Well, suffering from delayed shock,
decided that after a morning as guest lecturer at the University
Cesar Vellajo I was in need so some light entertainment, so Nick and
I went to see “the Fast and the Furious 6 ”, incomprehensible
nonsense involving fast car chases, gun fights and the usual
paraphernalia of action movies. There was a scene on utilising a
army cargo plane in the process of taking off or was it landing ...anyways the
sequence was about 15 minutes long so I estimate the runway would
have needed to have stretched from London to Scotland, anyways just
like the Die Hard films the “heros” seem to recover from multiple
impossible situations and all in the space of 90 minutes!” I spent
most time trying to work out the Spanish........ oh yes the shock,
when Nick was buying the tickets the attendant asked if he want 1
Adult and 1 Senior citizen! Not amused!!! (sensible Nick delayed
telling me this until we were safely well away from the ticket
counter.
Bouyed up by all the action, I was
hungry. As we had gone to what is Trujillo's swankiest shopping mall
- Adventuura Plaza - (swanky enough to soon have an Apple store) we were spoilt for choice and opted for Chilis
an up market Mexican Restaurant chain – cross between Hard Rock and
TGIF though less gimmicky than both. Mmmmmm excellent fajitas and
corona beer, Nick reminded me of our last Mexican meal in Colombia –
where the fajitas bore absolutely no relation to the real thing –
and I complained (now there's a surprize) but the bigger surprise was
the waitress saying, very matter-of-factly “Oh, yes, everybody
complains about the fajitas, they are awful, but we don't
care!............"
I had spent the morning lecturing on
the Execution and Interpretation of Music, to a group of about 60
students from the private University Cesar Vellajo – in my best-bad
Spanish – I entertained them with ideas about getting to understand more about the music they are listening too or performing
– and to realise that the music was not the written score but what
they did with it …. all good fun.
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| Universitario Cesar Vellejo |
I was the guest on a radio programme "Sinfonias y Conciertos" - fun burbling away (In Spanish) about music, most of which I had just performed in the symphony concert, managed to loose both my glasses and my cap and I hope not my reputation!
The last two weeks seem to have flown
past, last weekend (17-19) was the 67th Anniversary of the
founding of the Conservatoire” and a programme of events were
planned, it was also Kathryn's ( the Otra Cosa volunteer) last weekend
and also, also, the Sunday of the biggest football match in the
calendar here in Trujillo - University Cesar Vellajo
v.Universitario (from Lima), so it was a fun packed weekend.
So, on the Friday, I went to get the
tickets for the football match, queued for nearly two hours for the
tickets, which made me very late for the opening event of the
Anniversary, but of course as we were working on Peru time, I was
actually only a little late. The two students who performed at this
event sang badly and I left at the end without staying for drinks as
I didn't want to be asked my opinion.
The second event was a
“Verbena” a kind of late night fiesta – for the Conservatoire
this took the form of an open air concert on the patio, slated to
start at 8pm, Nick and I arrived but nothing happening, so we went
off for some supper and got back about 8.45 to hear the final item
given by the Trujillo Municipal Band ….. As I entered the building,
my ears were assaulted by some of the most "out of tune" playing I had
heard in ages. I was relieved that it wasn't any of the students. Listened to the concert until just after 9:30 and then a group of us
including Maestro Alvarez retired to the “Cafe Bar Stradivarius”
to celebrate the end of the week and a further opportunity to say
goodbye to Kathryn. Prof. Carlos joined us shortly before midnight,
fun time. And again lovely for me to be with Nick in public and amongst friends.
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| Kathryn gets her diploma! |
Saturday was a quieter day, but in the
evening Nick and I had been invited to a social gathering at Prof.
Carlos' house and it was nice to again go as a couple, and to spent
time talking with some artists and a philosopher from Trujillo.
Lovely.
The big day was Sunday. Summoned to the
main square “Plaza de las Armas” for the weekly flag hoisting
ceremony. In Trujillo every organisation celebrating an anniversary
is invited to parade their organisations banner in the main square
and to participate in singing the National Anthem, and the Trujillo
Anthem. Designed to further inculcate republicanism and patriotism
in the general public. Prof. Carlos was raising the Trujillo flag,
we sang we, Viva'd Peru and Viva'd Trujillo and the we processed or
marched..... at the last moment I was invited to be one of the
standard bearers! I stood out a bit as I was wearing a brown suit (my
only suit!) whereas almost every Peruvian man possesses a standard grey
suit! Anyway, all good fun, though it was cold.We are in Autumn heading for Winter.
