november 30

I know, I know, I know.... I haven't written in almost a whole month, but you'll have to forgive me. I've been more than just a little busy, so blog writing hasn't made its way to a high enough position in my to-do lists. But I am back and ready to blog! Yay!

I got back to England on Monday, and after about a week and a half away from my flute, getting back to 5+ hours of practice a day is proving quite difficult. Being jet-lagged doesn't help this either... But it's all okay because......... WE'RE GOING TO ROME TOMORROW!

I guess I don't have too much to write about right now since I've been in the States since November 16th. For those who don't know, my dad was not doing well so I went home to see him and to be home for Thanksgiving. I was lucky to get to Memphis just in time to see him for about an hour before he passed away. Honestly, I did not know I was going home to see him for such a short time and then go to his funeral, but I am so thankful that I could see him for even a short time. So, needless to say, things have been tough. My mom and I are very lucky to have some really wonderful friends who have been overwhelmingly generous to us these past several days, and that makes everything so much better. So, thanks, friends. : )

But back to happy things... like ROME. We are going for the Italian Flute Convention and of course to do a bit of touristy things... and eating. I fully intend on eating a lot of delicious food and drinking a lot of coffee. And of course some good wine, too. My camera battery is charged, so be ready for way too many pictures. I'm sure I will have some good stories to write about when I am back, too. Hopefully none of them will involve missing train stops and catching rides from strangers. But who knows?? Oh. And scooters. I must ride a scooter while I'm there (or at least take a picture next to one...I'll take what I can get). And I'll need a cute scarf of course.... oooh, can't wait!

Alright, I'm all excited now so I'm going to go start packing. I can't concentrate anymore (this is also because I just got back from class. Class + my brain = mush). I will write again soon!

~ Jenny

november 7

9 hours of sleep....check.

1 cup of delicious coffee + hot chocolate....check.

Time to blog!

Well, it's here and here to stay I believe -- the weather, that is. It's grey (gray?), damp, a bit dreary, and getting rather cold. For the past couple of days, it's been getting dark by around 4:45 and I think someone told me that in the middle of winter it can be dark by 3! That will take some getting used to....

Oh! I have a story for you! On Friday, Adrian and I, once again, went to Just Flutes in London. Trevor took us to the train station in Wye Friday morning and asked when we'd be getting back so he'd know when to pick us up. We thought we'd be back around 4 or 5, but we weren't sure. Trevor said anytime was fine as long as we didn't call between 6 and 6:30, when he's eating dinner.

So we went to Just Flutes and while Adrian played flutes for a few hours, I walked around East Croydon, went to the market and got my hair cut. (Hair cuts are so expensive here!) Several hours later, we got lunch at Wagamama and then headed back to the center of London to do just a tiny bit of shopping. We wanted to get Trevor a small gift for driving us to and from the station so much recently. So, going to the center of the city on a Friday afternoon was maybe not the best idea because it took WAY longer than we'd anticipated. But we got his gift and headed back to St. Pancras and then back to Wye....

And this is where the story really starts.

To get back to Wye, you have to take a train from London to the station in Ashford and transfer to another train to get to Wye which takes about 7 minutes. Once we made it to Ashford, Adrian called Trevor to tell him we were almost back to Wye. At this point, it was about 7 pm, quite a bit later than 4 or 5, but we didn't know we were really supposed to be back earlier. So, Trevor was not so happy with us... On the train back to Wye, Adrian and I were of course panicking, realizing we were about to be in trouble with Trevor. We were frantically discussing what to say to him, who would say it, how we would say it... but thankfully we did have a gift for him!

Well, as we were occupied with worry, it seems we missed all the announcements saying that to get off at Wye, we needed to be in the front four cabins of the train. We weren't. Not even close.

The train stopped, we looked at each other confused, and then realized we were about to miss our stop, with Trevor waiting to pick us up. Wonderful... So we, along with two other passengers, ran like crazy people to the first four cabins, pushing people out of the way, panicking... You know in movies when everything happens in slow motion and everything is silent except for the person yelling "NoooOoooOOOOOoOOOOOOOOOOooOooO!!!"? (That sentence was poorly constructed, but whatever. You get the picture.) Well that's exactly what happened. It was terrifying.

Did we make it?


No.

