An Incompetent stream of consciousness.....Nothing new there then!

Ooh things were going so well back in January. A couple of posts in quick succession and then I completely neglected you. Until now.

I am not going to promise to post next week or even more often as it doesn't work. I obviously don't really care about accountability plus, being, a woman of a certain age, going through the thing most women my age go through, I can not commit to anyone other than myself right now. Sometimes I can't even commit to myself (if that makes any sense. It does to me). What I will say is I will post again but I will not commit to a time line!

So what shall we talk about today? I actually don't know but I knew I wanted to write something and, as that feeling is almost non-existent these days, thought I would just start before the feeling disappeared again.

It is the end of the Easter holidays. Back to work tomorrow. That's fine. I actually had a pretty good holiday apart from a couple of days in self-isolation because of Covid (I wasn't ill with it but I had it and did my moral duty and stayed away from people) and then I had a small spell of vertigo yesterday which was particularly annoying as I LOVE a Saturday off and was planning to make the most of it but instead had to spend the day in bed sleeping and binge watching stuff on Prime and the like. 

I am coming into my busiest term. Normally the summer term is the easiest but the theatre school I teach at has it's big show in June and my choir has 2 big concerts planned/booked this term. I normally put the choir concerts on after the school term has finished but no, not this time, I thought I would give myself a ridiculous amount to do this year and get everything done and dusted before the schools break up. It's either a brilliant move or a crazy one. I'll tell you which it was mid-July.

Although I am still a little lazy and lacking in motivation, I am definitely better than I was. I am slightly better prepared for everything I have going on and no longer constantly tired. I still get tired but not to the point that I can't do anything.

I turned 49 a couple of weeks ago and have decided that I am going to write a list (not a bucket list per se, although I suppose it is a bucket list for the end of my 40s) of things I want to do before I'm 50. I haven't gotten around to it yet but I will start writing it when I've finished with you.

When I was 39 I decided I wanted to get fit as I wanted to be as healthy as I possibly could be in order to live well for longer in life. I definitely got fitter but fell off the wagon at about 46 for a while. I got back on the horse and am trying to regain a little of what I have lost, fitness wise, over the past 3 years so getting fitter can definitely go on my "Farewell to my 40s" list. 

I have absolutely NO idea what I want to achieve over the next year but I want to achieve something. I don't want to do anything too crazy. I don't want to skydive or go to America or anything like that. I don't even have aspirations to own property anymore as that is nigh on impossible now. Given my time again I would have bought something back in 2003/4 when I had the most well-paid job of my career and probably would have got some sort of mortgage but now it really ain't going to happen unless I save up enough to buy something outright or win the lottery. 

I think my list will be full of practical, sensible things but it might be nice to include a couple of silly things I would still like to do but my brain fog is making it hard to bring them to the forefront of my mind right now. Perhaps a bit of meditation would help. I tried meditation a few years ago but these days I have to multitask whilst doing everything these days. Actually, having said that, I am writing this with no distractions whatsoever. No radio, no TV nothing. Just writing. That hardly ever happens!

I have nothing more to say right now so I'm going to love you and leave you. But I will leave you with 2 things. The first is a link to my Enlightened Singer blog. Click here to be redirected there and also click here to come and join the Enlightened Singer Facebook group. You would be very welcome. In addition below is a video I uploaded to YouTube. I just completed another 12 weeks on The Sing Space 16 Bar Challenge. This song, Parents Lie from Freaky Friday, was the last song we were given and it was one of my faves. Pop over to Instagram and follow The Incompetent Soprano there, again, you would be very welcome or follow me on YouTube.

Until next time, whenever that might be, enjoy!

Blowing my own trumpet....not my favourite thing to do!

I must apologise for not posting as regularly as I had promised. A lot has happened over the last few weeks. I went back to the teaching day job, the Queen passed and I got Covid so it was all a bit much and I didn't feel like doing anything. Of course some of you will be thrilled to not be bothered by me for so long, unfortunately for you I am back to be my normal bothersome self again!

Having said that, I can't seem to shake my tiredness. I am writing this on my day off and it is all I can do to keep my eyes open at 1.30 in the afternoon! A nanna nap might be the ticket right now but not until I've finished this!

I think I mentioned this in a previous post, for the past 11 weeks I have been taking part in a challenge set by The Sing Space. Every week they choose a musical genre and give us 2 songs to choose from. We then record and upload one song to the challenge Facebook group. It's a way of updating your repertoire folder with specially cut versions of songs you could use whatever genre of musical/show/audition is required. There are 12 videos in total. Next week is the final week, Disney villains! I'm hoping for a bit of Ursula but we'll see.

I decided to take part because I have very few places or opportunities to sing for myself anymore. I have posted the videos to my Instagram @incompetentsoprano and I am also in the process of adding them to my YouTube channel. If you'd like to follow my YouTube channel just click here and subscribe.

In the meantime here is the first of my 16 Bar Challenge videos for your perusal. They aren't in the order I recorded them but thought I'd start with one of my faves, Before The Parade Passes By from Hello Dolly. Enjoy and come and follow me on Instagram and YouTube!

Positive self affirmations? Shmositive shelf shaffirmations....you get the idea.

Last week we talked about owning your voice (I'm actually doing a little workshop on Wednesday 31st August, 12pm in The Enlightened Singer on Facebook on this subject if you fancy joining us. Click here to go join the group) but I have been thinking a bit about self esteem in general this week.

So, I have always, well in the past, had pretty low self esteem. I used to think I was a pretty horrible person, not sure why, but I did. However, not sure what happened recently but I now think I'm OK. I'm not a horrible person. I'm friendly, I'm supportive, I'm.... can't think of anything else without this turning into some sort of positive affirmation post.

It's not one of those posts, don't worry. If you follow my Facebook page you will have seen I have been posting more than usual. Live videos and some videos of me singing for a challenge I'm doing with The Sing Space at the moment. For some reason I've been feeling a little more content recently. Perhaps it's because I'm on my summer break (although that is over in 6 days 😢) and I've had more time to do whatever I want. Anyway, this feeling of contentment has lead me to a boost in self confidence and I decided to share my challenge videos with you lovely lot on the Incompetent Soprano Facebook and Instagram pages. 

Of course I can't help thinking people will think I'm being self indulgent and blowing my own trumpet but, the simple fact is, my pages are my pages and if someone doesn't like it, or me, they can choose not to follow me anymore. We really shouldn't chase likes and follows on social media. It all means nothing really. It's not real, nobody really shows their true selves on social media. We all try to make out we have wonderful, perfect lives when the reality is, often, far from wonderful and perfect. 

As I said though, I'm feeling pretty content and am also feeling like I don't mind so much what anybody thinks about me. I'm sure this feeling will change and evolve and I will have days where the whole world is against me but I think it's important to note things like this when we're feeling content and confident. I'm going to post what I want, when I want on my social media and I don't care if everyone tuts and rolls their eyes, it's my social media profile to do with what I want!