The Year that was 2011: The Home Stretch!!!

And so we come to the final act....................

September



Well rehearsals were in full swing for Blood Brothers. The show is about the story of twin boys separated at birth. "Blood Brothers is a dark but lyrical drama set in Northern England . Love ,class and conflict all drive a powerful entertaining Musical." It has some beautiful and memorable music. My favourite song to perform was "Kids Game" and one of my favourite songs from the show is Easy Terms. It is such an emotional song!! There was many a rehearsal and performance where tears were shed in the final act!!





My brother Ryan also celebrated his 17th Birthday. I can't believe my baby brother is going to be 18 this year!!!

October
The Blood Brothers season ran from October 7th - 22nd so it took up a lot of my free time this month. I had an awesome time and got to know some really wonderful people who I can't wait to work with in the future.

Carolyn, Carina & I

Jane, Carina, Dani, & I

Here we are all dressed and ready for the "Kids Game" song. It was sooooo much fun to play a 7 year old!!!

"Ok men lets get him with a hand granade." "Let's see em try n get out of this"

The guys........seems there was never a dull moment in their dressing room!!!

Relaxing at the closing night party.

 

 

 

 

 I also had my first singing lesson with the extremely accomplished Jane Edwards. She is a former Lecturer in Voice at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and talented soloist in her own right. Her specialty lies in early music, particularly of the Baroque era. She has taught numerous students who have competed in major singing competitions around the world. She also features on the Soundtrack to the movie Shine which is an awesome achievement in my book alone. She is a lovely and encouraging person to work with & I look forward to many wonderful singing lessons with her this year. 

If October wasn't busy enough, I finally completed my Certificate 3 in Community Pharmacy. This was the culmination of two years of hard work but it is worth every bit of it. The good thing is it adds another qualification to my name and gives me greater options in the Pharmacy industry. 


November
This was the month of dedication to the choir I sing with: Right on Cue. We had two BIG Performances this month with the Right on Cue end of year concert/Devonport Choral Society 60th Anniversary combined Concert and the Launceston Empty Stocking Appeal Concert with local Choir Vox Harmony.

This was a wonderful evening of song and reminicing from the past 50 years of the Choral Society's public performance. Among the featured solists from the past 10 years of shows were:
Brett Budgeon (Footloose and Urinetown)
Denise Sam (Cabaret)
Chloe Harris (Camelot)
Shayne Lowe (Into the Woods)
Laura Budgeon (The Secret Garden and Urinetown)
and
Carolyn Harris (The Secret Garden)


We have some amazing talent from the North West Coast and Northern Tasmania and it is a pleasure to be involved with such a calibre of Talent.
I also undertook my first Stage Managering role for the concert and it was a very interesting experience to say the least!!

The following day saw the Choir travel to Launceston for the Empty Stocking Appeal Concert. It was a very long weekend but lots of fun none the less!!

December
Well the Christmas period had finally begun!!!! The Devonport Choral Society entered in the Devonport Christmas Parade featuring costumes from varioius previous shows the Society has staged. We took 2nd Place for Best Costume!!!

The Choir also sang as part of the Christmas Tree Light up later that evening.


It was also miss Darcey Saphira's 3rd Birthday. She was deffinitly spoiled this year with lots of exciting presents!! She also had an amazing brithday cake made by her Mum, Jay. For those who are friends with Jay on Facebook you can see her amazing creations in her photo albums.


The Choir also sang at the Ulverstone Carols of which I made by Choir Conducting Debeut as out choir director flew out for England the day before. It was a stressful but fun experience. Don't know that I want to do it again but I'm sure I will give it another crack!!! I think Petrina will make sure that happens!!


Finally Christmas came around and it was a lovely, relaxing couple of days with the family!! Christmas is my favourite time of the year particularly as our family comes together to celebrate and share some wonderful food!! I also love watching Carols by Candlelight on Christmas Eve. It is a tradition my mother started as she watched them for the time she was a little girl. It is a tradition she has passed on to us and one I would like to pass on to my family!! I would love to attend in person one year but we will see if that comes to pass!!


Well what a whirlwind year 2011 was!!! I cannot believe how much I fit into one year!!! I look forward to what 2012 holds for myself and my family and friends but it is an exciting adventure I can hardly wait to experience. I have many wonderful events awaiting me this year and I can't wait to share some of them with you!!

The year that was: 2011.............continued

Let us continue:

April
April saw the birth of my nephew Eric David James Travers on the 10th April. He was very eager to come at 6 weeks early but he was just beautiful. He is another blessing in our lives and is such a happy, smiley little baby.

Just minutes after Eric was born. He is just adorable!!

 

 

 

The very Proud sister

I also completed my Competent Comunicator Manual for Toasmasters. This is the award you recieve for completing your first 10 speeches at Toastmasters. Took me 18 months to complete but I finally did!!!

May:
I competed in two Eisteddfod's: Burnie & Launceston. I didn't recieve any placings in the Launceston competition but I met some lovely people and it is always good to do some performing. In Burnie I took home Four First Places and a Second Place which was really nice. I also recieved a special memorial Trophy for being the 2011 Open Vocal Champion.

I also went & saw the local Choral Society Production of Urinetown. The show was nominated for 10 Tony Awards in 2002 and took three home. For those who don't know, the Tony Awards are like the Academy Awards but for Theatre productions. It is the story of a ficticious town sometime in the future where people have to pay to go to the public toilet. If they are caught trying to cheat the system, they are arrested and sent to 'Urinetown', which is otherwise known as death. It is a great show and I would recommend it to anyone. My favourite song from the show was Run, Freedom, Run. There is an excellent clip of the Broadway cast performing this at the Tony Awards on You Tube if you are interested.

