Dublin Blog 2007
Download Rhys' rambling commentary on the tour here.Wednesday 04/04 8:05pm
The City of Cardiff Concert Band have returned to Cardiff. I managed NOT to bang my head on the ceiling this morning but did manage to bash it against the window of the bus several times in my sleep today apparently.
Everyone seemed to enjoy the tour and it won't be long until we start planning the next one (India anybody?).
For those who have enjoyed reading the blog, the good news is that there will be one coming from Belgium for the Bigband tour at the end of June! :-)
Photos are now at the bottom of this page and you can download 20minutes of me talking rubbish as a podcast from the link above.
Thanks for reading!
Rhys
UPDATE - Weds 5:06am :-(
An apology to Scott - he DID come up with some words of wisdom yesterday, but he waited til late in the day and when I wasn't around to hear them. Thanks to Chris for bringing these to my attention:
"Did Walt Disney have blonde eyes?"
"What were those dolls called that you sniffed up their legs? Oh that's right - cup cakes." (I'm completely lost on this one!)
I'm going back to sleep on the bus.
Tuesday 03/04 5:15pm
Evening! We are now leaving at 5:30am tomorrow morning so it is very unlikely I will be up for doing a blog entry before we leave so this will be the last one before we get home.
Wolfe Tone park was more of a town square but it worked well - the weather stayed nice and we had a decent audience since it was opposite a busy shopping centre and McDonalds. Was good fun to do an outdoor gig anyway, even if I was playing the French Horn part instead of trumpet! We nearly didn't get to play there as there was a slight problem with the insurance yesterday but it all seemed to resolve itself in the end.
Since this morning I have been filled in on last nights events which include a certain member of the band managing to cover several others with Guinness - I won't mention any names as that would be too cruel! ;-)
Everyone has gone wandering in different directions this afternoon to find gifts and souvenirs to take home. I have just recorded the last podcast entry with Hannah and that'll be uploaded sometime tomorrow evening or maybe Thursday - watch this space!
This evening we are going for an Italian meal down the road to end the tour which should be very nice.
Can't really think of anything else to say - Scott has kept strangely quiet today so no quotes. :-(
Will post a last message tomorrow evening when we get home to sunny Wales - bye for now!
Rhys
Tuesday 03/04 9:21am
Good morning folks. I have a headache. This is not due to any excessive drinking, but simply because I bashed my head against the ceiling for the third consecutive morning - I hate bunk beds! Several members of the band seem to think its hilarious that I'm known back home as Clumsy McNoisy....
Well the Guinness Storehouse went down well with most people - partly because you get a free pint at the top! It was a little odd - kinda like a museum but just about one alcoholic drink. Anyways after that we retired to a pub (yes again) for lunch and spent a couple of hours there that afternoon.
Last nights concert was also a little odd - there wasn't a huge audience, but then again there wasn't really any room for one by the time we had squeezed the band in. The trumpets were sitting on a sofa (two of them on the arms of the sofa), the trombones were virtually standing in the fire and the saxes were halfway down the stairs! We also managed to deduce which pieces of music we cannot do without French horns, of which we have none on tour!
I learned another valuable lesson yesterday (the first was that it hurts your feet it you accidentally stand between steps on an escalator when it starts going up) - if you take the early night option, then you will be woken up firstly by the people who went to a bar down the road, and then again by the people who went out clubbing!
Yesterday's quote from the now infamous Scott:
"It doesn't matter when you have a cold because you don't breathe through your nose anyway"
I think that's all for now - we are leaving at 6:15am tomorrow so I'll be doing the blog entry this evening instead. We are now off to do our final gig which is (typically) outdoors on the one day that it looks like it may rain!
Bye for now!
Rhys
Monday 02/04 9:59am
Well most of our first full day was spent wandering around the local area - and very nice it was too! A visit to St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin Castle and a Fish & Chip shop provided us with stuff to do in the afternoon. I managed to get lost when walking from the chip shop back to the park we had been at 5 minutes beforehand but the less said about that the better methinks!
The traffic lights make really cool sounds over here - listen to the audio podcast that'll be uploaded later this week to hear them! There'll also be a chance to hear a couple of buskers - one was playing the violin by holding the bow between his legs and then moving the violin across it... very strange indeed!
Our first concert of the tour went well - we played alongside the Artane School of Music Wind Ensemble at their school about half an hours drive away. Both the audience and their band seemed to enjoy themselves and they have been invited to Cardiff to do the same next year sometime. Listen into the podcast for bad quality recorded clips of the concert (I forgot to bring my microphone so had to use the built in mic on the mp3 player - d'oh!). One slight issue was a certain trumpeter (ahem!) having to run off stage to get the correct part for a piece of music between the first and second movements, accidentally knocking a pile of music stands over as he did so. No names mentioned. :-)
And then we got to last night - Gareth surprised everyone by break dancing (apparently - I assumed it was some sort of fit) in the middle of the bar, and I gained a reputation for being the only person to be drinking a cup of tea in the bar at half past midnight. Ah well.
Most of us are quite tired today since one of the dorms had one sleeping person in when we got back, so the rest of that dorm piled into the boys room and didnt leave til gone 2. All plans of getting up for an early breakfast went out the window!
More words of wisdom from Scott:
"Ash is snoring - either that or a bear has got in here"
"If you blow through it too hard, it dribbles out the end" (he claims he was talking about blowing air through a trumpet to warm it up - nobody else heard that bit!)
That's all for today - we are off to the Guinness Storehouse now!
Bye! Rhys
Sunday 01/04 9:52am
The Windband have arrived in Dublin! :-) Managing to leave on time (even after Bill's last minute rush for food), a fairly straight forward journey got us to the ferry terminal in time.
A pity the ferry wasn't ready to leave on time. "We apologise for the delay in departing - unfortunately the ship isn't big enough today. We are currently trying to squeeze everybody on so that we don't leave anyone behind." That really was word for word what the announcement said! As we arrived in Ireland, we were told that "the ferry is just slipping into the port for discharge...." don't you just love the Irish?!
A few hours later, some close encounters with red traffic lights, a lampost, several pedestrians and we arrive at the hostel rather later than expected (after driving straight past it the first time and going round the block again!).
A luxury meal across the road in some greasy late night cafe, a couple drinks in the pub across the road, strangely called "Lynch the Swan" and the first day was over before we knew it.
Words of Wisdom from Scott Langridge:
"We can't be that different from the Irish - we used to rule them"
"I thought Welsh Rarebit was made from Rabbit!"
That's all for today - more tomorrow!
Rhys
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright © 2007 by The City of Cardiff Concert Band.
All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved
