Crescendo website up and running

I've finally managed to get the website for my music republishing business up and running, now with an online shopping cart system. To visit: http://www.crescendomusicpubs.com.au/

28th January, 2007 - Adelaide/Barossa

Sean, Juliet and Jodie went to visit grandfather again this morning; it would be the last time Sean would see his grandad alive. A teary farewell.

We drove to the Barossa for a daytrip. The weather wasn't great, but that meant some nice photos.

Here's the view from Bethany Wines, out across the valley.



We bought a bunch of wine, organised for it to be posted back to Sydney, and then drove on to Tanunda. We decided on Hotel Tanunda for lunch - yummy German-inspired counter meals.


Juliet and Jodie


Daniel and Sean


Who should we run into there, but Natalie D'Enyar, an old choir friend from Christ Chuch St Laurence! She was on her way up to the north of South Australia to visit some friends. Its amazing that 1) she decided to lunch in the same pub as us, and 2) we both happened to be in different states and meet at that exact point.

Then it was back to Adelaide for our flight back to Sydney. Monday was almost upon us; each of us were going back to work after more than 5 weeks off. Scary...

27th January, 2007 - Adelaide

Sean and Jodie had organised to go visit their grandfather; I figured I'd use the day to do a bit of exploring, not wishing to be the third wheel. They dropped me off at a clothing store, as I wanted to get some new jeans (I'd only brought shorts with me). After finding a pair I liked, I walked up to the Roman Catholic Cathedral; it was one place I hadn't had the chance to visit on my numerous trips to Adelaide, so was quite looking forward to it.

Unfortunately there was a wedding about to take place, so I walked around the outside of the building instead. I then jumped on the free City Loop bus, making my acquaintance with a rather nice couple, who told me where to get off in order to walk to St Peter's, Adelaide's Anglican cathedral. Before that, though, I thought a quick visit to the Adelaide Library would be in order, to see if they had any scores I could pilfer and republish. Nothing though, so I made my way to the cathedral. I purchased a photo permit (for the princely sum of $2 - I think they should charge more!).

Here are some of the results:


West End


The beautiful West Rose Window


The Hill, Norman & Beard 4 manual organ


Looking down the central aisle to the West Door


Detail of the reredos

After spending 20 minutes talking to the lovely verger-ladies, and purchasing a copy of the choir's new CD, I made my way back to the CBD. When purchasing the jeans earlier that morning, I decided that a new belt wouldn't be a bad thing. So, the eternal quest to find the perfect belt began, lasting 4 hours and 25 clothing shops later, I had it! Ever on the hunt for interesting CDs, I went to one of those discount shops that sell everything for $10; I came away with a recording of Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kijé Suite, and selections from his score for Romeo and Juliet - good stuff! I also bought Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, as it was something that I've been meaning to buy for quite a number of years, but somehow hadn't. Time for a beer, and then I was collected by Sean and Jodie. The visit went reasonably well, and Sean was a bit happier that he'd got to chat to his grandad, after 2 days before being half a world away (quite literally!).

We collected Juliet, Jodie's girlfriend, from her work (she works in this awesome pet store - its huge!), and made our way to Sean's Mum's place for a barbecue dinner that they'd organised for us. It was great to catch up with his Mum and Terry (her partner). It'd be nice to see more of them, but given the distance between Adelaide and Sydney, its not as though one can just drop round to say Hi!

26th January - Australia Day

Sean arrived back in the country the day after me. How things can change in 2 days.

I received a phonecall from him during our farewell dinner in Los Angeles; his sister had called him to tell him that his grandfather had been diagnosed with cancer. All very sudden, and certainly not the best news when you're half way around the world, alone in an hotel room. He booked a flight from Sydney to Adelaide there and then. Back at the hotel after dinner, I booked one also - I figured even though I'm not direct family, he'd appreciate me being there to support him.

His flight from San Francisco arrived in at 8am on Australia Day. He came home, did 2 loads of washing, and packed bags again, and made our way to the airport late that afternoon.



We'd barely had time to even catch up on the last week we spent apart! The flight to ADL was pretty empty; there was a young gent who had been at the Sydney Big Day Out and was rabbiting on, slurring his words. I reckon he was more than a bit pissed.

