Try Outs

Half of the reason for Goodbye Magpie is to save money.  The other 50% share of 'why do it' goes to trying new things and seeing what happens.

An argument the other night with JW, has spurred me on to keep going with this aspect of the project.  The argument went something along the lines of, "don't you feel that life is really boring at the moment?"  Poor JW made the man-error of attempting to fix the problem, rather than just listening to the moan.  Things were said, exasperated looks were exchanged and I gave up the conversation at the point where we were 'discussing' an umbrella holder.  Don't ask...

Part of the problem is that saving money and doing new stuff, really don't go hand in hand.  In order to do things you often need to buy tickets, get equipment or travel somewhere.  So hence my feeling a bit like Miss Jean Brodie, in the prime of my life, all the while sweeping floors and doing laundry!  I exaggerate, it just feels like that's all I do sometimes!

So, I have a list of things that I want to do and that won't cost too much money and I intend to get cracking on with them.

St Giles Cathedral

The first new thing I did this week was go and listen to some Organ Music.  I know, I know, it's not exactly climbing Everest, but it was new to me. 

St Giles Cathedral, here in Edinburgh, do a series of lunchtime and evening recitals for free (collection at the end).  So, I went along and listened to some Bach and some Mendelssohn. 

The Organ; What a Beast

Unfortunately, I discovered that I really don't like Organ Music (surprise!)  It is very dramatic, but just not my cup of tea.   I found that it sounded off key and inharmonious and just not very tuneful.  Although I can completely appreciate the technical skill involved; blooming heck it sounded and looked like very hard work!  And, in fairness, it did make me jump out of my seat twice, just with the sheer unexpected volume of the beginning sections of some of the pieces.

A rather impressive interior

On the plus side, I did enjoy being in the church and having a good look around, and it was nice to have a good excuse to sit down and not do anything!  So all in all I would say that it was a pleasant way to spend an hour.  And if you haven't gone to an Organ Music Recital before, I would say that it is worth 45 minutes of your life, but probably not much longer than that. 

Next up: Cycling to the Scottish Borders.