Problem Solved

I will be moving back to Exmouth for the rest of the summer as of Monday. This week's been quite an adventure. Sunday and Monday I stayed at Onslow Gardens with Iain from Bart's Choir. Tuesday and Wednesday I stayed at a hostel near Edgeware Rd. Thursday in Emperor's Gate, possibly tonight, too, otherwise Friday/Saturday/Sunday will be near King's Cross with Aziz.

Jonathan's flatmate is a concert pianist and professor, so I have a Steinway Model B at my fingertips. I spent the majority of yesterday playing it until I went to choir rehearsal. After rehearsal, the sun was setting and turning the tops of the Old Bailey (right across the street from the rehearsal church) and all the churches, including St. Paul's, a beautiful shade of pink against a very cloudy blue sky. And I didn't have my camera. I should have known to take it with me after Jonathan sent me text saying he'd just seen the Queen being driven down the street a block away from me.

Tonight is a New London Singer's concert two blocks from here. Gathering afterwards. It'll be nice to see some familiar faces for the first time since last July.

You can see I've not really been up to much recently. Trying to relax after sprinting around for two weeks. The LSO will be back from Spain on Wednesday for a concert with Håkan Hardenberger. Håkan shared some conductor tales at rehearsal the other day. Oh, how I love hearing conductor stories.

Righty-oh, off to practice.

What to Do...

A friend from Bart's choir invited me to stay at his flat for an indefinite period of time. Another friend of his lives there 3 days a week, as she has a house in a suburb but works in the city, but he figured this wouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately she fulfills the cold-hearted British woman stereotype. The first thing she said to me was, "So where are you going to stay until blah blah blah?" She continued by belittling every single one of my interests and potential professions. You can imagine the look on my and my friend's face at breakfast while she was saying all of this.

In short, I'm staying in a hostel tonight. I'm keeping most of my things there and at Exmouth Market. I'm going to try to see if I can find a hostel somewhere in South Kensington, as that's where I was the last 2 nights. I'll be staying at Jonathan's tomorrow night, which is about 2 blocks from where I've been evicted, and 2 blocks in the other direction from where I'll be Monday-Thursday, ish. There's an NLS concert at a church literally 2 buildings away on Friday night, too, which is just plain handy. But you may have noticed that this means I am homeless Fri/Sat/Sun nights. Will also be hosteling those nights, it looks.

In happier news, I went to a trumpet masterclass by Håkan Hardenberger, possibly the world's leading trumpet soloist, etc. 4 Guildhall students played for him over the course of 2 hours. When he wasn't standing up in front with the student, he was sitting next to me! Let's hope I picked something up through osmosis. He's rehearsing with the LSO this morning for concerts in Spain and London next week. You would be correct to guess I'm currently passing the time in the Barbican waiting for 10 AM.

I'm off to try to get rid of this worrisome feeling by booking a bed to finish out the week...

Phew.

I haven't had internet for 3 days. It's been kinda nice. It's about 1:30 AM. I have to be awake at 7. I'm currently staying with a choir friend in South Kensington. He doesn't have spare keys, and it requires keys to leave the flat, so I have to leave at 8, too. Let's hope spare keys show up on the set soon, because this is going to get really old really quickly.

Stayed in Lucia's flat north of King's Cross last week. Watched too much QI and Top Gear. Played tour guide for Dr. Howes and his wife. Walked all the way from the flat to Trafalgar Square, all through the National Gallery, back and forth outside, all over Covent Garden, partway back. I can't even estimate how far I've walked in the last week and a half- especially this last week. All I can say is that I SURE can feel it. Not pain, but the endurance.

Thursday night was my London Symphony Chorus audition. In short, I didn't get in because my high notes sounded "too pinched." I was instructed to take 1 or 2 "more" voice lessons and go back to him. Funny how I've never been told that, before, huh? Oh, well- now I have many many open evenings in my schedule.

Still, I am/was pretty devastated by this idiotic failure, so I made my way to the post-Bart's pub at Covent Garden, the Lamb and Flag. Perhaps you recall this from my going away party last summer. Same place.

Of the 1000's of pubs in London, I ran into 2 people I knew. One was Martin, the principal contrabasoonist of the Royal Opera. He played with the LSO on tour in Granada last summer and Dublin last week. We hadn't ever formally met, but obviously recognized each other. He was still wearing his tails, as he'd come straight from the Barbican after he finished the first half of the final Gergiev concert. It appears as though I have a strange way of serendipitously running into bassoonists. Better than violists, I guess.

The other person was a girl from the New London Singers. She walked in with the gang that came in with Martin- they kind of knew each other somehow, too. We made that awkward "hold on- I know you..." eye contact, but didn't take long to realize how.

