Time Flies
Wednesday, August 6, 2008, 07:50 AM
Not only has it been ages since I updated this but it's almost 3 years now since I moved to Slovenia. Another season has ended and I'm enjoying another hot summer here in Ljubljana.
The whole orchestra season was very busy because the orchestra are celebrating their 100th anniversary this year. Since my last update we've played in Vienna, Zagreb and all over Slovenia. Our main anniversary concert took place in Kongresni Trg outside the Philharmonic Hall itself. I've never seen the square so busy and the concert was a success despite the difficulties of strong sun on the stage during the rehearsal. We began the rehearsal 3 times because of this! Every outdoor concert seemed to create more problems than usual this year...it was either too sunny, pouring with rain or windy causing music to fly from one end of the stage to another! None of them were cancelled though which was quite an achievement considering.
In a few days we are leaving for London and then continuing on to San Francisco to see Kevin and Stephne who we met through this very blog! We are so excited about the trip and looking forward to having a completely different type of holiday to usual. No doubt there wil be many stories to tell!
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( 3 / 1762 )Brussels, London and a White Easter!
Monday, March 31, 2008, 10:22 AM
The trip to Brussels was brief but good. We had time to have a quick look around the town and stop off for some lunch but the windy weather meant we didn't mind too much that we soon had to head back inside for the concert.
After the concert I asked at the info desk for directions to my hotel and rather than ordering me a taxi one of the kind stewards drove me there as he had just finished his shift. It was so nice of him and I felt terrible that I wasn't capable of speaking more French with him. I kept digging for words that seem to be buried right at the back of my brain these days! He did keep asking me how it was to live in Slovakia but I guess I'm used to this all too common mistake.
From Brussels I took the Eurostar to London. It was great to be back although I did spend far too much of my time (and money) on Oxford street! I met up with some friends too and although I was only there 3 days I managed to pack a lot in. It rained of course and Stefan had to rescue me on a traffic island when my umbrella blew inside out and got tangled in my hair. He wondered what was going on when he heard me stuck behind him giggling in the wet and windy weather....at least I saw the funny side to it!
Since being back in Ljubljana I think we have seen all four seasons! My birthday, supposedly the first day of spring, started off beautifully sunny, it poured with rain in the evening and Ljubljana was completely white the next day and the snow continued throughout the Easter weekend! The weather didn't stop us enjoying ourselves though and I had a great time with friends enjoying Ljubljana life. Today is beautiful so I'm really hoping the Spring is here to stay now!
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( 3 / 1197 )Pokljuka
Tuesday, March 11, 2008, 08:30 AM
The weather has been all over the place lately. One day we've had sunshine, blue skies and 20 degrees and the next cold and rain. At least Spring certainly seems to be on it's way.
We had one day cross country skiing on Pokljuka and the weather was perfect that day. The blue skies and sunshine made up for the freezing temperatures. My only problem was the fact there was quite a bit of ice around and going up steep slopes proved a bit difficult for me but it was lots of fun and good exercise!
Soon we are off to Brussels for a concert and I will then spend a few days in London. I'm looking forward to meeting up with friends and hitting the shops!
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( 2.9 / 893 )Sarajevo
Wednesday, February 13, 2008, 05:40 PM
It’s just as well I have been getting used to bus travel lately. The journey to Sarajevo took us almost 11 hours and I think we arrived later than expected that night as we were supposed to go to a concert but we missed it. We ended up going into town and to a restaurant high up on the hill with a fantastic view over the city. We ate traditional Bosnian food whilst some musicians played Bosnian music in traditional dress.
The next day we had time to go back to the centre and wander around the Bascarsija and all the little shops there. Not surprisingly we ate cevapcici and spent a while heating up in a café because it was so cold. Sarajevo has such a great charm to it and I’ve now seen it in both summer and winter and I think it’s a great place to visit any time of year. We played the concert in Navodno pozoriste in the centre – a beautiful hall but quite a difficult acoustic to adjust to as we were further away than usual from the conductor.
Our hotel had a few bowling alleys so that was the next stop for the evening and where a bit of luck gave me some success. I was pretty rubbish most of the time! It was fun though but meant another late night. At least I knew I only had a 10 hour bus ride the next day!
