Joke in China

Army and stuff

So I found out that the concert is for the army and lots of high placed bosses. That's also why we have three extra completely unnecessary rehearsals; to show how diligent and hard working we are. Ayaaa, so terrible!! It doesn't matter how you spend your time as long as you look busy it will be OK. It also doesn't matter that the music sounds worse and worse every time we repeat it; it matters that we are repeating it. Aaaargh!!!!
Yesterday evening (wasting time already because we were done with all the work in the afternoon) a "small" boss came to listen. We only play the 2nd half because the first half is played by a traditional chinese orchestra. This orchestra was apparently so tired that they needed a break DURING the run through. They had a break at 19.40 with still 4 pieces to go (it started at 19.00). The fact that a whole symphony orchestra was waiting for them to finish didn't matter at all. How rude!!! In the end we made it on stage around 20.45 and played until 21.50. The program is excruciatingly boring and so I developed a new skill; reading a book while playing :) Good brain training I must say. After 2 full seasons in the GSO I expected a small drama like this so I came in prepared with literature, a note book and a good mood. That mood was set in the morning when I went to have a facial and lunch with Karin. It was very nice and we cycled together.
Here's the location where this particular blog is coming from:

Yeah, the couch and whatever this model of furniture to sit on is called arrived yesterday, hurrah!! The bedroom is now not so empty anymore!
This afternoon the pleasure of playing for high bosses continues when we have a dress rehearsal in gala outfit. Super mafan to get dressed just so that the "middle" boss who is coming today can check if everything is OK.
Hopefully it will be quick and painless. Again the act of cycling there with my gala dress in my bicycle basket is filling me with joy and giggles. Fingers crossed it stays dry. A good mood has been set again by doing yoga this morning with my friends.
Then onto the next big event of this day: I (yes, me, Joke Tummers) cooked lunch!!! I made pasta and a salad and it tasted very nice. Here's some proof in case you don't really believe me (couldn't blame you for that after reading my blog for some time, hihi):

Now I'm going to read for a little while and then I have to go to work. Haiwen is going to stay in Shenzhen tonight so after work I will head over to Lida and Pieter's. Haiwen told me yesterday that this is the first CN that he doesn't enjoy at all because it is messing up all the work projects. The problem is also that the people in Holland don't understand how CN works; there is simply nobody left in the factories or at customs!!
So reading now.... yeah..... do you guys also feel that reading is essential to life? When I don't get around to it for some time I really feel that I miss something!

Smoke!!!

I'd like to share the saying that was on my calendar yesterday:

You can live your life in two ways.
One as if there are no miracles.
The other as if everything is a miracle.
-A. Einstein

Guess which one I prefer, hihi :)

Yesterday something rather scary happened; the whole hallway of the 19th floor was filled with smoke. "When there's smoke, there's a fire" so I went to investigate. I couldn't find anything but wasn't convinced. Why would there be smoke if nothing is wrong?! We have a bell to call the security guards up to our house and I rang it. A very nice guy showed up. He explained to me that some people had been burning fake money because the Chinese New Year is approaching. They were keeping an eye on it but I had nothing to worry about. He was very apologetic and said that it was just their custom to burn fake money and that it was a very traditional thing to do. Well, I was of course very relieved and I continued my lazy afternoon in and around my lounge area. Mostly "in" to be honest. Haiwen came home rather early and we did absolutely nothing except getting some dinner (43 kuai for the two of us) and watch movies.
Saturday was also nice. Haiwen had to work because some last minute "disasters" had to be solved before the factories completely close down for CN (chinese new year). At one factory 80% of the people had travelled home already and there was no one to unload their truck. Truly mafan but luckily Hw found a guy with a forklift. One small crisis averted :) Pieter had to work as well so Lida and I spend the day hanging out. It was really nice and we ended up "not shopping" which of course means that we did go home with some nice new stuff. Lida has a CN party at school this week and she needed a Shanghai style dress for that. We succeeded within the hour and even had it fitted to her body. After work Pieter came to pick us up from my place and we went for dinner. Hw joined us eventually and we ended a nice day.

