This weekend I took a trip down to the beautiful Taranaki and lived in New Plymouth with a billet family: The Taylors and performed cello with United Youth Orchestra.
We took the long bus trip from Hamilton bright and early, left around 8 o'clock in the morning and arrived around 12:30p.m. I sat with Tamsin, and near the end of the bus trip, her brother came over and we played squiggles on his drawing book. We were simply too bored. You could: listen to CD on your discman, talk to your friends, eat, and sleep, but a four hours bus trip was still too long. You just got fed up doing these things. The scenery was great, but you could have a farming animals overload and too much blue sky. However, the tunnels were a lot of fun to pass through.
We practiced in the study room in New Plymouth Girl's High School after we reached the destination. It was a good room filled with chairs and the wall was decorated with pictures of gorgeous celebrities such as Dan Carter. The school is not very big, and it's got a small field.
We had BBQ for lunch, and name tagged so we could get to know one another better.
The TYO don't have a very big cello section, but we have seven cellists. We ended up practicing together at the end of the day, doing the combine piece together: Bohemian Festival, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Symphonic Reflections, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and Rach's Mood.
The weather held in the afternoon. I met up with Anna, and her mother came to pick us up when we complete our practice. I talked with the others for a while, and settled in Anna's house on the top of the hill.
Anna has two brothers and a sister, who is getting married in two weeks time. Her dad is an eye surgeon. Her two brothers left home, now her sister is leaving home as well.
We had burritos for dinner. Anna's dad, Kevin, talked about Elliot, Anna's older brother, who is a curious young man not afraid to ask questions. Very funny stories that he related to me. They have a two storey house, two cats and a dog called Jazz.
After dinner, we went to Daniel Hayles's house (he is a bassoon player, and a very good pianist). Poh-Suan, our first violin leader, played on the piano. We all had a turn on the air hockey. Listened to Daniel playing on the piano, and watched a little bit of the movie before leaving for home.
The house is really good, and they have a lot of good quality wood furniture. Tried to keep everything as clean as possible.
The second day started with sun shine. I packed up everything for the bedroom and even made the bed(!) I am not very good at making beds, must admit. Tucked the sheet under the board.
This time the UYO practiced in the hall, where we would be performing, in the morning. Everything went really well. Robin said that he went for a walk up Mt. Egmont after breakfast. Very beautiful mountain. I reckon one day I should climb up to see from the top.
We had a long lunch with pizza and sat together in a circle with only one boy in the middle (Robin). The other boys are mucking around, chasing each other without their shoes on in the fields. Having so much fun! Tamsin and I took a walk because we were too bored.
People gradually filled the hall up. I went to Dr. Taylor's practice to get the black pants and changed into the white shirt that had been ironed by Mrs. Taylor in the morning. All ready to go for the performance.
Robin told me that he thinks it was a "great" concert. I think we succeeded. We've made it.
We had KFC for dinner, but in the end didn't have enough time to finish everything and I think I ordered too much. Leaving New Plymouth, can't help feeling a bit down, but also very happy to go home.
The ride back was very rowdy. The boys played the punching game. Tony showed me his necklace and we tried to figure out what Chinese words were written on the pendant. It was hard to tell. We still don't know what it means.
Very tired and uncomfortable sitting on my seat, very car sick. So stood with Malcom in the middle of the bus for a while. Feeling a lot better. The guys sitting in front of me are listening to old songs by Eric Claptan and Phil Collins. The others are eating candy, talking and sleeping.
Dad came to take me home. Mum complained to me about the Wus eating a lot of meat, and fuzzy is sick. She has an biochemistry test today. Poor fuzzy! I wish fuzzy will get better soon. Maybe it's time that the Wus should leave because there's a certain limit that a family can take. We are not saying they are not good, just different.
My feeling reminds me of Alicia Key's song Falling. Thus the title. Going to the party in Poh-Suan's place on Friday. Need time to recover from the busy weekend.
Cousin is coming over to study masters in university. I will go to university now to get her an application form.
No comments:
Post a Comment