It seems like only yesterday that we still had 2 months to go!
Nothing terribly interesting has happened since my last posting, although we did celebrate the birthdays of two Russians, which was nice (let's just say there was a lot of vodka involved!), and we finally checked out the Gothic Bar. This bar is located just off the lobby in the Hotel. It is large, cathedral-like and for the most part, empty. There is a trio from Bulgaria (guitar, violin and voice) who play there every night to nobody, and they sound really good. I had two glasses of port, and it cost me 100 yuan (only about $15, but I'd get a whole bottle for that back home. Probably says more about my taste in port than it does about the expense of the bar!) but that's what you expect at a 5 star place I guess.
I went a little bit crazy with my camera today so I've got lots of photos, but I don't like my chances of having them online before I get back, so you'll just have to wait.
See you all soon.
Owen
Friday, August 17, 2007
Saturday, August 11, 2007
3 weeks to go.
Well, what a week.
Last Sunday, our latest new bandsman arrived (I would have mentioned this earlier, but I didn't believe that they'd actually bring someone out with only a month to go - nevertheless, he's here for the month!). His name is Michael, and he's from City of Blacktown, the Sydney band I went to Scotland with last year [thinking about it, that trip was one whole year ago - doesn't time fly!]. He's 15, and should have a blast. It does mean our repertoire has been slashed, until he can learn some of the tunes that we play, but until then, it's going to be a lot of Scotland the Brave/Amazing Grace etc. Still, we have enough between us that we can cobble together a show.
On Tuesday, we had a visit from a friend of Wayne's from Melbourne. Also called Michael (which caused no end of confusion), he came over for the week, just to liven things up a bit - his dad works for Qantas, so he can get mad cheap airfares. He left last night, and was suitably impressed by The Park. For a short time, it was good to have the Aussies out-numbering the Canadians!
On Wednesday afternoon, we were asked to stay on-site for the night, because of a typhoon warning. The evening show at The Park was canned, anything light enough to be lifted with one hand was either tied down or brought inside, the all the banners along the side of the road (the long skinny ones that hang down from the light-posts) were rolled up and secured and other such preparations were made, and we thought that we were in for a mad storm. Unfortunately, all we got was a bit of rain - not even the road-turning-into-river that we usually get when it rains hard (although that's probably saying more about the drainage of the roads here than it is about intensity of rain!), so that was a bit of an anti-climax.
On Thursday, we took Michael (both of them!) out to the Irish Pub that we went to on St Patrick's Day. We had just got out of the taxi and were walking towards the pub, when Micheal (Wayne's friend) wondered where Wayne's pipes were (Wayne had brought them along, just in case the patrons wanted some entertainment). The pipes were, of course, in the boot of the taxi we had just vacated, and which had already driven off looking for a fare. Wayne set a new record in the 100m thonged dash to try and get back to the taxi stand in time, and the rest of us started up the road, flagging down every taxi we could find and checking in the boot for the elusive black pipe-case. After the cause appeared to be lost, we headed back towards the taxi rank where Wayne had stayed while trying to telephone our interpreter to find the number of the taxi company to see if maybe we could track down the pipes that way. On our way back, though, we met Wayne who had come after us to tell us that our taxi driver had realised that we had left something in his boot and had returned to see if we were still there! Phew. After our heart rates had returned to normal, we proceeded to have an enjoyable night at the pub. Wayne played, I flung, and a good time was had by all, instead of it being the most expensive night out ever!
Friday it drizzled all day, so we didn't end up playing at all that day. Saturday, being Micheal's last night in Shenzhen we went out to dinner. I also took the opportunity to get measured up for a tailor-made suit (jacket + 2x pants = about AUD$80. Bargain!). We'll see how that one turns out.
I think that's brought us up to date. Oh, there's one other thing that I keep forgetting to mention. We're everywhere. By that I mean that there are posters of us all over the park and around the city - all of them derivatives of this photo (sorry, I couldn't find a better version on their website, as it's all in Chinese, and I don't yet read Chinese). It's weird walking past a 7-foot tall likeness of yourself as you go for supper!
Anyway, that's all for now. Only 19 days to go!
Owen.
Last Sunday, our latest new bandsman arrived (I would have mentioned this earlier, but I didn't believe that they'd actually bring someone out with only a month to go - nevertheless, he's here for the month!). His name is Michael, and he's from City of Blacktown, the Sydney band I went to Scotland with last year [thinking about it, that trip was one whole year ago - doesn't time fly!]. He's 15, and should have a blast. It does mean our repertoire has been slashed, until he can learn some of the tunes that we play, but until then, it's going to be a lot of Scotland the Brave/Amazing Grace etc. Still, we have enough between us that we can cobble together a show.