So now we were not only in trouble for being late, but also for being dumb and missing our stop. We had to go to the next station in Chilham, which was not too terribly far away. The other man who missed the stop in Wye called his wife to come pick him up and offered us a ride back to Wye. We accepted his offer because he was clearly not going to kidnap us, so don't worry, parents, if you're reading this. His wife and her friend came and all 5 of us crammed into her tiny European car and drove back to Wye. She offered to take us back to the Old Dairy, which saved us at least 50 pounds. And as it turns out, Trevor wasn't even mad at us....

All's well that ends well.

Oh, and one more very important part of the story: The man who offered us a ride from Chilham to Wye was probably the most attractive person in the world AND HE HAD A BRITISH ACCENT. A real life Hugh Grant, but without all the bad things about Hugh Grant.

And Saturday, November 5th, we went to a huge bonfire/fireworks show nearby to celebrate Guy Fawks night. It's a tradition to have a bonfire and burn an effigy of Guy Fawks, a member of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605. They tried to blow up the House of Lords, but were stopped, which is why people celebrate the day. I think I got that right... I could be wrong, but I'm going to go on and just pretend that's accurate...

And today is practice, practice, practice... the usual.

I think that's all I have to write about this morning. And I need another cup of coffee, so I'm going to stop here.

:)

PS - Please just ignore any silly typos I make... because apparently I make a lot of them. I keep finding them and it's embarrassing... :)

november 3

I'm back!

You must forgive me for neglecting my blog posting duties these past couple of weeks. We've been extremely busy at the Studio and finding the time and energy to write has been nearly impossible. I've attempted to write a couple of times, but I'm usually too exhausted from practicing or a long day of class to come up with anything interesting to write about. Believe it or not, seven hours of practicing turns brains to oatmeal by the end of the day. At least that's what it feels like.

We just got back to the Dairy after a wonderful dinner at The Five Bells in Brabourne, a town just a few miles from Elmsted. We had a repertoire class today, so having someone else cook dinner and clean the dishes was especially nice, even if we did have to pay. It's hard to practice (or do anything productive) after class days, so now Adrian, Jhen Wei and I are just hanging out...listening to Denis Bouriakov... :)

In the past two weeks, we've gone to London twice to go to masterclasses at the Royal Academy by William Bennett (last week) and Emily Beynon (this week). Wibb's class was great, of course, and it was very interesting to hear the students at RAM. Emily Beynon's class was fantastic though! I've never seen her before, but I thought she had a great personality and some really wonderful things to say about the music. And she's stunningly beautiful, just like her playing. She gave a concert tonight at Wigmore Hall, but we didn't go because we will be seeing her play in Rome in December. I would have liked to have gone, but trips to London get expensive, especially when you take as many as I've been taking recently!

Not too much else has been going on here. I've never practiced so much in my life or had so much to practice, but I love it. And this month is looking even busier than October... Patricia Morris is coming toward the end of the month to give a piccolo class, which means I've got some piccolo practicing to do! And Juliet Edwards is coming back on the 25th for another sonata class and we're preparing for our Christmas concert. We're playing quite a lot of pieces on the concert and I'm the lucky one who gets to play the bass flute for the majority of the program. Yay! Better start doing some push-ups.... :P

Going back to London tomorrow morning to go to Just Flutes, so I better get some sleep and stop here. I forget about all the interesting things worth writing about when I wait so long to post, so I'll try to post again soon.

:)

20 october

Hi, friends!

Sorry I haven't posted in about a week. I can't say that things have been "busy" here, but I guess I've just been too brain-dead from practicing when blog-posting time comes around at night.

Well, now that I think about it, this past week has been rather eventful. Last Friday we went to Canterbury to see the cathedral and to do some shopping. Since I've been wearing my warmest jacket and it's only the middle of October, I had to get a "real" jacket, gloves, scarf, etc. The whole sha-bang. So bring on the cold!

(click here for more pictures)

On Friday night, we went to our first game of whist, a game that I wrote about a few posts back. It's a card game that happens once a month at the village hall. There were about 30 people there (I think?), some more serious players than others. Somehow - I don't know how - I won. Maybe it was luck or maybe I'm a whist genius.

Ok.... It was definitely luck.

All the winners got to choose a prize and I got a bottle of wine. Adrian got some Christmas cards... so I think it's safe to say my prize was way better ;) Although, I do like Christmas cards... but anyway...

