post scriptum

THE PIANO IS HERE!

It is great!

It sounds beautiful!

It is the greatest tool and treasure that one can imagine!

(How did I manage to give that a skip?)

positive…gentle (?)

Kiwi life is a little different but it is not easy to put your finger on exactly makes it that way. Long ago when Tessa and I first played a concert together, she did not feel we were quite ready with one of the tricky movements we were to perform plus the program was a little too long anyway. We decided to ‘give it a skip’ (her formation). Do you appreciate how this fell on the ears when announced to the audience compared to ‘we are going to leave out...’?

Yes, the people are friendly. (Is this because it's a small country--cooperation is necessary and competition is not productive?) The Kiwi workmen are intelligent, trustworthy—antenna installers, removers, plumbers, and electricians—and are instantly your mates. They introduce themselves by first name and feel free to take their tea at your table when teatime strikes. If the high gusty wind had taken out the newly installed antenna…no worries…it would be lovely to see those blokes again. Back to language though…when the electrician left, there was no ‘I have to leave’ or ‘I need to get to so-and-so by such-and-such’ but rather ‘I’ll be away’…positive and poetic…

the sign in the supermarket parking lot says “we would appreciate your returning the trundles to the trundle park, Thank you.” (cool) If you are a pedestrian strolling past the fire station downtown (seven doors set to open and unleash huge wailing trucks!) a smallish sign reads: ‘warning, be alert to fire appliances’ (nothing to get too excited about). At some Intersections where there are no traffic lights or stop signs, traffic is encouraged to mesh and meld, not by a sign saying “YIELD” (so hierarchical and bossy) but by a gentle “Give Way” (you, the driver, are requested to cooperate in helping things to run smoothly…)

the weather is a constant source of amazement. There is an electric oil heater on in the room with the piano to insure that the temperature does not fall below a certain point. It is surprising to go into the room to practice, feel the temperature—substantially warmer than the hall—and see that the thermometer reads 53 degrees--and feels warm! (Does this mean my blood is thicker and that I am acclimating?)

It snowed on the morning of our first big concert. This actually felt like the most important one since it was only the two of us performing and would be reviewed. It went off quite well. We felt satisfied and very much appreciated. (The review is quotable.) By concert number four on Friday (Tessa was not involved in this one) the temperature was in the high 70’s, perhaps hitting 80. [We are contemplating construction of a site to give programs, reviews, etc. We would list it for our faithful blog readers…] The question in my mind at the moment is: Are the extreme changes normal or are they accelerating with global warming?...and…will January and February still have nights where the temperature goes down into the 40’s?

Through all of this, the rhododendrons flourish. This is about the height of their season and they are spectacular! Our grass is thriving too, the modest patch out front and small one in the backyard have been attacked by Tessa's new toy, the:

D Handrasenmäher
F Tondeuse à main
I Tosaerba elcoidate a mano
E Cortacésped manual
NL Handmaaier
CZ Rucni vretenova sekacka (sorry about no accents)
PL Kosiarka reczna (ditto)
H Kézi fünyirogép (possibly misspelled)
R i give up
GB Hand lawnmower

(made not in China but in D for a cost of NZ $99)

it is so difficult to imagine the leaf peepers slowing my commute to Vermont and the advent of autumn. we miss it and love you all...

the removers brought our stuff finally…

Thursday a week ago yesterday was the big day. Everything since then is a bit of a haze. This haze was initiated in part by the huge anticipation of seeing movers again after eleven weeks plus a few days when the movers arrived in Northampton to finish boxing and loading the container with our stuff (July 10th). The level of excitement ran high--so high that some sleeping partners slept poorly and had a lower that usual threshold for snoring irritation…

some NZ usage seems verry English, some perverse…’removers’ for ‘movers’ certainly has a high cuteness quotient…anyway the cheerful blokes arrived at 8:15 AM with the boxes. Tessa was in charge of checking them off by the truck and then running inside to unpack rugs and pictures. I stuck to the kitchen-- unpacking boxes and storing things away as quickly as humanly possible for five or six hours. The guys left around 2:30 with as much paper and as many empty boxes as we could manage. I put Lily’s and Wim’s bed and bunk bed respectively together and then went off to a rehearsal at 4 PM. Our master bedroom has a closet, a bed and no chests as yet; Lily’s room has a bed, a chest but no bookcase or sorely needed wardrobe; Wim has a good-sized bookcase, his bunk bed and table but needs a small bedside table and chest. All this translates into stuff that is not still in boxes lying around.

What successfully created the feeling of a three-ring circus that day and the next was a forest fire that broke out across the valley on the other side of town. It was quite serious. We could see flames that must have been at least 20 feet high. Up to four helicopters were busy scooping up water from the harbour (sic) and dropping it on the blaze all that day and into the night. This fire flared up again the next morning and even again on Saturday, now two days later. The armchair psychologist here feels that the turmoil in clear view reflected the inner lives of the new arrivals to Waikikamukau who were experiencing reconnection and the realization of what it means to see the old things in a new light.

The office/music studio/guest room has about forty boxes of music, music books, files, CD’s and whatnot. I spent three hours on Friday and again on Saturday combing through those containers for a CV—suddenly needed for ‘casual work’...accompanying at the Uni. Not really expecting anything to happen right away at the end of this term of theirs, I was completely unprepared to find any records. (Bennington had already buried me in their archives, Karen at Westfield saved the day by faxing the documents…)

The new bed (now a two week old bed) has promoted restful nights for some of us--me for instance. Others have fared less well. The unpacker ‘sleeping’ next to me was again not sleeping too soundly, now because of twitching muscles and over exertion from the unpacking. The resolution that one would expect to experience (after the great day) was somehow averted. Life is always interesting…nu?

Are we happy to see our things? Yes. Are the kids happy to have their toys again? Definitely. We do have some tension ratcheting up a notch with the concerts next week. In case you have forgotten the schedule goes like this: ‘La Belle Alliance’, Tess and me, on Tuesday in the Otago Festival of the Arts—St Paul’s; Wednesday…Brian Bromberg’s cello sonata with Jono and me for a noon-time concert at the Uni (one movement only); Thursday…Greg Hamilton and friends—that includes Tess and me at St. Paul’s again…for me it’s the first Beethoven cello sonata (1st mov’t) with Greg, then the Dvorak D major Pno Quart’t for tutti; Friday the entire BB cello sonata in a BB concert at Marama Hall (Uni). Oh yes, the kids start their 4th and final term for the year on Monday (this is a good thing…)

Good news: broadband should be coming soon…tomorrow, perhaps...plus a day or two to sort things out. Bad news: 6-meter swells stopped ferry traffic between the north and south islands for a couple od days so the piano did NOT arrive yet. Sunday night or Monday morning is the current prognosis. (Did it occur to you how useful it would be for me to have a grand piano to practice on right now?)

It's Friday (still Thursday for you). The sun is up. There is not a cloud in the sky. The wood and coal furnace boosted by electric/oil interior heaters are dispelling the morning cool (temp. in office/study/music/guest room-43 degrees F…same as bedrooms upstairs). Dishwasher empty, table set, little feet are heard…time to make the tea and get the day started…it is all very exciting--we are alive and well!…Wim & Lily are going on a tour of the Cadbury chocolate factory today…heaven can wait...