Day Twenty-One – Manchurian Candidate and more poker

Today was really a day of finding things to occupy ourselves. I caught up on my blogging this morning and then we decided to go take a wander around a local shopping mall. I was feeling a bit under the weather though and the mall didn’t have anything special in it. We decided we’d go take in another movie and headed back to the cinema complex we were at last night to watch ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ remake. I hadn’t seen the original and this one was quite good.

After the show we were back at Brett’s parents for a while before we all headed off to Sali’s Italian restaurant, which is owned by the family. We had a very nice meal – although I think the comment I made about there being a too much sauce on my chicken Capochino was taken as a ‘Definitive European’ view as to how the chicken should be served, rather than the casual comment I’d intended.

After dinner we were back to Susan and Ali’s for a poker game where I managed to lose the $25 sweepstake on the last hand, after having thrown away a chance to win it earlier in the game. I think I turned out to be a better poker player than Ali had expected, though.

Day Twenty – I, Robot

Had a great night’s sleep. We were on a fold-down sofa/futon in Kevin & Chris’ loft conversion and I slept like a log. Wandered down to the kitchen and helped myself to the coffee. Chris was just back from his early morning gym session and Kevin was watching the preamble to John Kerry’s speech from the previous night. We watched that until Brett finished his shower and we were ready for brunch at a café they know.

After brunch it was more chatting (and John Kerry speech watching) before we decided we’d better move on. Kevin and Chris were due elsewhere for a wedding tomorrow and needed to get packed and travelled. I’m glad we did stay over with them though, as they’ve been the most relaxed about chatting to me.

Once back at the parents’ place, I napped for a while before being roused to go shopping. Brett’s mum needed groceries and Brett had finally decided to bite the bullet and buy another suitcase. After the shopping and the coffee, we headed over to Susan and Ali’s house ready to rendez-vous for dinner at TGI Friday’s.

They have a trampoline in their yard and Brett and I both indulged. Great fun – and god knows we need the exercise! Joshua, Jean-Paul and Kathrine (Steve & Kathleen’s children) were all there too, as their parents are at the same wedding Kevin and Chris were going to. After the trampolining we were all assembled and so headed to the food place.

Dinner was standard TGIF fare. Back at the house we had time for a few hands of Texas Hold-em poker and to listen to Josh playing the guitar, at which he is good, before Brett, Susan and I headed on to a local cinema complex to see ‘I, Robot’. The movie wasn’t as bad as I’d feared it might be. It wasn’t any one of the Asimov short stories, but it was in the right vein and true to the Three Laws of Robotics, so I was quite content with it – although they did seem to be trying to turn Will Smith into a sex symbol, as there were plenty of gratuitous body shots.

Day Nineteen - Day of the Brothers

After much prevarication, we eventually drove downtown. The centre of Dallas is no more crowded than the rest of the city. The only differences I could tell was that some of the lots had skyscrapers on them (but only about ten or fifteen) and there were people on the streets. We went to meet Steven at his office and he showed us the view from his office which is on the fifty-something floor of one of the tower blocks. The advantage of having so few skyscrapers is that you get an uninterrupted view of the rest of the city and because it’s all so low-rise, you get to see all of notable places from one vantage.

Lunch was had at a Texas BBQ diner and then we parted ways with Steven to head out to see Kevin and Chris. Their neighbourhood for some reason made me think of Disneyworld and I can’t quite put my finger on why. The lawns and gardens are no more manicured than in Richardson (where Brett’s parents live) but there was something about the architecture that was sufficiently fanciful to make me think of Hansel & Gretel or some other fairy story. Anyway, all that aside, it’s a nice neighbourhood. Their house is in excellent condition for a young couple with a baby. Nicely maintained and decorated. They have a lovely dining room, all done out in Art Deco walnuts, which reminded me strongly of Eltham Palace. I know that they haven’t had to undergo all the initial messiness of having a newborn (they were only able to collect Carter from the adoption agency when he was six months old) but they do seem to be coping better than other new parents in my experience.

We spent the afternoon visiting with them both and watching coverage of the Democratic Convention that they’d recorded the previous night. It is a curious experience watching another country’s Party Political speeches. I kept having to remind myself that they were written for domestic consumption and had to fit with the worldview of the people they wanted to convince to vote for them. Even so there were parts where I just couldn’t help but laugh. I also wondered how much of that kind of rhetoric slips past me in our own elections simply because it is targeted at convincing ME where to cast my vote. But then I like to think that we have a healthy suspicion in the UK about the motives of politicians when they talk to the people.

We also headed out to the local comic store. Brett hadn’t had his fix for a few weeks and apparently Kevin is a comic fanatic too. While they browsed, I wandered through the various other goods, mostly figurines and merchandising, that the shop had to offer. Kevin and Brett got chatting with the store owner (who Brett had pointed out to me in a magazine article while we were in Washington) and in due course I was introduced as the token Brit. Very nice chap – damn good looking too! On the way home we had a Starbucks and called in at the Apple store. I was possibly in the market for a mini-iPod, but in the end decided to hold off until I’d tried cycling to music using Brett’s.

We had dinner at a Texan/Salvadorian restaurant, but there was nothing too unusual about Salvadorian cuisine. I did leave some, but only because there was way too much on the plate. The evening was spent watching more TV and debating whether or not we wanted to go out for ice cream.

Day Eighteen – Very Wet Pool Party

Another lazy day for the most part.  Watched TV and mucked about online (mostly checking out the rules and strategies for poker for tonight’s game.)  Brett did head into town to renew his driving license, but discovered he needed his Social Security Number Card to prove his identity (Apparently a US passport is all you need to get into the country, but pretty useless for proving your ID once you are inside.  Although since so few US citizens have one, that shouldn’t be surprising)

About 6pm we left for the one hour journey to Corinth, where Brett’s brother Steven and his wife Kathleen live.  The whole family had been invited round for a poolside barbeque as they’ve recently finished installing a swimming pool and Jacuzzi.  Unfortunately thunderstorms and heavy rain had been forecast and, sure enough, after ten minutes on the road, the heavens opened and didn’t let up all night.  Steven has quite an impressive property.  It’s set well back from the road in an area where there is plenty of greenery and trees.  I don’t think I could see any neighbouring properties.  He’s in the process of turning his very large detached garage into a pool house/home cinema.  While it’s not finished, it’s obvious that it will be soon and will be virtually a separate house with kitchen and bathroom built in.  Very nice.  Made me think of ‘The O.C.’

Because of the heavy rain we arrived somewhat later than expected, but the side-benefit was that the food was all ready to eat as soon as we arrived.  I was hungry, so I did just that.  A very tasty BBQ with long, thick Cumberland-style sausages and big, boneless chicken breasts.  A pleasant surprise was the amount of vegetables provided – nice to see someone’s looking out for their health in this land of the deep-fried.  Key-Lime pie for dessert.

While several of the kids eventually headed into the pool despite the rain (which was still torrential) most of the adults steered clear.  I would have liked to have tried the pool – and the hot tub – but on a somewhat warmer evening.

