Back from the Sea

Another Summer, another week spent in Aldeburgh. This time at the Snape Proms. A distinct lack of posts caused by a distinct lack of mobile phone reception. Photos, along with normal service, shall be returned soon.

(Not so) Travelling Minstrel

In the light of this week’s events, it appears that my last post on leaving Jersey may well end up being the last post I do sitting in an airport lounge with my cello. It may well actually be the last post I do from an airport lounge full-stop. As someone who travels a lot, I appreciate everything that’s done to ensure our safety when we travel. Although it’s annoying that my ‘work-wear’ style shoes, with their steel eyelets, cause me to get frisked and searched every time I go through a metal detector, but it makes me feel safe. However, I lose that appreciation when it means the entire reason I travel is going to be taken away from me.

The majority of my travel is music-related. This means I have to take my cello. This week’s events mean that my cello has to go in the hold. This is impossible because a)No insurance policy covers against damage in the hold of an aircraft, mostly because b)the temperature of the average aircraft hold hits minus 40c, which means it would almost certainly fall apart.

So I may well have to resign myself to a life of staying put. Although, one thought astounds me – As of this week I’m no longer able to travel with a bottle of water on a plane, but last week (and for many years before and after September 11th), my cello has travelled on it’s own seat on the plane, complete with it’s 40cm metal spike with a very sharp end…

BBC News: Baggage ban hits musicians

Wearing my Music on my sleeve

I love the way you can build up a better picture of somebody by scanning their cd collection than if you spent an hour talking to them. You see their life history charted in aged cds. You see their informative teenage years spanned out in rebelious music, highlights of significant and meaningful relationships mapped out in cd-sized postcards of the psyche, those which otherwise don’t fit the trend. You can tell if they’re conformist or have an underlying rebelious streak, whether they’re a sheep or intrepid musical explorer.

An entire morning in Jersey was spent idling through selected tracks from someone else’s cd collection. It’s always good for the soul to see where someone else’s musical tastes coincide with yours, as you draw a musical Venn diagram in your mind (with nice, pretty, vivid colours, never clashing in my case). It’s comforting and reassuring, and it can take you down lanes to memories you’d otherwise forgotten were off the regular paths.
I’m adding a musical links list down the side at the moment. It’s got the appalling title ‘X-generation’, not for any good reason, it’s just that I haven’t yet stopped the Links lists coming out alphabetically. I want to be honest. I want to add stuff without prejudice (Chesney Hawkes just missed the grade), but all the time a voice is looking at the list objectively and telling me what other people will think of me. So there it is, down there, pay it a visit and you’ll find out more about me than you ever could reading all of these posts>>>

Back to the Future

I’m moving. This could be a problem. Yes, moving house after 5 years of cramming stuff into every crevice and orafice the house has to offer makes moving tricky (we have a lot of stuff), but that’s not the problem, you can hire a big van. Not that I’ve hired a big van yet, but that’s not a problem because I can hire a van to take the contents of our Mary-Poppins’-bag-like-house repeatedly over the Severn Bridge. Not that it’s cheap or easy to cross the Severn Bridge, but that’s not too much of a problem. Not that we have much furniture to move, going from a furnished to unfurnished house means a lot of furniture shopping, but that’s not a problem yet. There are wiser things to do than to set a moving day 3 weeks into the future when you have 1 week in Jersey, 1 week in Suffolk, leaving 1 week to pack, but that in itself is not a problem. Neither is the impending, increasingly expensive trip to Iceland.

Injuring you back after packing four boxes, that’s a problem. Taking 20 minutes to get down the stairs, unable to fully straighten your back or bend over, that’s a problem. Having to find the most efficient way of cooking beans on toast because it really hurts (really really hurts) to breath/walk/turn/reach/lift at any moment. Having to wash stuff up because all the stupid plates and saucepans are in the stupid low-down-but-out-of-reach cupboards is a problem. Only having the next 4 days to pack everything and possibly not being able to anything remotely useful in that time is a problem!

Still, I’m practical. I did problem solving a lot in A-level Maths, that should help me. Bugger. Well, forgive me if I post a lot today – I can’t move from this seat. But I can be practical – you can browse/buy appliances and furniture online, you can hire vans online, you can try to tackle the problem of moving a business which is entirely internet-based whilst online. God bless the modern technological age!

Farewell to Jersey

Farewell to Jersey, originally uploaded by ardeton_quartet.

Another Sunday, another flight home on an exciting plane- look, no propellars!

The British Beach

The British Beach, originally uploaded by ardeton_quartet.

At times it can be hard to decide on Jersey whether it’s French or British. Given it’s past it’s easy to see why. Right now I’m on St Ouen’s Bay, on the beach in the full sun, under clear blue skies, with kite surfing and other sports all around. Very continental. Yet to the left there’s a family with a wind-break digging a moat for a sandcastle using a spade. You decide…

The land of Bergerac

The land of Bergerac, originally uploaded by ardeton_quartet.

Not normally one for jewellary (I’m allergic to Claire’s Accessories), I was taken by Jersey Goldsmiths’ collection of film memorabilia. In particular, why not buy a piece of American history, with John Wayne’s neck-tie or James Dean’s cufflinks for a mere £1800…

Bon Nuit Dolphins

Bon Nuit Dolphins, originally uploaded by ardeton_quartet.

First stop of Wednesday was the devil’s hole, then on to Bon Nuit Bay on the north of the island. It’s a working harbour, complete with crazy American kids diving in from ridiculous heights. Then, somebody shouts “dolphins” and the place empties. And there are you know. A dozen dolphins leaping out of the water a few hundred yards off shore.

Leaving on a jet plane

Leaving on a jet plane, originally uploaded by ardeton_quartet.

Off to Jersey again. It must have been something I did to upset the weather, but today, after weeks of boiling weather it’s cold and rainy today. Nevermind, I’m sitting on the beach no matter what the weather…

Prom Prom Prom

Have just realised in all the heat I haven’t posted for a while. So here’s a quick fix in the interim period. What with all the house-hunting, quartet gigging and heat I’ve been a bit side-tracked.

Anyway, the lovely Sarah and I have struck a deal about going to the BBC Proms this year – we can go and watch the Shostakovich Violin Concerto, so long as we can also go and watch the cello one too. So tonight, ladies and gentleman, it’s the Shostakovich Violin Concerto with the CBSO – Read about it here.