Brisbane really can sing

It isn't easy being green, but not being green and giving up my spot and my lime green t-shirt in Brisbane Sings at QPAC on August 18 was less easy.

It had been a challenge picking up the words, but I felt I had got through the gist of it, sufficient to get by and be carried along by the rest of the choir members. I was even grateful for some fairly extensive chorolography, given that it disguised some of my inadequacies in knowing all the lyrics.

And then my shoulder seized. It had been hurting for a while, but I put it down to a sleeping injury. You know, you spend too much time on that side and you wake up with a stiff shoulder. Sleeping sometimes gives and it sometimes takes away.

But instead of getting better, the pain crept down into my shoulder blade and starting screaming at me to keep still. Lying down it seemed wasn't such a bad call, even on the shoulder in question.

Nevertheless I soldiered (or should I say shouldered) on and didn't let a bit of a twinge get in my way. I attended the final rehearsal of the Brisbane Sings event. The songs included a beach party complete with a rapid change to Hawaiian shirt on stage. I was already seeking help getting my shirt on and off outside the bathroom at night, so this party goer wasn't going to get any shirt on in a hurry.

Not that it would have mattered. Those Hawaiian shirts became a flurry of colour as the choir members did all the swimming strokes, furiously moving their arms in continous motion. It was riding this particular tidal wave, complete with the back and breast strokes that changed the wave of pain into a tsunami.

I decided to sit this concert out. This was best appreciated from the mouths of others. It turns out they were riding the foamy wave of success and keen to tell me. Yes, it turns out that Brisbane really can sing, and they sound good with or without me.

I have given my husband the green t-shirt. I don't need to wear the green when I'm feeling it from the inside. I'm having an injection this week for the bursitis in my shoulder. I may wait a week or two to ride any more musical waves.