The weather outside was frightful!

Last Monday an arctic air outflow spilled down the mainland interior passes, whipping across Georgia Strait with a vengeance. The result was our home overlooking the strait just south of Nanoose Bay got wacked with a solid dump of the white stuff for most of the day. Besides shoveling the walkways, my foremost chore was trying to convince my wife Pat that she shouldn’t attempt driving that evening to Port Alberni over “the hump” to get to a Timbre! choir rehearsal. Pat is the type of person who as a youngster never missed a day of school. Cancelling a scheduled rehearsal she finds, to put it mildly, stressful to the extreme. However, Pat finally relented after receiving a report that several trailer trucks had jackknifed on both sides of “the hump”. 

Having the evening free, I asked my wife out on a date, suggesting a little escapism might blunt her anxiety at having to cancel a rehearsal so close to Timbre!’s upcoming Christmas concert. We headed out for dinner and a flick, catching a 4:30 pm matinee showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows. I knew Pat would enjoy the film as she used to read the books to our grandchildren. 

The film picks up where the last episode left off. Dumbledore is dead, Voldemort has retaken control and Harry Potter and his friends are forced on the run. Knowing that the key to Voldemort’s defeat is the destruction of his horcruxes (bits of his soul he left in various objects in order to become near-immortal), the trio head off on a mission to track them down. 

When the Potter film series started in 2001 the lead characters were 11 and 12 years old. Now they’re all grown up which made for a much scarier flick, one I’d advise you not to take a young child to see. A few of the scenes featuring a mammoth snake made my skin crawl. 

After the movie it was off to Moxie’s for dinner. Pat and I consider their ribs to be the best in the hub city. At the restaurant we ran into a Timbre! choir member who was thankful she didn’t have to trek over “the hump” either, assuring Pat she’d made the right decision by cancelling the rehearsal.

After a couple of days of sunshine, on Thursday morning the snow was back, just in time for a taxing drive south to Cedar for my first rehearsal with the cast of the Yellowpoint Christmas Spectacular. I’m playing piano for the annual production for most of December. The snowy picture-postcard setting of the Cedar countryside was a perfect location to begin rehearsing a Christmas Show. Regrettably by rehearsal end the rain that usually follows our snowfalls here on the west coast had reclaimed its territory.  

YELLOWPOINT CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR at the Cedar Community Hall in Cedar with 3pm matinees and 7pm evening performances December 8^th to 19^th & Old Church Theatre in Courtenay on December 14^th & 15^th. December 12^th 3pm show is sold out! 

Phone 250.754.8550 to reserve tickets. www.yellowpointchristmasspectacular.ca/