There we were at the Opaho Presbyterian Church on the Sunday after Easter, celebrating…Harvest Sunday! This does underline a cultural gap/seasonal anomaly whose dimensions we are still very much in the process of discovering.

After a two week vacation, Willem and Lily began their second of the four-term school year (23 April). Winter uniforms are now required for this term and next. Lily was unable to tell us if the Sun Bonnet monitors were in operation today…ordinarily Columba girls are not allowed outside in the sun for recess or for lunch without those bonnets…Both had two days of school then a pause for ANZAC Day. [ANZAC is a familiar term for enterprises involving both countries (ANZAC Bank, ANZAC Airlines...etc) ANZAC Day is the equivalent of what was the US Veteran's Day, now Memorial Day. The first big remembered event honored here is a murderous carnage when troops largely from New Zealand and Australia tried to establish a beachhead at Galipoli at the onset of WW I]

The ‘colours’ of autumn are now on view. Most native trees and shrubs here are evergreen. These usual dark greens stand with a minority group of deciduous trees and shrubs some lighter greens and fading yellows--none of the heart-wrenching bright red's and brilliant gold's of New England’s maples. Another harbinger of the changing season is the ODT (Otago Daily Times) statement that the cruise ship season ended on Saturday with the Sapphire Princess making its 8th visit of the season. The season had begun when The World berthed on October 8th for an overnight stay. The next season will start on September 28th!

Luckily, we will miss the beginning of ‘winter’ by skipping off to New England two weeks into this term. Armed with assignments and reading materials, we eagerly anticipate family reunions and the easy company of friends...delaying our descent into fall for a bit with a dose of warm weather and vitamin D. The spring/summer wedding rite of El and Ria will be the high-point which brings it all together. Rising these days in wintry damp chill, before the sun, we look forward to opposite--the antidote of antipodean seasons.

We went through a busy patch of music making in the latter two weeks of March—two concerts with moi avec Terence Dennis—the pianist at the University, music for 2-pianos…a piece by Grainger on one concert and two pieces from Petrouchka on the other, also a repeat of a student cello sonata. Tessa and I both played in a big Sinfonia concert in the same period. Prominent parts for piano made it a signal occasion for me…

A small portion of household woe has visited of late in the form of a failed dishwasher. Since the dishwasher is brand-new, we were disappointed. When it was removed, there was a bit of a puddle underneath…The dishwasher was taken away for assessment, perhaps having faulty or cracked hoses…The insurance assessor noticed that there must have been a leak of longstanding, perhaps exacerbated by the installation of the new washer. So we will have a builder around to do repairs to the floor (after the return from the states) and get by with doing the a lot of washing mano-a-mano until the dishwasher can be reinstalled.

The front living room has been spiffed up with some couches, purchased at a greatly reduced price —making it available for family habitation. The normative piano playing that goes on in the daytime continues unaffected by any noticeable change in the acoustic but the look is definitely warmer. [Because the lack of economies of scale, furniture, like beer and household appliances, are very expensive here.] We had the chimney of the of the art-deco fireplace cleaned, a new ash-pan fashioned by crafty NZ work people and a new spark screen created. Our first family evening by the fire was spent playing the New Yorker caption game.

The BIG news is that the current violinist in the Music Department of the University of Otago suddenly announced that he is relinquishing his post, in the middle of his tenth year! On top of the excitement from the approaching trip, this miraculously wonderful work news generated more anxiety—thankfully, already now resolved. Tessa has accepted the invitation to be the replacement in this position. [One imagines that the position will have to be advertised, probably next year, but that her job performance now will hopefully enhance her standing in the selection process down the road.]

Smaller but also good news: playing in the Sinfonia found us a new friend…a bassoonist. Gordon grew up in Auckland although his family roots go back to the Dunedin of the 1860’s. He studied at Indiana U., played in the NZSO and for many years in Australia. Gordon, in his latter 60’s, is one of those people who seem to remember everyone they ever met—a not uncommon trait in orchestral musicians who have an instinctive social/networking gene in their blood. Gordon is helping us make contacts in Sydney. This might lead to concerts and master classes for the two of us as a duo or for me individually…(for instance, he thinks that a pianist in Sydney might help connect me to a music club circuit for a recital tour…) Tessa’s new job will be very useful in leveraging this type of possibility…

for the moment, your scribe must open the piano for some play/work. Wim is at the computer, having begun his Saturday morning putting an hour in on a fund-raising read-a-thon for his school. Lily is off to ballet (9:30-10:30) with Tessa. Tessa will ‘go for a coffee’ at the house of a friend who was a flat-mate at the Uni and now has three young girls, one dancing with Lily and one who studies violin (whom I accompanied yesterday in the Marama String Project informal yesterday).

postscript: The mention of Wim’s school reminds me—the level of discipline there is of an order that we (us ‘stateside’ people) would deem unacceptable or even ‘actionable’. On the last day of the last term, a mother (and friend) picking up her son from school was surprised to find him shivering outside the chapel. It turned out that he was not allowed into the assembly because he had not worn his dress uniform. Yesterday, on a cool, rainy day with temperatures in the low 50’s, the physical education class consisted of running the cross-country course, including a section along a gravel path next to a small stream. Willem’s friend Mark, who had forgotten to pack his sneakers, was made to run this course in his bare feet. We are amazed... they do expect the boys to be 'tuff'