Click to play the Himno Nacional de Peru
I reflected on the fact that the
“Peruvian Himno Nacional” sounds like a chorus from a (bad) Verdi Opera
and just when you think it is all over contains a da capo and we
repeated the first music all over again (but I think to different
words). You could have sung “God Save the Queen about 20 times”
…. The anthem is worth a listen.
After photos, we all went home to return at 1pm for the
Anniversary lunch at a local “Restaurante Turistico” I have
always sneared a bit at these restaurants but El Mochica was
excellent, humitas con Aji de Gallina, followed by Cabrito Norteno,
yum yum.
The staff at the conservatoire are probably not the most
sociable bunch.(One professor sat throughout lunch reading the paper) I had walked over with Maestro Alvarez (we are
becoming very good friends and he feels the significance of us
sharing the same birthday is not to be lost) and he guided me to sit
half-way up a table and not with the people already seated, we sat
and were immediately joined by Prof. Carlos, who spurned the planned
for and abandoned “top table” ...anyways, a jolly group of
people formed around Maestro Alvarez and we chatted whilst we
waited, and waited for the food …...
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| Los Tres Caballeros |
I was due to meet Nick at
3:15 …... at 2;20 I text-ed him to say that eh food was still no way
near arriving …. but as I mentioned earlier it turned out to be
worth the wait. However, at 3:00 I excused myself, ran home to change
and walked across the road to the football stadium.
A form of the Marinera dance, but danced by a woman and her partner on a horse! Can't say that this horse was particularly amused, he bolted!
Shock horror …..... the queues to get
in snaked back and forth around the stadium walls, my queue for
“Oriente” had about 1500 people in it, it was by now 3:15 and the
match was due to start at 3:45. Nick had gone to watch the reserves
match and had been in the Stadium since 1:15 so I knew he would have
bagged good seat right on the centre line (like I understand these
things!), so, problem how to get in on time …...... time to play
the stupid foreigner “get into the stadium quick card.” - I
picked on a reasonably friendly looking policeman and asked him in
broken Spanish which was the queue for oriente, he pointed, I went
and investigated and then returned to him and again said in broken
Spanish “ but Senor the queue is so long and I was hoping to get
in to see the match and I am not sure what to do, I have a ticket and
…...” by this time he asked me where I was from, so I said
England, I saw the ££ signs light up in his eyes, and he said to
follow him, I was escorted to the front of the queue, the security guards were told not to search me and in I went, and as I turned around there he was again ready to escort me into the very stadium itself,
and probably receive a little remuneration for his efforts, fingers
crossed, I politely explained that I didn't need further assistance
as a friend was already in the stadium and I knew exactly where to go
(having been to several matches previously), with that I gave him a
very hearty thanks, and shot off as quickly as I could so that by the
time he realised he had been “nicely conned” I was lost in the
crowd.....
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| The Mayor of Trujillo |
And what a crowd, 30,000 people, but I
managed to find Nick and shoved my way to my excellent position. The
Stadium was a sea of Cream and Red, the colours of Universitario, the
atmosphere electric, noisy, and very, very good humoured. Only a few
people seemed to be supporting the home team – Nick explained that
the University Cesar Vellajo team was only in the “premier”
league because of money (like so many things in Trujillo they are
owned by the incredibly rich and current Mayor of Trujillo Cesar Acuña Peralta
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| Amazing crowd for the Football, drums, air- horns, flares (!!!) - but good natured. |
Uneventful first half but most exciting second half in which Universitario scored the winning goal.
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| UCV 0 Universitario 1 |
Oh finally, heard a good conductor joke this week .....
Q: What's the difference between God and a conductor?
A: God knows he is not a conductor!
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| "Yes ........ YOU !!! " boomed the voice of God .............. hahahaha ...... I am a very consensual baton waver! Though here I hope it was concentration that made me look so fierce..... :-) |
Hasta Luego Amigos...............................................
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