Long-awaited party has musical beginnings

 A long-expected age milestone occurred earlier this year. Unfortunately it was during lockdown level 4 and so my party was cancelled and I just had to amuse myself that day. "Bugger it," I thought. "I'm going to do this but do it even better later on."

And so I have. Laura came down from Palmerston North to help out. It was so lovely to spend the two days with her and have fun with friends and neighbours. As I commented during my slide presentation on 65 years of Frances Harrison's existence, other than my daughter Laura, there was no-one present who had known me more than two years. That was a shame. Those who had known me for a while and were invited couldn't make it. 

 

 

 

 

 

Having been obliged to move around NZ and France several times, most social and professional networks have long gone. It is really hard to start over in a new place at my age so social connections are treasured.

To give folks an idea of who I am and how I came to be where I am now with so many adventures and iterations, I made a presentation, showed a video, set up a bellydance costume display in my home and, with my new musical collaborator John, did a spot of entertaining. 

I've been teaching myself bass guitar and renovating my vocal chords. Music used to be an important part of my life in the past. I have played violin in NZ and France, piano and guitar and keyboards in NZ, taught music while a primary teacher, and established St Marks School Orchestra back in the 80s (it's still going) but aging can wreck what you want to do so I have channeled my music into something new.

Bass guitar has been on my bucket list for sometime. My fingers still haven't toughened up and it seems to take me longer these days to memorise and absorb things but never mind. It has been quite the learning curve with the physical challenges with the bass, I was pretty rusty on the bass clef but these days there are so many resources free online that you can use to teach yourself. I love my instrument and practice most days. I want to find other musicians who would like to play with me. That would be so much fun!

I am now also starting to sing at various music clubs around Christchurch for performance practice. Eventually my music partner and I will launch ourselves as a professional duo. [more on that in the future].

It's great to be focussing on something old but new - a music link from the old me to the present me. I hope one day there will be many more lovely people in my life. A big thank-you to Laura and John and all my guests for their contribution to a happy day. I'm keen to see where music might take me from now on, hoping it 's never too late as there's a lot more life behind me than ahead, but it's what you do with it that matters. I was desperately needing a project and voila!, here it is!