Sunday 24 January 2010

A fun weekend. On Friday Angharad and I visited the dad (Andrew) of one of her classmates (Stephen), who has a Roland Digital Drum Kit. This is a great deal of fun, as I can attest. Angharad thought so too (see picture). She has headphones on through which she can hear the sounds that she is creating. Through these it sounds exactly as if the drummer is live on stage. The kit comes with built-in music (of every conceivable type) and with the facility to mute the drums on the track and play along oneself. It also allows the drummer to follow the drums on the  music track and assesses accuracy of performance. VERY clever!  And for the cognoscenti amongst you, here is a demo of how the drum kit might sound in expert hands: ftp://ftp.roland.co.uk/Videos/TD-9KX/videos.html


Then today (24.01.10) we went over to Amanda and Hatel's place for afternoon tea with their three kids, Aaron, Mya and Asha. I think Aaron is Angharad's very best friend. From their earliest days they have recognised each other and always played and hugged beautifully. Today they went off upstairs and were floating boats in the bath. Here is a pic of the two of them sharing one of a long series of hugs and kisses; typically, while Aaron has eyes for Angharad, she manages to spot the camera and spare it a glance!

Thursday 7 January 2010

Angharad's Blues-harp

Angharad loves music. While not prodigious in the Mozartian sense, of course, she has moved on from putting CDs into the B&O or changing them when they get boring; now she's taken to playing drums, a recorder, our piano and, here, a blues harmonica. OK 'playing' goes a bit far but I reckon her body-language would do any Blues harpist proud - bending, twisting and rolling!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSdiepy2iVc 

Wednesday 6 January 2010

Snow in park


Wimps! A touch of snow and the schools are closed. Pah! Probably "elf 'n safety". Schools should be open and staff/pupils should get in. Anyway, Wednesday becoming a non-school day allowed Angharad and Dad both to get haircuts then play in the snow across the road on the playing fields (unrelated tasks despite how that sentence reads). As you can tell, a grand time was had by all!