On Saturday, the Boxall's took us to the Apple Fayre, a festival that happens once a year and celebrates the greatest fruit on the planet..... apples. And no, it's not an Apple Fair, but an Apple Fayre. (Ok, they're the same thing, but fayre is a much cooler way to say fair.) I got a couple jars of jam, some apple cider, and of course some delicious apples. I got try try about 10 different types of apples. Needless to say, I was in heaven. Apple heaven. (Note: I love apples. I really love apples. My nickname way-back-when was "apple girl" if that tells you how much I love apples. I'm going to stop explaining how much I love apples now, because I feel weird. Moving on...) (Another note: The Boxall's are the best people in the world.)

(click here for more pictures)

Oh, yes... after the Apple Fayre, we went to a shop that sells homemade apple cider and jams and other delicious apple-y things. The shop also had a petting zoo, complete with donkeys, emus, chickens with hairy feet (see picture below), maras (also, see picture), geese, pigs and cockerels. You know, the usual petting zoo.

(I'll have one of each, please.)

Maras. So cute.

Tomorrow we have a sonata class with pianist Juliet Edwards. I'm playing the Martinu Sonata, but we're all playing different sonatas for this class. I'm looking forward to it, but I have some work to do on the Martinu today.... better get on that.

On that note, I'm going to finish this cup of (delicious) coffee (I'm definitely addicted to caffeine now), and get to practicing. Cheerio! :)

13 october

Now I understand. Now I know why I need to have a "thick skin" for this class.

This day has been less than good, and I'm just glad to be back at the dairy, relaxing for a little bit. First, on the walk to Trevor's (in the rain), my boot broke. So I had to walk about 2 kilometers with the sole of my boot flapping about, while my sock got more soaked with every step.

And class is getting more difficult by the day. I feel like I have 1,000 things to improve, and remembering all of them at once when I'm playing in class is impossible. I've been working really hard the past week and can tell I'm improving, but it doesn't seem to be enough. So I need to work even harder. Trevor's criticisms can be quite harsh, but I need to remember that his being so demanding will make me better.

Today, after we finished working on the Handel Sonatas, we talked about the different metals that makers use when building flutes. It's all very fascinating. We talked about all the different silvers (sterling, Britannia, American, German, Scandinavian), nickel silver (which really isn't silver but an allow of copper, zinc, and nickel - Louis Lott flutes were made of nickel silver), and different types of gold. Which metal is the "best"? There really is no answer. It's best to try flutes without knowing what they're made of, because oftentimes makers will develop fancy metals just to raise the price of a flute. Guileless buyers will gladly dish out the extra couple thousand dollars simply because the company convinced them that their metal was superior for this reason or that. And I have to admit that I'm just as guilty as the next person on this one.

(I just ate a pickled onion that Adrian put on the table. Not too sure what I think about it. I've eaten so many weird things since I've been here.)

Last night we had a belated welcome dinner party at Trevor's and Dot's. Trevor bought a bunch of fresh seafood (north sea prawns, regular prawns, lobster, clams, crab... jellied eel) at Hythe so we had quite a feast. About the jellied eel... I tried it. I didn't want to, but I did it. The eel was alright, but the jelly was just too much for me. The eels are boiled in a pot of water and when cooled, the water turns into a clear jelly. Oh, we also had pickled herring. After the eel, I just couldn't do the herring. But the prawns, lobster, crab patee, and clams were delicious! Mmm mm mmm! :P

After the seafood, we had Trevor's version of a salad. You take a large leaf of butter lettice, place a slightly smaller one inside of it, then sprinkle about a teaspoon of finely chopped walnuts into the lettuce cup. Then, drizzle just a little bit of walnut oil on the lettuce, roll it up, and stuff it all in your mouth. SO GOOD. I want one right now.

And after the walnut salad, we had a fruit salad with lychee, apples, mango, bananas, oranges, and a couple different liqueurs. SO GOOD, TOO. At this point, I was completely stuffed, but then Trevor opened up the liquor cabinet. We tried about 7 or 8 different liqueurs, but to Trevor's disappointment, we all only wanted to have small tastes instead of a whole drink. After all, we had class in the morning ;)

Apparently there is an apple orchard nearby that has two trees of every apple species in the world. I MUST GO THERE. Trevor and Dot have a tree in their backyard from the orchard called peasgood nonesuch. I just think that's a funny name.

Well, Adrian just finished cooking dinner (cannelonni!), so I better go. Bye!

Oh, here is a picture from dinner last night :)

So Yun, Me, Dot, Trevor, Ko Yu, Jhen Wei, and Kristin