A FASCINATING AFTERNOON MASTERCLASS AT RNCM

A wonderful afternoon at the RNCM with a masterclass with world renowned bass Sir John Tomlinson.
A local lad born in Oswaldtwistle, he trained as a construction engineer before deciding on a career in opera at age 21. Whilst studying at the RNCM, he was a member of the Manchester Universities Gilbert and Sullivan Society. He sings regularly with the Royal Opera and ENO and has appeared with all the major British opera companies. He sung at the Bayreuth Festival in Germany every year from 1988 to 2006, as Wotan, the Wanderer, King Marke, Titurel, Gurnemanz, Hagen and the Dutchman.He was knighted and is president of the RNCM. It was amazing to see how he could assist young singers to improve their performance in just 20 minutes. After that amazing afternoon back to earth with a bang as we go off to the church pcc meeting, I am so not a committee person . I've taken delivery of a tea urn  today which I need to set up at St Oswalds, I need to get a restraining strap to make sure it doesn't tip, I suppose I'll have to do a 'warning hot water' sign to go with it.

I got the Bus Spot Ultra series dvd Huddersfield partially completed before we went out as far as all being loaded onto the project, I've collated 7 hours which needs to go down to 120 minutes which seems to have become the de facto running time for all future Bus Spot Ultra releases. The weather for tomorrow is looking pretty grim, we had wind and rain last night, no snow anywhere near but I believe Buxton may get a load tonight, if it sticks and stays that might open up scenic possibilities for next week in the hills to Buxton or Sheffield. I need to do the cover for the other Bus Spot I finished on St Helens, each has a slightly different flavour depending on how my archive I can find in our collection , we have 30 years of video to start with though!

Hopefully we'll be getting stuck into lorry films again next week, fingers crossed all days are up for grabs next week but I only have tomorrow Thursday left this week, Friday visiting a relative in Liverpool. I've completed all hotel booking for the Ukraine trip in June/July, just need to decide if its train or plane Kiev to Odessa. I've contacted the Russian visa people and may get the application form done tomorrow if rain stops play, it usually pans out that paying the extra to an agent with a close relationship to the Embassy/Consulate pays dividends, the worst ever was getting the Algerian visa direct, never again - they just stole the money first time round, it went registered and they only accept cash, say no more! What can I bring you tonight I wonder, lets think out of the box and play lucky dip. By the way in desperate need of million more Youtube hits to make up for the late winter advertising doldrums in revenue!