Bird College On Tour: Part Two

Well, this is episode two of our tour exploits, and I can't remember where we got to... oh yes! Alarms. Ha ha. Right, Day Two of Tour didn't quite get off to a great start.

So, I should explain that I have a bit of a history of alarms not going off. I think the worst case was when my alarm set for three in the afternoon didn't go off (I was ill), and instead I woke up at 5:40. I was supposed to be playing for a show at 6:00pm.

Anyway, we decided that our room was going to rely on Jill's phone for an alarm. Unfortunately, it didn't go off. We woke up at 8:55am because Jacinta, the other member of our room, woke up and asked what time it was. After getting changed in three minutes flat, I then waited for her to get out the shower (people who shower in the mornings annoy me greatly).

Having managed to nab a couple of bread rolls from the restaurant, we discovered that we had to be in the foyer by 9:20. It was 9:18. Yay. So we hurried along, and on the way we deduced the reason behind our alarm fiasco.

Actually, there were several reasons why it had not gone off.
1) Jill's phone didn't like her. Well, it's not her phone, she borrowed it, but apparently the alarm is always temperamental.
2) The phone's clock was still set on English time so was an hour behind.
3) She set it for half past seven in the evening.

Anyway, the rest of the day could only get better, right? Well, having a rehearsal room in which we couldn't find the light switch for at least half an hour wasn't brilliant, but despite the delay we managed to get our rehearsals over in time to go and have a swim in the hotel pool, and watching the leaders play the handbells during one of our pieces is something I'll remember for a long time.

In the afternoon we got back onto our coach and headed off to the town. Unfortunately, we were dropped off in the wrong place, so we stopped at a cafe, had a drink and then walked back to the coach to be taken to the right town. Then we had a boat trip across Lake Garda, since our concert was on the other side. We were playing in the square of the town we'd visited, and it was a great concert. The audience was really responsive and we attracted quite a crowd with our Beatles medley, before finishing triumphantly with Pirates of the Caribbean.

We returned home, but this time we weren't asleep by half eleven. Oh no. Instead, my room mates and I went downstairs to investigate the jazz band that was playing - there were several other orchestras in our hotel. A lot of our folk were dancing, including the tuba player, Jacob, who was wearing a 'Scream' mask. Quite a surreal experience, I have to admit.

When we got tired of dancing, the three of us went to talk to Andy, the double bass player. After dislocating his knee cap very badly in football and damaging the cartilege, as he found out today, he's on crutches, so wasn't enjoying watching everybody dance. He's a lovely guy and bought us drinks, and we hung out for a while. We had a couple of sympathetic conversations about dislocation while the others stood round wincing ;)

When we eventually got to bed, I discovered something very important about the two people in my room. They can both fall asleep in about two minutes flat. Me? I have music in and I hang around for ages waiting to fall asleep. You know, I was reading them the first chapter of something I was writing and one of them dozed off in the middle. Well, thanks...

The alarms weren't quite so bad the next morning, but...

On The Road

From half two this afternoon, I will be enduring a 24-hour coach journey to Lake Garda for my orchestra's summer tour. We're going by coach because musical instruments and planes don't get on very well, but that doesn't mean I like it.

When I went on tour two years ago, with a different group, I spent the whole journey home doubled over in pain. I had no money left, so couldn't buy any food on the journey - and I hadn't had any English money at all, so was stuck for dinner. The food in Italy hadn't agreed with me, not with the dodgy hotel food we got, and I was having what we came to call Apple Juice Withdrawal Symptoms. Add to that travel sickness and various other stomach pains ... I wasn't getting on very well.

In fact, the journey there wasn't brilliant either. I hadn't realised how cold it would be on our nowhere-near-luxury-coach when we were going through Switzerland at night, and I was wearing shorts. Sure, I had a jumper, but if I put that over my legs then my arms got cold. I managed to fall asleep eventually but it was pretty hard...

This year, I've learned from my mistakes. I no longer get travel sick, mostly, so I'll be fine reading on the coach and all that. I'm also taking mints for if I do get stomach trouble. I'm taking a blanket, to help me sleep, and though I don't have a pillow small enough I can fold up my spare jumper as a cushion instead. I'm taking some English money for the journey home, cereal bars in case the food is dodgy, and of course painkillers are high on my list of things still to pack!

I'm looking forward to this tour. Last time, I had to teach myself the piccolo in a week, since it arrived exactly seven days before we left and I'd discovered that the piccolo player wasn't going on tour. This time, I know how to play all my instruments, and so long as the first flautist remembers to return my flute stand I'll be fine!

I hope to keep you updated, but I don't know if there'll be any sort of computer in the hotel. I might even go as far as to find an internet cafe, just to get my fix. So stay tuned for updates, but don't be disappointed if they don't come - I'll be writing in my notebook, and I'll type them all up the day I get home (Friday).

Have a nice week!