I wrote this article nearly 9 years ago, so some of the dates are a bit wrong, but the scene it describes is still current and valid!
Time is a funny old thing. Apparently you can never have enough but you sometimes find yourself with too much of it on your hands. I've had just a weekend on holiday so far and I'm bored already! It's probably a good job I've got some holidays to look forward to.
There's a profound difference between having a holiday and having a rest. Teachers are very aware of the difference, as are doctors and nurses, policemen and firemen. You may start your holiday at the end of your working year, but you don't start to rest until you have had time to wind down and release yourself from the malign Pavlovian influences of bells and marking. As I've only been off a short while I am still tied to the alarm clock - even though it no longer rings - and I wake up at 6:00 to 6:15 every morning. I'll do this throughout the holiday, though towards the end it will start to get more towards 7:00. Just in time for going back. Not enough time to get out of the habit - or too much time before going back to the old routine.
Time was (and is and will be) when there was too much time in the holidays. Perhaps it is just the perception of age, but I used to be climbing the walls to get back to the chalk-face. Now I'm climbing the walls in an orgy of trying to get things finished before I have to sacrifice my life on the altar of other peoples' children. (Now isn't that dramatic - must have too much time on my hands!
I'm 53 in less than a year's time. Where has all that time gone? Like most of you, if I look a bit too hard at it I'd have to admit I'd squandered a lot of it. I think of all the hours I could have spent making myself a better composer, a better teacher, a better person, a better player, a better son, ... and so the list goes on. As I look back at it, it seems nearly endless. Sadly, as I approach the "Two Score Years and Thirteen", the time left seems incredibly short to achieve the things I really want to do. The good things - I never seem to be short of time to get up to mischief ;-)
I depped for a local band yesterday, and they assured me that there was nothing difficult on the programme - it was just background music, they said, with the odd 'medieval'-sounding piece, all simple, they said. Then the conductor got brave. The afternoon had been going quite well, the odd missed accidental, but typical bass parts, mostly long notes etc. Then came this horror. Time expanded (or contracted, depending on your point of view) as the page turned black! That was the longest 3 minutes (or hours, depending on your point of view) of my recent history. Good job it was in a decent key.
The weather, incidentally, was glorious, the blazing sun and playful light breeze making it very enjoyable to be outside.
I also note that the next 2 weeks and 3 days are going to whiz past like a flash of lightning and the following eight weeks (particularly the first two days - known disaffectionately as "Death by Powerpoint") will grumble past like a slow snail in treacle carrying a very large, heavy brick up a steep hill.