Enjoying a rare evening out
Jun. 16th, 2004 09:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
la_rainetteHusband and I went out yesterday, on our own, with a couple of friends who had bought tickets to a classical music concert at a silent auction and thought they'd take us out.
We had no idea what kind of concert it would be, and neither did they actually, but a chance to go out is too good to pass. When we arrived, the hall was milling with people waving Canadian and British flags. I got myself a Canadian flag (have wanted to ever since we officially became landed immigrants, about a month ago).
We sat down, and Husband elbowed me discreetly and asked "is that me, or is there something wrong with the bearded guy on your right?".
Well. Something wrong was a Canadian flag painted on Weird Bearded Guy's bald forehead, which got me wondering about his sanity and our safety. Also, his nose appeared to be redder than any abuse of alcoholic substances would warrant. On closer inspection, it appeared that the nose had been painted, too. WTF?
And then the conductor arrived, and said that "the singalong and the silliness" would take place during the second half of the concert, and in the meanwhile we would enjoy some Benjamin Britten (yes!) and Elgar (yelp!).
Er. Singalong? Silliness?
Beautiful concert, complete with very good mezzo-soprano and serious, black-clad choir, very respectful and elegant first part. The second part started in much the same way. We began to relax.
And then, the conductor announced that we would now, all together, sing "Rule Britannia". Excuse-me?
Husband (flatly): I'm not singing that. Rule Britannia? NO WAY!
la rainette: oh, come on. No-one is asking you to renounce your French roots. This is for fun.
Carole (Torontonian friend with Irish husband): well, Marcus certainly isn't going to sing Rule Britannia, are you, darling?
la rainette (wailing): But this is FUN!
And when the chorus came, the very serious black-clad choir stood up and started waving assorted flags, and put on assorted silly hats, and Weird Bearded Guy didn't look out of place anymore, and everyone, audience included, sang Rule Britannia, and it was tremendous fun.
Carole (to her Irish husband, accusingly): YOU SANG RULE BRITANNIA!
Marcus: Rule the waves! Rules the waves! I don't care if they rule the waves! As long as they don't rule anything else I'm fine.
And then we all sang "Land of Hope and Glory" together, and as much as I don't like pompous Elgar, I have to admit that it was a great and simply hilarious performance. I had done Karaoke before, but never with a professional conductor, together with so many people in their best evening clothes, and waving silly little flags. :D
No if anyone has heard of this "tradition", in Toronto or elsewhere, please let me know. Our little group was utterly taken by surprise, but I thought it was very funny.
We went home to relieve the babysitter, who informed us that everything had gone fine.
And Tadpole didn't throw up on her, which was good news.
My lovely Tadpole is the most stubborn being I have ever come accross. She will not do what she doesn't want to do, period. One thing she will not do is fall asleep in her bed: she falls asleep, usually, wherever I am, and then we carry her to bed. Every attempt to put her to bed by force has been thwarted by The Evil Barfing Business. Tadpole throws up at will, without notice, when upset. She has barfed on each and every babysitter we've had, but this one (so far).
I still remember the day The Judge babysat for us. The Judge is Tadpole's Godmother. She is cool, calm and collected, has no kids of her own but plenty of nephews and 2 godchildren (including Tadpole) and is experienced at babysitting various kids. She said she would babysit for me while I went to a stupid playschool meeting (Husband was out of town). I told her to put Froglet to bed, but not Tadpole. She smiled her most confident, "I'll show you how it's done properly" smile to me. "Don't worry, everything'll go fine", she said.
She called me two hours later.
The Judge: SHE THREW UP ON ME!
la rainette (suspiciously): Did you try to put her to bed?
The Judge: No! I put Froglet to bed, and then I gave Tadpole a backrub to relax her for bed...
la rainette: Oh. And you thought she wouldn't get your drift?
The Judge (wailing): What do I do NOW?
la rainette: Ignore her! Get a book, read in a corner, she's tired, she'll fall asleep.
I came back an hour later to a trembling Judge, who looked two minutes away from a heart-attack.
la rainette: What happened?
The Judge: I did what you said! I ignored her. I went downstairs, changed into my nightie, grabbed a book and read, and when I went back up, SHE WAS GONE!
la rainette (not panicking, having checked the girls' room and found them both sound asleep): Huh?
The Judge (shaking): I checked all the doors... closed... and I looked all over... Upstairs... and... downstairs...
la rainette: Calm down. Here, I'll give you a backrub.
The Judge: I DON'T WANT A BACKRUB! I WANT TO GO HOME!
la rainette: Shhh, it's all right... What happened next?
The Judge: I checked their room... and... that's when... I saw that the big teddybear in Tadpole's bed...
la rainette: What teddybear? There is no teddybear.
The Judge: ... was breathing.
la rainette: Oh.
Tadpole had gone to bed on her own. Her motto being: "All right, all right, I'll do it. Whenever I'm ready. Don't push me. Or else."
So I'm really glad it all went well with the new sitter.
We had no idea what kind of concert it would be, and neither did they actually, but a chance to go out is too good to pass. When we arrived, the hall was milling with people waving Canadian and British flags. I got myself a Canadian flag (have wanted to ever since we officially became landed immigrants, about a month ago).
We sat down, and Husband elbowed me discreetly and asked "is that me, or is there something wrong with the bearded guy on your right?".
Well. Something wrong was a Canadian flag painted on Weird Bearded Guy's bald forehead, which got me wondering about his sanity and our safety. Also, his nose appeared to be redder than any abuse of alcoholic substances would warrant. On closer inspection, it appeared that the nose had been painted, too. WTF?
