Back in the rhythm of things

Maggie is finishing marking and looking forward to the last day of classes

  

The first few days since I returned were pretty stormy and rainy, but the last couple of days have been much nicer.  I've had a couple of runs since I got back; Friday morning Bryan and I ran a brief 7km in the rain, and yesterday I did a solo (with Yoshi of course) 8km in the heat of the day... it was perhaps 25 degrees which felt pretty warm.  Certainly Yoshi was a laggard for the last couple of kilometers, but I found out afterwards that Maggie had taken him for a 4 or 5 km run early that same morning.  But I've noticed that he doesn't handle the warm temperatures very well, and I often have to wait for him to catch up.

Comparison of the '68 Custom reissue (on the left, from around 2014)
and my own original 1972 Princeton Reverb, from Canada

I plugged in and tested out my Fender Princeton Reverb this week... it made it from Canada in a suitcase, wrapped in about six metres of bubble wrap.  I have a step-down transformer that seems to work fine to provide it with the lower North American voltage, so no amp surgery is required.  It is interesting to compare it to the reissue amplifier that I bought second-hand a few months ago.  For my money the old one has the preferable sound, perhaps because it's familiar to me, and it is the amp that you hear on my Moses Gillespie record.  It stays clean to quite high volumes, while the new amp breaks up a lot more and gets pretty fuzzy and diffuse.  That's probably because of the larger 10" Celestion speaker in the old amp, as opposed to an 8" Jensen in the reissue.  I only bought the reissue because I was curious, but I have no problem reselling it, since I managed to get my old amp over here.

As you can see the weather has been great for the rhubarb; it was absolutely huge, and so on the weekend Maggie harvested it, her second harvest of the year, and made a rhubarb crisp.  The raspberries aren't doing very well but the current bushes are loaded with berries, so there will be some jam or jelly making happening soon.

Lawrence and the kids were over for a visit on Saturday midday, and Kiana dropped in for a cup of tea this morning.  Along with Christophe and Isabelle next door, that's most of the immediate neighbours checked off the "welcome back Matthew" list.

On Sunday I drove into Brussels in the afternoon, and had my first experience driving the new VW Golf for any length of time.  It's really a nice ride and I've very happy that we bought it, and if one drives cautiously then the fuel economy is quite good.  The navigation and parking cameras are excellent, and the stereo is acceptable too.  My only negative is that it doesn't have a sunroof; but I'm sure that I will get used to that.

at the European Commission between the Charlemagne and Berlaymont buildings

I gave my second singing workshop to the European Commission Choir; this is an amateur ensemble that was started a few years ago by Roy, a former English chorister who works at the Commission; he engaged me to give them some singing lessons back in April, and then wanted a second session.  It was very rewarding and fun work, although a bit tiring!  Roy was happy with how their singing improved after a long and detailed set of warm-up exercises, and I hope that some of what I gave them will stick.

I did a little thrift shop hunting as usual and found another steel-lined copper pan.  While not the same value as the big one I found earlier this year, it's still a good heavy one, and at around 16cm is just right for making a simple marinara sauce.  We've already cycled through a few of the "dad foods" that I make regularly for the family, including pizza, roast provençale leg of lamb, etc., and Maggie is very happy that someone else is doing some cooking.  Duncan is finished all of his exams and he offered to cook some dinner this evening, so maybe I will do some grocery shopping with him when he gets home, and he'll make a family favourite like bolognese or a curried chicken, or something like that.

I had hoped to continue my swimming by visiting the Overijse pool this morning; it is on the way to Maggie's work, and I thought that I could put my bike on the back of the car, and she could drop me there as she passed through.  But it now seems that that pool is closed until the end of 2019 for renovations.  The nearest pool is in Louvain-la-Neuve, about 5km from here, but it's not on Maggie's school route, so I plan to ride my bike up there, or maybe take a bus up; swim my lengths, and then bike or run home.

This week, I am busy practicing the Bach BWV 147, Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, which has the famous chorale Jesus bleibet meine Freude, familiar to English church-goers as the hymn Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, and also as a piano piece, often played at weddings and other ceremonies.  As well as this famous movement there are recitatives and/or arias for all the vocal soloists.  We rehearse on Saturday and then perform on Sunday evening; it will be nice to see all my colleagues of the Minimes again.

Once that is done, I'm finished singing until September... Looking ahead to the next season, I just accepted a new project for the 19th of September in the Abbey of Tongerlo, as part of the Flanders Festival, with a Belgian ensemble called Currende.  It's entitled Ave Maris Stella ("Hail Star of the Sea") and will include polyphonic music of the 16th and 17th centuries.  I don't know any of the music, but last year's experience of singing the Monteverdi project in Watermael-Boitsfort should help me get into the right style, and I have some time this summer to learn the programme.

The Abbey of Tongerlo was recently in the news: since 1545, it has been home to a replica of "The Last Supper" by Leonardo Da Vinci.  For centuries it was believed that this replica, finished in about 1509, was painted by Da Vinci's students, but recent research has led to the proposition that the heads of Jesus and John in the painting were painted not by students but by the master himself.  Here's a video clip of the story.  

