Usually our run reports for Kingston Choral Society are full of classical music puns, but I think there’s only so many of those that we can Handel. So we put on da thinking Capo and decided on a slightly tenor-uous theme relating to the All Saints Church that we were helping at. Cast your minds back to a certain 90s/early noughties Brit Pop girl group and you’ll be well-placed to spot the puns…

It all started in the morning, with Rob receiving a slightly bewildering message from Samia: “have you had your black coffee? Never ever have I ever felt so excited to stack chairs!” After some prompting, Rob cottoned on and joined the punarathon: “we’re ready, willing and able”! And so it began.

“Have you set up this stage before?”, we were asked. “Hmmm”, Rob pondered, “I remember setting up a stage, but was that in Surbiton?”. That brought flashbacks to The Spreadsheet printout that we were trusted with a couple of years back when putting up the complicated Surbiton stage, and we were reassured that this one wouldn’t be quite so technical. That said, it was not eazy .

These table tennis table-esque objects needed some steering (from the yellow end, make sure it’s the yellow end), and then quite a bit of working out with how to unfold them safely and securely. It all got a bit much for Samia, who had visions of fingers and toes being amputated and may have been heard saying “I beg, please can we just stop and read the instructions first?”. It truly felt like a war of nerves. With one woman (and one) man trying to negotiate the table, it was all about the team work.

This is a War!

Rob knew where it’s at, and figured out how to get a flat stage with even legs. With a stage without any back railings, we imagined the choristers chiming "don’t look over your shoulder” when the concert time came, so we set upon putting up the railings behind the stage. This was testament in motion, with a coordinated team effort to get the hooks hooked under the stage and the bar over the edge, and then twisting the thing to fix it in place. With so many people huddled around a railing, it was hard to keep a distance, so it’s fortunate that we were able to nail the rails with just one strike. We gave the railings a good shake to test their security and they held, rock steady.

That wasn’t too nasty, after all. Samia headed off under the (Kingston) bridge for a walk along the river, eyeing up the pure shores of the Thames. Rob, on the other hand, reached for one more tequila. You know what they say, if you want to party...

Kudos and thank you to Arthur for the photography assistance! A very helpful minion!