On Tuesday, we had a visit from a friend of Wayne's from Melbourne. Also called Michael (which caused no end of confusion), he came over for the week, just to liven things up a bit - his dad works for Qantas, so he can get mad cheap airfares. He left last night, and was suitably impressed by The Park. For a short time, it was good to have the Aussies out-numbering the Canadians!
On Wednesday afternoon, we were asked to stay on-site for the night, because of a typhoon warning. The evening show at The Park was canned, anything light enough to be lifted with one hand was either tied down or brought inside, the all the banners along the side of the road (the long skinny ones that hang down from the light-posts) were rolled up and secured and other such preparations were made, and we thought that we were in for a mad storm. Unfortunately, all we got was a bit of rain - not even the road-turning-into-river that we usually get when it rains hard (although that's probably saying more about the drainage of the roads here than it is about intensity of rain!), so that was a bit of an anti-climax.
On Thursday, we took Michael (both of them!) out to the Irish Pub that we went to on St Patrick's Day. We had just got out of the taxi and were walking towards the pub, when Micheal (Wayne's friend) wondered where Wayne's pipes were (Wayne had brought them along, just in case the patrons wanted some entertainment). The pipes were, of course, in the boot of the taxi we had just vacated, and which had already driven off looking for a fare. Wayne set a new record in the 100m thonged dash to try and get back to the taxi stand in time, and the rest of us started up the road, flagging down every taxi we could find and checking in the boot for the elusive black pipe-case. After the cause appeared to be lost, we headed back towards the taxi rank where Wayne had stayed while trying to telephone our interpreter to find the number of the taxi company to see if maybe we could track down the pipes that way. On our way back, though, we met Wayne who had come after us to tell us that our taxi driver had realised that we had left something in his boot and had returned to see if we were still there! Phew. After our heart rates had returned to normal, we proceeded to have an enjoyable night at the pub. Wayne played, I flung, and a good time was had by all, instead of it being the most expensive night out ever!
Friday it drizzled all day, so we didn't end up playing at all that day. Saturday, being Micheal's last night in Shenzhen we went out to dinner. I also took the opportunity to get measured up for a tailor-made suit (jacket + 2x pants = about AUD$80. Bargain!). We'll see how that one turns out.
I think that's brought us up to date. Oh, there's one other thing that I keep forgetting to mention. We're everywhere. By that I mean that there are posters of us all over the park and around the city - all of them derivatives of this photo (sorry, I couldn't find a better version on their website, as it's all in Chinese, and I don't yet read Chinese). It's weird walking past a 7-foot tall likeness of yourself as you go for supper!
Anyway, that's all for now. Only 19 days to go!
Owen.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
4 weeks to go
We've been kept pretty busy, playing every day. We haven't had a full day off in 3 weeks! (we're taking two days off this week though, to compensate).
There are many new performers that have arrived over the last couple of weeks, from all over the world. It's been interesting seeing these people from many different backgrounds interacting with each other, trying to find a common language (many of the Europeans speak several languages).
Yesterday we had some high-profile government officials visit the hotel here at The Park. This in itself is not out of the ordinary, but it meant that The Park had to look its best. Including the bar. How do we artificially increase patronage of a drinking venue? Free drinks of course, and make sure all the foreigners know about it. So we drank ourselves stupid last night courtesy of The Park. We were drinking with people who spoke English, Chinese, Polish, Spanish, Bulgarian, Russian, Moldavian, and French. There are also folks here who speak Portuguese, Turkish and others.
See you all soon - less than a month to go.
Owen.
There are many new performers that have arrived over the last couple of weeks, from all over the world. It's been interesting seeing these people from many different backgrounds interacting with each other, trying to find a common language (many of the Europeans speak several languages).
Yesterday we had some high-profile government officials visit the hotel here at The Park. This in itself is not out of the ordinary, but it meant that The Park had to look its best. Including the bar. How do we artificially increase patronage of a drinking venue? Free drinks of course, and make sure all the foreigners know about it. So we drank ourselves stupid last night courtesy of The Park. We were drinking with people who spoke English, Chinese, Polish, Spanish, Bulgarian, Russian, Moldavian, and French. There are also folks here who speak Portuguese, Turkish and others.
See you all soon - less than a month to go.
Owen.