Over the course of dinner, I had a pleasant chat with Sarah, Brett’s niece, and Chris, Kevin’s partner, although neither of them could think of any really good tourist things to do in town.  I guess that’s probably not a bad thing.  If there were lots of things to do, I’d probably want to go do them and wouldn’t have nearly as much time to laze around as I do at the moment…

So, after dinner was done, Ali started agitating for the poker game to begin and eventually the consensus formed.  The only slightly uncomfortable moment was when the possibility of playing for real money was floated.  (Originally I understood it was to be a kind of sweepstake tournament, where we each put in $20 to a pot which was taken by the last man standing.  I also wouldn’t have been averse to playing for low stakes.)  Kathleen, Steven’s wife, however objected to the idea of gambling with any connection to real money (huh!?) so in the end we just played with chips with nothing riding on them.

It was an enjoyable game and, although I didn’t win big particularly, I played cautiously enough that I was in the last two and only lost because Chris had a better full house than I did, which I view as plain bad luck.  I’m kind of tempted to see if I can’t get a regular game going back home.  It would be a good way of having friends round every once in a while without requiring too much preparation or clearing up.

After the game was over we headed into the main house (we’d been playing in the Pool House) to watch the evening’s main feature: Carter Comes Home (A DVD that Kevin and Chris had had put together covering their visits to Guatemala and the eventual trip home with their son Carter.)  Then it was time to head home.

Day Seventeen – Spiderman & TexMex

A slow start today.  Breakfasted in phases.  First there was coffee and the papers, that was followed some time later by granola and milk and around about lunchtime, we had pancakes and the maple syrup we brought from Montreal.  I have to say that homemade pancakes taste a whole pile better than the ones we’ve been eating in diners.

Eventually Brett & I headed out across town to the IMAX cinema to watch Spiderman 2.  Dallas is very low-rise and spread out.  As Brett said, if you have plenty of space, why bother building close or up?  Stairs only take up space.  Richmond, the suburb where we are staying has a bit of a ‘Pleasantville’ feel about it.  It’s all perfectly manicured lawns and neat rows of mailboxes on empty streets.  As we circled around the centre though, we found more untidy places which felt more lived-in.  Even so you see very few people on the streets – especially in the suburbs.  In the space of a half-hour drive, I think I saw two adults (loading up a car), a jogger and a boy playing with a dog.  People just don’t walk around here.

The movie was very entertaining – there’s a particularly good cameo which most of the UK audience will miss.  At one point, Spiderman is losing his powers and has to take the elevator down from the roof.  On the way down a man with his dog gets into the lift and exchanges some smalltalk about the costume.  The man is played by the one of the guys from the US version of 'Queer As Folk' who is very much into Comic Books and Superheroes.  Kind of cute.

After the movie, we took a run down to the gay area and had a coffee and a look around the bookstores and shops.  Plenty of interesting (and bizarre) stuff, but nothing that made me want to stuff my suitcase any further.

Went out for a TexMex dinner with Brett’s mum when we got home, then watched some TV and off to bed.

Day Sixteen – Meet the Family

Today has been deliciously lazy.  The promised delivery of the luggage at between 11am and 2pm didn’t happen until getting on for 5pm.  As a result we ended up spending the day lounging around the house, which after the last few weeks’ frenetic activity, was exactly what the doctor ordered.

Andy, Brett’s niece’s husband, called around at about ten, just as we were getting ready for breakfast and we all sat out on the deck at the back of the house, passing the time of day until breakfast was ready.  I’ve discovered that biscuit and gravy (which is a breakfast dish) is not biscuit or gravy as we would know them.  The biscuit is a kind of light scone and the gravy is a sauce which I think is made of flour, water and the fats left from cooking the bacon (Americans fry bacon to a crisp – literally!)  What we would call gravy is called ‘Brown Gravy’ over here.

With most of the day spent watching TV, chatting or catching up with things online, we decided a brief walk was in order to get us out of the house around 4pm.  The day has been unseasonably cool (mid-twenties, as opposed to the more normal mid- to high-thirties) but even so the sun was hot on my neck and I wished for my luggage and the sunblock it contained.  We essentially just walked around the block, albeit a typically BIG block.  We cut along the edge of a local park, which was immaculately kept and around the back of the local primary school.  The area is very much how one expects suburban America to be.  At the curbside along every street there is a progression of numbered mailboxes with their little red flags.  Apparently if you have outgoing mail, you put it in your mailbox and raise the flag and the postman collects it the next time he comes to deliver to your area.  They don’t have post-boxes (in the UK sense) except in the city centres.

Around 6:30pm the family started arriving for the family gathering.  First were Sarah (Brett’s niece) and Andy and their children, then Susan (Sarah’s mum) and her other children then her husband Ali.  Finally Kevin (Brett’s younger brother) and his partner, Chris, arrived with the star of the evening: Carter, their recently adopted baby son.  We ate Spaghetti Bolognese, which is apparently a favourite of Brett’s, with Salad and beer, followed by Strawberry Shortcake which is delicious.  All very tasty (I had seconds of both courses – just to be polite, you understand... )  There was a lovely relaxed atmosphere throughout.  Sometimes when you see families together it can be very tense and formal, but this was quite the opposite: very intimate and cosy.  There is a certain ‘sparring’ sense of humour within the family which is enjoyable and somewhat familiar.

Ali, Brett’s brother-in-law, tackled me on the subject of Monarchy and we had a lively discussion about what makes a democracy and the pros and cons of having a non-elected head of state.  Over the course of the evening it emerged that he was comparing the UK situation with the situation in Iran at the moment, where the religious leader decided who was and who wasn’t allowed to stand in elections, depending on how devout they were.  In principle the two situations (Britain and Iran) sound fairly similar (the head of the state religion can wield absolute power), but in practice they are not, which I tried to convey.  It was an interesting debate.

Kevin and Chris were two devoted fathers.  Kevin is more like Brett than his other brother Stephen (who wasn’t here tonight.)  Chris reminds me strongly of a Chilean colleague at work, Mauricio, both in his appearance and his dry sense of humour.  I didn’t get much of chance to talk to either of them in the family environment, but I gather we are spending an evening with them later in the week.  Carter was an ideal baby – he laughed and gurgled and didn’t mind being passed around.  He didn’t cry once and then as soon as he’d been fed, dropped off to sleep on Kevin’s shoulder.

After people started moving off, we joined Susan and Ali for cards at their house a mile or so down the road.  Apparently card games are a regular McHargue pastime and we are playing poker with his brothers one night this week.  After a brief reminder of the rules, though, I was able to acquit myself well at Spades and we played a few trial hands of their variation of Poker.  I need to get the ranking of the hands back into my head after a couple of decades’ absence, but apart from that it all came back fairly easily.

We got home around midnight and went straight to bed.

Day Fifteen - Dallas

Well, here we are.  Nice spacious house in a very spacious suburb of Dallas.  We landed right on time, but alas our bags didn't make it.  I think because Air Canada (who operated the Montreal flight on a code share with United) didn't have our updated booking details - which was why they couldn't check us all the way through.  They could print the baggage tags, but the Chicago to Dallas leg had details for a flight that no longer exists, so the bags stayed in Chicago.

The baggage office at DFW reckoned the luggage would arrive on the first flight so we headed home via a supermarket to pick up a couple of toothbrushes.

Day Fifteen - Update UA698 ORD-DFW

Well, it was close but we made it.  I had forgotten the fact that Chicago is not on East Coast time, so even though we got off late and took longer to arrive than scheduled we still touched down with twenty minutes to spare.  Luckily we arrived to the correct terminal but we still had to run to find the gate.  I think our luggage may have gone on the flight that United moved us off a couple of weeks ago (if it still exists) as that’s the number listed on the baggage tag, but we were listed on this flight, so the lady at the gate checked us in with five minutes to spare and we got aboard.  We’re now somewhere over the central USA and on schedule to arrive for 10pm.