I had a balcony seat (ick) to tonight's LSO concert. Got to the door and was given a Circle ticket! If the concert isn't too popular and there are few people in the balcony, they give the extra Circle tickets and close off the top floor. An American guy sat down beside me. The rest of his group was at the end of the row in front of us. I asked where he was from. "America." "Well, yeah. Where?" "Ohio." "You're kidding me. I go to Bowling Green." "I go to Bluffton." "I'm from Findlay." "Some of those guys are from Findlay."

3 random coincidences in a matter of days. Let's see what's gonna happen this week...

Not Nothing, Apparently.

Mother says I'm not allowed to say I don't have anything to write. I guess I have to write something, then.

I took my German professor, Dr. Howes, and his wife around yesterday. I had my first major London navigation fail of the trip, but forgetting that Tottenham Ct. Rd. and Charing Cross Rd. are in fact the same thing. Therefore, we had a little diversion via Regent's Street and Picadilly Circus on our way to Trafalgar Square. Once we finally saw Nelson, we headed into St. Martin's. The conductor of the evening's concert happened to be passing out fliers and came up to us. Dr. Howes said something about catching me in the act of networking. Just another example of my strange ability to be in the right place at the right time!

We had a bit of time before the National Gallery closed, so we headed there after tea in the crypt cafe of St. Martin's. A lot of the artwork has been moved around or sent off, so there were a lot of new things to see. My lover, M. de Norvins, is still there, though, so all is well.

Slept late this morning since I had nothing until LSO rehearsal at 4:30. Went to the city a bit beforehand so I could have my first proper pub grub. Toad-in-the-hole- one of my favo(u)rites!

Skipping out on tonight's LSO concert since I've heard them play 1/3 of the program(me) in 2 countries, 1/3 in 3 countries, and 1/3 last week. I think I'm going to call it an early night since I walked something like 12ish miles (19ish km.) yesterday. I could use some resting time.

Going to the Globe Theatre (Theater) on Friday evening to see Henry the 8th and Saturday to see Macbeth. London Symphony Chorus audition tomorrow evening and I have no idea what I'll be singing...

Green with Envy?

Friday involved LSO rehearsal in the afternoon at St. Luke's, followed by a conducting masterclass in the evening with 3 lucky guys, one of whom was only 20!

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I can't say that Dublin was or was not what I expected, as I didn't really know what to expect. It is not unlike English towns/cities. In fact, one of the percussionists behind me on the bus from the airport to the hotel said, "Do you even feel like you're in a different country?"

I woke up at 6 AM on Saturday morning, walked to Liverpool St. Station, took the Stansted Express to the airport. I only had a purse, no checked bags, but I still had to stand in line to get my passport checked. I was sent to the front as the line wasn't moving very quickly and they thought our flight should have priority for some reason.

While I was waiting at the gate, who should show up but Claire, a friend of mine in the first violin section! She decided to fly on her own since she lives much nearer Stansted than Heathrow. It was nice to have company on the flight.

We arrived at Dublin airport a little before the LSO flight, so we grabbed a bite near the arrivals gate. Took the first coach to the hotel. From there, I wandered around on my own from about noon until 5. I somehow ended up a block from the Jameson Whiskey Distillery at about 2, so I decided to do a tour. While waiting for my turn, I took a picture for a Dutch-speaking Belgian couple. We chatted for quite a while (in English) about their kids, who have studied abroad all over the place to become fluent in various languages.

I was selected to be one of the taste-testers at the end of the tour. The tour itself wasn't really that exciting. Afterwards, the 10 testers were given a bit of Jameson to compare to a bit of Johnnie Walker Black Label (a "premium" Scotch) and Jack Daniels (the best-selling American whisky). The smokiness of the Scotch was absolutely vile compared to the Jameson. JD is just awful, period. Only 1 of 10 said the Scotch was the best. We got a nice little certificate afterwards, names printed on them, even!

On the way to rehearsal, I decided to stop for coffee at a Starbuck's. Perhaps it was punishment for not going into a local place. No matter the reason, I somehow managed to get locked in the bathroom. Handily enough, there was a "pull for assistance" cord. Banging on the door wasn't getting anyone's attention, so I decided to pull the cord. I got a free coffee out of it!

Right before the rehearsal began, the orchestra was informed that the ash cloud forced them to move their flight to Frankfurt up 2 hours....meaning they had to leave the hotel at 5:15 AM, breakfast at 4:45. There was talk that the flights might be cancelled and that they'd have to take a ship to Liverpool, then a train to London, then a train to Hannover for the second of 3 Germany concerts, missing the one in Frankfurt. No worries- they made it!

The concert was sold out, but there were returns, so I managed to snag a Choir Balcony (i.e. behind the stage, above the orchestra) seat. A wee bit more expensive than I was hoping, but it was the cheapest in the house. General Admission allowed me to find my way to the front row. Sat next to an Irish guy who's my age, called Niall.