The coming three days I will still have to work because we have a concert on Wednesday. I just know that it is gala time again. I'll try to find out more about the "how and what" today. Rehearsal starts at three so I'm now going off to see Karin and have some fun before work starts!!

Impression

@ the Venetian in Macau

Suny Ericssun??

Traditional first dish at a chinese wedding.

3 down, 2 to go

Concerts that is.... The last 2 performances will be today and this evening we are invited (obligated) to join a banquet. Tomorrow we will head back to GZ at 10.00 in the morning. Kryzstof (flute) and I have taken a liking to working out outside in the chinese style gym. Since the weather is quite cool, around 18 degrees I think, it is nice to "move" outside. We went to take a look at the Venetian last night which was fun and of course we ran into half of the orchestra ;) Now I have to leave to get on the bus to the cultural centre.

We arrived at 4 down, 1 to go!!

Now I have some time to tell you about the educational concerts. We start with introducing the concertmaster and the conductor. Then we tune and play a chinese ouverture. Some other chinese pieces follow and we move on to Carmen from Bizet. "Toreador" is played and then 3 or 4 students are taught some percussion instruments in front of the stage. After the lesson they join us for the first bit of Toreador. This is always a lot of fun with the students in the hall encouraging their friends. Today we had an excellent big drum player, it was perfect!! The woodwinds get introduced and all the principals play a small tune (today the favourites were the Pink Panther and Mission Impossible, hihi). The brass gets introduced too and the trombones and bass play the opening tune from the news. Everybody loves that. Then onto Wilhelm Tell which of course features the brass. After this the "first half colleagues" and me get to leave the stage :) Now they're playing Fiddle Faddle. Some other pieces follow and the last one is the opening from Beethoven's fifth. Again some students are invited on stage and take a shot at conducting...... The end!! Right now they are still playing and "The Swan" is on. Ok, that's all folks ;)

Hi from Macau

I'm in the office next to the stage now and the first performance will start in about half an hour. I'm planning on doing some serious shopping later today :). I went to a supermarket last night and I was amazed at the available selection. I had a short work out as well because my back was kinda tired after hanging in the bus. I did indeed feel much better afterwards and stretching my tired limbs was really shufu (comfortable). I tried to be patient at the border control because I hate stupid  formalities like that. I think I managed quite well this time -progress- wooohoo!! This morning I had a mini work out to start the day and then went to have breakfast in the hotel. I had some noodles, bacon, salad and sausages. The dress rehearsal was quick and painless because we only played the beginning of the pieces and the presenter did his bits in between. Just now we sat near the statue of a female buddha and enjoyed the view towards Wanzai area. It was quite foggy but still nice. Ok, now I should go and warm up, byebye!! xxx

Work, work.....

Last night I got home around 23.00 after the film music concert. It was quite successful and I enjoyed playing "Mission impossible" hihi. It wasn't really precise because we only played through it twice but is was still cool :)
This morning Hw and I went for a well deserved massage and after that we enjoyed a simple lunch.

On average each dish costs 4 RMB.

This evening we had another concert and it was gala time again. Just before the dress rehearsal I stopped by at Karin and Ossi's for a coffee.
The weather was quite warm and it seems like the "sweat-free-cycling-time" is over. I had a lot of fun stuffing my gala dress in my bicycle basket and riding to the hall. I did "stuff" it neatly ;) The concert was fine and we finished around 22.30. We are going to Macau tomorrow to educate middle school students about music; we will come back on friday.

House warming party

Here's an impression of last night's party:

Hanging out next to the "bar"

Lida and Karin

........

Ossi Harshana and Vishal
It was a lot of fun and the house is officially "warm" now ;) The food was excellent (thanks again for that), the company was great and the guards were already letting the guests in before they could say "A 1904" hihi.

Scary....

This is my view at 8.00 this morning. I'm just hoping that some of this is actually fog and that it's not pure smog......brrr.....