Day Fifteen – Au Revoir Montreal

For once we forsook the hotel’s restaurant for breakfast and headed to a diner that we’d spotted that Brett fancied trying.  Sure enough it had all the trappings, but not much fresh fruit – although I did get a waffle with various bits of sliced stuff on.

Packing was the usual chore – more so because we have both bought stuff in Montreal, so the cases are even more stuffed than on the outbound leg.  Once they were safely with the hotel concierge and our bill settled, we took a taxi out to the Botanical Gardens to spend our last few hours here in amongst some greenery.  Very nice it was too.

Whenever I visit a place like that, walking through the greenhouses stuffed with endless varieties of ferns, orchids, cacti and countless others, I am always reminded of the rainforests and other areas where nature is being viciously cut back.  The tales of countless species of plants and animals driven to extinction by man’s search for profit seems all the more vivid when you have some of the real beauty of nature displayed before you.  It sickens the soul – all the more so because, most of the time, most of us are too busy to notice and care.

As I write, I am on the plane from Montreal to Chicago where (if the gods are willing!) we will connect with another flight to take us on to Dallas – but at this stage it is not certain that we will be there in good enough time.  I have managed to finish my book already, so I find myself reflecting on our time in Montreal.

I definitely like the city.  There is a definite feeling that we have only just scratched the surface of the city, the province and indeed the country.  I like the friendly people and the relaxed atmosphere.   I like the way that everywhere actually offers you separate bills if you are in a group.  I like the exchange rate which makes everything so cheap, although that can change I know.  The weather (at least at this time of year) is just about right for my liking – it’s hot without being stifling.  You can walk around the city in the evening in t-shirt and shorts, but not have to have the air-conditioning on in your bedroom to make it comfortable.  The city seems very gay-friendly.

Dallas involves some trepidation, partly because I’m meeting Brett’s family for the first time, which I guess every partner is somewhat nervous of.  I think he got off easily, meeting my parents only briefly after a concert when we were both fairly merry and relaxed.  I’ve met his brother Steve, but so far everyone else is just a name.  I’m also not looking forward to the climate, which is naturally hotter and drier.  I don’t expect there will be the pavement cafes and restaurants.  Everything will be inside closed, air-conditioned buildings.  Brett advises that there is no greenery in Texas.  I hope he’s exaggerating.

That is ofcourse if we ever get there.  There were some kind of communications problems between Montreal and O’Hare, so although they could check our luggage all the way through to DFW, they couldn’t check-us in and give us boarding cards, so we’ll have to do that when we arrive.  Thanks to a schedule change we now arrive in Chicago only 50 minutes before our connecting flight.  At least we won’t have to retrieve our luggage or clear immigration (Customs and Immigration were taken care of in Montreal, which is a much better way of doing it.)  Hopefully there’ll be somebody on hand when we arrive who can do the necessary for us so that we’ll at least be listed on the flight, even if we have to run to make it.  I don’t particularly fancy either a night in an airport hotel (almost certainly without luggage) or an even later flight to Dallas.  Well it’s out of my hands now I suppose…

Day Fourteen – The Morning After...

I didn’t have a particularly heavy night last night, but something must have been wrong.  I woke up late this morning, had a shower... and threw-up.  Didn’t feel particularly unwell, other than the nausea, but ended up staying in bed and sleeping the entire day away.

Brett went out for soup and a pastry for me when I felt up to it and by this evening I was up and about, although still not 100%.  Doesn’t seem to be anything serious though, so I’m anticipating having a nice dinner in the hotel tonight and turning-in early.

Day Thirteen – Performance Four

As we had a late night last night, we decided to order breakfast in the room.  It arrived promptly on a little wheeled table, set with all the linen and silverware of a dining room table, and even had a little warming box underneath to keep the cooked breakfast and pastries warm.  The thing only just fitted between the two beds (oh, why did I say double instead of kingsize when we moved?!)  Anyway, we had a very civilised breakfast, albeit in our underwear.

Today started with a workshop on sight-reading and pitch which was interesting but not as informative as I’d hoped.  I’d decided a while back that I need to start taking voice lessons to improve my singing and the workshop just reinforced that. 

We were back at the Place des Artes for about 12:30 to try and secure good seating for the festival’s ‘No Talent Show’  (I’d heard that a particularly cute member of the Captain Smartypants ensemble was going to be doing a piece dressed as a Matador and I wanted a good view!)  The show was a fairly good musical cabaret including ballad singing, a series of take-offs of Sonny and Cher, various short satirical songs, a two-minute summary of every opera ever written (where the aforementioned Matador and a ‘Kenny Everett’ style bearded, bad-drag Valkyrie give us a pastiche of common opera themes and hang-ups.)  The whole show concluded by forty-odd rugby-build men doing a (very good) cheer-leading routine complete with pompoms, mini-skirts and BIG hair.  So pretty much what you’d expect from Gay Cabaret…

On the whole it was a diverting two and a half hours – although it should only have lasted two hours.  Consequently we were behind schedule and made a mad dash to the hotel to change into costume for our show.  We made it with time to spare and were actually early for the call time.  There followed the inevitable standing around before we were led down to a rehearsal room to warm up by our minder for the day.

Yesterday during the rehearsal, we had timed the show at 29 minutes, 30+ seconds long (we have a half-hour slot) and we were concerned that we couldn’t wait for applause to die down before opening the following number.  Groups that have overrun have had their lighting and sound unceremoniously cut and we were keen not to suffer such ignominy.  It was quite a surprise then that, as we were lined up outside the door into the wings, with about five minutes to go, Charlie came along the line and explained in whispers that we’d been asked to do an additional number!  The chosen piece was ‘Coming and Going’ which (fortunately!) we all know well – and even includes a brief solo spot for Brett!  Wehay!

The performance was a real buzz.  We sang better than I’ve heard us in a long time.  Technically we were almost perfect – although we did manage to mangle our surprise switch into singing French for ‘Stand By Your Man’ – and we got three standing ovations during the set.  Afterwards, as we were being led out of the theatre to the adjacent one where we were due to have our Chorus Photograph taken, we were applauded and cheered all the way.  The Melo Men, who had preceded us on the stage, greeted us with a rendition of ‘God Save The Queen’ as we exited the theatre (which was nice, as we’d serenaded them with the ‘Marseillaise’ as they’d been collected from the stage door.)  There was also a guy, with tears running down his face, who wanted to know if we had ‘Come What May’ on a CD so I pointed him in the direction of the festival shop and thanked god we might sell a bit more merchandising so we wouldn’t have to carry it all home again!

So we ended on a high, headed back to the hotel to change into more appropriate party gear and then took a cab back to the Gay Village to meet up with the boys for dinner.  We ran into John Goodwin and his partner Nick Bowles along the way and it ended up as a group of eleven of us descending on the restaurant, which coped admirably.  I had a steak which was both a bit tough and a bit underdone, but it didn’t spoil the evening.  We skipped dessert and coffee and went straight on down to the Sky Bar for the Twin Cities Chorus party.  It was a lot busier than last night – you couldn’t move on the roof terrace for people.  Unfortunately though the weather was somewhat cooler than the previous night so no one really fancied the hot tub or pool – and after I’d made a special effort to wear my shorts!

