The odd couple?

I could be referring to Duncan and myself alone in the house while Maggie and Malcolm are in Canada; or I could be referring to our guest border collie who is visiting for a day or two while the Hammers are away.

Or maybe I could be referring to the odd pairing between Clyde and Osa; the cat has zero fear of the dog, and based on their fur coloration, maybe Clyde thinks that Osa is his brother?

It's been nice to not have to go to rehearsal or performance for a little while, and I am really enjoying some relaxation time.  On Friday the weather was gorgeous, so I actually opened a beer at lunch, and read my book, Margaret Atwood's newest, out in the back yard with a cigar, my first since Les Contamines.

Then I had a nice big sandwich, and as the weather was good, got on my scooter and took the newest set of golf clubs (29 EUR for Calloway irons and Ping drivers at the Cash Express hock shop!) and gave them a go at the driving range.  It's just four kilometres up the road, and a bucket of balls is 10 EUR.  It seems that I am pretty consistent with my five iron at least, hitting it straight and usually around 125 yards, which is a little short.  The driver is okay too, but I have a hybrid wood in there with a 20 degree loft that I don't know how I'm supposed to hit.  Like an iron?  If so, which one?  I've read that it replaces a five wood or even a seven wood, so it will need a bit more practice.

What is more interesting is that the driving range also has a four-hole golf course, so for 16 EUR you can hit some balls and then play the course, no licence or membership required.  I will likely do that this week with Duncan if he wants to.

Friday night Maggie and I walked to a local Italian gastronomie restaurant that served a great menu of northern Italian food: nice foie gras, homemade pasta with piedmont cheese in a veal jus, venison roast, pigeonneau, that sort of thing.  Here's the menu online; Maggie and I alternated the courses in the "Terre et Jardin" section.

Dining at a fancy restaurant like that is something that we almost never do, but as we didn't think there was anything in particular that we wanted for our birthdays, we thought we'd share a fancy dinner out.  As well we are probably going to get a new espresso maker as our old one has pretty much given up the ghost, according to our repair technician; the cost to repair it will be close to 200 EUR so we think we'll look for a new one.

Saturday morning I drove Malcolm and Maggie to the airport for their trip to Toronto and then to Skootamatta.  Maggie was planning to go visit her parents but at the last minute Malcolm decided to go along, and along with visiting his Grandparents, he has arranged meetings with some famous guitar makers in the Toronto and Ottawa areas.  I see from her messages that she and Malcolm have already had a canoe excursion, and if the weather and water is warm enough he might actually go swimming.

Here at home I had a quiet Saturday to myself, and then when Duncan returned from karate we drove to the Hammers, and had a nice meal together and a bonfire.  Sunday morning Bryan and I went for a 14km run with the dogs, and then we all had lunch at a nice cafe in Genappe, not far from their place.  What a luxury for me to dine out twice in a weekend!

Sunday afternoon was quiet, and on Monday I had planned to do some musical work on my two Requiem Masses that are coming up next weekend.  But I was rather rudely awakened by someone from Wavre Utilities, who was here to cut off my electricity!

Fortunately he found me at home, and we quickly sorted out the problem: sometime in the summer our contract with our gas and electricity provider was terminated, and switched to another provider, but not under my name.  I'm not really sure how it happened but possibly a neighbour switched providers but included the wrong house address in error.  Then that neighbour terminated that contract, which left me in limbo.  We continued to get our gas and electricity, and I even submitted the meter readings, so I didn't realise anything was amiss.

We pay our gas and electricity bills by direct debit, and as we are on a fixed prepayment plan, I don't pay much attention until the end of the year, when the meters are read and we usually get a rebate.  This year I saw the end of year bill in July which gave us the usual rebate, and thought nothing of it after that.  I've been so busy since the summer that I didn't notice that we hadn't been receiving a utility bill in email, and it was only when the technician arrived, and I did the investigation of our online accounts that I realised that we haven't been paying a bill.

Anyway the long and short of it is that I was in discussion with the electrical technician for about a half an hour, and then spent the next four hours or so going through our paper and electronic records, and calling various providers and government regulatory agencies... by three o'clock in the afternoon it was all sorted out, and we are back with our original provider, and there is no danger that our utilities will be cut off.

I was finally able to do some singing!

This Requiem by Michael Haydn (the younger brother of Franz Joseph Haydn) is a bit odd, as there are many places where the bass singer does an unusual harmonic movement that isn't very intuitive.  It makes me realise how great Mozart and Haydn the elder were at writing multiple voices, because their music seems somehow to sing itself more easily.  The same is true for Ferdinand Schubert's Requiem, which in my opinion is less singable than the music of his younger brother Franz Peter.  But I should still be okay to rehearse and perform them this Sunday in Oostburg, NL.

Tonight quite late we'll have a visitor: Simonas is living in Clichy in the suburbs of Paris, and he is coming to visit us for a couple of nights during his holidays.  I haven't kept up with him but it seems likely that if he has school holidays then he is at school... we'll find out more after we pick him up.  It's too bad that he'll miss Malcolm and Maggie.

They leave Toronto on Sunday, and I'll be picking them up early on Monday morning so that she can get to work, and he can head up to Boom to resume his work at the school.

Ok on that note (haha) I am back into the studio to rehearse.  After this weekend's Oostburg concert comes the Mass in B Minor, followed by the Brahms Requiem the weekend after that, and then the four Dolly shows the next weekend, followed by a brief breather before I leave for Newfoundland.  It's nice to feel wanted...