As we rolled down the runway and soared up into the evening sky, we were finally on our way to be closer to his poor grandfather. I'd never met him, but Sean was understandably rather close to him. The next few days were gonna be tough. I held his hand as our plane banked left, the increasingly distant lights on the ground glinting, almost smug in their self-assuredness. They'd never die.

Big Day Out kid decided he was gonna be sick; so, a quick glance around to make sure no one was watching, opened the seat pocket and let fly. Except not only did he get it in the seat pocket, but he managed to coat a good portion of the seatback as well. It wasn't long before the biley stink made its way over to us. Cabin crew were good though, they gave him a towel to clean himself up some.

We were met by Jodie, Sean's sister, at the airport. We were going to be staying with her while we were in Adelaide. We stayed up chatting for a while...I turned in and left them to talk things over.

23/1/07||25/1/07 - Los Angeles-Sydney - Day 27

Our final day in LA, and what better way to spend it than ambling round one of those huge shopping malls with Ms Sherman. I didn't buy anything - just as well, too. When I packed my bags this morning, I could hardly close the zip! We went back to the hotel, where we had lunch in the café adjacent. Craig wondered past, saying that he was going to the local Starbucks, as he noticed there were a lot of attractive single men there! We ended up going there to pass time also, then it was onto the bus that would take us to the airport.




Santa Monica Boulevard at sunset on our final day


The group ready to load their luggage on the coach


Neil wishing us well for the journey back to Oz


The choked freeway on the way to the airport


It was fun and games at the check-in counter. My boarding pass said that I had to "Seek assistance at the gate for allocation of seating". Not a good sign! At the gate we found out that the flight had been overbooked by about 50 seats! If I hated United until now, I wanted them dead (but only after they assigned me a seat!). Because of the disaster with the seating, Kate Massey-Greene volunteered to take up their offer of spending an extra night in LA in a lovely hotel, plus a free upgrade to Business Class for the return leg of the journey. Lucky her! The flight was pretty uneventful, save for a crazy Asian lady in front of me who couldn't speak any English, but kept turning round to jabber at me in Engrish.


A quick spin through Duty Free, and then we were on home soil!

22/1/07 - Day 26

Yesterday, Robert Bailey-Hughes had kindly organised for Huw, himself and I to go on a daytrip to Universal Studios, 30 mins north of the city. It wasn't something I'd normally do, but I thought it'd be good to try something new. Anyone who knows me will quite happily tell you that I never go to the movies, so I thought the place would be rather irrelevant to me.

I was proved wrong! First up, we went on a tour of the actual backlots, which was exciting. We saw...


Exploding car models used in the movie 2 Fast 2 Furious


The Bates Motel from Alfred Hitchcock's hit Psycho


A mechanism used to create floods


The exploding wharf from Amityville - Jaws movies

We then went on a few rides (the Jurassic Park dropdown ride was scary, but fun - involving falling 25 meters off a cliff in a dinghy thing!), we also saw a demonstration of how fire-type special effects are made. We then stopped for lunch, then on to a trained animal show. We had...


the recycling dog...


A bra-wearing monkey...


And a bird trained to fly in a wind tunnel

The view from Universal is rather picturesque



In the evening, we had our Tour Farewell dinner. Helen Sherman sang some showtunes, accompanied by myself, Robert Bailey Hughes and Mark Stubley on the piano, much to everyone's delight! Home tomorrow

21/1/07 - Day 25

Inside the church

A friend of Neil and Owen's, Reece (who is also head server at St Thomas') kindly organised a minivan to ferry us to the church in the morning, in groups of about 10 or so, so we didn't have to make our own way there. The Mass was a resounding success, and we were treated to a huge slap-up do afterwards, in the parish hall. It was really nice of them to put on such a spread; we felt like royalty! :)

Before rehearsal, waiting for the others to arrive...






Sammy, get your gun!



We hung around, waiting for our rehearsal with the St Thomas' choir, who were joining with us for Evensong. Afterwards, we were taken out by a few of the congregation for drinks at this giant megaplex-type bar, funnily enough called The Abbey http://www.abbeyfoodandbar.com/ ! A very drunken night ensued with about 5 of us ending up in a cabana! We made some great friends that night! Craig, especially...