Friday, July 27, 2007
5 weeks to go
Well, The Park is now open. They've had us practicing for that damn parade all week (making us dress up each time - what? they don't know what our uniform looks like?). Every time was done differently, and the last 5 runs through were each going to be the last time, but it went well enough, considering. They had some opening ceremony/ribbon cutting thing that they wanted us to play for. We were to march across the town square, play some music in-between speeches, and then march off to join the other performers in preparation for the parade. What they didn't plan for was the hundreds of people crammed into the aforementioned square, so first we were going to just play where we were standing, then we were told to abandon that gig for the parade. We still don't know what a typical day will entail - we are kept perpetually in the dark as to what we will be required to do until a few hours before we are to do it! The chaps in charge here couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery! I'm currently waiting to find out what time our performance will be this afternoon. That's right, they can tell us that we'll have to play, but they can't tell us when!
34 days and counting.
Owen.
34 days and counting.
Owen.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
6 weeks to go.
And then there were 6. Not only weeks to go, but also players in the band. You see, Robert (our ex-pipe major) had never really got over being shafted from his leadership position, and for the last few weeks had been making life rather difficult for us - not listening to instructions, not learning the tunes etc, and just generally being a Richard Cranium. Eventually, it got so bad that something had to be done. There was a band meeting held with our employer, (which Rob promptly left as soon as he understood what the meeting was to be about, thus robbing himself of the chance to defend himself), and as a result he had his contract terminated. As Casey hasn't yet been replaced after she left, Rob's departure has left us with 6 players, but we all get along much better, and there's much less tension in the air when we rehearse or perform.
We have also had members of the public up here at The Park for the first time since February - the customers and staff of The Construction Bank of China got to come up and see the place before the grand opening on the 28th (There was something that happened on the previous grand opening [the 18th], but that seemed to be confined to the golf course).
We were out there all day, playing our 4 x 25 min sets, with not enough time in between to really do anything. We did christen the new KFC at lunch time though (it's going to be deadly having a fast-food joint with us on the mountain!). The highlight of the day, was when a little kid (about 5 years old) was posing in front of us for a photo, in a karate pose, with one arm stuck out horizontally in the plane of his torso, and the other arm in the same plane, but with his fist over his head. Then the call of "quick march" came, and the sudden (loud) sound of the drumrolls scared the crap out of him, and he ran to mummy. This drew giggles from the crowd, and I had to concentrate on not laughing myself.
They've had us do a dress rehearsal today for the big parade they're putting on on the 28th, and it was clear that the bosses had never organised a parade before, it was such a gagglefuck. (It means just what you think it means!). There was no need for us to get dressed up, but they made us do it anyway - the poor puppeteer had to lug all his stuff around, for no purpose. It should be interesting to see how it all comes together (or falls apart at the seams, we'll see!).
We will be playing quite a lot over the next 6 weeks, but I will try to keep the weblog posts coming.
See you all later
Owen.
We have also had members of the public up here at The Park for the first time since February - the customers and staff of The Construction Bank of China got to come up and see the place before the grand opening on the 28th (There was something that happened on the previous grand opening [the 18th], but that seemed to be confined to the golf course).
We were out there all day, playing our 4 x 25 min sets, with not enough time in between to really do anything. We did christen the new KFC at lunch time though (it's going to be deadly having a fast-food joint with us on the mountain!). The highlight of the day, was when a little kid (about 5 years old) was posing in front of us for a photo, in a karate pose, with one arm stuck out horizontally in the plane of his torso, and the other arm in the same plane, but with his fist over his head. Then the call of "quick march" came, and the sudden (loud) sound of the drumrolls scared the crap out of him, and he ran to mummy. This drew giggles from the crowd, and I had to concentrate on not laughing myself.
They've had us do a dress rehearsal today for the big parade they're putting on on the 28th, and it was clear that the bosses had never organised a parade before, it was such a gagglefuck. (It means just what you think it means!). There was no need for us to get dressed up, but they made us do it anyway - the poor puppeteer had to lug all his stuff around, for no purpose. It should be interesting to see how it all comes together (or falls apart at the seams, we'll see!).
We will be playing quite a lot over the next 6 weeks, but I will try to keep the weblog posts coming.
See you all later
Owen.
Friday, July 13, 2007
7 weeks to go.
It looks like all is going to be ready for an opening of The Park on Wednesday - it just goes to show how much can be done in a month!! I am beginning to dread this opening, because even though it will give us something to do, I fear that we (the band) will be hopelessly mis-managed. Again. A perfect example of this mis-management was yesterday. We were told the previous evening that the power would be off from early in the morning until the evening. We then find out that almost all the rest of the staff have the day off. At about 2:00, after having been asked "Why are you not down the mountain on your day off?" by someone who would know that we had the day off, Wayne (our pipe-major) goes to see Richard (our interpreter, and chief mis-manager) to find out what's going on. "Oh yes, day off, day off" was his reply - fat lot good that does us now.
