History talk tomorrow

I am currently writing a 2 hour talk on medieval music to give tomorrow. Tim and I get to dress up, demonstrate various instruments and yatter on about early music. Then we get paid.

My life doesn't suck. This is something I am thinking with increasing regularity these days.

It's good to be me :-)

SHAWLS!

I think shawls have an unwarranted bad press.

They are popularly portrayed as Old Lady Wear, and to put one on is to lapse instantaneously into a hunched shoulder, head forwards, face scrunched up position which says "Old Lady" to all and sundry.

I am currently wearing a shawl and I am sitting upright, typing an effervescent talk on medieval stuff for tomorrow whilst listening to various inappropriate things. I am not hunched, scrunched or otherwise Old Lady-esque.

However, there is a very obvious difference between me with a shawl and me without a shawl. What could this be?

Me with a shawl is much, much, MUCH warmer. Because this is the thing - they don't tell you that shawls are snuggly, warm and toasty in cold horrid situations. They can also look pretty in a wholesome sort of way. People with greater knitting skill than I can make beautiful shawls that are practically pieces of art draped around a set of lucky shoulders.

There's lots of freedom of movement with a shawl, because you aren't constrained by sleeves. They are easy to adjust for any housework or musical experience you may have over the course of the day.

My shawl is crocheted (I'm a much better crocheter than a knitter) and is held together with a pretty wooden pin. I'm very warm. I didn't have to turn the heating on at all during the day, despite it being Jolly Cold Indeed.

I think there should be far more shawl wearing than there currrently is.

Right, I'm going to have sausages for supper and then return to the difference between troubadours and jongleurs.

Have a nice evening! And if you're cold - try a shawl...

Talk completed.

Good things about this project: rediscovering my Hildegard of Bingen CDs. I lovelovelove this music. There's just something wonderfully primal about her visions - expressed in a time when there wasn't the obvious dissonance between "new age" and "Christian" that there is now. Things were free to be beautiful and mystical all at the same time.

Bad things about this project: it's 11pm. Tim is playing "Smoke on the Water" on hurdy-gurdy. Badly. It's a very loud hurdy-gurdy. There's a reason we are building a detached house...

I've got all the paper sorted, and most of the instruments. Just make sure that the costume is ready to load first thing and all is done. Blimey.