A winters tale ......... chill winds and warm memories.

Trujillo was once the "City of Eternal Spring" but "climate change" has changed all that!  What was once a steady all year climate now has a distinctly cold period from July - October, that all have to acknowledge as Winter! 

The winter drags on here, but spring is promised in the next week or so. Winter here has meant dull days, a bit windy and some chilly days and lots of chilly nights. Dull sunless days have always been a problem for me, I am pretty sure I suffer at some level from SAD (seasonal affective disorder) as my mood gets depressed by a lack of sunshine.   

Somebody lied!   Temperatures at night were much colder in July and August!

On top of that, living without any form of heating whatsoever has meant that the colder weather has chilled me to the very marrow of my bones, now we are not talking very low temperatures maybe 10 degrees in the night, but - despite my continental quilt – I have had to resort to wearing socks in bed and the titanium screw and pin have definitely chilled my leg and brought back a slight limp and a persistent dull ache. This has been an accumulative process but it has had an effect. The cold just rises up from the floor and life is lived with your coat on!

But, this week sees the start of the spring festival and by the first week of October a real change in the weather is expected. Not a day too soon.

The lovely and amazing James.

The other big black cloud that burst this last two weeks was the death of my dear friend and erstwhile lover James.  I first met James in 1988 when I moved to live in Brighton, well Hove actually, and I met him via the Church of St. Barnabas, Hove. James was coming out of a difficult relationship and I was the new kid on the block, in so many ways we were completely unsuited as we each had mountains of “baggage” but we had an off and on roller coaster of a time together. James was the greatest home-maker I have ever met and my abode in King's Court became truly regal again (it had been used in Victorian times by Edward, Prince of Wales, to entertain his female admirers….. and was renamed on his accession.) James had excellent taste, a great cook, perfect host and an all round “good egg” and I was earning good money at the time.  Fuelled by my salary and credit cards we had an amazing lifestyle,: holidays in India, Italy, France, USA, countless trips to Holland, Spain, Tunisia, the list goes on, furniture from Heals and Habitat, Chinese washed rugs, two grand pianos, an organ, a ton of cut crystal, Spode and Royal Dalton china  and an ever open door to our friends.

A dinner party at King's Court- and no, it's definitely not the Bullington Club.

Including a couple of dinner parties for up  to 16 all with James’ excellent hand behind the organization and the cooking. I think anybody meeting James was touched by his amazing personality.  

But for the very best of reasons our lives moved on; me to deal with internal devils by attempting an ascetic life in India and James (with my blessing) into the arms of the lovely and amazing Andy.    

Happily, James, Andy and I, remained firm and close friends, even though we didn’t see other that often.  I was so happy to know that in Andy, James had found his true soul-mate and as a result his life was transformed.

James and Andy visited me in Birmingham and I stayed with them in their lovely house in Hove, we maintained contact via email and then two years ago James’ health was affected and he started the long war with Cancer which sadly, despite winning some battles and some reprieve, ultimately a war he was to loose.

Last July I had the pleasure of spending a day with him and Andy sitting in their garden enjoying some summer sun and talking openly and frankly about our friendship, our love and  reminiscing about the old days. I listened to them both talk about their fears and concerns for each other and of the future.  The elephant in the room (or rather on the patio) was that we all knew it would be a last meeting of the three of us together. James and I hugged for a last time and he said goodbye to his "little fella".  I promised James that I would maintain my friendship with Andy (I would have done that anyway) but he so needed to hear it as in the midst of his appalling illness his only thoughts were “What about Andy?”   The love and devotion they demonstrated shone out like a wonderful beacon of hope.  And it has certainly made me think so carefully about my own burgeoning relationship and just how precious love is, with James and Andy’s relationship in my mind I know I can succeed with Nick where I have so failed before.  James was amazing, larger than life.

His death has been a chill wind to add to my winter in Trujillo.  Roll on spring!

James Edward Mason  - a privilege to have known him and shared so much with him.

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! 

Back in Peru after a "blazing" few days in UK

Well, I have been back in Trujillo now for just over a week, my two weeks “vacation” whizzed past in a blur of meeting friends and enjoying the sunshine!  For various reasons, my trip back included not a flight up to Trujillo from Lima but by bus. This was a wonderful experience, not least for the luxury of the coach, but a real eye-opener inasmuch as I got to see the peculiar environment of this desert strip that comes up from the Atacama in Chile, for 9 hours we drove through sand dunes, bleak rocky hills and mountains and all to the accompaniment of the pacific ocean. A real wilderness, broken up by windswept villages, towns and eventually the city of Trujillo.

