Carols, carols and more carols

Yesterday one of my fellow tenors from our days at Paisley Abbey, who's now singing in one of the choirs south of the border, came into the shop, completely out of the blue (it was the first time I'd seen him in two years). Turns out he was back in Scotland taking part in a series of carol concerts for Capella Nova and, better still, was able to get me a ticket.

The programme was a quite extraordinary mixture, standards cheek by jowl with choral classics by Poulenc and Leighton and (for this choir) unexpected fare like Have yourself a merry little Christmas. Most impressive was Hassler's Verbum caro factum est (very much their standard repertoire); it was a pity that, after this and many other quiet pieces, the audience erupted into applause without giving the music time to settle.

Tonight we had the service which, for many Brits, really symbolises Christmas: nine lessons and carols, which went down a treat. Next up is be midnight mass in Switzerland. so it won't be over for a while yet ...