Virtue Rewarded

[dolorous_ett]

It's pleasing to see I have such a moral friends-list. When I asked if I should bunk off a couple of services in the cathedral with my choir that threatened to be diabolical, almost all of them told me that I knew I had to turn up, and I'd feel rotten if I didn't.

In case any of you were still wondering about this - you were all right. That abyssmal rehearsal put the fear of God into everyone - people went away and looked over their own parts, even. And the result, while far from the strains of heavenly choirs, was also far from being the strains of cats - musical and pleasant, with a few hiccups and near misses. Also a tendency to stop looking or sing like robots under stress... but it's a very forgiving accoustic, and there weren't that many genuinely audible cockups.

What should have been the high points of the service were Palestrina's Missa Brevis and Stanford's Beati Quorum Via - both sublime if done by the professionals. As it was, we managed Perfectly All Right - which is substantially better than I'd feared.

You were all right - I would have felt dreadful looking for Giants in Stirling or George R R Martin castles in the Highlands. Not least because the weather's been vile - dark and rainy. About the worst sightseeing weather I can imagine.

So - many thanks for the advice! Now, does anyone know how to stop a tap from dripping?

Comments

[zoepaleologa.livejournal.com]

The washer needs changing.

Here's how to do it - nifty, eh?

http://www.diydoctor.org.uk/projects/dripping_tap.htm

Alternatively, you could hire a plumber and spend about £50.

Under no circs try without turning the water off at the mains, and then turning on your tap until the pipe leading to the tap is empty. I've see people forget to do it - nasty, and wet.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

Thank you - most enlightening.

The mental picture of attempting to do this without turning the water off at the mains is going to keep me entertained for quite some time...

Then Again....

[wemyss.livejournal.com]

Alternatively, you could hire a plumber and spend about £50.

Which is dear for a washer. However, if you hire a willing bit of rough, the washer and the fixing of the tap are incidental, aren't they? And that's not at all a bad rate for an hour with a bad lad, now, is it.

Re: Then Again....

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

Alas, you haven't seen the plumber the letting company generally sends round for such tasks - tubby and depressed. However, thinking about this has reminded me that I might be able to persuade the letting company to hire a plumber for £50...

Re: Then Again....

[zoepaleologa.livejournal.com]

Not at all... That's most enterprising to see the potential for a spin-off in a potentially costly situation...

*grins*

£50 for an hour with bad lad...

Satisfaction... priceless.

Re: Then Again....

[bufo-viridis.livejournal.com]

that I might be able to persuade the letting company to hire a plumber

That's what Tybalt-Quin did. It took them a month to put down the name of the brand. Now they're waiting for replacement and she's resigning herself to waiting till Xmas...

From my mediocre experience with dripping faucets I can say that sometimes removing the tap (but not the valve) and cleaning out (with a tip of screwdriver or a knife) all the stone which sedimented there can help a lot. 'Cause this stone preventes the valve turning fully down, to its closing point, and this fraction of milimetre of difference is enough for the water to drip.

[swythyv.livejournal.com]

Glad you're feeling better. ;D

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

So am I. Thanks!

[aerama.livejournal.com]

Moral, ha! It was just that it wasn't happening to me that I could say anything at all! If it had been me, I would have been all ranting & grunting & despairing & loathing and not wanting to see the bigger picture...though I probably would have shown up, if only because other folks would have prodded me to.

_SO_ glad it worked out for you, though, after all of that - and besides, I have found that the audience generally doesn't know if something's been messed up...well, an audience of non-musicians, perhaps.

[hannahmarder.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid I have no idea about the tap, but I'm glad that the concert went well (an awful rehearsal beforehand can often do more good than a mediocre one, because it shocks everyone into drastic action like practising!).

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

It seemed moral enough to me... told me what I needed to hear, at least.

I know the audience doesn't always pick up on every little detail - but you'd have to be stone deaf to not to notice last week's performance. I consider myself to have got off very lightly indeed.

Thanks!

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

You're right about sometimes bad rehearsals being the spur. It's just that the last concert this choir had an awful rehearsal for was the embarrassing Schubert concert in June. I'm still getting flashbacks from that.

Thanks, anyway.

[saralinda.livejournal.com]

I hope you don't mind, but I added you to my friends list. I was charmed by your Hall of Heroes story on FA and wanted to let you know I really enjoyed reading it.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

Of course I don't mind! I'm very pleased you liked my story so much.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

...and I'm going to friend you back (sorry, hit the wrong button before I could finish there)

[saralinda.livejournal.com]

Cool. Do you teach Chinese at a university in Britain?

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

I do. But I don't want to get more specific than that - I'd be pretty easy to identify and I really don't want that to happen. Anything more specific is f-locked.

Clever of you to work it out.

[saralinda.livejournal.com]

I understand completely.