talk about funny! How long have they had this for? Or am I the first non-robot bunny they've tried it on? hehehe

With exams finished and teaching practically over for the semester, on Friday I ventured into the city to start pricing digital cameras, have a look at the range and basically have a look around in all the camera and electrical shops.

I started off the day thinking Canon or Sony or one of the big camera brands (Pentax, Olympus, etc) and thinking somewhere around the 3-4 megapixel resolution, and also something that was compact in size and not terribly chunky.

By the end of the afternoon, I'd schlepped through about 10 stores and had written down a stack of things. I'd narrowed down the field and the model and was going to run an errand for my Dad at some sort of travel info shop, when I stopped into my 3rd Kodak franchise camera shop for the afternoon, and started talking to the sales guy who looked like Adrien Brody. Score! Except he had really bad hair and didn't look quite as soulful :P

And we talked for a long long time. Many different deals were made, a few lies were told (I can't pay that much, I don't have a credit card or a lot of money in my account!!) and about half an hour of solid bargaining and a bit of theatrical sighing and pacing, I walked out of the shop with an Olympus mju 400.


Pretty cute, huh?

So this is my new little baby. I also bought a 128mb memory card for it and a proper padded bag so that when I'm on tour it won't get too smushed up.

eta: I should actually say that the specs are: 4MP, 3x optical zoom/4x digital zoom, metallic alloy casing (ie, weatherproof) and really compact. I love :D

*waves* Hi everyone, I'm Beadpixie. You might remember me from such ljs as...well, this one! With cameos and other sorts of guest appearances in comment sections of various other people such as...well, you know who you are :D

I'm back temporarily darlings, because as I was reminded by wickedcherub when we went to see Shrek 2 today, I really should check in every few months to remind everyone that I'm not dead or permanently locked in a practice room or something. Although, this last point hasn't been far from the truth.

It's been crazy this semester - in addition to studying full time, I've been madly dashing between rehearsals and practice rooms and lecture theatres and schools and whatnot, not to mention the whole I-keep-having-to-travel-interstate for training orchestra programs. More about that in another entry though.

As some of you would have heard, I'm going to be travelling to Europe in just over a month on an orchestral tour...it's 7 countries in 3 weeks (hey, that's a big thing when you come from an island nation!!), including concerts at some of the biggest and most prestigious (not to mention famous!) venues in Europe (we're talking the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Royal Albert Hall in London for a concert at the Proms etc) so it's all pretty exciting. Talk about living the jetsetting life this year!

On things non-musical (which are few and far between these days), I am behind in movie releases. I -have- seen HP3 and Shrek 2, but still haven't seen Kill Bill vol 2, Troy, Van Helsing or really anything from that time period a few months ago. I blame auditions and having wonderful musical opportunities :D

So really, everything is fine and is hitting a bit of a lull at the moment because I've got my last exam on Thursday (which I'm not being assessed on, huzzah!) and I'm toning down on the viola practice at the moment. Did I mention that I semi-crippled my left hand about a month ago due to overuse? Silly, silly Bead, who will have to re-do her technique next semester unless she wants to have permanent damage and no career.

Anyway, I think that's enough for a general admission entry. Stay tuned and logged in for the next, more detailed, less vague entry!