Here am I back from a great course at Abbtsholme. I’ll tell you lots about it soon, but first of all ………. that present from Erich.
It was a pillow, sent through the post with no wrapping at all and addressed to ‘Queen Liz’ (I’m cool with that title). On the back of the pillow it has ‘Purple Cow Pillow’ and Erich, plus lots of his young flute people, have signed it. It is an amazing gift!
Now one of our course members, Delia, is one of Erich’s students in Dallas. She was over visiting her grandaprents and came to our course. She brought me an amazing present – some purple cow biscuits! You can see 3 of them on the pillow. They were very yummy and another amazing present, so very thoughtful.
Many thanks to Erich and Delia – and long live the purple cow!
Well it is according to the date, but maybe not the weather. Sorry, I haven’t been blogging much. I’ve been working quite hard, getting ready for the BFS Convention, Abbotsholme and the next magazine – as well as all the other things in life I have to do.
The BFS Convention is in Manchester, 21 – 24 August. Flutewise will be having a stand which Mark (my son) & I will set up and then Abbie will run. It will have a big dish of sweeties on it – dreadful idea sucking a sticky sweet before going to try a few gold flutes!
I can’t stay for the convention as we’ve got a ‘family thing’ ie party, at the weekend. We’ve also got a ‘family thing’ ie party on Tuesday as it is our wedding anniversary. So I’ve lots of food and things to prepare. I’ve got a lovely cake coming tomorrow. If you know me really well you’ll know why “The Cake” is very important to me – and it’s nothing to do with eating it.
Abbotsholme is full to the brim – 45 course members. Of those, 17 are post grade 7 standard! That’s really impressive. I’m just about ready for it, just a tiny bit more work to do on Wednesday, although having said that, it will probably take me all day and most of the night.
I’m aware I still haven’t let you know about the amazing present Erich sent me, but I’ll sleep on it and try to post a photo soon. A few more clues – there’s one above. The present couldn’t go through the letter box as it is about as long as a flute and as wide as a flute case but the depth varies if it is pressed. It makes a good sleeping companion. The Purple Cow features on it. You’ll never guess ……. I’ll take it to Abbotsholme.
I expect you’ll be pleased to know I’m feeling better. I finished my mega dose of antibiotics today and that’s made me feel much happier. My bites still don’t look very nice though.
The bites were a small price to pay for the wonderful time we had in Croatia again. Imagine, Flutewise in it’s own castle! It’s true – Kastel Viturri is where we have the course and it is really beautiful.
Abbie Burrows and Gareth McLearnon came with me this year, which was really lovely. We had 24 young people aged from 7 to 17 (a typical Flutewise course). 9 of the children were absolute beginners and started on fife. Some of the others I started on fife last year or the year before that or the ….. and now they are all on flute and they are doing really well. We had Gaby, who is 17 and a really good player. Gareth gave her a copy of Zoom Tube by Ian Clarke and a lesson on it. Carina was there on holiday with her family and enjoyed meeting everyone playing duets with Gaby.
We have a flute class every morning for 3 hours. It is a real challenge with the wide age and skill range to have everyone together – and added to that is the language barrier. I’ve always made a big effort not to learn too much Croatian because the children need to learn English much more than I need to learn their language. My favourite word in Croatian is ‘dobra’ which has many meanings – like ok, good, whatever, etc.
This year for our course I took the theme ‘The Pied Piper’. It needs a theme as we have a big concert on the last day. But our Pied Piper tale had a twist to it. He got rid of the rats and then there was a big party and the Pied Piper got drunk and took away the adults instead of the children. The main reason for that was so I could make the music we were doing fit in with the story – to help develop language we always sing songs – one of the songs was “What Shall we do with the Drunken Sailor” – changed to “What Shall we do with the Drunken Piper”!
This was our final programme:
Fanfare – played by Duje on trumpet (I know it was a flute course, but so what!)
Summer is a coming in – everyone
Song – There’s a Rat on My Leg
Rat Chant (improvised piece) – everyone
Canon of Peace – everyone
Music Box – beginner flutes
Fairground Frolics, James Penny – advanced flutes
Song – What Shall We Do with the Drunken Piper
Musical Joke – Mozart – flute trio
Quartet in F minor – Mozart – advanced flutes
We Want Our Parents Back – improvisation – everyone
In the Hall of the Mountain King – Grieg arr. Randalls – all flutes
Song – They’ll be Coming Round the Mountain (can you spot the connection?)
Walk Like This – Ian Clarke – - everyone (the fife players were the choir and did a grand job with all the words.)
It was a magic concert, with a few magic tricks thrown in between pieces because some children do a physics course and others do an art course.
Why don’t you join us next year?
I’m pleased to say I’m felling better. The last couple of days I’ve been looking at dates for next year and I’ve done a bit of research on the NFA Convention.
I’ve just been checking out the details of the NFA Convention next year in New York and I’d like to know if anyone is seriously interested in going.
The dates are 13-16 August and it is being held at the NYC Marriott Marquis Hotel. The NFA has negotiated a special deal of $199 per night for a double room plus $30 for each extra person (plus taxes). Everyone taking part in the convention also needs to be a member of the NFA and this costs from $30 – $75 per year (I think parents would need to be members if they wanted to come to our performance). There is also the convention fee which is $225 or $125 for a student. Food and airfares would come on top.
You can visit www.nfaonline.org for more information.
If enough people are interested I need to send in a proposal to ask to play. So please let me know asap.
I’ll be posting more about Croatia and my present again soon.
We had a WONDERFUL time! Two weeks in a medieval castle on the sea, teaching and playing flute with some amazing young people is an awesome exeprience. The sad thing is I’m in a bit of a state due to mosquito bites, really, really bad ones. I had to have medical treatment twice in Croatia and I then had to go to hospital immediately when I got home. My orders have been to rest – so I must – and the amazing present that arrived when I was away will help – any ideas what it is?
I’ll let you know more about Croatia when I’m feeling a bit better. I’ve got some lovely photos.
My present was from Erich and was addressed to “Queen Liz”!!!
Here am I back from a great course at Abbtsholme. I’ll tell you lots about it soon, but first of all ………. that present from Erich.