Steel yourself...

I have just got back from the fab city of Sheffield after a stupidly long train journey (5 hours) and a lovely weekend. I stayed with wonderful friends of mine: Clare and Ella on Friday and Pete and Rachel on Saturday - thanks guys! I have promised Pete I will get one of his "phrases" into the blog somewhere. In the nicest possible way he is one of the rudest and amusing people I know, so I expect you will spot the Pete-ism instantly. The concert itself was in Doncaster and there was pretty much a full house. It all went very well and the audience were very warm. I expect they had heard worse sopranos. Once.

Needless to say, all this catching up with friends and travel has not been condusive to running (even though Clare is inspirationally running the Sheffield half marathon this year!). I am going to have to steel myself and get those muscles working! Cardiff work planned for this week includes the orthodontist (now slightly worried after horror story from Rachel), more coaching from the inspirational Phillip Thomas and a long overdue Alexander technique lesson. One of the things that came out of my body language coaching was that my shoulders are still too high, so I really need to get that dealt with. The Alexander technique will help, but I think I might need some major chiropractic manipulation. I'll investigate that this week. Not only do open shoulders look good but they also help with singing as a good technique relies on excellent posture and physical alignment.

Other work this week will be preparing for a concert at the Petersfield Festival on Saturday and rehearsals for a Kurt Weill concert happening at the Young Vic at the end of the month. Oh, and since I fly to New York the week after, I really ought to sort out somewhere to stay!