20/1/07 - Day 24

An early start back to my hotel, to pack and to take some more photos. Here are a few:


California Street, with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background


One of the cablecars in California Street


An interesting contrast of architectural styles walking down Taylor Street

Time to load the bus, and yet another cranky busdriver who thinks we have too much luggage! He had dreadful trouble lining the doors of the undercarriage up so that they didn't hit the street signs, and his backwards-forwards culminated in the bus letting loose and belching a big cloud of acrid smoke from somewhere underneath. Now we had a cranky bus and an even crankier bus driver!

However, the bus still went, and we made it to the airport well in time to catch our flight to Los Angeles.

Some scenes from along the way:

Freeway


Housing estate beside freeway (yes, that is smog in the background)


Our flight to Los Angeles

We disembarked (yet again - I hate planes now), and were collected by a coach. We drove around and around and around, our driver seemingly lost in all the palmed avenues. We got to our hotel eventually...thank goodness. Checkin was dead simple, and we had an hour to get ourselves ready before catching taxis to St Thomas' for our rehearsal for the following day's services. Dinner was had afterwards, at a sort-of steakhouse. I caught a taxi back to the hotel with Neil, Owen and David. Time for bed, as I was absolutely stuffed after the days events.

19/1/07 - Day 23

A day of exploring the shops in downtown San Fran, and some thoughts on the area in general.

There seemed to be a lot of homeless people around town, many with psychiatric problems. I mentioned this in passing to a few people, and apparently its because its one of the lowest taxing states in the country, and there's not enough money to allocate to services for both these (sometimes interconnected) problems.


Homeless people

Everyone seems to be either friendly towards you, or agressive, like you owe them something. I mean, come on!

There are a lot of hills. Thank goodness for cable cars!

--

I bought more DVDs and CDs - someone slap me. I must be mad. Back to the hotel to change for dinner. Sean suggested that for our last night together, it would be nice to have dinner down at Fisherman's Wharf. And right he was! Had a delicious steak with mash...and then a chocolate and coconut tart for dessert.

We decided to head to the Castro to check out some bars, whereupon I found my tummy was still not right (vomit). Back to the hotel with Sean. At least he was feeling a bit better! Last day together *sigh*

18/1/07 - Day 22

An early start - there was a city to explore! I met up with Sean after brekky, and wondered round the Castro.


Sean having a rest


Market Street, Castro

Then it was back to the hotel to get my robes and music, as we had our Evensong at Grace Cathedral that evening. It was a lovely service...and an interesting building, housing yet another Skinner Organ - strings to make your mouth water!






Grace Cathedral by night

A gin and tonic back at the hotel, then it was on to the Castro for dinner, a sampling of the vibrant nightlife. I was feeling bored so went to Sean's hotel to see how he was recovering.

17/1/07 - Philadelphia-San Fransisco - Day 21

On the road again....almost. For some reason, our bus to the airport (booked for 11am) turned up at 5.30am, and didn't bother telling their boss that there was no-one to pick up! When there was no sight of the bus at 11.10am, we started to worry - Phillip then called and was told the above. But, Holiday Inn to the rescue! They managed to get 3 minivans to come and take us to the airport! Good on them! Those who were billeted made their way by taxi (I think) to the airport, where we rushed through check-in, passport control, security and to the gate lounge.


Helen and I in a minivan on the way to the airport

Flying US Airways was interesting - the only thing free on board were softdrinks. Everything (incl. food), you had to pay for. Food was quite good though.

We landed in San Fran, were promptly met by our coach, who then drove (what seemed like miles) to the Hotel Beresford. A small lobby, and too many bags...



We decided to check out the local area (Mark, surprisingly, had another Fun Map), we went and had pizza a block away - the wine was cellared too long, and had turned a bit, but that was OK. Some decided to venture to an "interesting" venue, the Nobb Hill Cinema, but I went back to the hotel as I was tired...no, really, I was! Sean had also arrived in SF that day, and was still feeling sick, so I decided to steer clear of his hotel.

16/1/07 - Day 20

I woke up not feeling quite right in the stomach - and hoped to God I hadn't got the tummybug. I played it safe, and stayed in the hotel, which was lucky, as lavatorial conveniences were needed often! Inadvertently, it was nice to have a day to myself, even if I was in crampy-pain land. It also gave me a chance to update my blog, which was running very behind schedule.

