Monday 8 July 2013

A Weekend of Fun Days 2 Chester Race Course



It was even hotter today. And there’s not a lot of shade on a race-course. We did manage to find a few seats under some umbrellas and it was very pleasant chilling out between sets, keeping cool and chatting. There was a bar, but no one went for the Pims at £5.00 a portion. Other drinks were much more reasonably priced.

One of the coolest places was inside the Pavilion where all of the live musical entertainment took place. This offered us a fine opportunity to listen to some good music.
We were invited to sing at Co-operative Family Fun Day. We’re pleased they asked us. We’ve sung for them three times before at Christmas but this is the first time at a Family Fun Day.  
It was the first glimpse of many of us at the inside of a race-course and few had realised just how close this particular one is to the centre of the town. It was fascinating coming across the vocabulary associated with horse-raining on this afternoon when something so totally different was happening.
We actually rehearsed in one of the changing rooms which also doubled up as a place where we could leave non-valuable items. There was just enough space for us all to get in though a couple of people did opt to sing in the shower. The sound was amazing.  Could we repeat it, though, in the bigger space?
We completed two sets of about twenty-five minutes each. The Pavilion holds a lot of people and for both performances we had a respectable and appreciative audience – even if they had only come in for a drink and to get out of the sun. Was it my imagination or were there more  people there for the second set? Certainly there were people on every row if not every seat. True, the sun was possibly at its hottest by then but I even had the impression they were listening a little harder. Had our reputation gone before us? Or was it just the heat?
We tried to replicate what we’d done yesterday but really the area was too exposed to sing in for long. However, we did join and entertain the ice-cream queue again. With Teddy Bears’  Picnic. Could we get gigs at theme parks entertaining the queues? That could be fun – singing on the rides as well, maybe. We’re game for most things.
One or two from the queue joined in Teddy Bear but one young girl looked highly uncomfortable. I hope we didn’t scare her too much – though we do intend to scare with that one.  
Yes, the second set was rewarding. Three young lads sat on the front row and Jeff let them choose whether we should sing How much is that Doggy in the Window, Teddy Bears’ Picnic or Nellie the Elephant. They opted for Nellie so there was a bit of galumphing.
A few rows back some very elegantly dressed older ladies seemed to enjoy our little show.
We did something a little different with Longer this time: our regular soloists – Ann, Ella and Susan all sang together. It worked rather well and gave some volume to the solo part.
Was the icing on the cake when one of the older ladies stood up to clap?
Well we’ve worked hard this weekend but it’s all been great fun.  When’s the next one? Oh, yes, Buxton next week.                

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