The only downside to this trip was seeing all the burnt out and destroyed houses en route. It is always a shock to see what were once peoples homes completely devastated and covered in overgrown discoloured grass and trees not to mention the inevitable signs warning about land mines that are still very much in existence. Perhaps, however, it’s good to be reminded of what these people went through in the not so distant past even if it comes as a shock.
see photos here
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( 3 / 1221 )Burns Night
Sunday, February 10, 2008, 03:37 PM
Having never been to a Burns night before this year I was invited to two! Unfortunately, the first one was the day I got back from Bratislava so I missed the meal but made it to the end which was lots of fun. A French guy in a kilt (Florian by name) was a sight to behold and I had a go on a bagpipe chanter which is remarkable similar to an oboe. Little did I know that this would prepare me for playing the bagpipes at the next Burns party.
The 2nd Burns night was a more formal affair at the Hotel Slon in Ljubljana. It is an annual event celebrating the life of the Slovene poet, Preseren, and the Scottish poet, Robert Burns. It is interesting that the Slovenes use the date their poet died as the annual holiday while Scots use the date Burns was born. Anyway, they had a lot of speeches, poems and music and I tried haggis for the first time. I found that if I didn’t think about what it contained it actually tasted ok! Towards the end of the night there was some Scottish and Slovene dancing and then I had a go on the bagpipes. I actually managed to get a sound out for a while but then I seemed to lose all sense of coordination so the piper helped by controlling the airflow and I tried to play just the chanter bit. It was a lot of fun and I’m wishing for my own set of bagpipes for my birthday….lucky neighbours!!!
View photos here
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( 3 / 1252 )Budapest, Bratislava and Cannes
Sunday, February 10, 2008, 09:21 AM
I seem to have spent a lot of time over the past month travelling. I have learnt to quite enjoy passing many hours on a bus and a 10 hour bus journey now seems quite reasonable! As well as travelling my time has been filled with playing Mahler’s 5th symphony, Dvorak’s 9th and enjoying a hectic social life in Ljubljana. Maybe the foggy weather during January encouraged people to throw parties and go out more to get through what can be a depressing winter month.
In Budapest we gave two performances of Mahler 5 but there was also time to have a wander around the city and soak up the atmosphere. I was there 6 years ago so it was good to go back and revisit some of the main sights again.
The next stop was Bratislava which for me was my first time in Slovakia. I was really impressed by the city and the old town was really beautiful and very clean. I was also able to meet up with a friend, David, who lived in Ljubljana for a while and I met some of his friends which was fun. He gave me a tour of the city and took me to some great places to eat and drink coffee and chocolate! We played two concerts in the Slovenska filharmonia – a slightly confusing name to us as members of the Slovenska filharmonija in Slovenia. There they called us the Slovinska filharmonia!
After a few days back in Ljubljana it was time to fly off to the south of France. We flew from Ljubljana to Nice and transferred to Cannes by bus. Unfortunately the sun decided to hide that day and only show it’s face again the next day when we flew back. This didn’t stop us from having a fantastic meal outside, finishing with crème brulee and then we headed down to the beach for a walk. We had a walk around Cannes at night before the concert and the castle looked pretty with all the lights and the extravagant boats were very impressive. Milenka and I found a great chocolate shop. We tried some 100% cocoa chocolate but I have to say that was a little too bitter for me – I’m obviously not sweet enough for that!!
See photos here
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( 3 / 1201 )Christmas 2007
Thursday, January 3, 2008, 11:11 AM
This year we spent Christmas in England for the 1st time in 4 years. Before we left it felt a bit of a shame to be leaving Ljubljana and its buzzing festive atmosphere but when I got home, saw my family and had a very cosy English Christmas it was great despite the fact we were only there for 3 full days. We went to North Devon on Christmas Day and my Auntie cooked a delicious Christmas lunch. The sun came out in the afternoon and we took a walk through their fields. During the rest if the visit I got the chance to meet up with some school friends too which was great and there was still time for some shopping in Exeter! Exeter has had quite a makeover since I was living there…althought perhaps it was a good thing for my bank balance that those shops never used to exist!
We came back to Ljubljana on Boxing Day in time for me to start the New Year concert rehearsals the next day. It seemed very quiet when we first got back as so many people were still away but a lot came back for New Year and we had a good night. It feels like Guy Fawkes night at the moment in Ljubljana! Fireworks are going off all the time at really strange times in the day too and just randomly in the street. I was crossing the street the other day, heard a bang, and jumped so much it was embarrassing! I’m sure the car drivers at the traffic lights found it amusing!
January should be a good month. We have a few orchestra tours at the end of the month to Budapest, Bratislava and Cannes which should be fun.
Happy New Year!
Photos here!