In afternoon, I wondered up to St Mark's with Rajah and Helen Sherman.

We had a lovely Evensong, with a pretty full church, which was reassuring. Alistair accompanied us again, which was very nice of him, considering he had a 2+ hour train ride in each direction to get there. A HUGE spread was put on for us afterwards - lasagne, salad, the works. They had catered thinking 50 people would turn up, but apparently the number was closer to 150. Still, everyone was adequately fed and watered, and who should show up at the reception, but yes...my stalker! I tried hiding from him a few times, but it didn't really work. He did however, approach Neil and gave a ready sample of his singing ability, much to Neil's delight! I finally managed to shake him off and send him on his way.

Before leaving, I had a wonder round the interior of the church, which was sumptuously adorned with many objects, including a solid silver altar in a side chapel!





Their Rector, who spent some time in a parish in Perth as Curate gave a lovely speech, and then it was back to Woodie's! No karaoke though...

15/1/07 - NYC-Philadelphia - Day 19

Sean felt a bit better, but certainly didn't look it. He got his stuff together and left the hotel room for the first time since Saturday night. He caught a taxi back to his friend's place in Harlem, and crashed out in a chair. Meanwhile, we all boarded the bus, and freeway'd it through New Jersey - driving for what seemed like hours through what I think was mostly industrial wasteland. Some photos from the trip - sorry if they're a bit dark - it was really foggy outside.






The taxi-way at Newark Airport. I've never seen so many planes queueing for takeoff!

Helen Sherman, and a few others had come down with various chest infections, and more people had come down with the tummy-bug. :(

Once we arrived in Philly, we dropped off those that were being billetted at St. Mark's, the church where we'd be singing Evensong the following (Tuesday) night. They were then free to roam the town, while those who chose to stay in a hotel continued on to the Holiday Inn Historic District. Whilst checking in, it seems the travel agent didn't include a room voucher for myself, so I had to pay for a room for two nights myself. Thanks to Phillip though, he telephoned the travel agent in Sydney, who then faxed across the paperwork, so in the end I didn't have to pay for anything extra. Mark Stubley, Danny and I decided a walk was in order. We'd decided we wanted to hear the Wanamaker Organ - situated in the central court area of a 6-storey shopping centre. I'd read that it gets played every day, and wondered if we were in luck to hear someone putting it through its paces. Upon arrival, we found out that there was a recital scheduled for 5.30pm that day. We wondered through Philly some more, and were instantly charmed by the city's architecture.



Mark suggested we try and see if St Clement's was open for a look-see, so off we went. I was doubtful as it was a public holiday that day, and I thought it wouldn't be open, but as luck would have it - it was!

Some pictures...




We returned to Macy's (aka the Wanamaker Store) for their 5.30pm recital. I think the poor organist would have been 90 if a day, and played like it too...a few variations on Lift up your heads (Handel) and then some variations on Twinkle, twinkle...then it was enough.

Stubley had his "fun map" guide handy, and had sussed out a few venues for an evening bevvy or 3. First up was Bump, a rather nice what looked to be a wine/martini bar. They served a wonderful array of tapas type dishes, and was very excited to receive some fried pork dumplings, rather like those at Shanghai China Night in Ashfield!!

After Bump (where I lost my nice scarf I bought in Canterbury :(( ), we adjourned to Woody's, which I was informed was the place to go by Jason Groves' friend Donald. It turns out that it was karaoke night upstairs, so Rajah, Phillip and I made our way up the stairs, the others wanting an early night, as they still weren't feeling quite right after being ill. It seems I acquired a stalker of sorts - a "charming" black man named Chris. Phillip kindly let slip where we were singing the following night - thank you, Phillip! Phillip and Rajah departed after a few numbers, and left me with the bloody stalker! He then suggested we try another bar (which was a few streets from my hotel), where I met his (drug-addled and incoherent) cousin. Great. He started rifling through his jacket, looking for something. I asked what he was looking for, and he said "some drugs I am supposed to drop off to a friend here". Great - I am being taken on a drug-run with a complete fruitloop. I bought him a drink, and bolted out of there, saying I had to be up early. Nicely done, Daniel!