Finishing the day...

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Phew... a nice and interesting end to a long day. I had to drive from our house-sitting house back to Den Haag for a rehearsal for a concert tomorrow. There are small scale concerts that have started up again, I was recently in Austria and France for a few concerts. I was a bit surprised that the trains and planes were completely packed for summer... so, I guess the end of summer will see a new surge in COVID cases, which means that concerts are likely to disappear again...

I do see that many fellow musicians are in denial (or overly optimistic...), pointing to certain researches that say this or that is no more dangerous than something or other else... however, as a musician with a scientific background, I know the danger of picking out a specific trial that happens to support your most deeply held wishes... unfortunately, the human nature is to cherry pick in this way and to see deep connection in chance events... but that is not the way that science and statistical probability (and the Universe) works.

Anyway, today was a day of rehearsal which was quite interesting as it was the concert that was immediately cancelled in March on the first day of restrictions in The Netherlands. The organiser had generously gifted us half the payment previously, but with the understanding that we would come together again when possible to complete the performance.

Now, this is the time to finish the project, and we had a day of rehearsing in a boomy and echo-strong church acoustic... which is incredibly confusing and difficult to retain ensemble in... and wasn't helped by the fact that we needed to have at least 1.5 metre spacing between ensemble members (normally, we would be about half a metre apart!). For sound, this additional distance (multiplied over several people) makes for an unbearable lag that is hard to work with... but that is why we are professionals, to make difficult situations work and seem easy!

It is also my first return to playing as a soloist since March, the previous concerts were as a tutti member in a larger ensemble... and so, I feel a touch more nervous than usual. Normally, I would just take in stride as it is my job... but after nearly three months of not performing as a soloist, I feel a little out of practice! Probably it will be fine... at the very least, no one will die in a huge explosion (probably....)!

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Which brings me to this evening... back to Utrecht for the house sit for the last night. We are celebrating with a final game of Overcooked on the Nintendo Switch with the kids... and with the adults having this tasting cocktails from De Kuyper (sold in the little test tube vials by Gall and Gall). Several different flavours of the De Kuyper cocktails that have been pre-mixed, and in a the colours of the Dutch flag.

I'm not really a huge fan of cocktails... but who can pass up weirdly coloured drinks that look nothing like the taste of what they are supposed to be! So, the red one is Watermelon... which was pretty gross... watermelon isn't really a good flavour for an alcoholic drink... it works for a jelly bean, but not as a cold liquor!

The White one was quite nice with a Pineapple flavour... This was a much better fit with a cold liquor... however, the taster was just not quite enough to satisfy! I guess that is the marketing trick! That said, I didn't like it that much that I would choose to buy a whole bottle of it over a Drambuie or Amaretto....

... and the blue... well, I'm not really sure what this was supposed to taste like... blue!

So, three tasters down, and I would have to say that nothing has really changed about what I think of cocktails... that said, I'm sure that if I had a really good cocktail from a proper bar, then I might have something different to say!

So, an early night... to try and get my head into shape for the concert tomorrow... it will be a tricky one, I have my work cut out trying to keep the ensemble together and inspired... plus dealing with my own technical demands of the concerto as well... well, this is what we are trained to do! Juggle many plates in real time and make it look easy!


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