Brett bopped his way around the dance floor while I looked on (I am not a dancer unless I’m falling down drunk but he enjoys it so I encourage him to get up and dance whenever there’s an opportunity) and we mingled the night away with LGMC blokes and the various others we’ve met along the way.  Called in at the Stock bar on the way home, really only to see it and so we knew what the other guys were on about.  Sure enough the guys there were good – actually they looked more confident on stage and did better striptease than the guys in Campus.  We ran into a couple of Brett’s former Capital City MC colleagues and chatted a while before cabbing home.

Day Twelve – Rehearsals and Parties

Well we made it up for the call time, only to find that the Chorus had called us 15 minutes earlier than we needed, just in case, and the theatre had called the Chorus 15 minutes earlier than we were needed, just in case.  So there was a lot of standing around waiting after a rather early morning.

We were eventually walked into the wings of the theatre where the Stage Manager introduced himself and advised us that we had fifteen minutes tech-time on stage and started his stopwatch.  Talk about keeping tight time!  Still, with over 160 choirs to get through I suppose they need to be strict.

After the tech-rehearsal, we headed across the plaza to the Hyatt where we had a rehearsal room booked and had a very productive two-hour rehearsal.  There was a lot of fine detail polishing.  All I have to do now is remember it all and put it in play tomorrow night.

We lunched in the food court at Desjardins with a few of the chorus boys afterwards before going in to catch the end of the concert block.  Nap back the hotel before heading back to the theatre to see the Irish choir Gloria perform.  They were very good – excellent blend and all acappella.

We met Alex from Heartland again after the show and decided to head down to the Gay Village to grab something to eat before going on to the parties.  Had a nice dinner in a place called La Planete, not rushed, pleasant conversation, decent food and a bottle of wine.

Then it was across the road to the Sky Bar for Gloria’s aftershow party.  Sky Bar is an interesting venue.  It’s on a number of different levels one of which is all small beds and sofas, which makes seating arrangements interesting.  The top level is the roof terrace which was lovely in the comfortably warm evening.  They had a hot tub and a pool up there too, so I made a mental note to bring my shorts to the Twin Cities after-show party, which is also at Sky Bar, tomorrow.

New York also had a party on at an adjacent bar so we headed over there at 11, but didn’t see any kind of a party.  We wandered into a bar called ‘The Stud’, only to find it was a very loud, cramped leather/bear bar where I got continuously cruised (I think because of my goatee, as I was neither in leather nor particularly bearish.)  We only stayed for the one drink before leaving.

Curiously on the way out we met Martin Brophy, the Chair of the Chorus, arriving with his partner (both of whom fit in well with the clientele) and Simon Sharp, our accompanist (who does not.)  Martin, as chair, had told the chorus that they had to take care of themselves tonight and get a good eight hours sleep so as to be in good form for the performance tomorrow.  He was a bit coy about this when we met him at the bar, pointing out that the call time wasn’t until 4:30pm, so he could technically party until 7am and still get 8 hours sleep.  As someone who’d been drinking iced tea all night and intended to leave the party early to be in bed by 1am, I wasn’t impressed…

Anyway, that was today.  Tomorrow we sing to the world!

(Well, okay, we sing to North America, Dublin, Paris and Hamburg until GALA gets its act together and really becomes international!)

Day Eleven – Disappointed

OK, so we got to the Casino in plenty of time, had a look around (i.e. found the low-stakes blackjack tables) and met up with the guys.  We had our own reserved area of the restaurant (well there were about forty of us) and sat down.  Service looked like being a little slow, so those of us going to see Lily Tomlin ate from the buffet.  This turned out to be the right decision as we were leaving as the main courses were arriving.  The plan was to meet back at the Casino for the 10 o’clock kick-off of the fireworks and then we’d hang around afterwards and see if I could win back the cost of the holiday.
 
We got to the theatre in plenty of time and took our seats and in due course Lily appeared on stage.  Unfortunately I think that her act relied on that part of the American sense of humour that the British don’t have.  I found her at best mildly amusing.  Nigel, sitting next to me, didn’t seem any more enthused but Brett and the rest of the (North American) audience seemed to think she was a hoot.  I just sat there thinking about the $70 the ticket had cost.
 
The show overran too, so we couldn’t get back to the Old Town in time to see the fireworks.  The highlight of the evening, I suppose, had to be as we left the auditorium: I headed for the mens room, only to be confronted with a long queue - much to the delight of passing lesbians, who form a much smaller proportion of delegates and didn't have to wait to use the facilities...

Oh well.  Early night for us then.  Rehearsals all morning tomorrow anyway.

Day Eleven – Old Montreal

I couldn’t get my backside out of the bed this morning, so I missed my ‘feedback’ session for GALA. (They are doing these sessions to improve what the organisation does.)  As a result, we had a leisurely breakfast before walking down to the Sheraton for the 10:30 workshop session, hosted by Martin Brophy (our Chairman) and John Wright (our DBA), which was talking about how Choruses can use IT better.  It seems that LGMC is somewhat of a leader in this field.  Even so, it was interesting talking to the other IT guys to hear what kind of things they do.
 
Afterwards John Wright and his partner Rich came to lunch with Ping, Brett and I.  Then they headed back to the hotel to relax for the afternoon and Ping came with us for a wander around the Old Town.
 
The only notable location in Old Montreal seems to be the basilica which is beautifully decorated inside – quite the High Catholic institution with every surface covered with brightly coloured designs.  I got a few good photographs despite the bad lighting which I will put up the next time I update the photo gallery.
 
Just now though, we have to get ready to go out.  We’re meeting the rest of the Chorus for dinner at the Casino at 6pm then heading on to the main theatre to watch Lily Tomlin perform.  (I know her from her character in the West Wing, but apparently she is also a well-known stand-up comedienne.  Shows you what I know!)  After the show we’re off back to the Casino to watch the Spanish entry in the International Fireworks competition which kicks off at ten and, hopefully, spend a while at the tables.

Day Ten - Evening

So I caught Turtle Creek Chorale who were, in my opinion, only average – although that may have been an issue with the PA system, which I think has a problem on one side of the auditorium.  Had dinner in the food court with Brett, Paul Tame and Alex from Heartland.  Afterwards we wondered into see the Windy City Chorus from Chicago who were good, the Golden Gate MC who were truly excellent – a small group who sang without any choreography, but had a simple arrangements beautifully sung.  They finished with an acappella arrangement of ‘Somewhere’ from West Side Story where the voices provided both the vocals and the accompaniement.  It was a truly beautiful finishing number.  We also saw Columbus GMC who, while also good singers, had very tight, very big choreography and were very entertaining.
 
 By the time that was all finished we didn’t fancy going clubbing, so Brett & I headed home to sleep and Alex headed back to his hotel intending to do some writing (he composes.)
 
Got to bed before midnight for once!

Day Ten – Day Off (Almost)

Day Ten – Day Off (Almost)
 
After a late night last night and the night before and the night before that, etc. I got up for my first workshop this morning as a bit of a zombie, rushed breakfast but made it on time.  The workshop was entitled ‘Building the singer from the ground up’ and focused on basic postural and breathing techniques for producing a better sound.  It was very useful and I’ve got a list of notes that I’m going to take with me to future rehearsals as an aide-memoire.
 
