End of an era
Well, I’ve finally done it. My membership of the Ormond College Choir (College Website, CDs and Unofficial Website (shameless plug) has come to an end.
We sang the Christmas in the Courtyard concert last night, to decent weather and a respectably-sized audience. Afterwards, a very civilised crowd decended upon Koko Black, keeping them open a full 110 minutes after the ‘Closed’ sign went up on the door. Still, gotta work for that $1 tip 
Others remained at Ormond in the courtyard until well after midnight. Such segregation is a bit of a shame, but is almost inevitable, particularly when faced with - shall we say - ‘different’ social groups. (Not a reflection on current choir members, btw)
Nonetheless, it still feels strange to be leaving behind something that has been part of my life for the last 6 years, including 3 tours. The last tour was absolutely fantastic. I will carry many fond memories with me: returning to Hoechstaedt and the dinner at Rosi u. Johannes’ place; bike-riding and ice-cream the next day; celebrating at the Italian restaurant and hostel after the concert in Wangen; shopping in Luebeck; and finally the dinner in Rome, which we are attempting to relive tomorrow at Kate McBride’s place. I already have the bottles of Limoncello in the fridge!
It will be interesting to see what happens next year with the choir. When I joined in 2000, I was one of 5 new members: a figure that was regarded as high at the time. In the subsequent years, I think we had a turnover rate of 20-25% per year. Next year it will be more than 50%. Now is the time for leaving. (nunc est exendum?)
Still, with the Rome reunion dinner tomorrow and the Messiah later in the week (with Scots), hopefully the strangeness will settle down.
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December 13th, 2005 at 11:40 am
Realistically, the “segregration” that you mention is not really segregration at all. The choir has 24 people in it. That means that it is vitrually impossible for the choir to go out somewhere for dinner/coffee all together without booking in advance.
Therefore, after an event the choir will naturally break up into smaller groups to enable people to go out for food or dinner, or stay put and get gesloshen.
I think we proved a couple of times in Europe (geneve sticks in my mind) how frustrating it is to try and find a restaurant willing to serve that big a group. People get shitty when the choir breaks up like that, but realistically dinning or doing coffee or having a quiet drink with a very large group is rarely possible, or overly enjoyable.