Monthly Archives: August 2007

Croatia – food and going out

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Posted by Flutewise Admin on August 11, 2007 – 4:50 pm
Filed under Liz's Blog

One of the nice things about going to different countries is trying different food. We had some lovely meals out when we were there. The Croatians eat lots of fresh fish alongside pasta and pizzas. Pejro, above, is eating something I’ve never seen in this country, but have had when I was there. It’s black risotto, made from the ink of a squid, I believe. It is delicious, but I didn’t have any on this visit, because on the 2 opportunities I had to order it, I couldn’t clean my teeth afterwards and I didn’t think I wanted to talk to people with black teeth!

The only worry Sandy and I had about our girls on the course was to do with food. They just weren’t eating enough fruit and vegetables. Maybe we are brainwashed in the UK over this ‘5 a day’ idea. For breakfast the girls were often having cakes, crisps and even sweets!!! Is that your dream of a meal? They assured me the sweets were healthy as they were fruit ones and the strawberry ones contained 0.04% of strawberry. Must be really healthy then.

Croatia 3

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Posted by Flutewise Admin on August 8, 2007 – 1:26 pm
Filed under Liz's Blog

This is everyone getting ready for the concert. The rehearsal went well but the concert was very difficult to stage manage because the wind blew up and it kept threatening to rain. It was a great pity because, up to the concert, we had had superb weather.

The title of the concert was ‘The Flutewise Animal Planet’ and this is what we played:
Sheep May Safely Graze by JS Bach arr by Bill Holcombe for 4 flutes. This was played by Amy, Isobel, Laura and Gaby while the rest of the course members came on stage in pairs, bowed and then formed a tableau.
A piece from Funky Flute (which we renamed ‘The Squealing Cat’ so it would fit in with our programme, I hope the composer and publishers don’t mind!) This was played by the beginner fifes with help of some flute players.
The Seal from Animal Flute by Diana Saunders. This was played by more advanced fife players and some flutes.
Theme from Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky arr by Phyllis Avidan Louke – Classical Music for flexible flute ensemble.
There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly – everyone sang, with flute accompaniment and actions!
Purple Cow – more about that later
The Animals Went in Two by Two – another song
Then we came to the big piece – My Dog Pooh by Isaacson. We changed the title slightly to My Dog Dexter and added animal sounds and percussion so everyone could join in. The piece has a narration which we simplified.
The grand finale was Sandy’s Celtic piece. If you’ve been on one of our courses you will probably enjoyed playing this. Sandy composed it and he teaches it from memory. We decided we needed to rename it to fit in with the concert, so it was called ‘The Highland Cow Fling’. 
There had been a ‘Harry Potter Worksop’ going on during our Flutewise course and the children demonstrated some of their experiments during a break in our performance. During our finale they released little helicopters from the balcony. It was very impressive. But it started to rain and on the last note everyone had to run for cover!
It was a memorable concert and it was recorded on at least 3 cameras. They make a professional DVD and I think it gets onto their TV. 

Croatia 2

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Posted by Flutewise Admin on August 8, 2007 – 1:12 pm
Filed under Liz's Blog

A bit more about our course – we met each day in this beautiful room from 9.00 – 12.00. It started off quite comfortable in the room, but by 11.15 it was very hot. We had quite a few flute players, some who had started the fife last year or 2 years ago and some beginners on fife. 

Two people on the course, Pjero and Katarina had only played fife and during this course they transferred to flute. They were both stunning and did a marvellous job performing in our end of course concert.
As I don’t speak Croatian and I know the people on the course need to improve their English, we always do a lot of British traditional songs. Last year we did ‘Soldier, Soldier Won’t You Marry Me,’ amongst others. This year the work had an animal theme. 
At the end of each morning we always gather in a circle to say goodbye, thank you and take a bow. Our 3 British girls, Amy, Isobel and Laura did an excellent job by learning their ‘Thank Yous’ in Croatian. By the end of the course they were expressing all sorts of interesting ideas that Sandy and I pretended not to understand!

Croatia 1

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Posted by Flutewise Admin on August 7, 2007 – 1:26 pm
Filed under Liz's Blog

This is the beautiful castle where we had our course. It’s called Kastel Vitturi in Kastel Luksic which is quite near Split.

When we arrived on July 24, Najda, the ‘lady in charge of all things’, didn’t know how many people might turn up for the courses. There were 3 courses going on; our flute one, an art course and a “Harry Potter” workshop which was all to do with physics. As it turned out, Najda was kept very, very busy with registrations and had to turn some people away. We started our class with 22 people aged from 7 to very-grown-up.
Each morning Sandy and I taught for 3 hours. We covered many of the things you would expect on a Flutewise course with the addition of lots and lots of singing and some movement. 
In the afternoons we would spend an hour or so planning the work for the next day and then relaxed with our ipods and books. The girls often went swimming in the clear, safe sea. In the evenings we would have a slow walk of about a mile to the local restaurants where we had very enjoyable and inexpensive meals. More about the food later.

We are back from Croatia

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Posted by Flutewise Admin on August 5, 2007 – 4:39 pm
Filed under Liz's Blog

We are back from a wonderful 12 days in Croatia. The weather was very hot, the people friendly and kind and we all had a great time. There wasn’t a cross word amongst us, which is quite impressive for people being together for such a long period of time. I think I can speak for all of us and say we all enjoyed every minute of it.

Having said that though, there are a few tales to tell. Maybe the girls or even Sandy will leave a few messages. I’ll write about the course, the concert and some of the people we met over the next few days. Before I do that I’ve got quite a lot of emails and letters to answer, our Ovingdean course to work on and the magazine to finish off – so I’m a bit busy!