The divorce between Ian Myers and the choir "A Clair Voix"

Good Evening Dear Reader.

As of today the divorce between Ian Myers and A Clair Voix has been announced. Last Monday members of the Committee came round to see me to discuss the program for the rest of the year.

Since the beginning of the year I have been the new "chef" of the choir A Clair Voix" after the retirement of the previous "chef" who wanted to spend more time travelling. This was done. And there I was with my years of musical training and good will and desire to take the choir to the next level.

I did not want to work like the old chef. I had my own style and was maybe more demanding and introduce different songs. New methods of working. The downside was that this disrupted habits. It made people work a bit more. I was also less tolerant of talking during rehearsals. The beginning of the year started with three concerts. One a month and I organized carolling for December.

One of my mistakes was to present the committee with a perceived "fait accompli" for the carolling; I had asked members what they thought of the idea of doing it etc and wanted to know what people would think. When I had finished the planning stage I presented my project to the Committee. Apparently they resented the fact that I had gone behind their backs. The end result? We raised 770€ for the charity "Restos de Coeur!" And I know the people we sang to certainly enjoyed it.

The last concert we did, 17th December, was on of the best concerts that the choir had ever given. It was in a church and I had the feeling that the Lord was smiling on us. They sang well. It was music. For the first time they were really showing a musicality.
But there was an undercurrent of hostility from the Committee. They wanted a sing song evening every Wednesday night. Nothing serious. As much social as singing. Now and again a concert. It had worked well like that for 9 years so why change. They didn't want to sing in foreign languages. They wanted to sing the songs they had always sang.

I wasn't offering that. I wanted to try and direct them towards music. Towards different kinds of music. Pushing them all the time, and pushing them forwards. Everything I did for them was heading towards that goal.

However. Last Monday the Committee came round as they wanted to have the program for the rest of the year. I gave them my ideas. On Wednesday night the wind was blowing and people were restless during the rehearsal. It was hard getting them to focus. The end result when people were singing well was good. But it was a real effort. So getting back to Monday night I had been gradually feeling more and more resentful towards them and I offered to resign either with immediate effect of at the end of the year. This evening I received a phone call from the Committee saying that they wanted it to be immediate. I said OK.

It feels strange. I wish them luck. In many respects it’s not my problem anymore. But I just wish I could have done more for them.

Only time will tell…

Post Scriptum

Good Evening Dear Reader
I have just got back from handing our couchsurfers to their next host in Nantes. I'm never good at goodbyes. The house seems so empty. It's almost as if Chirstmas was over. They weren't there for long but it's amazing how they become part of the family. I told Killian earlier today that we will be part of their memories whenever they think of their voyages. Maybe that's what hosting in couchsurfing is about...

Christmas Time is Here

Merry Christmas Dear Reader,
This was a peculiar Christmas. Peculiar in a nice way of course and a first for us. We had people for Christmas that we had never met. There was even a posibility of another person but she managed to find an alternative. You might be wondering whether or not I have lost my mind well I haven't... I think I've talked about couchsurfing before. (http://couchsurfing.com)

Well this year we've tried and tested it and have found it a great experience. We joined for numerous reasons. At the moment we can't travel or are not as free to travel. There's a saying that, "if the mountain will not come to Mohammet, the Mohammet will go to the mountain." I suppose that it has become our way of travelling. There's also a very importnant part of the Rule of St Benedict about hospitality and welcoming in the traveller. I gives us the occasion to give our time and efforts for other people. It's also nice just having people around the house. Even Killian who's only 8 said he liked couchsurfing because "you get to meet new people and make new friends." Charity is the purest form of love and what better way to love one's fellow man than to offer him shelter when he's travelling.

Christmas is that time of year when the Marketing people get really flustered wondering about sales figures and the sales people want to know the latest turnover figures. The secular Christmas has become this orgy of consumerism, to fill you house with decorations, to fill you face with food and wine, to fill your children's rooms with new toys, to fill your head with Christmas TV and films. This is the only occasion that I will talk about Xmas. Because that is all it is. X. And definitely not Christ.

The real Christmas is about celebrating how God came down to earth to live aomngst us. Did he come as a king, No. When you read the Nativity stroy in Luke and Mathew's gosels the story is very simple but it's so full of meaning. every little thing has a meaning. Why was he not born in Nazereth for example. The census was about bringing people of Jesus' own ancestry together in one place. Bethlehem was full of his extended fmaily and there was no place for Him. They had to accept a cow shed and the Baby was put in the feeding trough. Not the kind of welcome you would expect for a Saviour.

