Well rested after our baking-filled day off, Luceat awoke ready to begin another busy day, this one filled with Aaron King, Herbert Murrill and Charles Villiers Stanford. Undeterred by yet more torrential Cornish downpours, we made for the cathedral refectory in search of a breakfast of tea and cake (and, in some cases, actual "lashings of ginger beer"). This was welcome source of fuel after a first intense rehearsal of Britten's 'Rejoice in the Lamb' - our ambitious anthem for the following day's evensong.
After healthy amounts of carrot cake had been consumed, a few of us took the opportunity to look around the cathedral itself and were, of course, unable to resist the temptation to take some pretty photos of all the stained glass ’for the gram’ in order to advertise our juicy evensong repertoire. Our awe at the beauty and intricacy of the Cathedral's interior was only matched by our delight at the sighting of yet another extremely cute West Highland White Terrier, and numerous other dogs, while exploring some of the city centre. For some of us, the frequency of dog sightings had proved to be our favouite aspect of Cornwall throughout the entire trip...
Following the joys of a particularly pretty old-fashioned bookshop we discovered on our adventures in town, we rehearsed and sang through evensong for the penultimate time this week, savouring every last consonant in the psalm and perfecting our very best rolled Rs. As today’s service was scheduled to start slightly earlier than the others, we found ourselves with three whole hours to spend before the evening’s dinner booking. We promptly decided that the only appropriate way to fill a void of such length and magnitude was to head to The Ale House pub, one last time.
Three ale-filled hours later we headed to the Wig and Pen pub, with their spacious function room entirely to ourselves, in order to dine and, more importantly, find out the eagerly anticipated recipients of the Annual Choir Awards. We were delighted to see that the "Good LUCK Award for Mountaineering" was awarded to Becky after her valiant efforts reversing all the way back up a very steep hill by beach, the "Silly Fellow (Silly Fellow)” award was presented to Dan (who had just become a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists), our bakers had all won the "Mary Berry Prize for the Great Luceat Bake Off" and Bea & Becky had won the "William Hayes Award for Letting The Sea Make A Noise" after their kayacking adventures (and victory in the inaugural Luceat Boat Race) in the estuary. However, the biggest reward of the evening was the resounding enthusiasm and applause given to Luceat's Director, Organists and Committee members, without whom this fantastic trip would not have been possible. We all left the evening brimming with appreciation for our fellow choir members, but also with a feeling of bittersweetness as then next day would be the last day our of residency...
- Daisy (Sop 1)
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