Also, being the 12th of the month, it was payday. Now, Wang Fang (who gives us our money, but doesn't live at The Park [even though she has a room here - a story for another time perhaps]), was seen the previous evening with a great wad of bills in her handbag, but of course, she won't give us our money until the 12th. That morning, she's still at The Park, but doesn't come around to pay us. Wayne rings her up to find out what's going on. Apparently, she'd gone back to her house (a 2-hour drive away) 'to change her clothes'. At least, that was the excuse that she gave. She then told us that she'd be back at 4:00 with our money. 4:00 comes, and goes. 5:00 comes and goes. 6:00 comes, and , you'll never guess what, goes, all without our money. Finally, she shows up at 6:30, with some crappy excuse about heavy traffic or being very busy that day or some bulshit like that.
So, instead of having a plesant day in town with money to burn, we have an unplesant day stuck up on the mountain with no air-conditioning (it was rather warm yesterday), while we waited to get paid.
I wanna go home!
Owen.
Also, being the 12th of the month, it was payday. Now, Wang Fang (who gives us our money, but doesn't live at The Park [even though she has a room here - a story for another time perhaps]), was seen the previous evening with a great wad of bills in her handbag, but of course, she won't give us our money until the 12th. That morning, she's still at The Park, but doesn't come around to pay us. Wayne rings her up to find out what's going on. Apparently, she'd gone back to her house (a 2-hour drive away) 'to change her clothes'. At least, that was the excuse that she gave. She then told us that she'd be back at 4:00 with our money. 4:00 comes, and goes. 5:00 comes and goes. 6:00 comes, and , you'll never guess what, goes, all without our money. Finally, she shows up at 6:30, with some crappy excuse about heavy traffic or being very busy that day or some bulshit like that.
So, instead of having a plesant day in town with money to burn, we have an unplesant day stuck up on the mountain with no air-conditioning (it was rather warm yesterday), while we waited to get paid.
I wanna go home!
Owen.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
8 weeks to go
The countdown is on. Only 9 days to go now until The Park is supposed to be open. We hear rumours that members of the public won't be allowed up here until the 28th, though, so as to give the workers time to put the finishing touches on the place. We still don't know what our role will be after the opening, but we've been kept busy lately doing photo and video shoots, presumably for advertisements. [by the way, I've seen the ad mentioned in this post, and it's not too bad, except for the fact that I'm caught looking at the camera, something I made sure not to do this time around!]
One ancdote that I neglected to share with you, my readers, regards an event that took place on the eve of the great feast. We (Wayne, Ashley, the Twins and myself) were in the Twins' apartment peeling vegetables, when in walks Richard, our translator, to tell us that there was a 'possible' job the next day. Now, that next day, being a Sunday, was to be our day off for the week, and the Twins had planned on having that time to prepare the food for the night's dinner. We told Richard that we weren't going to play in the morning 1) because it wasn't even confirmed that we were needed and 2) because that's too little notice for us to play on our day off - we could already have gone to Hong Kong if we had wanted to. So Richard had to go tell his boss that there would be no pipe band the next morning, whether they were needed or not. He came back a few minutes later to warn us to stay inside the next morning, because he'd told his boss that we were all in Hong Kong!!
It turned out that the President of the company was considering coming out for a visit, which was why they (may have) required our presence at the train station. As it happened, he did visit, but apparently he was in a good mood that day, so it didn't really matter that there was no band to meet him.
Until next time.
Owen.
One ancdote that I neglected to share with you, my readers, regards an event that took place on the eve of the great feast. We (Wayne, Ashley, the Twins and myself) were in the Twins' apartment peeling vegetables, when in walks Richard, our translator, to tell us that there was a 'possible' job the next day. Now, that next day, being a Sunday, was to be our day off for the week, and the Twins had planned on having that time to prepare the food for the night's dinner. We told Richard that we weren't going to play in the morning 1) because it wasn't even confirmed that we were needed and 2) because that's too little notice for us to play on our day off - we could already have gone to Hong Kong if we had wanted to. So Richard had to go tell his boss that there would be no pipe band the next morning, whether they were needed or not. He came back a few minutes later to warn us to stay inside the next morning, because he'd told his boss that we were all in Hong Kong!!
It turned out that the President of the company was considering coming out for a visit, which was why they (may have) required our presence at the train station. As it happened, he did visit, but apparently he was in a good mood that day, so it didn't really matter that there was no band to meet him.
Until next time.
Owen.
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