A Happy Birthday ..........

Yesterday I turned 57!!!!!!!!!!!

The birthday boys!

Nothing unusual in that,except the “turning” seems to happen with monotonous regularity, every 24th of August, this year however , it was a bit different.  I celebrated in the company of two other people who also had the same birth date as me,  there was a party, and I had an avalanche of best birthday wishes sent to me on Facebook.

Going back a few months and one of my first meetings with "Maestro Teofilo Alvarez Alvarez", we realised we had so much in common including our birthday, this was reason enough for Maestro A to declare a much greater significance and that  henceforth “we are like brothers”  the reality being that we are becoming good and close friends and enjoying times exploring music, talking about conducting and imbibing a good few bottles of wine in Stradavarius Bar.

Almost every time we have meet since May, Maestro A has said, “well what will we do on the 23^rd?” well what we did in the end was to  a fiesta at Stradivarius Bar and sing dance drink and play until the small hours (4 am as it turned out!)

Having settled into the conservatoire and also forging strong links with the symphony orchestra along with my new role in Arpegio,   it was easy to invite friends and companions to enjoy a glass of wine in celebration of this joint celebration.   The third birthday-boy was Maestro Alvarez’ son, Papacho, and he joined proceeding just before midnight.

Sylvia and Oscar

Carlos Paredes  aka Charlie Walls – (director of the conservatoire) and no mean electronic keyboard player provided the means for the music and played superbly accompanying the Trujillo Nightingale, my dear friend Vicky Valchez . Two this wonderful combination we need to add the talents of Guillermo and Juan (first violinists in the orchestra and teacher at Arpegio)  who added improvised violin accompaniments in a kind of gypsy/Grappelli fashion, truly marvellous.   

Who wrote this?

After a high "c"

Somehow I "managed" to duet with Vicky although probably shouldn’t have attempted singing “O mio bambino caro” – even (by that time), a couple of bottles of wine weren’t  sufficient to provide my with those top high c’s!  Otherwise I THOUGHT I did rather well!

But I am getting ahead of myself,  at midnight and the rendition of feliz compleanos, Maestro A , his son, whose name I forget (tut tut- the wine!){Papacho}and I gave speeches. 

Mine words centred on the joys of being here in Trujillo, finding love and finding opportunity and being blessed with such wonderful friends and colleagues.  It was after this that the party really took off, the tables were pushed back and the singing and dancing got underway with avengeance!    

 

Guillermo,Oscar and Charlie Walls.

Oscar Palomino (conservatoire prof and timpanist in the symphony orchestra) sang and played and serenaded his lovely wife Sylvia.....and he is a real gent, lovely guy.

Gemie y Claudia

Least said, soonest mended.

My friends were all very encouraging when I decided to drag Nick - an excellent dancer – to the dance floor so I could trample all over his feet  – to the accompaniment of the keyboard, the violins and much whooping and cheering from all present!

Bottles of wine for the 18 of us kept appearing as did, snacks and yes, yet more wine.   

Stradivarius bar is actually closed now, as the owner has sold up and is moving, but he opened up just for us and this one last party!  It is a great problem for Maestro A and I, we simply don’t know where we find the same arty/cultural/homely ambiance and cheap wine for our regular sessions!

Blah, blah, blah ...........

 Maestro A, who had turned 69, decided to call it a day (well a night) at 2:30 but most of us struggled (?) bravely on until we eventually had drunk all the wine in the place and went our way home around 4am. Maestro Alvarez and I have the bill to settle on Monday!  Probably a sobering experience! Je je je

 A guest 03:30  Sleeping, but glass firmly in hand!

But as you can see from the pictures, much fun was had by all. The last time I celebrated with a party-party was when I was 21!  And never have I celebrated like this – Latino’s know how to dance and how to party.

 

Such a lovely group picture to remind me of  WONDERFUL  party.

 A few more pics ........  then more story further down .......

 So in bed by 4:15 and teaching a 8:45 – how does he do it?

Nick and I went off to our usual Saturday lunch restaurant for Chicarrones de pescado (gojouns to you and I) and the Tacu tacu with a salsa de mariscos and just the one (shared) bottle of beer.   A relaxing afternoon followed …… by 6:30pm we were in Adventura Plaza shopping – I wanted to buy a jacket and to use our recently acquired loyalty card for the up-market departmental store Ripley. Got one reduced from S229 to S64 in the sale!

Handsome

Jacket in hand (well in a bag actually) we then went out for my birthday dinner, to El Cautrero: man food, steak, chips and salad all washed down with a large jug of sangria! Lovely time only slightly marred by my food, which I declined to pay for, my asado de res turned out to be a plate of bones and gristle, I was offered alternative food, but as Nick had finished by this time opted for the item to be removed from the bill.  I didn’t make a huge fuss and it didn’t spoil the evening. We walked back stopping off a for a McDonalds 

Ice cream cone – a McWhippy?   In bed by 11 having seen Nick safely into a taxi.

Over dinner as you might expect Nick and I reflected on the last 10 months and I came to the strong conclusion that I am the happiest now than for more years than I can remember. I feel so positive and things would appear to only get better as I establish roots, deepen my relationship and become ever more part of musical society in Peru.

………… And in other news  ……..  have reduced my hours and the conservatoire ……. Still no sponsor for the LCM examinations in December, so that may not happen …… need to put in a lot of effort at Arpegio, problem with the conflicting demands on many of the students time, so need to rethink how the orchestra runs  ……. In Peru if you work in government service you get a day off for your birthday – Maestro Alvarez has his day-off Monday –  so I get to conduct the rehearsal, three hours  of sheer enjoyment for me …….  plan to move in October …….

Hope you enjoy the pictures of the fiesta!