Came back to the hotel and collapsed afterwards though.  Climbed straight back into bed at 10:30 and slept through until 2pm.  Brett headed out to the afternoon concert block, but I didn’t fancy it that much and stayed in to catch up with my blog and  my mail and to upload some pictures of the tour to the web.  I’ll head down to the end of the afternoon block to catch the Turtle Creek Chorale and then meet up with Brett for dinner before the evening set which includes the Chicago Chorus and another of Brett’s former neighbours the Houston GMC.

Day Nine - Performance Three

Somewhat lazy morning.  Late, leisurely breakfast where it actually felt like we were on holiday.  Damn good.  Then onto the Hyatt for our rehearsal.  We had a half-hour slot at the ‘Expo’ in the Complex Des Jardins.  The Expo is basically lots of stalls and a stage set out in the shopping complex across from the main performing venue.  We did our basic ‘crowd pleaser’ repertoire to much applause and seemed to attract plenty of shoppers as well as fellow GALA delegates.
 
Lot’s of positive feedback afterwards too – including some from the Twin Cities Chorus, who are performing in the other theatre at the same time that we do our main show on Friday.  They were partly upset that they were going to miss our set and partly miffed ‘cos they felt we’d get the audience.  I don’t think they need to worry that much as for whatever reason, GALA have put us in the smaller venue that only seats about 1400.  The Twin Cities group gets the main theatre with in excess of 2000 seats.  I get the impression that the London Gay Men’s Chorus is well respected from previous visits where they’ve been innovative and ground-breaking.  I hope we can live up to that reputation this time.
 
After our show, it was across the road to watch the first concert block of the afternoon.  There were various amusing small groups to start the block who were followed by the Indianapolis Women’s and Men’s Choruses, Capital City Men’s Chorus (Brett’s old choir from Austin) and the GMC of Los Angeles.  The surprise came from Indianapolis Men’s Chorus who were only about 35 singers but gave a much more dynamic and audible performance than the much larger GMCLA.
 
After the concert block, we headed back to Des Jardins to watch Captain Smartypants again, who were doing their Expo show today.  Different material from yesterday (was it only yesterday??) but just as funny.  We’d met up with a couple of Brett’s friends from the Capital City chorus as well as Ping and some of the Washington guys and, as it had now started raining, we hopped into taxis back to our hotel for dinner.  It wasn’t quite the relaxed meal it might have been, as we only had an hour and a half to eat and get back to see the start of the next concert block.  Oh well.
 
Ping had his new friend along whom he wanted us to meet, a lovely chap called Mike who sings with the Washington Chorus.  No idea really what’s going on there, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed for them both.
 
The evening block started with a number of women’s choirs all of which were good and the block ended with the Heartland Men’s Chorus from Kansas City, with whom we’d sung last Thursday in Washington.  It was good to see their full set, as we’d only caught parts of it during the rehearsals last week.  We looked for them on the way out of the theatre, but I think we got our wires crossed and missed them.
 
A group of the Capital City guys and Brett & I headed down to the village for a few beers.  We ended up meeting the Heartland guy we knew there anyway, so it worked out alright in the end.  We watched most of the show at Campus.  CC drifted off through the evening and when Heartland decided they were going to go onto a club called ‘The Stud’ Brett & I decided to call it a day and headed back to the hotel.
 
Brett sent a link to my blog to his family this morning, so ‘Hello’ to everyone in Texas.  Apologies if this is a bit of a dull read – normally I try to include more reflection in my travel diaries, but this holiday has been pretty much none-stop since the word go.

Day Eight – Concerted Out

OK, first full day in Montreal and what have we done?  Seen a lot of choirs sing seems to be the answer.
 
Breakfasted in the nice hotel restaurant this morning – just like lunch yesterday, the staff have personality, the food is good quality and hot and the bill arrives just as you are about to ask for it.  Then it was a taxi down to the Desjardins to have our ‘Welcome Meeting.’  Martin Brophy, our illustrious chairman, updated us on changes to the programme and answered various questions.  An hour later Brett and I were helping sort CDs and Tour T-shirts ready for the GALA shop, before heading off to see the first Concert Block.
 
The performances by all of the choirs are broken up into blocks, usually three each day in each of two theatres.  Each choir gets half an hour of a particular block allocated to them, subsidiary groups get fifteen minutes.  As delegates you can come and go as you please (provided the theatre has capacity) to see your chosen choirs sing.
 
Highlights of the first block were the Boston GM Chorus, who did a very conservative set until the last number when the whipped off their tuxedo jackets and unrolled their golden gospel smocks underneath and went into a very humorously animated rendition of ‘Down By The Riverside’.  The Washington GMC, who were our hosts at the concert last Thursday, performed their specially commissioned work ‘Changing Hearts’ which told several personal stories in the form of song and was deeply moving.  I hope to find a CD of the work.
 
I took a break after that to, theoretically, take a nap back at the hotel but ended up sorting out updates to my blog and checking out our Kennedy Centre performance online before realising I needed to get a move on to meet Brett & Ping for dinner.
 
When I got back to Place Des Artes, it was raining, Ping’s date (to whom he wanted to introduce us) wasn’t around and dinner seemed to be favoured less than going to the next concert block at 8pm.  In the end this is what we did and, although I didn’t feel much like it, I’m glad I went along.  There were a series of small group performances:  The Potomac Fever group were an acappella subset of the Washington Chorus who did some amusing renditions – one a combination starting with ‘It’s My Party (and I’ll cry if I want to)’ which ofcourse tells about how your boyfriend has just left you.  They segued this into ‘Downtown’ which in the gay context brought laughter and applause.  They also had a cute number telling about how a guy is in love with the Starbucks waiter: “Taylor, the latte boy.”
 
A group called Captain Smartypants did some satyr with ‘The Fundamental’ underlining that fundamentalism is usually dangerous regardless of which religion it is based on.  They also reminded us that some members of the population are Heterosexual and that their rights should be respected to – a sly dig at the almost rabidly pro-gay environment that can exist at events like these.
 
Finally there was Melodiva, a small group of women who sang beautifully and got a standing ovation for their ten-minute long version of ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ entitled ‘Rhapsody of New York’.  All done from memory and with the full melody (and range!) of the original piece.
Before heading home, we had dinner in a noisy, faceless, overpriced dive of a diner purporting to be a restaurant.  I find I’m getting tired of this kind of eating.  I long for a civilised restaurant.  I feel a Victor Meldrew streak coming on again…  Think I’m just too tired after a long day yesterday.  Better go to bed.

Day Seven - Montreal

I recently had a conversation with a work colleague about the vagaries of business travel and we both agreed that it was always preferable to book one's own travel, no matter how difficult it is.  In retrospect I wish I’d made more of an effort on our own behalf rather than turning the whole thing over to E-Bookers to get a cheap deal.  If I had, we might not have been getting up at 3am, after barely three hours sleep, to catch a 06:30 plane to Montreal!
 
That said, once we were up it was all fairly smooth getting through it – albeit we didn’t know the flight was operated by Air Canada until we got to the United Airlines’ check-in desk…  The flight was on time and we emerged into Montreal at about 8am after minimal formalities (quite a breath of fresh-air after the arrival at Dulles!)
 
The taxi drove us through a lovely sunny, clear morning to our hotel, the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth, which is a large, well appointed location in downtown Montreal.  Fortunately despite our early arrival, they had a room available for us to check-in to.  They are smaller than the rooms at Hotel Rouge, but contain the same basics of hotel life.
 
