The youth of today

Well, as it happens, these youths are part of the National Youth Orchestra, who are camped out at our university all week preparing for a performance at the Symphony Hall at the weekend. Consequently the days in the building where I work are something like this:

9.30 am Youths assemble en masse on the lawns and do voice warm ups, very loud, slightly alarming, and consists of 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 or ha ha ha ha ha ha HA HA HAHHHHHH in increasingly loud increments

10.00am - 3.00pm An assortment of squeaks, booming double basses, clarinets, percussive instruments and full concerto sounds emanate from the Great Hall. The 100 year old building trembles.

During this a stream of young people run up and down stairs with instrument cases, chairs and music stands, looking somewhat frantic and very, very young.

It makes for quite an unusual work day.