Busy Busy Busy!

Well, HELLO FRIENDS! And welcome to my very 1st BLOG! (I hope this works because it's all new to me!)

SO much has happened over the last couple of months... starting from the recital in the Royal Festival Hall. I was absolutely delighted by how much support I received - it was so great to see so many friends out there - from so many different areas of my life! And what a great big place to play in?! - fantastic experience!! My sax and I had a much needed rest after that - and I had a wonderful few days of catching up with all my buddies. In fact, the day after, I went to London Zoo with Nikki, to find the bearded pig I adopted for her! It was nice to do something normal instead of practising, rehearsing and getting frustrated with reeds!! (If you call going to the zoo normal!!)

Playing wise, things are going well... I'm loving my lessons with Jean-Yves Fourmeau in Paris - he's such an inspiration. Hearing him in my lessons spurs me on to keep practising! He makes the most divine sound... This week has been a bit manic though - trying to juggle concerts, rehearsals, lessons and lives in two different countries!! No joke, I've made THREE RETURN trips between London and Paris in just over a week!! I'm so good at juggling now, that I'm considering getting a part-time job in a circus!! Those who know me best, will know that I never take the easy option and pack my life to the brim! But I'm having great fun! After all these journeys, I now have Eurostar 'Carte Blanche' status, which basically just means that I can use all the 'Business Premiere' facilities... a bit poncy I know, but it's so nice to get free drinks, food and newspapers!! The internet facilitles also come in quite handy - there are ALWAYS e mails that need to be sent! I could work full-time just managing all my admin, without even touching an instrument - so those 15 mins in the departure lounge can be very helpful!! I stick out like a sore thumb in the Business lounge - everyone else is suited with a laptop, and then I usually roll in, in my jeans, with my sax, seeing how many freebies I can get out of the fridge!! Eurostar has served me well, apart from when it was delayed by nearly 2 hours and nearly made me late for my audition for the RFH recital - I was already the last one in the day as I had lessons in Paris, so if I was late, that was it! I HAD to warm up, and as the time ticked by, there was nothing else I could do... so, there I was serenading the staff in the restaurant carriage!! Got to waterloo and jumped in a cab to get me to Guildhall, where Daniel was holding the fort!! I literally threw my sax together as I went into the audition... it was one of the best performances Daniel and I have given together and we got the RFH recital and also some funding towards my lessons in Paris. So I think there's a lot to be said for not taking things TOO seriously (though I don't like living my life on SUCH a sharp edge!!)

Linz came out to Paris for a few days so we could spend some quality friendship time together - she had done some great research and we had a wonderful few days of sitting in fantastic Parisian cafes and restaurants eating great cheese and drinking fine wine (with a bit of sax in between!) We even went on a river cruise down the Seine - parfait!

I went in to play with the London Symphony Orchestra a couple of times last month, which was wonderful! They really are a great bunch to play with! I'm playing with the London Concert Orchestra soon too - Symphony Hall on 27th December and Barbican on New Year's Day!!

It's not all been hunky dory though... a couple of weeks ago I was driving back from some concerts in North Yorkshire (alone), when I was involved in a nasty accident on the M1. That soon brought me back down to earth. I was number 3 in a pile-up of 4 vehicles, with a van going into the back of me. My car got totally smashed up, particularly the back end, and my heart totally sank as I remembered my saxes were in the boot... I couldn't bare to open my alto case until about 3 hours after the crash - it had been really far back in the boot and would have taken most of the force of the collision. But by some miracle it survived!! My soprano has been playing up though since the accident and I think some of the keywork may have shifted on impact - it's going to the vets tomorrow to be sorted out!! There's a wonderful sax vet in Paris, so I'm hoping he can work some magic! Cars are just machines and can be replaced, but my saxes are much more than just my machines - I would have been totally gutted if my alto had got damaged. My car was totally undriveable and so I was delivered back to my parents, very shaken up, with a very mangled car, by a very nice recovery man who came to get me! I think mum and dad thought they'd got rid of me and my brother, but we like to keep them on their toes with a few surprises! I've been suffering with whiplash and back pain since, which is not great for playing the saxophone and clarinet - I'm seeing the physio tomorrow so hopefully I'll get sorted out soon. My little Corsa has now gone to the car crusher and I've just got a new car! Very exciting - although all the controls are in different places, so we need to spend some time making friends, otherwise I'll be spraying water when I mean to indicate!!!!

So, Christmas is creeping up once again... and I'm not feeling very Christmassy yet! Adam (my brother) won't be around because he's leading his first expedition up Kilimanjaro, which is awesome! Traditional X-mas eve drinks with my school chums will also be a bit different this year because Nikki is on vet call in WALES!! :-( My aunt and uncle were victims of the flooding in June, and STILL have no downstairs to their house! So... EVERYBODY is coming down to mum and dad's!! That's 11 people and 2 dogs!! Argh!! When I asked mum where I was going to sleep, she admitted that she'd totally forgotten about me!! Great!! Anybody got a spare bed going?!

What's next? Well, Daniel and I are doing our Purcell Room recital on the 8th of January - so busy preparing for that! Lots to do! We're playing some great music and have also commissioned a new work from Giles Swayne (who is quite a character!!). After writing some 'Hannah letters', The Britten-Pears Foundation and the Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust have kindly agreed to fund the project. The piece is called 'Leonardo's Dream' and is based on a code that Da Vinci scribbled down - sounds very interesting, though we haven't got the score yet! It's probably being written as I type! I'll be getting it as a pdf on wednesday - and as I haven't got a printer at the moment, it looks like I'll be learning it off my laptop screen! I just hope it's nice and playable otherwise my Christmas will be well and truly written-off!!!! I look forward to my fate being revealed!!