We are here to attend GALA, the four-yearly international festival of GLBT choruses.  Apparently there are about 5,700 delegates registered this year from 164 choruses.  Montreal is in for a surprise!  After settling into the hotel, we headed along the road to the registration for the festival and got our delegate badges (which in the context I can’t resist calling ‘Shag-Tags’ as they display your name prominently) along with a bagful of a goodies about the festival itself.
 
After a nap we had lunch in the hotel – which felt so civilised after the rough-and-ready feel of the diners in Washington! – before going out to explore Montreal’s centre.  This in its turn was a wonderful surprise.  After the monumental architecture and rather sterile atmosphere in Washington, Montreal is delightfully laid-back.  There were several street fairs on, lots of people browsing around the shops.  It felt a much more human place.  One curious thing is that they have an entire warren underground.  In the downtown area, most of the buildings interconnect through their basements.  This sounds a bit strange but makes perfect sense because, while Montreal is very pleasant at the moment (currently a sunny 29 degrees) in the winter it gets bitterly cold.  So cold, in fact, that when Charlie (our MD) and Martin Brophy were over here in January to check out locations there was a general public warning in effect not to go outside for more than fifteen minutes at a time in order to avoid frostbite!  I can imagine that these underground malls and passages are packed in the winter as streetlife becomes 'warrenlife.'
 
We wandered around the city for the entire afternoon before congregating with the rest of the Chorus ready for the opening ceremony at the Place des Arts.  Just like the Olympics, the opening ceremony is a combination of entertainment and self-congratulation which goes on too long.
 
A group of us went on for a meal (yet another steakhouse/diner) afterwards which was pleasant.  Several groups of members of other choruses were there too and the locals all looked on with bemusement as we chatted and ate.  Brett met a couple of guys he used to sing with in Austin.  After it all, we got cajoled into an impromptu performance of ‘Stand By Your Man’.  I was the only second tenor in the group but I believe I put on a creditable performance (when I could actually pitch my part!)
 
And so it was onto a bar for a party.  Someone had recommended ‘Campus’ and it was easy to see why when we got there.  It was a large bar with twenty or thirty very buff young men who seemed to rotate between doing stripteases on stage and wandering through the bar offering private shows to the clientele.  They were all very easy on the eye, so we enjoyed our beers, enjoyed the show and chatted with the lovely Alexander who wanted to offer his ‘services’ to the Chorus members. 
 

Day Six - Performance Two

Wandered down to the Luna Bar & Grill again for breakfast after meeting some of the boys in the foyer.  For once there wasn’t much Chorus politics discussed.
 
When we got back to the hotel I lay down and didn’t want to get up again, so Brett headed out by himself to see the new World War II memorial, which was the last thing on his ‘to-do’ list.   I slept for over an hour and then bumbled around making an attempt at packing until Brett got back.
 
Then it was time to get sorted for the show so we headed out to the Kennedy Centre by taxi.  I’d never been there before and was most impressed by the venue.  While it was built in the seventies, it hasn’t dated much.  It is massive, grandiose and immaculately kept.  It certainly does Washington proud as their premier arts venue.  We were the ‘pre-show entertainment’.  There is a small stage at either end of the Grand Foyer where they put on free entertainment between 6-7pm for people arriving to see shows at the three major theatres in the building.  We attracted a crowd of over three hundred and put on a superb show for them, which was simultaneously webcast.  You can find the archive via http://www.kennedy-center.org/millennium
 
While we were warming up for the show Brett had persuaded me to go see the musical ‘The Producers’ which was playing in the Opera House at the centre.  I had been somewhat indifferent, but the show is excellent – it’s by Mel Brooks and is very much his humour, which I enjoy.  I look forward to catching it again when it comes to London.
 
After the show though, we headed straight back to the hotel to that inevitability of travelling: packing.  You know my feelings.

Day Five - Performance One

Well it was a blast.  We had a really lazy morning - breakfast in the room, followed by watching TV (well, okay surfing for half an hour looking for something worth watching) and reading.  Nice and unpressured.
 
We took a walk out for lunch and to pick up some snacks for this afternoon.  We ended up back in Annie's Steakhouse, where John Moysen, Gabriel and Edmond were brunching, along with Alistair Wellman and his new friend (whose name eludes me for the moment...)  We met Charlie on the way back to the hotel - he had been diverted to New York because of the bad weather yesterday and had only arrived at the hotel late last night.
 
So we gathered our kit (quite considerable when you add in all the merchandising we had to take to the theatre) and hopped into a taxi with some of the other guys, heading for the venue.  The usual form was followed:  we had a call time of 2pm, when we're supposed to arrive at our dressing room, to be ready for rehearsal at 2:30.  We had a particularly long stint today (two hours) because it's been a while since some of us have sung the repertoire and the first time on this stage.  There were also the usual walk-throughs of getting on and off the stage, and the niceties of bowing and suchlike. 
 
After our allotted two hours, the Kansas Chorus (Heartland) were rehearsing for an hour while we had a break.  Then all three choruses were on stage - boy, that was cosy! - to rehearse the three joint numbers (one provided by each chorus).  It rapidly became obvious that no-one had rehearsed any of the other chorus' materials very much, so we all relied on the 'owner chorus' members to lead the rest of us through the unfamiliar numbers which was kind of a bonding experience.
 
The Lisner auditorium is larger than the Queen Elizabeth Hall, which is our normal large venue, totally about 1400 seats and the concert was a sell-out.  We performed in the second portion of the first half, after the Heartland choir.  As we waited behind the curtain while Washington's compere rambled, I felt more nervous than I had in a long time.  After the curtain went up the first number was ‘All I Care About Is Love’ which involves the use of red fans.  I was on the back row and every fan in my eye-line was quivering, so I guess I wasn’t the only one with a bit of stage fright.
 
Our performance was somewhat patchy, although we did a superb rendition of ‘What I Did for Love’ which is often a weak spot.  We were only thirty-five people and were somewhat dwarfed by the stage in the opening and closing numbers which didn’t help.
 
After the show there was a party with the other choruses.  We had already located our ‘host’ chorus member, who had volunteered to give us a lift to the party, who was a lovely Second Tenor by the name of Darren.  His spacious SUV carried myself, Brett, John Windle and an inflatable Big Ben to a pub/restaurant that had been booked for the evening.
 
The party itself was fun, although the food had already run out when we arrived and no more was available – there weren’t even any local takeaways or pizza delivery spots.  Washington it seems is not a late-night town.  The restaurant had its own micro-brewery so I had a pint of some black, strong-tasting stuff before switching to Margharitas – which also came in pint glasses.
 
After spending the night mingling, we eventually got a lift home from one of the Washington guys around 1:00am.

Day Four - Champagne in a Limousine

Well it's been an interesting evening. It started with the free cocktail hour in the foyer where we totally trashed 'Seasons of Love' - we really need an accompanist. Then, all of us in the blue tour t-shirts, we made our way down to Mimi's restaurant which was actually rather nice food. The waiter was so camp and Paul Tame flirted outrageously but in the end it was Alistair Wellman who he gave his number to. It was embarassing to watch it all going on.

We were asked if we'd like to sing and Paul and a couple of others were keen not to, so we decided not to... then after Paul had left John Holt went and agreed that we'd sing 'Stand By Your Man'. By the time they were ready for us, more people had left and we trashed this piece as well, but the audience seemed to like it...

