#once our school band took a trip to an amusement park to perform and afterwards we got to hang out and i went to the arcade | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

tommyoboe · 5 years

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FINAL YEAR - WEEKS 29 & 30.

Oh, Birmingham.

Oh. Birmingham.

Being back here after what has been quite a blast of a two weeks away is not fun. Stress is taking over my being and today has just been lovely. Not.

I was all ready to go in this morning for an audition for an exciting orchestral opportunity in September, and just as I was heading out the door I received a message from a colleague about a rehearsal I was supposed to be in.

Shiiiiiiiit. I knew there was something I had forgotten this weekend, and there wasn’t anything I could do about it, as I had this audition today. Like, it’s not a huge deal, but I really don’t want to be that person who is flakey and unreliable. I’m constantly having a go at those sorts of people, so there is no way I’m going to become one.

Then I spilt yoghurt inside my bag, so I had to go round smelling like strawberry flavouring all day. How lovely.

But I suppose things improved: I had a good first rehearsal with my string group for one of my recital pieces and I’m now enjoying treats with Cameron to close the week.

Now to talk about something much more exciting than being here in cold miserable Birmingham.

I went to Texas! TEXAS!

On the second Monday of the Easter break, at a rather ghastly 4:30am, quintet and I set off from Mark’s house in Hertfordshire to Heathrow Airport to get the plane to Dallas/Fort Worth and then to the nearby suburb of Southlake, where we were to be based for the next ten days.

After the nine hour flight, having to put our clocks back to lunchtime was not pleasant, and as much as I wanted to be, I was not hungry for instant Mexican food with tonnes of Texan queso.

It was a lovely welcome though, and set the tone for the next week and a half of concerts, travels and crazy adventures.

This began with a rehearsal at what would be 1am UK time with the Southlake Community Band for a commission piece we would perform with them on the Saturday.

With this in mind, tea and rest was well deserved afterwards.

Waking up at 9 the next day realising it was 3pm in the UK felt bizarre, as if I had spent a hungover day in bed. But no, I had the rest of the day to come yet, and no, I was not hungover.

I had the ambition of selling some of our CDs at our first concert on Tuesday, but realised I did not have a large enough pot for potential cash, so I nicked a tiny bowl from my hosts’ house. To our pleasant surprise and amusement, on the night we sold ten CDs, which meant the bowl was overflowing and I resorted to combining our general donations with this money to share with the others. It was a great feeling, properly earning that money for ourselves.

It also meant that we didn’t have to busk whilst we were out there, quite a relief.

The next two days were free, so we filled the first morning with bowling, which for me started off well before things dramatically declined, rather like a bowling ball crashing to the floor.

Luckily my day was redeemed with a large chocolate covered cherry milkshake. That alone was enough to make up for the rest of the day, and then with wine at tea back at my hosts’ place, I was back feeling *the opening of Love Affair’s Everlasting Love*.

Visiting the ranch and cosmopolitan areas of Fort Worth on Thursday provided some real holiday vibes as we roamed in shirts and shorts in the strong Texan sunshine as if it was summer. We watched the cattle drive (ten seconds of cows with horns) before exploring what people might associate more as ‘traditional Texas’. We ventured into places selling Stetson hats and cowboy boots for $5000 (craaaaaaaazy) and thankfully did not have to dual at high noon in chaps, which I really wanted to find so I could joke to my mum about wearing them as I did as a child out of mine and my brother’s costume box.

Not even embarrassed about that.

Cosmopolitan Fort Worth brought a slice of me to the trip, with high buildings a plenty and cool places for tasty food in a cute open square. The toasted sandwich I had was simply excellent. I am thoroughly missing it now, as I am most of the food.

This included the beautiful brisket we enjoyed at one of our hosts’ houses that evening, before indulging in too many brownies, as well as beer and wine. The effects of that lethal combination weren’t felt until after the laughs in the swimming pool and hot tub and gazing at the beautiful husky puppy brought by a family friend. Almost falling into the swimming pool at one point and cutting my finger on a bottle opener made for some literal sore moments, but overall it was a wonderful night in company as such.

Once the lethal effects of that night did pass through me (unfortunately a bit too literally), I was ready for our first day giving a school performance and workshop. This provided many laughs and even a great moment of tension as we played our classic workshop game ‘21′. With the idea between the group to get to 21 without multiple people saying the same number, the moment two people synced ‘21′ was explosive as the room erupted into meltdown and laughter. It definitely made a change to nodding off in some of the workshops I’ve experienced as an audience member!

Following this was a mammoth of a dinner (not literally, obvs), as I had a super large portion of pesto pasta with a gigantic brownie to follow. Some of the others had huge slabs of cake, easily four times the size of portions here in the UK. Food comas ensued.

Said food coma did not stop us from visiting a beautiful place that evening called Velvet Taco, containing the best taco I’ve ever had. No regrets.

