Ho hum. Nearly two weeks since I made a proper update.
Suppose you want a real one now?
Ok. December 2004 in the life of Andy Boal… well, not that much actually happened for the first week really.
So I’ll talk about the last few days, which have been good.
Saturday I was playing piano for a marriage blessing ceremony for Della and Marcus, two former students at QUB who got married in South Africa at Della’s home church. She belongs to the Indian community, whereas Marcus is from Norn Iron. They now live in London, although apparently due to passport problems or something, Della couldn’t go straight there from the wedding and she and Marcus had to spend the first two months of married life apart… TORTURE!
Anyway, we had the same eight songs as at the wedding itself in a different order. Music group was myself, Malcolm “Flash” Gordon (guitarist in residence), Naomi Gamble (best man’s wife) and David Moore (late replacement for the guy who was supposed to be drumming until a week earlier – his gran died and he and his twin brother who was supposed to be playing piano had to go to the funeral in England), and it was great.
Next funny thing was the video. Della’s mum looked white in the video, but the photos revealed that she is Indian ok, but lighter than Della herself. It was also interesting to contrast piano playing styles between myself and Emma Keenan, another former member of the Church of the Resurrection – you’d be surprised how they all get about…!
It was great, and then they fed us afterwards. Even so I’d made sure the Music Group had plenty of time to eat between practising and the service – 2 hours altogether before we got back in at 1.30 (service supposedly at 2, but it started late…). Then it was a case of relaxing, playing some stuff (including my own song) while waiting for Marcus and Della to get ready, and then playing them in to The Minstrel Boy from the Corrs’ Forgiven not Forgotten (who needs a violinist?!). It was great, and Naomi and I did a vocal duet on How deep the Father’s Love while everyone was sharing the peace. Playing piano and doing harmonies isn’t necessarily easy…
Got home later, and relaxed for the evening. Then this morning was church – and not an adult baptism which had been planned, which is explained in a friends-only post on this LJ (if you want to be my friend, just add me!). It was good though, we prayed for the guy who was to have been baptised and stuff.
This afternoon Nigel Mansley and I set up the powerpoint, screen etc for Informal Worship at Ballyholme Parish. After trouble persuading the new laptop to behave, I showed him a few Powerpoint tricks, but ended up running the powerpoint for the songs myself! It was a good service about Advent and the meaning of the four candles (hope, peace, joy, and I was fixing something else during the fourth candle… oops…! I’ll learn it next week at my own church).
And that’s it for now. Can’t write about much else, not enough of a life!