Beating time

On Friday afternoon I sang in a funeral service -- a slightly odd use of a long "lunch-break" but they were desperately short of choristers, so I volunteered (and should in fact at some point get paid for it).

To be honest, the rehearsal was a fairly frustrating experience; everybody was joking and messing about, and several times I had to bite my lip and refrain from shouting "Can you all please concentrate so we can get this piece learnt? I am giving up my lunchbreak for this!" -- but this is what I get for singing with students, and in the end we got the anthem (a setting of the Nunc Dimittis by Orlando Gibbons) sounding really quite good.

( As for the rest, though... )