June:
My first semester Psychology subject came to an end. It was an enjoyable but tough subject and I deffinitely learnt a lot. I even came out with a HD for two of my assessments which was such a surprise cause the Psychology department is very tough on assesments. I ended up with a Credit overall for the semester so I was over the moon at that result!!!

July:
This was a pretty jam packed month. Firstly I competed in the Hobart Eisteddfod which was an experience. Once again no placings but I did learn a couple of things which was good.

My Mum, sister and I, along with a few family friends, headed to Sydney again for a women's conference called Time Out For Women. It was a fantastic day and it was wonderful to see sooooo many beautiful women from around Australia. The days program included many songs from one of my favourite Christian singers Hilary Weeks, and sessions with Brad Wilcox, Laurel Christiensen, Sherri Dew, and Virginia Pearce who all came from America to speak to us. We also were given these awesome Green & Purple Tote Bags which are so cute and which I use all the time. My favourite parts of the day were hearing Hilary Weeks sing and listening to Laurel Christiensen. I got to meet both of them at the end of the day and they are two of the most lovely and beautiful people I have had the pleasure of meeting. I got to meet Hilary in Salt Lake when we were there in 2009 and she was still the same person she was the first time I met her.

My sister Lisa and I with Hilary Weeks

with Laurel Christiensen

I also started my second semester of Psychology at UTas and the choir that I sing with, and am Assitant Choir Director for, sang as part of the Gospel Song for the annual local Jazz Festival held each year. It is always a fun sing and something the choir looks forward to every year.

I also joined the cast for Ulverstone Rep Society's Production of Blood Brothers. More about that later!!!

August:
At the beginning of August my Mum and I flew to Melbourne for the weekend to catch up with my best friend Melinda from New Zealand, who I studied with in New Zealand, along with her younger sister Louisa. We flew out on the Saturday morning from Launceston, spent the day shopping (of course!!), caught up with my friend for dinner at the Pankcake Parlour (one of my favourite restaurants and a must visit whenever we go to Melbourne), and ended the night seeing Love Never Dies. This was an Australian Premiere and Melbourne was the first city outside of London to have staged the show. Love Never Dies is the sequel to The Phantom of the Opera and is set 10 years later on Coney Island in America. It isn't my favourite show, that title still goes to Wicked, but I loved the music and the costumes and even shed some tears at the end. It was so wonderful to catch up with Melinda again and to share some more memories. We also got to catch up with my Aunty Jenny, Uncle Bruce, my cousin Bianca and her Partner and little boy who is absolutely gorgeous!! We flew back home late Sunday afternoon and back to reality!!

My best friend and I with our favourite gown from the show!!!!

I also competed in the Devonport Eisteddfod. I went in both the Speech & Drama and Vocal sections. In the Speech & Drama I got three 1st places, one second place and one honourable mention and I recieved a special trophy for getting the highest score in two of the sections I competed in. In the Vocal I got 5 second places so it was quite a successful competition. I also learnt a lot again which is always good and it is nice for my family to be able to come and hear me sing. In the same competition Right on Cue competed in three sections where we got a first place with 98 and a second place with 93. The choir did really well and it was a great end to the competitions.

The middle of the year was another busy 5 months!! The final instalment will be posted soon.............

The year that was: 2011

Well I am very embarassed to see my last post was in October, 2010. That is over a year ago. That shows to me how fast time flies!!! Let me review the year that was 2011:

January:
Started the new year in Sydney as part of the National YSA Convention. Was able to catch up with some old friends and of course made plenty of new ones!!! Had a good time in Sydney but still have to say my favourite city is Melbourne (sorry to all my wonderful Sydney friends!!)

I also celebrated my 27th Birthday on January 26th (Australia Day). I had a lovely day with the morning at the beach and a relaxing afternoon at home!

February:
This month saw me back in Sydney, with my family this time, for my middle brother Rhy's wedding to Amy. It was a rather busy but enjoyable week. Once again I got to catch up with some old friends but also got to spend some quality time with the family. Like all our trips there were ups and downs but on the whole it was a great trip.

Miss Independent ready for the trip!!!!

My favourite Chicken restaurant. We need to get one in Devonport!!

Darcey's new friend from Build a Bear

Nothing much looks good to Darcey. I think she just had chips that night!!

The Happy Couple

The Travers Clan Children

Yes Mum & I got to meet a few of the Sunrise Crew

 

 

I also decided to go back to Uni. Applied to do some Psychology subjects so I can get my Masters in Music Therapy. It has taken me a long time to work out what I want to do with my music but finally I have come to a decision I am happy with.

After a couple of weeks honeymoon, Rhys and Amy had a "second" reception to include friends in their celebrations at the Raspberry Farm in Elizabeth Town, Tasmania. It is a beautiful location and there was of course pleanty of yummy raspberry foods!

One very yummy cake!!

Playing with Bubbles is always fun when your 2!! Not a care in the world!!

March:

We had our Grand Opening for the Pharmacy at it's new Premesis under a new name (only 3 months after we opened!!) We moved to the main shopping district in East Devonprt & changed our name to Mersey Pharmacy Soul Pattinson. The new Pharmcay look soooooo much better and is way easier to access!!! (If you haven't seen it yet come visit the lovely girls or find us in facebook!!!)

...........Well these first three months were rather interesting. Check back for the next installment soon!! :)