Checklist
Dear Diary,
I know I've been horrible to you. Let's see if I can make up for it.
In China, it is considered the height of impoliteness to:
- not feed your guests a few kilos of rice after a twenty-odd course meal
- feed your guests less than two times a day with a twenty-odd course meal
- not tell your guests the exaggerated precise value of the presents you give them
- show your guests less than two tourist attractions a day
- not feed your guests before they have to play a concert
- speak to someone higher up the ladder without express permission
- not feed your guests immediately after the concert
- applaud too long in case your guests miss their after-concert meal
- let your guests do or pay anything by themselves
- not feed your guests immediately after breakfast, lunch or dinner
Be that how it may, we might go back there next year. There are some interested parties (although there's only one Party that's involved with everything and offers its wallet, harhar) who'd like to have us play again, maybe even in Beijing (which is supposedly more modern and thus we might hope not to have to adhere to no.6). Next time round, we'll sort of know what to expect and will try to express our needs or lack thereof beforehand. But first we need to sort through all the recordings and produce some decent China-compatible demo material, and the process is being complicated by the fact that our Western computers tend to fail to recognise the Chinese disks in their drives... Oh well, let's hope Bass can sort it out.
And what else? I've been lazy, lazy, lazy. And I've found a very appropriate youtube video. My motto, definitely.
Been to Mi's b-day party, which was brilliant cos she loved the dragon picture and snake chopsticks I brought her from China, and there was the legendary leek soup and generally lots of good vibes. I am starting to have regrets and crave a life with a partner, nice decent academic friends from work and all that. Wait, not really. I guess just generally more social interaction would be a plus. But I'm so damned phlegmatic, I can't even keep up my internet social life. Which is supposed to be easier.
Oh, and the Tosca DVD from the Teatro Real Madrid arrived. With interviews, yay. I had expected a bit more screaming acting from Dessi/Armiliato, and a bit more vocal power from Uncle Ruggero. But the former are definitely a wonderfully odd couple and the latter is still sexy like whoah. Also, very, erm, nice idea to torture Cavaradossi onstage (if slighty out of focus and in half-light) and topless, but why bother with putting the shirt back on for the next scene? Pity. Also, a supposedly depressing, but for me quite amusimg scene with prisoners holding on to tied to a rope being fed water. Amusing because it was so stolen from Ben-Hur, not-quite-properly-tied-to-the-rope people and all. But it was worth the buy, methinks, cause I can improove maaay Itaaalian with naaaice Raimondi interviews and my French with the subtitles.
Still desperately in need of fanfic.
Last Wednesday we got a bit of payment out of the band funds, and first, okay, second or third thing I did was buy a glass of orange marmalade for more than three Euros, plus some selected bio foods. I won't be getting nowhere like this. Tragic thing is, to get cheaper orange marmalade, I'll have to go to London. But if I had the money to go to London I wouldn't need to complain about the expensive marmalade here in the first place. Also, been waiting for the musical money from Mssrs C and D for ages, only to hear that there was a misunderstanding about the sums. Okay, it did seem over-generous, the pay I'd thought they'd offered me back then, but well... Will have to write a new bill for less money now, ack. And I should get my arse up to start viz zer teaching again. Really should. But I feel thoroughly incapable of organising anything right now. I could have gone to Kassel or Köln or somewhere this weekend, seeing as there weren't any appointments and such, but did I? No, because, phlegmatic. Okay, so I at least saved the money. But I didn't see the people. Which gets us back to exhibit b, social shortcomings.
Okay, no need to read all this crap, that's what the cuts are for. And now to roam the f-list a bit.
I know I've been horrible to you. Let's see if I can make up for it.
In China, it is considered the height of impoliteness to:
- not feed your guests a few kilos of rice after a twenty-odd course meal
- feed your guests less than two times a day with a twenty-odd course meal
- not tell your guests the exaggerated precise value of the presents you give them
- show your guests less than two tourist attractions a day
- not feed your guests before they have to play a concert
- speak to someone higher up the ladder without express permission
- not feed your guests immediately after the concert
- applaud too long in case your guests miss their after-concert meal
- let your guests do or pay anything by themselves
- not feed your guests immediately after breakfast, lunch or dinner
Be that how it may, we might go back there next year. There are some interested parties (although there's only one Party that's involved with everything and offers its wallet, harhar) who'd like to have us play again, maybe even in Beijing (which is supposedly more modern and thus we might hope not to have to adhere to no.6). Next time round, we'll sort of know what to expect and will try to express our needs or lack thereof beforehand. But first we need to sort through all the recordings and produce some decent China-compatible demo material, and the process is being complicated by the fact that our Western computers tend to fail to recognise the Chinese disks in their drives... Oh well, let's hope Bass can sort it out.
And what else? I've been lazy, lazy, lazy. And I've found a very appropriate youtube video. My motto, definitely.
Been to Mi's b-day party, which was brilliant cos she loved the dragon picture and snake chopsticks I brought her from China, and there was the legendary leek soup and generally lots of good vibes. I am starting to have regrets and crave a life with a partner, nice decent academic friends from work and all that. Wait, not really. I guess just generally more social interaction would be a plus. But I'm so damned phlegmatic, I can't even keep up my internet social life. Which is supposed to be easier.
Oh, and the Tosca DVD from the Teatro Real Madrid arrived. With interviews, yay. I had expected a bit more screaming acting from Dessi/Armiliato, and a bit more vocal power from Uncle Ruggero. But the former are definitely a wonderfully odd couple and the latter is still sexy like whoah. Also, very, erm, nice idea to torture Cavaradossi onstage (if slighty out of focus and in half-light) and topless, but why bother with putting the shirt back on for the next scene? Pity. Also, a supposedly depressing, but for me quite amusimg scene with prisoners holding on to tied to a rope being fed water. Amusing because it was so stolen from Ben-Hur, not-quite-properly-tied-to-the-rope people and all. But it was worth the buy, methinks, cause I can improove maaay Itaaalian with naaaice Raimondi interviews and my French with the subtitles.
Still desperately in need of fanfic.
Last Wednesday we got a bit of payment out of the band funds, and first, okay, second or third thing I did was buy a glass of orange marmalade for more than three Euros, plus some selected bio foods. I won't be getting nowhere like this. Tragic thing is, to get cheaper orange marmalade, I'll have to go to London. But if I had the money to go to London I wouldn't need to complain about the expensive marmalade here in the first place. Also, been waiting for the musical money from Mssrs C and D for ages, only to hear that there was a misunderstanding about the sums. Okay, it did seem over-generous, the pay I'd thought they'd offered me back then, but well... Will have to write a new bill for less money now, ack. And I should get my arse up to start viz zer teaching again. Really should. But I feel thoroughly incapable of organising anything right now. I could have gone to Kassel or Köln or somewhere this weekend, seeing as there weren't any appointments and such, but did I? No, because, phlegmatic. Okay, so I at least saved the money. But I didn't see the people. Which gets us back to exhibit b, social shortcomings.
Okay, no need to read all this crap, that's what the cuts are for. And now to roam the f-list a bit.