Arrival in Peru and the Liverpool Philharmonic

Well it certainly was a busy day yesterday, which started before 4 am, when the taxi arrived to take Robin to the airport.
He then had a quick flight to Amsterdam, before a far more gruelling 13 hour, 6539 mile, flight to Lima, Peru.

When I heard from him, very much later in the day, the journey had been pretty uneventful except for two incidents.

The first occurred with only an hour left of the flight.
Robin could hear a dog barking in the seat in front of him.
Initially he couldn't decide whether he had started with auditory hallucinations, or, the person was playing 'nintendogs' and the sound was exceptionally realistic.
After deliberating the point for a while (you have to pass the time somehow on these long flights) he realised the sound was more persistent, and that the shoulder bag of the person in front, was actually moving.
On closer inspection, a very small, beautiful little dog was in residence!
The dog must have been an official passenger as it had no trouble at the security checks on arrival in Lima.
This has, of course, sparked a thought in Robin's mind.
Can he get a shoulder bag big enough to fit one of our Labradors in, which would be of great comfort to him, on these long trips away from home.
He soon decided against it as he already has a large, heavy suitcase, a flight bag, and, his guitar to deal with.

The other incident was at the pick up point.
Robin was being collected, along with a few other people, and being transported from the airport.
There seemed to be a case of mistaken identity, as the other travellers thought he was the Captain!
I'm not quite sure how this came about, as you would think his concert guitar, in a flight case, was a bit of a give away.
I'm also not sure at this stage whether the 'real' Captain ever materialised, but Robin is now on board ship, and hopefully not in charge of it...

Whilst he spent the day flying, I attended the 'Royal Liverpool Philharmonic' with a party of 97 school boys...
The Liverpool Phil should be proud of themselves.
The hall was full of many different school parties and consequently rather a noisy place to be.
The idea was to introduce children to music from around the world, under the theme, 'Music on the Menu'.
The fact that a few thousand excited children were entertained for 1 1/2 hours was a great achievement.
Along with extracts from Tchaikovsky's 'Nutcracker suite' and 'Morning' from Peer Gynt, there was some Bizet, Falla, Rossini, Britten, and amongst other things, some audience participation.
All credit to the Liverpool Phil, for managing to continue playing in time despite rather out of time clapping from the audience.
I hope the aim of introducing orchestral music to a new generation has been a success.
Both the presenter, Alasdair Malloy, and the conductor, Nick Davies, did a very good job, and I'm pretty sure it was the first, and possibly the last, time that I will see a conductor dressed as a chef!

Sshh - It's a Secret....

Robin has gone back down to London today. He's there for an important meeting, and no, I can't tell you anything about it at this stage. In fact, I'm not sure when I'll be able to pass on this exciting news, so you'll just have to keep checking in. Nothing like a bit of intrigue to keep you all guessing, and no, I'm not open to bribes...
He decided to go down on the train and I think he quite enjoyed the experience of travelling without his guitar. It certainly makes life easier.
Robin seems to be making a habit of heading south at the moment. If you remember he was in London last week doing his bit to save the rainforest.
Here's the picture to prove it.




Meanwhile, I've been holding the fort at home, as always. I did remember to take a break and listen to 'Tales from the Stave', BBC Radio 4. This week Frances Fyfield discussed the creative process behind Benjamin Britten's opera 'Peter Grimes', with the musical experts Dr.John Evans and Dr.Paul Banks. It's such a delight to hear them thoroughly enjoying themselves as they pour over the score. I recommend it as some lovely lunchtime listening.