Out of Afr, oh wait....GZ!

On tuesday and wednesday we had concerts in Guangdong province. Yesterday we were in Shenzhen where the hall is quite nice but run by a bunch of complete idiots (sorry, there's no other way to put this...). Let's not waste any more words about that ;)
Tuesday was a different story altogether.

The stage
We played in GaoMing, in a movie theater. GaoMing is a small town and it is very different from the big and modern Guangzhou. As you can see the stage is quite scary but it lasted throughout the concert.

The busses
This is the view right next to the theater. This time we could walk to the restaurant to have our dinner together so the busses were parked there for a long time. In Shenzhen we got 50 RMB to go get food by ourselves. My dish never came, even after asking 8 times. We got fed up and left the restaurant and I bought some bread instead (after eating some food that the guys ordered....).

Toilets outside of the theater.
Good thing is that these toilets were clean and toilet paper was provided backstage. Haha, so it was OK that I forgot to take a package of tissues ;)
I got home at 1.00 last night and then talked to a friend over Skype for a bit. Hw was still in Shenzhen, visiting a factory so I had the house (which is starting to feel like mine again) to myself.
Now I have to kick myself out of bed to go do some more party preparations and shopping. We are working from 13.30 until 18.00 today and the New Year's reception of the Dutch consulates starts at 18.00. A friend is leaving GZ tomorrow morning so I'll see him after that. So you see, I should really, really start now because we are working from 10.00 till 16.00 tomorrow and that is already party day :)
I'm very lucky to have friends that love to cook and they are bringing food to the party, hurrah!!!

Home improvement

Sunday was home improvement day. Haiwen and I went to some stores with Pieter to buy articles such as caps, screws and plugs. We also made a quick stop at Metro to buy some party supplies because the house warming party is this friday. On the way home we picked up Lida to come and keep us company.
The installation of the living room lamp.
Pieter drilled some holes in the walls and then we realised it was almost Chinese nap time (12.00-14.00). I didn't want to upset my new neighbours so we decided to go have lunch and continue afterwards.
We drove to Tianhe where we enjoyed some delicious Japanese food in a new store of RokuRoku. This one is named Roku sushi and the food was just as good as in the original location :)

Mmmmmm :)
By this time Hw was off playing tennis and the three of us went to Ikea. Yes, on a sunday afternoon, isn't that super brave? It was quite busy but not as bad as could be expected. I bought pans and lamps. Lida and Pieter bought a "futon" to put on their very hard Chinese mattress at home.

Pieter brought the car around and we went back to our new dwelling. More work was done (mostly by Pieter) and when it started to get dark we went to have dinner.

I had two very beautiful white paper lanterns hanging above the lounge area and the light was perfect for reading as well as chilling out. You may have already noticed that I used the past tense.....
Yesterday while I was in the board meeting from GWIC, Hw called me to say that the lanterns had to go.

Meeting
My initial reaction was "why????". My parents in law had seen them when the where bringing in some final stuff from our old house with Hw. They were super shocked and wanted them down immediately. These kind of lanterns are used when family members die and keeping them would bring very, very bad luck upon the family. I couldn't believe my own ears but offered to paint them yellow. I was so upset about this that I decided to call my mother in law. A long discussion followed with every cultural gap possible being covered. Painting them yellow would do no good either. In the end I gave in because this seemed to be something very important to them. I felt really bad about it though, because I feel that my house isn't mine anymore.
Aaaah, the joy of intercultural marriage *sigh*
After this call I was still very upset and fortunately the meeting was almost over so we could discuss what just had happened. A group of us went to a wine tasting and we talked and talked........
Lida had to leave at one point to go to her Chinese lesson. She invited Hw and me for dinner and I met up with her and mister Cheng somewhere near to the location of the meeting after the lesson. We enjoyed dutch cuisine (rode bietjes, speklappen, aardappelen).
Tonight we have a concert in GaoMing (outside the city) and tomorrow in Shenzhen.
O yeah, there are two bare light bulbs hanging over my head now........