I must amend my profile on this blog as I now have a second great grandchild. I feel very blessed. I think there are more great grandparents around these days. He is called Marlo,as in Brando but without the `n`. It was a water birth so perhaps he will have the family swimming gene as well as a talent for playing Scrabble.
I have had two very different musical experiences during the weekend. On Saturday, I was at an all day singing workshop at St Bartholomews church in Brighton. There were 80 of us singing unaccompanied (part of Brighton Early Music Festival) and we sang the Victoria Requiem, written in 1604, finishing with a candlelit performance. I did not want it to end, it was sublime.
Then today, it was the Ditchling Village choir singing on Shoreham beach. It is spring tides so there was a great expanse of sand. It was a lovely sunny afternoon, and there were wet dogs and toddlers weaving out amongst us as we belted out La Mer, It Must be Love, Dancing Queens. Our voices were carried away out to sea on the wind. I love contrasts: Requiem one day, Abba, the next.