Life – Page 4 – The Beth Project

This week I am into...

Sometimes I do things which are not science or programming. I like to pretend otherwise, but it really happens. These things include:

No-heat headband curls.

Usually curling your hair requires using a hot thing, or putting curlers in when nobody can see you. This headband curls method doesn't fry your hair and looks so cute while it's drying that I use a pretty lace hairband and quite happily wear it into the office - it's very 1920s. You put a headband over your hair, take small sections and wrap them around the band, then let your hair dry and take it off.

My hair after doing headband curls

Smoothies

I bought John a new blender for his birthday last year after his bit the dust after about 20 years of constant use. It came with a smoothie maker, and my freezer had loads of fruit ready to be used! My favourite frozen things so far have been: bananas, grapes, strawberries, melon, and pears (raspberries make things a bit grainy for my liking). I've been using pressed apple juice thus far (pasteurised cartons of which are surprisingly cheap in Tesco) but I think orange might be fun, too.

Little Birds

Ysolda Teague is one of my favourite knitting pattern designers ever. I've always liked this pattern, because a) I quite like birds, and b) this style of cardigan really suits my figure. So I've started knitting it! I have about two inches finished thus far. It's nice and repetitive without being boring. I've never knitted anything this big before, but I'm tentatively hoping to have it finished by the time I finish my PhD.

Kale

I know, you guys, I've gone full Pinterest. Seriously, though, kale is yummy, and cheap, and if you get distracted while you're making breakfast and fry it for slightly too long, it goes really crunchy. In the last week I've added it to risotto, egg fried rice, stir fry, and garlic mushrooms, and they were all delicious, and an incredibly pleasing shade of green.

Rubber ducks

Cleaning the bathroom was boring, so I let my rubber ducks have a bubble bath in the sink while I scrubbed the tub.

Rubber ducks having a bubble bath
And finally, some musics

Bringing a bit of Oxford to the east coast of the USA

Map of tour places

So our crowdfunding campaign was a success! This July, we all bundled ourselves onto a plane, armed with folders of music and wide-eyed excitement. I'm so grateful to everyone that donated and spread the word about our campaign.

We started out in Washington, with concerts in the city church and in the cathedral. Washington Cathedral, it turns out, has a gargoyle on the outside shaped like Darth Vader, and a stained glass window with an honest-to-goodness moon rock in it. The White House, the senate, the Lincoln memorial, the Smithsonian and the National Academy of Sciences were all super close to each other, so we managed to do some sight-seeing despite the sweltering weather.

To science, pilot of industry, conqueror of disease, multiplier of the harvest, explorer of the universe, revealer of nature's laws, eternal guide to truth.

The ceiling at the National Academy of Sciences. It reads: "To science, pilot of industry, conqueror of disease, multiplier of the harvest, explorer of the universe, revealer of nature's laws, eternal guide to truth."

In Wilmington, after we were fed enormous amounts of food by the audience, we were kindly welcomed into the home of the Saads, whose daughter Alexa is a super-awesome singer, and whose son is distressingly good at board games. Then in Northampton our new host families threw a fourth of July party for us, and with the help of two small girls we dressed up the bass section in sparkly ball gowns.

The next day we sang in the church next to Smith College, and by a truly amazing stroke of luck, a few of us were shown around the university bell tower, and even got to ring the bells!

All in all, I had a wonderful time, met amazing people, sang beautiful music and saw utterly unique sights. Again, you guys, I am so grateful.

Crowdfunding to help a plucky young choir make it to America

Edit: we did it, you guys! Thanks so much to all of our sponsors.

Somerville College Choir rehearsing at Douai Abbey

The choir I'm currently in are trying to get together enough money to go out to Washington and Boston to sing this July. We're quite unusual as Oxford college choirs go - Somerville College was one of the first women's colleges to open, but it's actually one of the newer colleges, because women weren't allowed into Oxford until 1920. It's not particularly famous or well-funded, and it doesn't have much of a choral tradition.

Our singers come from a lot of different backgrounds, and for most of us, this is our first opportunity to travel so far afield.

We're trying to raise part of the money for our tour through gifts from our friends and family. If you'd be willing to consider helping us reach our goal (I'd be really grateful!), you can donate at https://hubbub.net/p/somervillechoirtour/ .

Alternatively, you could buy a copy of our excellently Christmassy second album "Advent Calendar".

If you can't make a financial contribution to our project, it'd be great if you could spread the word about what we're trying to do to anyone who you think might be interested.