The painting itself is in its own special Da Vinci museum on the Abbey Grounds, but I will definitely do my best to get in and have a look at it.  And probably try the local beer too...

Glad to be home again

Maggie avec les Cheezies

les cats dans le Jardin

Yoshi chilling out

hello chooks

Duncan chatting after his almost-completed exam period

It's been a little more than 24 hours since I arrived home, and I'm starting to feel myself again.

The jet lag was pretty intense yesterday; as my flight stopped in Montreal, it meant that the trans-Atlantic portion of the journey was only around six and a half hours; not much time for squeezing a sleep in around the meal service.  The trans-Atlantic flight was delayed slightly because of the antics of an unhappy passenger two seats in front of me, who was so unable to have a polite conversation with the attendants that he was "given the option" to disembark.  He was under the impression that he had been given a ticket for a "double seat", having missed his earlier connection to a flight to Lyon, and so he was obviously tired, and he wouldn't accept that the seat next to him (in which he wanted to stretch out) had been sold to someone else.  Interrupting and speaking rudely to a flight crew is never a good idea, so out he went.

This meant that his baggage had to be unloaded, which caused a delay of about half an hour.  We made it into Brussels only about twenty minutes behind schedule, and then I waited a long time for the bags to come out on the carousel.  But when they did I high-tailed it out to meet Maggie!  We drove home together in the new car, amidst a torrential rainstorm, which has continued on and off ever since.

Luckily her students were on a school trip on Wednesday morning, with sufficient supervision, and so she was uncharacteristically able to take a little time off and come to meet me and we went home for a late morning brunch before she had to head back for the afternoon.  I was really quite tired; I hadn't slept very much the night before departure either, so I napped for maybe an hour and a half and felt okay for the rest of the evening.

More Belgian stuff later, but for now let's try to catch up from my last post on June 3rd, as I have been too busy to write until now...

As Toronto weather permitted, I continued working on the deck and railing projects... here are some more photos:

cleaned-up space next to the house,

organised surplus wood storage,

and a small set of steps for Bruce

finishing touches on the railing

the last spacer boards for the balusters

completed stone walk, stairs and railing

I really appreciated that Bruce would ask me to do this work, as I'm sure that it's hard to find reputable builders who would do smaller projects.  As well I've heard that they wildly overcharge; we were lucky enough to use some reclaimed materials, including some nearly new western red cedar that I was able to get for free from a condo demonstration unit that had been demolished just down the street, as well as some materials that I was able to carefully dismantle from the old installation of the former privacy fence; these I could use to screen off the very back wall from nosy people who might look in from the laneway.  There are still lots of things to do but I hope that he'll be able to manage the next steps without me.

Bruce's neighbour Dan Whalen is a friend of ours, and I noticed that he had a rotten from porch board that needed replacing, so I did that with some of the wood that we had ordered.  He is a very gifted artist, and apart from his large oil and watercolour paintings also draws really cool cartoons.  He was nice enough to add me to his "Front Porch Stories" for that week...

You can see more of Dan's art on Facebook and Instagram.

Other activities included cleaning up some Le Creuset enameled cast iron pots that I had been storing in a box in the garage, and posting them on the Facebook marketplace site.  Enameled cast iron is too heavy to ship overseas and we've already got tons of it here; Bruce has lots as well, so I posted different pieces sold them quite easily.  I was also hoping to hold yard sale for other items, but that will have to wait until next May when I am back for the Vaughan Williams concert.

Mr. Hydde in Brooklyn

Bruce and I had lunch with my old friend Darren DeGenova, who had only just returned from his most recent trip to paint a huge mural at the most recent edition of the Bushwish Collective Block Party street art festival in Brooklyn NY.  He has been painting for many years now under the pseudonym of "Mister Hydde", and his career is really in a good place, with upcoming gallery shows in Toronto, Montreal, and New York City, as well as more and more work as a street/mural artist.  All the while he is also maintaining his career as an art teacher in the Toronto District School Board, and being a loving father and husband.  It's great that one of my oldest friends from Belleville has succeeded in developing his artistic career, and we have often and continue to support each other's work.  If you are interested you can see his work online at https:

//mrhydde.com, or on Instagram.

before the festivities

Last weekend was the last period of my visit to Canada, and it involved a visit to Belleville for my parents' 50th wedding anniversary.  It was all really well organised, with around 135 confirmed guests, and they had rented the local pub for a catered dinner.  They had planned pretty much everything, including the guest list, the catering, and each delivered speeches and sang a duet together.  Heather also took a lead role in helping plan the evening, and she served as the master of ceremonies, and did a lot of schmoozing with the guests while each table was waiting their turn at the delicious prime rib of beef buffet.  Emily read a poem, my nephew Henry said the grace, along with our family friend Seve who said it with him, in German.  She was visiting from Bad Bramstedt, near Hamburg, and I hadn't seen her since we visited her family in 2008, so it was wonderful for her to be with us again.  There were a ton of people that I hadn't seen in well over thirty years, and it was great to catch up with everyone.

