Day 171: On the road again...

Day 171 (26 May) Sunday. Concert day. It is one of the very good things about being in a community orchestra (and good to be back in the band) is that our Monday night rehearsals  are always directed at the performance. We usually do two concerts of the same program, two Sundays in a row. Today it is Mt Mee...but before that...

Looking out my back door,
at 6.12am

It does mean an early start when we go 'on the road'. We are to meet at UQ to board the bus which will take us up the mountain. It is always a good trip and preferable to driving, and no, musicians don't sing 'Ten Green Bottles'. So it is up early, on Sunday, to do the washing...on this day I decide at 6.12am to pay homage to one of my favourite artists, David Hockney. He did a marvellous series of photos in Japan some years ago and he nearly always includes a pic of his feet in his photos...luckily, I'm no David Hockney. I'm actually getting the washing done early so it is out before I leave. There isn't another chance today. 

All set to go, SLO at
Mt Mee

Everybody is on time and we plan to arrive in time to do the usual sound check, 'top and tail' as we call it. We've been heading up to Mt Mee annually for about a decade now. The community supplies a lovely homemade afternoon tea; as an audience they are engaged and appreciative. It is always a marvellous day. I like to use the time on the bus to read for work. Today it is Christopher Hitchens on George Orwell...I like to use Orwell as a backgrounder to my politics classes. I'm interested in what Hitch has to say.

The sound check goes well, our soloists, the lovely Leslie Martin and fabulous Gregory Moore, are marvellous and we're all ready to go just on 2pm. Two and a half hours later it is all over. The Mt Mee community has been a marvellous audience and host again. We'll be back. 

My kit, waiting for the bus

On the bus back home it is dark and a bit hard to read so I've opted to look through the pics I might submit to the Ekka photo competition this year. I've been meaning to do it forever. 

An Ekka pic? On the bus home,
at 6.12pm

Next week, it is our special 40th Anniversary Concert at Schonell Theatre. St Lucia Orchestra started in 1973 and has played continually since then. It is going to be a big weekend for us. We'll play for Chas, because if he were here, he'd be one of the guest soloists. 

Meanwhile, if anything happened today...it passed me by. A Sunday on the mountain can do that to you.