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( 3 / 1264 )December 2007
Monday, December 17, 2007, 07:38 AM
December is normally the busiest month of the year for a musician so it felt quite strange a couple of weeks ago when we were told we suddenly had a 3 week holiday from the orchestra schedule! I’m not complaining at having an extra holiday but I’m actually finding I’m missing my work a bit right now! However, I haven’t had that much time to miss it as I’ve been so busy socially.
About 3 weeks ago now we hosted a Swedish party. We cooked 100s of meatballs, ginger bread and other Swedish national food and ended up with 40 guests representing at least 15 nationalities…that is what is so great about expat life and meeting people from all over the world.
Since then we’ve had a string of visitors during which time Stefan and I have been working on recording a cd of oboe and piano music but I will mention another time. A few friends have been over to visit which has been really great and last week my parents came over. I drove them to Venice one day and it was a great time to visit as there were fewer tourists but still beautiful blue skies. The only problem was it was the day after the Italian lorry strikes ended and so the number of lorries along the motorway didn’t make driving much fun and the Italian drivers got very impatient with me for reasons I really couldn’t do much about!
In between the friend visits and my parents I went to Munich to visit Floor with Caz. It was so great to catch up and it was an added bonus that the Christmas markets were in full swing which made Munich extra beautiful.
This weekend we have been to 5 parties, all of which were great fun but now we’re pretty tired. We have a few days left before we leave for England for Christmas. No doubt the festivities will continue throughout this week and we can continue to enjoy Ljubljana, all the pretty lights and kuhano vino!
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( 3 / 1338 )Sweden November 2007
Wednesday, November 7, 2007, 02:33 PM
So from Paris we flew to Stockholm where we were kindly met by Stefan’s brother, Thomas who drove us to his home in Uppsala. We stayed there the night and it was fun to see him, Tove and Sander again. It had been a year since we had seen Sander so he had grown a lot but is still a very cute little boy!
From Uppsala we took a train to Falun to see Stefan’s parents. We had a relaxing couple of days and it was so good to see them again. It felt quite cold but the weather change wasn’t as drastic as it had been the year before. We were also able to catch up with some of Stefan’s friends and enjoy some Swedish countryside.
I bought a top in Falun and when I got home that day Eva arrived back from work in exactly the same top and it turned out to be very similar to the top Stefan was also wearing….we must all have very similar tastes..how scary!!!
Here are the photos
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( 3 / 1287 )Paris
Sunday, November 4, 2007, 10:13 AM
;)
Last weekend we drove to Venice and flew from there to Paris. Everything went smoothly, we checked in to the hotel near Beauvais airport, had an extra hour of sleep because of the clocks changing and felt refreshed on Sunday morning ready to head into Paris itself. Unfortunately no-one had told us or seemed to know that the shuttle bus had changed it's times. We waited 45 minutes before heading back to the hotel to see what had happened as it was supposedly the last bus for a few hours. Of course, the shuttle then zoomed by but too late for us to get on it! Very annoyed, in the end we headed back to the airport and luckily got there just in time for a Ryanair bus into Paris so the day was saved!
We had a great day just wandering around the main sights of the city. We didn't feel under pressure to see or do too much as we have been to Paris before so it was fairly relaxing although we did walk a lot. In the Tuileries garden Stefan decided to impersonate some of the statues...I'm not sure he quite got the meaing (see photo below!) In the evening we headed to Montmartre and had a meal in a fairly cheap place but with a perfect view up to the Sacre Coeur. The meal was finished off nicely with a delicious fresh chocolate crepe on the way back to the metro station.
;)
The next day it was pouring with rain. We set off on an oboe mission to Marigaux but it took us a while to actually find them. I think we walked up the same street at least 3 times due to building works and rain but we found Marigaux in the end. I came away much poorer but with a beautiful new shiny oboe. I always thought that low notes were meant to be difficult to play but on this oboe they aren't....makes me wonder why I've been struggling for so long!!
That afternoon it was time to go to the airport. This time we flew from Charles de Gaulle and I'm sorry to say but I think this was the most confusing airport I have ever been to! It wasn't a fun experience to be honest and by the time we got through security checks not only were there no shops, not enough seats for everyone and a small cafe with a very long queue but there weren't even any toilets! This meant we had to go out to get to a toilet and back in again through security! When it came to getting on the plane we had to walk out into the rain, search for the bus ourselves and then wait on the bus for what seemed far longer than it probably was until we went for a nice excursion around the airport until they eventually found our plane!! Anyway, after that the journey went smoothly and we arrived in Stockholm safe and sound. I love Paris but I really don't look forward to having to go back to that airport again. Perhaps we were just unlucky..I hope so!!
Here are the photos!
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