A quick hello!

yes I'm back, but I'm snowed under with work. Italy was ace, and many great things were there, and on that trip.




more to follow!

Away to Italy!

I'm away in the UK, and off to Italy on tour with an orchestra tomorrow. I cannot possibly name the orchestra, since the last visit to Italy resulted in the whole orchestra being banned from a hotel.

The players' contracts are fairly stiff this time - much like the talking to we all got last time, when 'a person of great authority' flew out especially to give it. '...Most of you are professional musicians embarking on your careers, and I can stop these careers dead in their tracks'. Imagine having nothing better to do than to fly out to Ravenna, and give a telling off to a young(ish) orchstra. Lovely man, great preparation for the televised concert. Maybe he'd've been better off working out why the television company didn't pay the orchstra fees (maybe it's because it was for the Easter Sunday broadcast, and he felt religious).

This tour's players' contract says that the hotel bar is out of bounds, and that any more than 3 people in a room is classed as a party. I'm sure that these clauses will pose a large problem to those who would like to have a party, given that it's 30 degrees outside (86 for the Yanks) and the bar lined sandy beach stretches for miles.

But, the reputation of the orchestra thankfully wasn't sullied by the previous visit. The posters proudly stated that we were the London Symphony Orchestra*.

* don't bother trying to sue the organisers - they no longer exist!

Tulip Tourism

We took advantage of the lovely long evenings, - the sun doesn't set until 10 - to see some tulips. Fields upon fields of tulips each filling a piece of the rainbow.




The fields go on forever, which reminds of a lack of hills & mountains, and the sheep that would devour demolish the tulips in no time. So, plenty of demand for the tulips, and even before they're picked and arranged into bowls, jugs and bicycle decor, there are a few that come from afar to look and enjoy them.





Some were from Sweden, Finland, Germany, France & Italy. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. The thought of driving so far in such a vehicle makes me think that the tulips don't really matter - it's more that it's possible to be a snail, and take everything with you - the point being the journey and not the destination. Tulips are great while on your doorstep, but why on earth drive hundreds of miles with everything you own? (they weren't tulip pickers - they can't afford these). It's neither camping nor staying in a hotel, and it's an expensive folly that gets used less than a barbeque at the top of Everest.

Why not get a decent car & camp or stay in a hotel? That way, at least it's possible to enjoy the drive, enjoy being outdoors/in a nice hotel. I guess that while in campsites & hotels, the problem is that they may meet people that point and laugh.


it seems that the people who drive them choose them because they match the white flat caps, and beige jackets they all seem to wear. Maybe a fashion statement. Though if they can't see colour then why drive so far to see such colourful tulips?