The shindig at the restaurant shut down around 23:00, and then a significant number of stalwarts showed up for the afterparty at my parents' house; the neighbours were magnanimous about the singing in the garage that ended around 2:00, and then the last die-hards went inside to have more conversation for a little longer.  But nearly everyone was responsible about their celebrating, and in the morning most were up pretty early, and there was a communal breakfast before everyone headed home.

The Prostetniks / Barking With the Big Dogs - after thirty years

On Sunday morning I made a brief detour to go see old friends: Andrew Henry, Julian Brown, and Catharine Brown.  Catharine lives and teaches and plays music in Taipei, Taiwan; Andrew lives in Guelph where he works hard as a brewer at the Royal City Brewing Company, and also as a hard-hitting drummer; Julian is a professional musician who lives in Belleville and bought a house there with his Dad, one of my former English teachers.  I have seen Andrew a few times recently but I hadn't been in the presence of Catharine or Julian since early 1989, when I left the band we had together called variously the Prostetniks or Barking With the Big Dogs.  Our visit was one of those amazing times when you realise that the people that you spent an inordinate amount of time with a long time ago haven't changed much, and are still he same wonderful people that you knew "back then".  It was like we had temporarily suspended a conversation then, and just resumed it thirty years later.

I was back in Toronto Sunday evening thanks to Jen and Gleb, who were guests at the party and were nice enough to give me a lift back to Bruce's.  Most of my packing and sorting was done on Monday, so I was able to relax on Tuesday, and even got in a quick 12km run, which I knew would help keep me relaxed for the flight home.  I'm really happy to have got in so many runs, and even more excited about the swims that I did regularly; I hadn't been swimming as part of my routine since last year around the same time, and it's motivated me to start trying some of the local pools.  It's really lucky to have the Jimmie Simpson so close to Bruce's place, where there are plenty of free lane swims, that are almost never too busy to find a good rhythm.

Back to Belgium now...

This morning Duncan had his last exam of the series, and so he was home around noon.  We did some knocking apart of our teak garden bench and then cleaned up the joints with scrapers and a small sanding block, and reglued it.  I don't have any long clamps here but they are ridiculously expensive... I managed to figure out something using rope, which seems to have worked.  Duncan now thinks I have a PhD in knots, but really I only used a couple: the bowline and the clove hitch, which along with the reef knot and the round turn with two half hitches are about all the knots I use.  I must remember that he doesn't do Scouts or sailing, so I need to teach him my go-to knots, so he knows them, just in case.

I'm happy with the result though.  We'll let it really cure up well before taking the clamps off and see if the whole thing holds together, but I have had to cover and uncover it several times already today because of the sudden rainstorms...

As well today I have had a planning call with the director of the European Commission Choir, about the upcoming coaching session on Sunday.  I am not so familiar with the pieces that they have chosen so I have some listening to do before I coach, but the vocal technique issues that he is asking me to address are very familiar: attacking the notes from underneath (aka "swooping"), singing on consonants, messy attack or messy ending of notes, not opening up enough, etc.  These are all problems that are not unique to choirs but that solo students have to address, so I have quite a few tricks up my sleeve, and it should be a lot of fun.

That's part of my job for tomorrow; I also have to get cracking on the Bach Cantata for the weekend after this; I have translated the text and hummed my way through it but I haven't done much singing on it yet... 

June is bustin' out all over...

It's been quite a busy time for me recently, so much so that I haven't written any blogs.  Mondays are usually a good planning and administrative day for me so I'll write a quick one now...

Cheezies measured in kilogrammes

I wrote last week about my trip to visit Thom and Krista at my parents' in Belleville.  I stopped off at the Hawkins Cheezies factory on my way home, thinking that they might have some merchandise that I could buy.  I love Hawkins Cheezies, and the logo is kind of a cool 50s style, which would look good on a t-shirt.

When I got back to Toronto I got to work on the construction projects here.  Here are some "before" photos.  The old steps were not of uniform height, so several people had slipped on them in the past.

The old privacy fence between the two houses is visible on the right

installing the joist hangers

decking boards nearly finished

the installed decking, which adds around 60 square feet of deck space

pausing for a beer to celebrate

leveling and laying new stones for the pathway;

the old pavers are no longer available so I needed to do some creative tiling

ciphering out the new stairs

I've built the stairs, but am doing the last bits of work to solve some issues with the railing, so I'll photograph those when they are finished.

Apart from building projects last week, I was also lucky enough to have regular lessons with Bruce, which was great.  My audition went really well yesterday because of that preparation, and now I've been in discussion with some other conductors about future projects; I'm not sure if I will audition for anyone else this week, but am meeting with a director on Friday.  Bruce and Dina and I have booked a No Tenors Allowed concert for October 24th, 2020 at the Stirling Festival Theatre, and we are already exploring two of three other venues for additional performances, so that will be exciting.

I've also managed to keep up with the running and the swimming, and so far my shoulder is holding up rather well... it's a cool day outside so I am going to go out and try to finish the railing...