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Recent Events

christinahopgood

So a bunch of stuff has happened recently. Here are some photos that I just took off my camera.

July 30th: I went to see Bill Bailey at the National Convention Centre. This is what I wore:

Beret: some shop in Japan. It has a bow!
Cardigan: SES
Scarf: A lady knitted it for me
Brooch: My nana’s.
Skirt: Handmade
Tights: Target

Then at the end of August we went to a Percussion gathering in Brisbane. It was nice and warm, and the concerts and masterclasses were fun. Charles and I went for a walk along this cool bridge:

Here’s the Brisbane Gallery where we saw the Valentino exhibition. Seen from the cool bridge. We had macaroons there.

Then it was my mum’s birthday. I made a cake:
It is hard to decorate cakes. Hard hard hard. But I made an effort.
It’s been raining a lot here. While I was driving to work I noticed that Scrivener Dam was overflowing. It must be like a billion litres per second. That’s a bridge where cars go.
My pa is sick, so dad and I flew to Melbourne yesterday to visit him. I brought my book of Irving Berlin music to show him. He liked looking through it. I don’t want to talk about it.
To get to the nursing home, Dad and I took the shuttle bus to the city, and then a train, and then walked. Here’s Spencer Street Station:
Curvy!
brisbane, dresses, percussion, valentino

Brisbane!

christinahopgood

On the weekend, Charles and I flew to Brisbane to go to the Australian Percussion Gathering at the Queensland Conservatorium! We had a great time!

We arrived on Friday afternoon and went straight to a lecture by Sylvio Gualda. Famous guy! He was talking about Iannis Xenakis, who was apparently his personal friend.
We went to about 5 concerts in three days! My favourite performer was Kuniko Kato, who is rad and nice.
On Friday after all the concerts, Charles and myself and most of the Canberra percussion people went out to a tapas restaurant for dessert and drinks. It was super fun! There’s a picture of us there on Charles’ Blog. After that, Charles and I took a taxi to his grandmother’s house, where we stayed for the two nights. She was super lovely to accomodate us!
Saturday was a bit more relaxed! We stayed at home for the morning and had morning tea in the backyard with Charles’ grandmother and auntie. Then his auntie took us in to the city and we had a lovely walk along the river! It’s so nice!
Saturday night was not so awesome. There was a great concert which was rad, but we had not eaten dinner, and it finished at 10pm. LAME. We were super hungry, and our teacher had promised to take us all out for dinner. He took us to the first place he saw, which was this really really noisy gross nightclub. What. We didn’t even order anything, our menus were taken away. Charles and I went down the road to a cafe and had a lovely QUIET dinner together. We went back to the nightclub to try to be sociable, but it was srsly gross.
On Sunday we did the best thing ever – went to see the Valentino Retrospective at the Brisbane Gallery! There were 2 big halls full of beautiful Valentino dresses. I loved it so much!!
Then there was a big gong concert outside near the con. It was ok, a little bit arty and lame. We had to go to the airport halfway through. And then we flew home!
What a nice weekend! I’d like to go to Brisbane more often.
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Plans for the FUTURE

christinahopgood

So I seem to be at some kind of crossroads. I need to start thinking about my plans for next year!

Charles is moving to Sweden in a little over a month. This sucks for serious! But I have to remain positive or else he’ll get upset. Nobody likes a weepy Chrissy!
I want to visit him there in my summer holidays, which means the dead of winter there. This could be problematic! He won’t be in Sunnytime Stockholm-ville, but in Arctic Circle Land Freezyhole. Do people really live there in winter? I’ll find out! I’m also going to visit my friend in Paris!
Anyhow, since he’s moving away, he’s leaving behind some percussion students I can perhaps teach. That would be a good bit of income – but – I think I have to promise to be around for at least a year before they hire me. It’s fair enough – you don’t want to go through too many teachers, it’s not fair on the students. I taught them for a few weeks while Charles was in America, and it seemed like a nice kind of job.
But then there’s the question of next year. If I want this job I have to stick around, which I’m quite happy to do. My options are:
1. Go to where Charles is.
2. Get a … job???
3. Clothing Construction course (CIT, Canberra).
4. Master of Music Therapy (Melbourne or Sydney)
5. Honours in Music (ANU)
Obviously my parents are not keen on my going to where Charles is. That is just not SEEMLY. Also it would be better for me to advance my own education or career instead of waiting around for him, in a place where I *can’t* do anything productive. So as much as I’m probably going to miss him, that’s not an option right now.
A job … what IS a job. I have a job! At the library! And I’d get a job teaching! But what this means is…. going into the Public Service. What. My parents suggested this one. The only good thing is that I’d get lots of money, but I’d also probably lose interest in all the rad things I’m interested in. I’d earn enough money for a marimba… but I’d probably just do something boring with my money instead. And I’d be too busy to play.
Clothing Construction would be so cool. I would love to do this. Apparently it’s a great course.
I haven’t done much research on the Music Therapy programs. They could possibly be lame. I’ll look into it. If I did this, I wouldn’t be able to take on teaching or continue working at the library, and I’d have to move cities. Away from my family and friends and percussion at a time when I will possibly need them badly.
I think Honours in Music is the go. I just need to convince my parents it’s a good idea. I played in a concert this afternoon with the percussion department and my Dad came… and Gary (my teacher) announced me as “Christina, who graduated last year and is hopefully doing honours next year!”. I nearly died. Dad was all “What’s all this nonsense about Honours, Christina???”. Oh Gary. THANKS.
TL;DR – Options! I has them.
dress

Help! Which colour?

christinahopgood


So I’m thinking of buying this dress by Surface Spell (through Qutieland). It’s a replica of Victorian Maiden’s Fairy Chiffon Doll Dress, which I adore (if you look at both links you’ll see every colour except the red). Victorian Maiden doesn’t sell that dress any more, and the Surface Spell one costs about one third of the price. I’d love to buy it, but my problem is this:

What colour do I get???
It comes in white, offwhite, red, dark red, black, and pink. Out of those, I only like offwhite, dark red, and black. So out of those three colours, which one do I choose?
Should I buy one, see how I like it, and then buy the other two? That’s a bit wasteful, and weird.
Offwhite could look a bit like a wedding dress, but it also is easy to coordinate. White goes with pretty much everything. But I am kind of pale, and it could wash me out.
Dark red is one of my favourite colours to wear. My favourite coat is dark red, my favourite hat is dark red. I wear red cardigans all the time. But a whole dress made of red… would that be a bit much?
Black would be gorgeous, but I don’t know if I can pull it off. I have some black performance clothes and it looks weird if I wear them while I’m not performing. However, it would be fairly easy to coordinate… maybe.
I’m in a PICKLE.
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My Recent Adventures

christinahopgood

Have not been so exciting. I have some cool blog posts to come, but they are reliant on my photographer/boyfriend coming home.

Charles has gone off to America for a while. He’s just spent a week in San Francisco doing an interesting computer music workshop at Stanford. Now he’s in Montreal to talk to some people at McGill university, and then he’s off to Toronto to another computer music festival or something.
He’ll be back in a bit over a week, and after that maybe I can get these photos I need. They are pictures of ME that I can’t take myself.
OK TILL THEN TAKE CARE HUGS BYE