After dinner it was back to the hotel to meet the limousines that Paul had booked for an evening sightseeing. Until we got going, I was fairly indifferent about the idea, but there is something that feels classy about being driven around Washington in a stretched limousine, sipping champagne. We visited most of the major monuments in the city, which are all floodlit at night. Plenty of photos, but a bit of a rush as we were on a schedule. Something I'd like to do again at my own pace.

Just ordered breakfast by Room Service because we're totally worn out. Tomorrow is going to be a morning lying in I think. The call time for the show tomorrow night isn't until 2pm, so we're going to be lazing around in the morning.

Good night.

Day Four - Georgetown & Potomac

We’d made vague arrangements with Ping to meet for an early morning trip to the Lincoln Memorial and the Reflecting Pool, but it didn’t happen. We slept in until 08:00 so we just went for breakfast with the guys again. I ordered a bit more sensibly today, but was still not really hungry at lunch time.

After, what looks like becoming a usual, two-hour breakfast, we’d decided we were going to walk to Georgetown which we did – smearing sun block on all the way. The weather forecast for today predicted a cloudy thirty-one degrees and started at 81% humidity! In the end the sun came out and the humidity dropped, so we roasted.

Georgetown was a bit of a let-down: It’s touted as a very pretty area, but to be honest I’ve been in prettier small towns in America. Georgetown doesn’t really have much to offer, apart from exclusive shopping. That said, they have a branch of Abercrombie & Fitch which the group of us went and raided. I have a rather amusing photo of the group lined-up, waiting to cross the road, every one with an A&F bag in their hands.

After the shopping we headed down to the Potomac River (on which Georgetown is built) and had just missed a river boat cruise, so we found a riverside grill and had lunch while we waited for the next sailing.

The cruise was uninspiring, but it was pleasant to sit on the river for an hour, letting the breeze cool you. By the time we were coming back to dock, though, the clouds had come in and it was starting to rain so we hopped a taxi back to the hotel.

This evening we’re having cocktails at the hotel, where we’re performing one number each evening to entertain the other guests. After cocktails we’re going to a place called Mimi’s, which someone else has had recommended and after that we’re doing a night-time limousine tour of the National Monuments. Should be fun.

Day Three - Prof. Gerry

Well, we met up with the boys for breakfast. There were about twelve of us in all and the chosen diner managed admirably - although I'm not so sure that the other guests having breakfast nearby enjoyed some of the explicit conversations quite as much as the participants. Food was good though and in a feeble attempt to eat a balanced breakfast I ended up nearly busting a gut with half a grapefruit, Belgian waffles and an omlette - any two of which would have filled me up.

After breakfast we hopped onto the Metro at Dupont Circle. The Washington Metro has got to one of the few attractive structures to come out of the Seventies. As you would expect it's all concrete, but it is still attractive and well designed - and somewhat reminiscent of the better Jubilee Line stations in London. The lighting is entirely diffused - you can't see a light source unless you go looking for it. Very well done.

We found our way to the Air & Space museum (part of the Smithsonian complex on the Mall) and Gerry began guiding us around. He'd never been here before, but he knew so much about the Space Program I'm sure they would have offered him a job. It was my second time there, but even so I still found it pretty amazing to stand beside the Apollo capsule, see how small and amazingly basic it is and realise that three men spent two weeks in that space.

After Gerry's tour, we wandered around some of the other exhibits. I had it in my head that they had a cross-section of a Boeing 747 that you could walk around, but it turns out they don't which was a little disappointing, as it's my favourite plane. We did have a go in a full motion flight simulator though, which was fun - albeit a bit basic. (It was MS Flight Simulator 2000 where you were supposed to be shooting down tanks. The instruments on the panel seemed a little redundant. I would rather it had been a commercial jetliner that you had to land or something along those lines that would have required a bit of skill!)

Over ate at lunch too.

After lunch I spent a while reading the paper while Brett and the others wandered around the Modern Art section of the National Gallery. There was an intersting editorial noting that President Bush is trying to re-align his reasons for going to war in light of the recent critical report and the lack of any hint of Weapons of Mass Destruction. He's now saying that going into Iraq was worth it to make America safer. The columnist pointed out that while they were doing this, they were busy failing to capture Osama Bin Laden who, other officials recently announced, was likely to be performing some new outrage around election time. It was observed that the columnist didn't feel any more safe now that Saddam Hussein had been toppled.

Anyway enough political commentary. We wandered up towards Union Station after that and almost got caught in a tropical rain storm, but we took shelter under the overhang of some office building just at the bottom of Capitol Hill and let it pass.

Union station is an impressive building, although probably not quite as impressive as the one in New York. It too is now mostly a shopping mall though and that was the main reason for our going. I'd forgotten to bring any spare memory cards for my camera, or the device that would let me download pictures from the one I have. We were looking for a new downloader that would actually sit inside my laptop, so I wouldn't have to keep remembering to take the thing. No joy, so we went to the movies instead. Shrek 2 is just as good as I'd heard, so if you enjoyed the first one, you'll enjoy the sequel.

We’d had a seafood restaurant recommended to us for dinner so we went along. At first we felt a bit underdressed, in our tourist shorts, especially as we were preceded into the restaurant by a couple of ladies in the care of the US Secret Service and the restaurant looked to be full of smart suits. However we had a late booking and the political-looking crowd thinned as time went by and there were more polo shirts in evidence. Anyway we had good food and wine along with Ping, Phil Brecht and John Barton (choristers all) before heading home and collapsing into bed.

Day Three - Wakeup

Good morning world. It's 08:23, the coffee is brewing in the machine for a pre-breakfast pick-me-up. The current temperature is twenty-four degrees and the forecast for today is a high of thirty-one, but with a delightful 81% humidity.

Day Two - Wimping Out

Well, we lazed for a couple of hours while Yo Yo Ma played his way through the Bach Cello Concertos, then we got cleaned up and headed down to the lobby to meet the guys. Sure enough, most of the new arrivals were in the bar when we got there about 8:20. We ordered drinks and set about catching up.

John Holt, the organiser of the dinner this evening, started to lead us off shortly after the drinks had arrived though and, as we didn't know where the restaurant was, we ended up following him - Martini glasses in hand. I've a sneaking suspicion that it's illegal to be on the streets with an open container of alcohol, but the locals we passed either ignored us or smiled. I guess we were just another bunch of eccentric Brits abroad.

We got to the restaurant and it turned out the hotel had booked a different one, but nobody knew where, so there was some milling about on the pavement until a new venue, that could set twenty at short notice. was found.

The restaurant turned out to be a steakhouse not far from the hotel where I duly ordered steak (the smallest one on the menu, as I've had experience with american portion sizes before!) and a good time was had by all. Between twenty-two of us, the bill only came to $580 and we had all eaten and drunk well.

Some of the more adventurous ones went on to a club, but about half the group meandered our way back to the hotel, stopping only for the smokers to buy cigarettes at the local pharmacy. Someone remarked on the strangeness of a pharmacy selling cigarettes, which is a bit odd if you think about it.

Off to bed now. We're meeting up again for breakfast and then I think a number of us are going to the Air & Space museum with Gerry Carter (a bass who is fascinated by the American Space Programme.)

Goodnight.

Day Two – Walking Pennsylvania

Jet lag: not conquered, but on its way out. Slept until 06:30 this morning which I reckoned was good going. Breakfast isn’t included on our tariff so we headed out to find a diner for breakfast. It turns out that this area is more of an evening venue and it took us a while to find somewhere that was open, but we got a good breakfast in after a good walk.

