Mannheim to Munich

Oooh, I do feel better to have got that last rant off my chest! We're now 4 hours into the journey and have just had our comfort stop; my revolving, auto flush loo was somewhat arthritic in that it revolved the seat with a creaking noise and forgot to flush! I had to do that bit myself and found that I was a bit affronted that I'd had to do it - having got used to everything being so automated over here! It's going to take me ages to get used to turning a tap on to wash my hands, rather than waving them under the outlet ...

We've definitely made into Bavaria - we kind of touched the top edge of it on Wednesday on the train from Berlin to Mannheim, but this is definitely Chitty Chitty Bang Bang territory and to make it even prettier it is coated with a couple of feet of snow. It's not snowing at the moment, but the trees are covered in frost and look like swathes of brilliant white coral along the sides of the road. We've been told its - 10 degrees in Munich, so it looks like I might get the chance to wear another one of the 7 vests I brought with me ...!

The concert last night was an absolute belter (BJ nod to GVS there). The hotel was opposite the concert hall so we were able to go back to the hotel after the rehearsal and do dresses and faces in the comfort of our own rooms. Much more civilized than having to hang around at the hall and then try and get a face on along with 10 other people crowded round 1 badly lit mirror; you'd assume when designing backstage concert facilities that someone would twig that adequately lit mirrors were a pre-requisite wouldn't you ???

We then walked to the hall ready dressed and had a sneaky glass of fizz before the audience turned out for the interval. A lovely relaxed way to prepare for a show I feel. The hall is a tricky acoustic to work with - it's quite difficult to hear everything - the rest of my section in fact! It felt like I was singing solo at some points! However, it went very well and personally speaking it felt like one of my best voice nights so far. The response from the audience was great and when the lovely Johan (chorus master extraordinaire) brought the choir to its feet, we were treated to a Mannheim Stamp, which was really kind and very loud!

We were all on a bit of a high after this and because we were so close to the hotel, we made it back the bar by 2215, so there was plenty of time for several G & T's, chips and mayo (I do miss chunky HITW chips BBW) and a sing along with Ivan and Babushka the in-house "entertainment" - Volare and Rockin' all over the world (complete with air guitar) were particular favourites(!), before an "early" night - well its all relative!