9 october

Wrote this Sunday, but just now posting.

Yesterday was quite an eventful and very long day. There was a party at Trevor’s at 11:30 for the villagers to meet all of us students, so I got up at 7 to get my practice in for the day. After the party, we booked it to London for the Jacques Zoon recital at the Royal Academy of Music at 5.

The party: The party was a lot of fun; it was nice to finally meet all the people we see driving by us on our walks to and from Trevor’s. Trevor put us to work, assigning us various jobs to make the party run smoothly. Kristin’s and my job was to take drink orders (“Low alcohol white, Buck’s fizz, red wine, rose wine, or juice?”), go to the dining room to get the drinks and then deliver them on a cute little serving platter. All the guests were outside in the garden and we had to walk around refilling glasses, etc. Others had to walk around with platters of hors d’oeuvres and take coats. While everyone was outside mingling, we would all make secret trips into the dining room to “sample” to food and wine… :)

We arrived in London around 4, and after getting off the Tube, I looked to my left and saw Kia getting off the Tube, too! I met Kia at Wildacres this summer. I think she teaches at RAM. If not RAM, then another school here in London. She was on her way to the Jacques Zoon recital as well. This was my first time to go to the Royal Academy and WOW! it is beautiful! The hall that the recital was in was incredible – portraits and busts of composers all along the walls, fancy chandeliers and ceiling moldings. The concert started about 20 minutes late because so many people were lined up (or cued up, as they say here). He played the A minor Bach sonata, Brahms’ Violin Sonata No. 2 arranged by Zoon for flute, and a piece I’d never heard before, Jaap Geraedts’ Sonatina for flute and piano. The concert was great. I especially liked the Geraedts and the Brahms. Oh, and he played two encore pieces: an Andersen piece called The Sparrow and a Debussy piece. Don’t remember the title.

After the recital, Ko Yu, Adrian, Jhen Wei, So Yun, Kristin, Trevor, and I went to Chinatown for dinner. We ate at Crispy Duck. Yes, Crispy Duck. We didn’t have any crispy ducks for dinner, but we did have some awesome Chinese food. Trevor ordered a bunch of stuff and we all split everything. I couldn’t tell you what some of the dishes were called, but I know that my favorite was called Lemon Chicken. Real exciting, huh? But it was too good… I ate too much tonight.

Trevor keeps bringing us goodies, and if he keeps it up, I’m going to need to go on a diet soon. Tonight he bought both dairies some “cashew crunch” from the Chinese market. And he made me drink his beer at dinner. Yesterday, he brought us fresh sausages from a nearby butcher, and another day he gave each dairy three buiscuts and half a sponge cake. Oh, and last Tuesday he gave us three pastries from the bakery in Wye! And the Boxalls brought us mincemeat pies for wist yesterday! Ahh… this must stop!

Ok, that's all for tonight! Bedtime!