Back at the hotel after a quick bite, I sat in the lobby with Carmine, Ginette, and Jorg. Bought a half pint of Guinness, which I soon wished to have been a full pint. It's apparently a different recipe over there. MMMM!

Walked to the aircoach stop at something like 1:15. Bus didn't come until 2 something. I think I watched a marriage end in a fight on a Dublin street not far away from me while I was waiting. Almost called the police on the man. After a nap in a chair near the check-in point, finally was able to get my passport checked. No one else was there, as it was only about 3 AM. No one was in line at security. Once I was through security, no one was in the airport, ANYWHERE until an hour went by. Very surreal.

Back in London, all I had to do was show my boarding pass from Ireland due to some sort of lovely agreement! Looks like I'm going to be going back to Ireland since it's not at all a hectic trip!

Breakfast with Jonathan at 8:30 on the other side of London tomorrow morning. As I still feel vaguely like a zombie, I believe it's going to be an early night for me.

Don't Rain on My Parade.

Very brief update today as it was a relaxed day.

Rehearsal in the morning. I think I accidentally fell asleep a couple of times due to jet lag kicking in. I could hardly even wake up in the morning. I went, though, so I could partake in the post-rehearsal festivities. Maxine, a first violin, has opened a makeshift shop of sorts in her sitting room to make way for new purchases. I found a hat for Royal Ascot!

I came back in the afternoon, rested, eventually decided to move up onto the roof. It was nice and warm, but large intimidating dark clouds were swiftly moving my way, encouraging me to move back to the kitchen.

Picked up a sandwich at Tesco, then went to the concert. The second half was made up of Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony, which involves the strangest instrument in the world: the ondes Martenot. I couldn't see it/didn't know of its existence during the rehearsal, which made it all the more confusing.

Back to the flat just in time for everyone to meet me on their way out. Joined them to go down the block for some reminiscing. I was challenged to speak as long as I could with my apparently-convincing Scottish accent. I was given permission to stop when they realized I could keep going :)

Tomorrow's the Gergiev conducting masterclass. Next days' the trip to Dublin, which I still dont' know if I'm going to do or not....

The Eagle Has Landed

I won't bore you with every single detail of my trip, but will provide you with the highlights of my return to London.

Dayton's airport has free wireless. This is a very important fact that I had forgotten. Dallas does not have free wireless.

I sat in the 2nd to last row on the plane (which was a small one- only 3 seats in the middle, not 5, and did not have personal TVs), meaning I was between the toilets and behind the engines. Great sleeping sounds. There were 2 Australian guys behind me. We all had fun narrating the scene in the plane as everyone boarded. "Looks like the Crocodile Dundee's eyeing the seat beside you (me)!"

Thus was my introduction to my trans-atlantic flight neighbor, Tom aka "Standing Bear." No, he is not a Native American, but he is a NA spiritual practitioner. His teacher's name is "Rainbow Hawk." It took a lot to keep me from bursting into laughter when I heard that. Luckily (don't quite know if that's the proper word) the guy just goes by "Hawk." Tom/Bear and I spent about 3 hours (until dinner was served) talking. It didn't take long for him to realize that I am an "Old Soul." He said there are very few of them in the world. I completely see where he's coming from and agree. I'm sure everyone who's reading this also agrees. Tom/Bear is in England to visit "Whitewolf," his "soulmate," who lives in Cornwall.

I woke up just in time (and because of) to take part in the clamor of looking out the window as we flew DIRECTLY OVER the Icelandic volcano. It was neat to see the ash cloud from the sky. Alas, my camera was still asleep at the time.

Landed at Heathrow, in line at customs, realized I left my duty free purchases under the seat on the plane. Ran all the way back, had a trolly guy take me to the plane, found said purchases, ran back to customs, was the only person in line. The jerk who gave me a hard time the first time I ever came to the UK was one of my 3 choices of agents. Although it'd have been interesting to see if he'd changed his evil ways, I decided to try a new person. "Only 3 days? (since I'm going to Ireland Saturday- maybe)" "Yup." *stamp*

Boarded the tube. Picadilly Line closed halfway here. Transferred 3 times, dragged the suitcase up and down a billion flights of stairs. Finally made it to Exmouth at 3 PM sharp! Happy flatmate reunion. Shower, then immediately off to the Barbican! I sat backstage for the last 20 or so minutes of rehearsal, then went into the hall as the orchestra was getting off stage. Apparently mostly everyone didn't think I'd be here for another 2 weeks, so it was fun seeing everyone's faces- especially those who didn't know I was coming, at all!

Lovely dinner with Ginette, Jorg, and eventually Carmine. Concert, return home, visit with flatmates, BED!