And then the conductor arrived, and said that "the singalong and the silliness" would take place during the second half of the concert, and in the meanwhile we would enjoy some Benjamin Britten (yes!) and Elgar (yelp!).
Er. Singalong? Silliness?
Beautiful concert, complete with very good mezzo-soprano and serious, black-clad choir, very respectful and elegant first part. The second part started in much the same way. We began to relax.
And then, the conductor announced that we would now, all together, sing "Rule Britannia". Excuse-me?
Husband (flatly): I'm not singing that. Rule Britannia? NO WAY!
la rainette: oh, come on. No-one is asking you to renounce your French roots. This is for fun.
Carole (Torontonian friend with Irish husband): well, Marcus certainly isn't going to sing Rule Britannia, are you, darling?
la rainette (wailing): But this is FUN!
And when the chorus came, the very serious black-clad choir stood up and started waving assorted flags, and put on assorted silly hats, and Weird Bearded Guy didn't look out of place anymore, and everyone, audience included, sang Rule Britannia, and it was tremendous fun.
Carole (to her Irish husband, accusingly): YOU SANG RULE BRITANNIA!
Marcus: Rule the waves! Rules the waves! I don't care if they rule the waves! As long as they don't rule anything else I'm fine.
And then we all sang "Land of Hope and Glory" together, and as much as I don't like pompous Elgar, I have to admit that it was a great and simply hilarious performance. I had done Karaoke before, but never with a professional conductor, together with so many people in their best evening clothes, and waving silly little flags. :D
No if anyone has heard of this "tradition", in Toronto or elsewhere, please let me know. Our little group was utterly taken by surprise, but I thought it was very funny.
We went home to relieve the babysitter, who informed us that everything had gone fine.
And Tadpole didn't throw up on her, which was good news.
My lovely Tadpole is the most stubborn being I have ever come accross. She will not do what she doesn't want to do, period. One thing she will not do is fall asleep in her bed: she falls asleep, usually, wherever I am, and then we carry her to bed. Every attempt to put her to bed by force has been thwarted by The Evil Barfing Business. Tadpole throws up at will, without notice, when upset. She has barfed on each and every babysitter we've had, but this one (so far).
I still remember the day The Judge babysat for us. The Judge is Tadpole's Godmother. She is cool, calm and collected, has no kids of her own but plenty of nephews and 2 godchildren (including Tadpole) and is experienced at babysitting various kids. She said she would babysit for me while I went to a stupid playschool meeting (Husband was out of town). I told her to put Froglet to bed, but not Tadpole. She smiled her most confident, "I'll show you how it's done properly" smile to me. "Don't worry, everything'll go fine", she said.
She called me two hours later.
The Judge: SHE THREW UP ON ME!
la rainette (suspiciously): Did you try to put her to bed?
The Judge: No! I put Froglet to bed, and then I gave Tadpole a backrub to relax her for bed...
la rainette: Oh. And you thought she wouldn't get your drift?
The Judge (wailing): What do I do NOW?
la rainette: Ignore her! Get a book, read in a corner, she's tired, she'll fall asleep.
I came back an hour later to a trembling Judge, who looked two minutes away from a heart-attack.
la rainette: What happened?
The Judge: I did what you said! I ignored her. I went downstairs, changed into my nightie, grabbed a book and read, and when I went back up, SHE WAS GONE!
la rainette (not panicking, having checked the girls' room and found them both sound asleep): Huh?
The Judge (shaking): I checked all the doors... closed... and I looked all over... Upstairs... and... downstairs...
la rainette: Calm down. Here, I'll give you a backrub.
The Judge: I DON'T WANT A BACKRUB! I WANT TO GO HOME!
la rainette: Shhh, it's all right... What happened next?
The Judge: I checked their room... and... that's when... I saw that the big teddybear in Tadpole's bed...
la rainette: What teddybear? There is no teddybear.
The Judge: ... was breathing.
la rainette: Oh.
Tadpole had gone to bed on her own. Her motto being: "All right, all right, I'll do it. Whenever I'm ready. Don't push me. Or else."
So I'm really glad it all went well with the new sitter.
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no subject
Date: 2004-06-16 03:27 pm (UTC)Would it shock you to know I don't know the words to Rule Britannia? And if someone gave me the words, I'd sing it with the same emotion I'd sing any other thing: I have no feelings attached to it at all. That's being an American for you!
no subject
Date: 2004-06-16 05:25 pm (UTC)Oh no, it doesn't shock me at all. I didn't know the words either, they were conveniently printed in the program, together with Land of Hope and Glory and Jerusalem (but that one I didn't know at all, so I just listened to everyone else). And, being French, I obviously didn't sing it with feelings anyway. Just with much amusement :). Husband was nonplussed: "can you imagine singing the Marseillaise at a concert", he said. Er. No. :D
no subject
Date: 2004-07-21 01:45 am (UTC)I know its late to be commenting but what you experienced was clearly a copy of the Last Night of the Proms. The Proms concerts are a big British thing, a series of classical music concerts held over a month or so (they've just started again actually) each year, and the last one is a big fun event where all the serious music buffs get to let their hair down and sing along to Rule Britannia; they always play the Pomp & Circumstance things, and often mess around by playing them really fast, and people get giggly, and there's balloons and streamers and people making daft noises with klaxons and stuff.
Gods it sounds very surreal as I describe it but I've been watching it on tv with my parents on and off since I was a little kid so it seems utterly normal.
Anwyays, lots of fun but must have been pretty freaky if you've never heard of it! :)