Dallas that evening was also superb. As we drove in and saw the skyline emerge, my eyes lit up as we found a place I would happily live in. I just love the excitement and buzz of big cities, and in its architecture alone Dallas had this in abundance. The contrast with a park right in the middle of the city with a cinema made for another lovely evening.

Saturday brought our partaking in a local festival. The sun deceived us, as despite having pegs for the outdoors setting, this was not enough to prevent the wind behind us blowing our music all over the place. However, our missing entries here and there as a result (or sections in some cases!) didn’t prevent us from enjoying our slot at the popular Southlake festival and with a few accent jokes and our supportive hosts as audience, we got through a tricky couple of hours.

Later that day we returned to the gazebo stage with the Southlake Community Band to give a premiere performance of our commission piece, titled ‘The Yellow Rose of Texas’. It was a fabulous piece, full of traditional American tunes and fun little quirks. Having the band play it so well enhanced our playing also, and even with a couple of hairy moments we performed our best and embraced the great opportunity we had been given.

Delicious Phillipino food at another of our wonderful hosts’ followed, sending me into yet another food coma. Can’t complain though, with salmon it was so worth it.

The next day we took part in a church service, which contained lots of terminology that went over my head, like ‘offertory’ and ‘postlude’. I just did what I was told and appropriately walked out between playing when I had forgotten some music (as you do) and listened to a passionate sermon involving the pastor bashing the table and crying (again, as you do). I just sat there like, well, we’re just here to play the nice music and eat the nice food, thank you, bye bye.

We were indeed treated to food afterwards though so my heart’s desires were fulfilled.

Abi, Henry and I ventured into Dallas again that afternoon to watch the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s stunning rendition of Stravinksy’s Firebird. It was thrilling, after a slightly lacklustre programming for the first half. I just hope all I remember isn’t Abi and I laughing at some of the captions of the story that came with the music, including the antagonist’s soul living in an egg.

Spoiler: it got smashed.

In the next days more school concerts and workshops took place and we expanded our group knowledge and skills whilst meeting some lovely young people. My favourite person by far was the girl who had a mutual love for The Beach Boys; we took great pleasure in discussing best songs afterwards.

We embraced culture on Tuesday, with a trip to Dallas’ Sixth Floor Museum, an insightful exhibit on the assassination of John F. Kennedy, giving interesting details and making me theorise with my colleagues over what may have happened on that historic day.

This was followed by a trip to TGI Fridays, where history was made in the fact that I indulged in yet another massive meal, along with a VERY fruity cocktail.

Before we knew it it was our final day in the vast state, and after a full morning of performances and masterclasses, we treated ourselves to ice cream and I mean ICE CREAM.

I enjoyed two enormous scoops: one of Oreos and caramel and the other rocky road. It was divine. The others revelled in the fact that I finished so speedily. I don’t mess around, you see.

And then it was our last meal and drinks as a whole group. We enjoyed a final night of interesting conversations, fun laughs and lots of pictures, as well as a coffee stout that literally changed my life, before heading back to rest in preparation for the next day’s flight back.

Saying goodbye to everyone was genuinely emotional in places, and with my hosts having been so great to me, I almost didn’t want to leave. The level of accommodation there was nothing like I’d seen before. Such great people.

The flight back, on the other hand, was not great. Due to waiting in a holding bay for almost an hour at Chicago Airport, we missed our connecting flight, which was to be a huge double decker luxurious plane where we could all sit together.

So we were automatically booked on to the next direct flight home where we were unable to sit next to each other, I hardly got any sleep because I felt uncomfortable and as a result of me misinterpreting the air steward’s question of me wanting a ‘special meal’, I got some horrible vegan shit for my tea, whilst everyone else got chicken entrées and pasta. Abi said they weren’t that nice though so that admittedly did make me feel better #notspoiltatall.

Oh and then because we were told our luggage would be transferred over to this new flight, we believed them and were somewhat surprised to not find our luggage on arrival back in London. It turns out they were put on the next flight after ours, so Mark had to come back in the evening and pick everything up to have delivered to us the next day.

We’ll know which airline we shall NOT be flying with next time...

So despite a sour note to end our fantastic trip on, the experience has been that and more, with so many memories made. I have serious holiday blues now being back in Birmingham, and at the moment seeing Cameron and knowing I can be productive again are the only things getting me through.

Now for a gruelling two weeks and then I will have finished final year! Mental! And then the real world, which tonight seems less horrible as I’ve just got some work for the summer, but after that, who knows...

Back to reality this week, wish us luck!

(https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNgt2j9ypNMB3m1d0u8bBzs8naSTuc3kyJ-eBz8CJgfVnUg6Ok16C8W1Gt4dTRbLg?key=UjdtUmNqYTNUU1E0Q0lYcDF5NzEyLUpmMXRpYkl3 - pictures from Texas: there are just too many for one blog post!)

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