Today is Independence Day in Peru, EVERY house is adorned by a flag and many have been repainted. In fact it was the law until recently that houses had to be painted and flags displayed for this day. I caught the tail end of a HUGE parade last Friday, the parade is not today as the many military units will all be parading in Lima today.  I was amazed that almost every unit of the military had its own distinctive face paint  and the parade had something of a carnival atmosphere about it, good humoured but slightly chaotic.

Unfortunately my arrival here and a very unwelcome drop of some 15 degrees in temperature enabled me to enjoy three days with a heavy cold and that hotly followed by a stomach bug (and today the cold is back!). So rather than spending the time getting back into the reins I was stuck in bed or the bathroom.

I did of course manage to meet up with Maestro Alvarez and deliver the new batons I had purchased for him and we planned to meet up to discuss future arrangements for concerts etc.

 I so very much want to build on the great success of my concert on July 4^th - record audience - record applause – and a great empathy with the orchestra. But, hey that was 2 weeks ago and now a thing of the past.

I am about to take up the position of Director of Music with Trijillo’s major youth orchestra - the Orchestra de Barro, part of Arpegio Peru. For the last month they have been under the baton and tutelage of Arndt Anhugan, a violinist with the world Famous Royal Concertibouw Orchestra of Holland and had a concert last Thursday, this would be my time hearing them and I was very excited about this, as on the basis of this concert I would know what the possibilities and challenges are for the future.  The concert was wonderful, the orchestra numbers just short of 50 and they gave extremely credible performances of works by Beethoven, Sibelius, Schubert and Dvorak.

On August 16^th the Orchestra de Barro and the Trujillo Symphony orchestra are to give a joint concert, this joint orchestra will then be about 80 - 90 strong and Maestro Alvarez and I have been working hard to find a suitable programme, which we will jointly present at the concert to be held in the Cathedral, both he and I are extremely excited by this event, to the point where we are already talking about a second event next February!

Whilst in the UK I did some serious thinking about my work here, sadly the lack of interest and dedication in many students at the conservatoire has led me to reluctantly decide that I need to reduce my hours there, of course my new duties with Arpegio will more than take up the slack!

But things are all in limbo a bit at the moment as Independence Day on Sunday has led to an elongated weekend with many organisations not going back to work until next Wednesday, having shut up on shop on Friday.

And, of course, I got the biggest welcome back ever from my dear Nick...........

So, this is just a brief restart to my two-weekly blogging, see you in a fortnight.

A short posting - writers block!

This past three weeks has been very busy, I had two weeks with rehearsals for my symphony concerts in July and November, have been working on ideas for my new role with Arpegio, Peru which I start when I get back from the UK, and also thinking about life in general for the next year or so!

I have also got a little bit of writers block, so this posting will be short all the pictures aree generic fotos of Trujillo.

Working with the orchestra, was, as before a delight and I am really looking forward to the next concert.  The theme of the concert is “Colours of the Orchestra” and is going to be a relatively light programme of short works, giving a chance for most of the players/sections to feature in a solo capacity, it also gives me a chance to really see what individual players can do.  My good friend Maestro Alvarez has been so kind in generously giving me extra rehearsal time, normally invited conductors get 5 rehearsals  and the concert.  However, in November I have “tougher stuff” in mind including Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll (20 minutes of luscious writing) and the wonderful Karelia Suite of Sibelius.  Yesterday we decided to give a “Concierto Didactico” for the students of the conservatoire and I have enlisted the help of a local broadcaster to act as compere for the evening concert.

As the concert  is on  July 4 we will be ending with Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” and Souza’s March “Stars and Stripes Forever” – surely, two of the most iconic works to come from the USA.

Finally:

Crossing roads in Trujillo  is a bit of a lottery.  No drivers use their indicators, they swerve across lanes make a turn and all the traffic lights lack any timing for pedestrians. There are no pedestrian crossings. In the historic centre the traffic lights are just a single post on one corner, great for preserving the integrity of the centre, hopeless for controlling traffic.  In the centre, which is about 8 blocks by eight all the roads are one-way and the direction of traffic alternates road by road, both north- south and east –west. This helps keep the traffic flowing but drivers tend to treat every road as a race track and speed limits ……. Well I have never seen a speed limit sign!

Nick and I have had more arguments about when and how to cross the road, normally after we have had some kind of near miss …….. so now, we have decided that we cross the roads independently, and it is interesting how many times we cross at different times, having made very different risk assessments!

This weekend is a long holiday for the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul so off to the beach on Thursday night, to the very north of Peru and a bit of sun chasing, as it is very dull and damp here in “wintery” Trujillo.

Pictures of Punta Sal, northern Peru:

Then final rehearsals, the concert , them Friday July 5 I leave for the UK  and my stalwart welcome partyu of Martin and Jean will be at Birmingham Airpoirt on July 6 to meet me .......... :-)









Finally the most "bonkers" rendition of the Star's and Stripes"  ....... only in America!   Truly BONKERS!