Christmas Oratorio; demolition of the attic

The Christmas Oratorio performance went off without a hitch on Saturday evening, playing to a sold-out audience in the Dominican Church in Brussels.  They sold out a month in advance and had a waiting list of 200 people, so perhaps if they do such a thing again it will be two performances instead of one.  But still it was a pleasure to sing this great music.

Maggie and the boys did a little Christmas baking as well over the weekend, starting with cut out shortbread cookies, nanaimo bars, and little crescent shortbreads made with rice flour and then dusted in sugar and cinnamon.  We also have been feeding the christmas cake with rum every week or so, so we should be well supplied for desserts at least.

Stephen King at home in Maine

The day after I posted the photos of our new woodstove there was an article in the Guardian, promoting a new novel that Stephen King has co-written with his son.  Along with the article there was a nice photo of King in his home, sitting next to his woodstove.  Excellent taste, wouldn't you say?

Street-side attic room before

fibreglass batts before demolition

post-ceiling removal

the exposed underside of the roof tiles

high cathedral ceiling

the destructors at work

Much of the material that we pulled down will be discarded but there are some very nice long clear pieces of red cedar that were used to make the ceiling joists.  These are beautiful and of course straight and very dry, so they are not going out to be burned; we'll see about using them for something else.  Perhaps a floor, or maybe panelling in one of the renovated rooms...

As you can see from the dust in this last photograph, it was extremely dirty work... I am sure that the accumulations of soot, particulates from automobile exhaust, etc. had lain undisturbed for longer than I have been alive, most certainly.  We had our goggles and masks and protective coveralls on, but even so we were all very grimy afterwards and needed long baths to get cleaned up again.

That unfortunately still requires that we boil large pots of water on the stove and then carry them upstairs: The boiler workers were (I thought) scheduled to come this afternoon but it turns out they will show up tomorrow before noon to install the new water boiler.  I hope that by this time tomorrow we'll once again have hot water in the bathroom "on demand"...

Very busy weekend

Flowers post-Paulus

This has been an extremely busy week: two performances of Paulus, a performance of a Handel recit and aria, and a full rehearsal of the Weihnachts-oratorium in 48 hours makes Jack a tired boy.  Today I've been taking it easy so far, but have to warm up and do some singing of some Mozart arias to see how they will be for tomorrow's audition for Theatre Transparant in Antwerp.

No pictures of the Paulus performance have come to me yet, but the first one on Friday night was only ok from my perspective as I was still getting over a terrible attack of fever and chills that kept me from sleeping on Tuesday night, and left me exhausted and achy.  Fortunately I was still able to sing a decent performance Friday, but slept a long time Friday night so felt in much better form on Saturday.  The conductor was very pleased, and I was satisfied that I was able to do most or all of the things I had planned to do, from an expression/interpretation point of view.

Saint Nicolas visits the Cash Converters

There is a "hock shop" just around the corner from our house, and I went out for a walk to kill time before the performance, to help wake up my body for singing and take my mind off the worries of the performance.  There was nothing that interested me there, but Saint Nicolas was set up to welcome children that day.  His official arrival isn't until the 6th of December but you can spot him here and there in Belgium already.  It actually makes sense that St. Nicolas would be at a hock shop, as he is among other things the patron saint of pawnbrokers, after all...

First fire in the woodstove

old school tv

Everyone is really happy with the wood stove, and after three days of letting the mortar dry out and harden we finally lit the first small fire on Sunday afternoon, and toasted the newest "member" of the household.  I realise that I haven't lived permanently in a house with a fireplace for a long time.  My parents moved from a house with a fireplace insert in 1985 to another house that lacked a fireplace, and then I lived in a variety of places as a student, none of which had a good fireplace in them.  Spending time at the Rose family cottage and at Bruce's house convinced me of the value of a good quality wood stove, and we talked about installing one in our Endean Avenue house after we moved in in 2001, but never did.  Now finally we are happy to have a really nice one!

After a nice afternoon dinner I drove back into Brussels for an evening rehearsal with orchestra and choir of the Christmas Oratorio.  It was held in a rather odd location, a piano repair and construction factory that is often used as a rehearsal space, or as kind of eclectic gallery / show space.  It was a bit crowded in there but surprisingly the sound of the instruments and singers was quite clear.

conductor Joris Verschueren

Joris Verschueren in a pianist and counter-tenor, who now has mostly stopped singing and conducts more and more instead.  He's very clear, musically intelligent, and very easy to work with, so I am sure that there will be no surprises with the Weihnachts-Oratorium this coming Saturday.  The concert sold out quite some time ago so it is sure to be a full house!

Paulus tonight; woodstove installed; snow in Belgium

Tonight is the first of two performances on Mendelssohn's Paulus in Brussels, at the Eglise of the College St. Michel.  It's quite a nice venue that I've sung in before, and the orchestra is very good.  Lots of familiar faces among the musicians, and I've worked with the conductor, the choir and the other singers before so it should be fun.  I like the piece a lot.

This week a number of things have gone fairly smoothly, much to my surprise.  Wednesday the chimney liner crew showed up and did a good job installing the liner.

Kiki found the whole process very interesting.

The same day I also went to have the car checked up in advance of the official yearly inspection.  They replaced both front tires and changed a brake pad, but there was nothing else out of the ordinary, which was a welcome relief.

new "Continental" tires

Rehearsing Paulus

Finally on Wednesday we had the general rehearsal for Paulus... it was quite a busy day.

On Thursday the stove guys arrived early and spent almost the entire day completing the stove installation.  It was quite an involved thing as the stove needed to be configured properly for venting out the back, and I had to do a run to the Brico store for some bricks that they agreed to use to fill some gaps in the brick wall on the floor behind the stove itself.

So there you have it: after our initial painting before moving in, and switching out some light fixtures this is our first successful major change to the house, and I think it looks great.  We will wait a couple of days for the mortar to dry but you can rest assured that I will be sparking up a nice fire this weekend...

I left everything to go pick up Maggie at school, with a nice display light so she'd be greeted properly when she got home...

It took much longer than anticipated as the weather turned to snow, and suddenly everyone was extremely timid and cautious.  The drive is normally well under half an hour but I think it took us more like 45 minutes or more each way.  But we made it home safely.

This morning the water boiler installers came and had a look.  The installation won't be cheap but we are going to go ahead with it; they will be installing the new water boiler on Monday and Tuesday, the 11th and 12th of December.  I expect that this new boiler most likely can stay in place and be used as well to provide the hot water for the other bathroom, once we get around to converting it from a smaller spare bedroom, or alternatively we can pay to have it moved.  Good things about this kind of system is that it has no pilot light (instead an electronic ignition), uses a double-walled chimney to bring combustion air into the burn chamber from outside the house (which is safer than burning the air from inside the house) and as it is an on-demand service, with a very short distance to travel, one is only heating water when one needs it, and there is little chance of running out of hot water as more is heated as needed.  I am really looking forward to having a bath/shower in this house without having to carry big kettles of hot water upstairs...

After tonight there is another performance tomorrow night; then I sing a Messiah extract Sunday morning, then rehearse the Christmas Oratorio Sunday evening.  Tuesday I have that Cosi fan tutte audition in Antwerp, so will have to sing some Mozart opera arias.  I also have just received four performances of the Mozart Requiem in Flanders in December 2018, with the same organisation that I did Carmina Burana with a few years ago.  That will be nice to work with them again.  So it would seem that we have some positive energy flowing, as we draw closer to the end of the year...