That really spoke to me and I decided that for this Christmas I would welcome people into myhouse. Generally with couchsurfing people arrive as strangers but leave as friends. Thishappened yet again. You get to know the people to some extent by sharing mails etc. but you'recompeltely sure. There's a great part of trust, but when people come through you leave a reference and this reflects on the person. We lay down certain rules too like, nobody in Killian'sroom and Killian is never alone with a couchsurfer.

Nearly time for lunch Dear Reader so I'll wish you a bon eppetit.
Take care and talk soon,
Ian

Killian's 8th birthday and 1st choir rehearsal!

Good Evening Dear Reader,
8 years ago today the little guy on the left came into this world. 8 years ago I my life changed forever. 8 years ago I became a father! I am no longer Ian, Mr Myers, or that English bloke. No. I am Papa, or Daddy...

I remember it as if it were yesterday. Well not exactly yesterday - more the day before yesterday.

Fade into 11th December 1998 just like they do in the films...... It was 16h and I was working at the SITA in la Défense in Paris. I got a phone call saying Virginie, hospital and maternity, and come. I'm sure there were lot's more things but those were the words I understood. I am living proof that the journey from desk to bedside in the CHU Intercommunal de Montreuil sous Bois can be done in one hour. I had given up running after my flirt with the British army. Bad joke and all that. But there I must have been faster than an Olympic athlete! Compared to the RER I was quicker! Normally it took at least 1h30...

I arrived at the maternity ward and saw the great while whale waddling towards me. Very pregnant ladies don't walk, they waddle like ducks. In fact it's sometimes easier to spot a pregnant lady from the rear ad from her gait , then from her tummy. Here as I expecting to see my wife with various tubes stuck in her and people and machines that go ping! But nothing. My first question was, well where is he? He was still in the same place he had been since we made love about 8 1/2 months earlier!

Despite my great and utter confusion I gathered that my wife was to stay over night in the hospital, and that I could go home and the yes of course they would call me, when my son decided it was time to show up!

The next morning at about 8h30 I received a call from the hospital. Was I Ian Myers, yes I was, well if I wanted to be there for the birth of my son it would be a good idea to get a move on. Virginie's labour had started at 3h and she got the peridural at 7h30. Now a contraction is something a guy can never even hope to get a grasp of. It's like the stomach cramp you get with a really lovely tummy bug, multiplied by about 100.

I arrived by 9h. What really was bothering me was what on earth was I going to say to this woman for so long. We had never had to spend so much time together in such a confined space. I also felt this obligation to stay there rooted to the spot for fear of going for a coffee and missing the important delivery. Something like that would have been grounds for divorce and my mother in law would have reminded me of it until the day she died. To be honest the time passed quite quickly. She even fell asleep on the table! Every half hour a nurse would come in and stick fingers up Virginie where I would never have though and the countdown began. Dilation 1, Dilation 2 etc.

Dilation10, let's get going. I faded into the background whilst the team set up stall in front of my wife. This modern idea of the male sharing the birth experience is a load of bollocks! Not true. A complete fallacy. I was a mere spectator. They used the forceps to get him out, and he popped out like a champagne cork. Thank heavens the doc was there to catch him. I remember asking is it normal that umbilical cord around his neck, then seeing this huge Midwife's arm pull it from around him. I also remember just crying and going on about how beautiful he was. He was and still is very beautiful. But I don't tell him too much or he'll become unbearable. Yet another thing I remember was seeing him getting his first nappy. I saw his bum and saw thin huge black hole. There was this black toxic waste type substance that was there. Disgusting! What had they given him in the womb? He was cleaned and put in his adorable little pyjamas and hat.. He was so small. Here he was in my arms not even crying. It was the first of many father son moments.

Fade back to 12/12/06....

So years later, here I am writing aout something that happened 8 years earlier.

The latest news from Vendée

Good Morning again Dear Reader,
The 1^st December saw me at the Radiologist’s. The first time my doctor hadn’t seen my first x-rays as they had been kept by Casualty in Montaigu. So after two weeks during the control x-ray, the fracture had changed to a break! It explains why my foot was hurting. I had tried to push a bit in order to be able to go back to work on the Monday. As soon as the doctor saw this and felt my foot he said to stop being so bloody stupid, rest, and he stopped me until the 18^th December!

That night I had my first Friday of carolling with my choir – I am the Choirmaster. It was a great night. We raised just over 100€ for charity. They’ve never seen anything like it here. It was nice being there at the beginning of something, for it is like that that I felt it. Instead of going from house to house we went from village to village and sang for three villages grouped together. We were served mulled wine in two of the villages and it was great. Virginie was my chauffeur and Killian my music stand. At the end of it though my foot was killing me. I then decided that for the next Friday I would have to give it a miss. Somebody else directed it, and they raised 112€. I’ll see how I feel next Friday.

You will be kept up to date Dear Reader.