First rehearsals for Bach

You know that I am getting busy when the blog posts start to slow down.. I am writing a quick one today as I have to leave in a few minutes...

First rehearsals for the various Bach Passions began last Friday and I've been going pretty steadily ever since.  Friday's was in a very cold church and we were bundled up, wishing for a warm fire to warm ourselves...

As my rehearsals were near Antwerp I stopped in to pick up Malcolm, and had a visit with him and his instructor Stijn.  His guitar is really coming along well.

Bryan and Kiana brought us back some murano glass tumblers as a thank-you for looking after the kids while they were in Venice.  These have found a nice place in the cabinet...

This weekend was the last chance for us all to get together as a large group until nearly the first of June, as I will be away from Belgium from April 3rd until May 23, so we decided to have an early Easter dinner at the Hammers.  I made a Peking duck in the rotisserie oven, which is surprisingly easy.  You wash the duck in boiling water, then dry it well, and then loosen the skin from the breast meat.  Shove a straw in between the skin and the meat and blow strongly, which will inflate the skin and pull it away from the meat.  Then prick the duck all over to allow the fat to drain when it is roasting, rub it with soy sauce, five spice and sugar and let it dry out in the fridge overnight.

before cooking

and after

Roast it for around 45 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads that it is done.  Ideally you serve the bits of meat and crispy skin inside a little chinese pancake, with cucumber and scallions and a bit of hoisin sauce.

The weather this weekend was really freezing.  I put out a bunch of wood shavings to try to protect the young shoots: I have about forty garlic plants that I planted from bulbs last fall that have already come up because of warm weather last week, but it was going down to well below zero, and they need covering against the frost.

Saturday started with a wine-tasting event in Bousval.

We enjoyed a lot of wines but ultimately purchased very little.  We are starting to really feel the pinch from all of the home renovation costs, and our flights to Canada, and I haven't received any fees yet from the Passion performances.  We will be drinking the cheap stuff for a while!

When we got back we set to work on the serranno ham that Lawrence splurged on... the cats wanted to help...

Saturday night was raclette, and a game of Werewolf, the first for the Hammer and Edwards kids.  It was a big success and we'll try to play it again next time.  I highly recommend this game for large groups, but you must have at least eight players and a moderator, and it works even better if you have more.  I hope we'll get in a game at my Aunt Lorraine and Uncle David's house when we have the family get-together there in April.

This weekend again was the coldest in Belgium since record-keeping began.  That didn't deter us from running almost 22km though, with a rest stop at the Villers-la-Ville abbey for a beer around the 13km mark.  Then we had eggs benedict, with my english muffins (cut and baked by Maggie), Maggie's hollandaise sauce, and ten eggs simmered in a copper pan of lemon-infused water for four minutes, on the wood cooker.  Eggs-cellent...

Yesterday I drove the 100+ km to Brasschaat for the recits rehearsal for the Johannespassion where I do absolutely everything bass.  Fortunately the car was fixed in time; we had a coolant leak that required replacement of the entire coolant pump.  800 EUR later!  Oh well, that's life...

Today I am leaving presently to rehearse the arias in Brasschaat, and then we have a long generale rehearsal in the evening.  Looking forward to it very much!  Happy Tuesday...