The question then was: what to do now? Having both been here before neither of us had much in the way of ‘must do’ things, so we took a walk down 16th Street to the White House to see if they’d relaxed the security enough to start letting tours in again. (Several bits of the hotel literature mentioned them, but they hadn’t been available the last time I was here in 2002.) It turns out that nothing had changed. You could take photographs from the end of the North or South Lawns, but that was the closest you got – and you had to weave your way between security men and concrete crash barriers along the road-side. We went on to visitors centre on the next block, but mainly to use the toilets.

After that we strolled along Pennsylvania Avenue down towards The Mall to visit the Museum of American History. Strangely the first exhibit we saw was the one about the Presidency and it was much more interesting than the White House Visitors Centre had been.

Lunch was at the Old Post Office where, because it’s still a Federal Building, you have to go through the bizarre ritual of getting your bag checked and walking through the metal detector just to get into the food court.

Brett remarked that Washington seemed to be a city under siege and, as the day wore on, I had to agree with him. While you are photographing the White House (and you are always a good few hundred yards from the actual building) the tourists are under very obvious constant observation by a couple of police men across the road. The road to the north of the building is closed for ‘major re-engineering.’ No traffic is allowed along the road by the South Lawn, which is lined with concrete crash-barriers (on both sides!) and where access is controlled by a hydraulic ramp/barrier device. Similar devices adorn vehicle entrances at any building involved with government (such as the National Archive) and metal detectors and bag searches are routine in every public building even remotely connected with government (such as the White House visitors centre.)

It strikes me that if this is the result of September 11th 2001, then the terrorists have already won a battle in the ‘War On Terrorism.’ Such intense, paranoiac security measures make one feel insecure, which is surely the goal of terrorism; to change national policy by playing on the fears of the population. The policeman scrutinising the tourists outside the White House isn’t going to spot a terrorist about his business unless he’s a very stupid terrorist, so why is he there? Do Americans feel safer for having that policeman there? Do they feel his role there is useful in fighting terrorism? I must ask some of them.

Anyway, we spent the afternoon mostly in the National Gallery enjoying sculpture and French and Flemish masters. I was actually hoping that there would be copies of some of the sculpture for sale in the very large shop, but it turned out that unless you wanted to buy a copy, a print, a postcard, or a place-mat of one of about ten well known paintings the shop was not for you.

We gave up on art and went shopping.

Back along Pennsylvania avenue to the Metro station where we headed to the Metro Centre. In the end, the shopping came to naught as well. I was looking for a card-reader for my camera as I’ve managed to leave mine at home and have no way of uploading or backing up my photographs. I’m also thinking that some comfortable walking sandals would be good. No joy on either account, so we headed back to Dupont Circle to drink coffee and watch the world go by.

Back at the hotel now – which, just to clarify, does not have leopard skin carpets in the actual bedrooms. They are just in the corridors, as are the red walls. Our room is decorated in a not-quite-mustard yellowy brown, with a dark burgundy red, geometrically patterned carpet. The lampshades and bed-heads are very tall and red however and we have red velvet curtains and all of the usual hotel room paraphernalia has some kind of red highlight to it.

We’re having dinner with the Chorus boys this evening, most of whom have been arriving this afternoon. We’re expecting the first concert (on Thursday) to be well attended as there are posters all over the gay district. The concert is a joint one featuring ourselves as the guests of the Gay Men’s Chorus Of Washington, along with the Heartland Men’s Chorus, from Kansas, with whom we’ve sung before. However the picture on the poster if of us, the LGMC, so we were feeling very proud when we saw them up everywhere.

Day One - Journey and Arrival

Hello all.

We're off to Washington DC today, the first stop on a three week holiday/tour with the London Gay Men's Chorus. After my usual custom, I'm going to be keeping a travel diary as I go, recording my thoughts and impressions. Can be quite dull, but sometimes people say nice things about what I write.

Anyway it was an early start today as I hate rushing to airports: it's way too stressful a way to start a holiday. I had enough stress yesterday over the packing - we're away for three weeks and doing four Chorus performances along the way, plus all the sightseeing, mostly in a tropical climate where every building has airconditioning, so I'm anticipating lots of changes of clothes.

I ended up bringing two cases, albeit the second one is only very small. That relieves me of the hassle of packing and re-packing to get the maximum possible into the space available.

So back to the trip: It was uneventful. United Airlines don't have electronic check-in, so we had to queue - but since we were there so early we didn't have to wait long. The flight got away a little late, but made up the time en route. The service was good but the movies were poor. We touched down at Dulles at 14:45 a little ahead of our scheduled time. The worst that followed was me having to wait 35 minutes in the immigration queue to be asked a few pro-forma questions about the purpose of my visit. Brett, being an American citizen and therefore not entitled to a long queue, whizzed through and had the luggage waiting for me when I'd finally had the required number of things stapled to my already badly perforated passport.

An airport bus took us directly to our hotel, the Hotel Rouge, along with Paul Tame (one of our Second Tenors) who had been on a flight half-an-hour ahead of ours. The hotel is a 'boutique' hotel, which seems to mean they've let a Changing Rooms designer loose with a large budget. No MDF here, but lots of funky furniture, red walls and leopardskin carpets. All tastefully moodlit in red. To be honest it feels like I'm staying in a brothel! (Maybe that's why the wardrobe is so small, they normally rent the rooms by the hour?)

But for all the 'unique' decor, the necessaries of a hotel are there and are good quality, so I can't complain.

After a brief lie down followed by a frenzy of unpacking, we headed down to the bar (red velvet, high-backed sofa-ettes, red halogen spotlights) and had a drink with Paul T who'd been exploring what to do in DC. After a snack and a quick cocktail (well it was Happy Hour) we headed out into the moist Washington evening (30 degrees and 69% humidity) to explore the Dupont Circle area.

As you come out the hotel, to your left you've got a view straight down the road to the collonade of the White House but we headed in the opposite direction. Apparantly the area around Dupont Circle is the 'gay area' in Washington and so it proved to be: Nice, open boulevards, lined with the melange of american architecture, pavement cafes, shops and bars and a very friendly crowd. After wandering around for an hour, we stopped into a bar that Brett knew from his time here and no sooner had we walked in than we ran into another Chorus member. Darryl Day (another Second Tenor) has been here a few days already with his boyfriend and was enjoying Happy Hour in JR's bar. We joined him for a few, but then Brett and I left to grab a bite to eat.

At a nearby brasserie we dined on quesadillas and, behold, no sooner had we sat down than Phillip Brecht (yes, another LGMC T2!) appeared beside us. He joined us for a beer while we ate and regaled us with the story of his journey. He left the UK before us and got in about five hours after we did. He'd flown US Air via Charlotte - where he'd had to wait 2:45hrs to clear immigration, missing his connection in the process. After hearing his tale of disaster piled upon disaster, I felt that suffering through a couple of B-Movies with United really hadn't been that bad after all.

After dinner we went our seperate ways: Phillip to find Paul T, with whom he is rooming, and us to the hotel to collapse into bed.

Most of the rest of the Chorus is flying-in tomorrow, after what sounds like a successful gig at the Cannizaro Arts Festival in Wimbledon today. I'm really looking forward to it. I suspect a long, fabulous party is about to begin...