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#Post#: 3176--------------------------------------------------
Back - from London
By: indigo_dave Date: March 5, 2019, 7:10 am
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I returned 2 days ago from my 11 days in London. I'll share
some things, but not in one post because I don't want to take
the time to do it in one sitting. The context is that my
friend's sister had foot surgery (hammer toe and the domino
effect of shifting the other toes out of place). My friend is a
Veteran's Administration nurse and went to spend 7 weeks (FMLA
act) helping her sister in the post op recovery period. My
"job" was to help, mostly by pushing her in the wheelchair. Not
too bad of a chore, except when the add-ons (mostly puchased
groceries) added to the weight of the chair.
Before my trip, I mentioned that if I could play some piano
while in London, it would help me keep my playing form and
reduce the chore of getting back my piano playing form upon my
return home. One Underground stop from North Greenwich was the
Canary Wharf stop - with a decently tuned Yamaha piano. So
several days we would go there and I'd get around an hour
(generally) playing and singing. I took a photocopy of the 3
pages of my song list along, to remind me of things I might not
recall otherwise.
I generally played a variety of Beatles and blues (several of my
Louis Jordan and His Tympani Five) songs, along with a general
smattering of other stuff. If I played during rush hour, there
would be hundreds of people walking past to get thru the "gate"
to catch the tube. I played last Saturday during a more relaxed
time of day and had maybe 8-10 people standing around and
listening at one point. Some people video recorded me. It was a
great way to practice, giving me at times live performance
feedback.
My friend (the nurse) and I went to Brighton via Overground (a
train) one day. I loved Brighton and want to go back sometime
for maybe 5-7 days. The train station there had a piano also -
the body seemed to be made of iron, near as I could tell. I
only played a couple of songs on the Brighton piano, but it was
decent and I was pleased with it.
I loved the little streets (in a particular area) with all the
specialty shops in Brighton - I think the little streets are
called "the lanes". I think a saw 5 different vinyl record
stores in the town among many other cultural cues. The pier was
classic. Also there's a replica (as I understand it) of the
Taj Majal that was (crazy) King George's doing.
To be continued. I'm hoping to put photos in some cloud storage
- maybe Amazon's Prime since I seem to be getting close to my 15
GB limit in Google's free cloud storage.
#Post#: 3181--------------------------------------------------
Re: Back - from London
By: dinkleburg Date: March 5, 2019, 9:51 am
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Looking forward to seeing some pics, Dave. It's pretty cool that
you got to try out a couple of different pianos while you were
there.
Hope your friend's sis heals well and heals quickly. :)
#Post#: 3193--------------------------------------------------
Re: Back - from London
By: AJ Date: March 5, 2019, 6:42 pm
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Sounds smashing Dave! (Cockney Accent). Looking forward to more
stories of your trip and some pics! Maybe whoever videoed you
will put it up on YouTube and you'll be a overnight sensation!
HTML https://youtu.be/9kE5jab_NxQ
#Post#: 3209--------------------------------------------------
Re: Back - from London
By: indigo_dave Date: March 6, 2019, 6:52 pm
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We went on 2 different evenings to visit a lady named Greta
(rhymes with Rita) who is 91. She made us dinner. I in turn
played a couple of sets on her piano, and did some singing.
Sort of singing for my supper. One night she made rabbit, which
is popular over there. I'd never had it.
One afternoon we went to another friend's of the academic lady
who had the foot surgery. Liz was the friend. Liz made some
salmon and roasted veggies (potatoes, beets, sweet potatoes
etc.). I played and sang on her 70 year old piano which she'd
taken lessons on as a little girl (she's 70). She was attractive
in an old hipster sort of way. And the fact that she's vegan
made her even more appealing. I'll probably never see her again.
Anyhoo, I got a good bit of public performing in over there. I
don't care that it wasn't paid. I think it's a bit like actors
liking to do live theater. There's a certain visceral feedback.
Of course I'm a bit herbal at the moment.
I think that's mostly my tale. There were little cultural
experiences, just in being in different environments. But no
tales to tell. I can tell you that having access to a piano to
play could sway my future foreign travel to the UK. I'll have
to explore this in other European cities.
#Post#: 3210--------------------------------------------------
Re: Back - from London
By: AJ Date: March 6, 2019, 7:18 pm
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Sounds like you had a good time and a positive experience Dave.
Apparently the Canary Wharf piano has been a thing for a long
time, what with the date stamps on all the Youtube videos from
it. Perhaps you'll show up on one!
#Post#: 3212--------------------------------------------------
Re: Back - from London
By: indigo_dave Date: March 7, 2019, 7:19 am
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I did take my little Sony HDR-MV1 video camera. But never used
it. I figured the extraneous noise might be a problem. Plus
I'd have had to rely on someone else to hold the camera for
recording.
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Another thing...I did hear quite a bit about Brexit, mostly on
the TV news. My hostess (the lady with foot surgery) was dead
set against it. There was news in UK about 3,500 Honda factory
jobs leaving. There was a suggestion that the plant produced
diesel vehicles and that was why the plant was shutting down.
There was also
a suggestion that the plant closure was Brexit related.
The nurse, sister of the hostess, didn't want to know about
current events. She feels the same about US news - doesn't want
to know about it. But yet, she often has strong opinions -
usually knee jerk Fox (News) like opinions. Working at a
Veterans Administration in North Carolina, my best guess is that
she hears those opinions during her work days, and being pretty
much ignorant about these things, her mind accepts distortions
and lies... I find this maddening and frustrating. Willful
ignorance drives me crazy. I told her that a responsible and
functioning democracy depends on informed voters. She agreed
with the idea, but not the reality of doing the work to inform
herself. I actually don't really want friends like this -
ignorant and incurious, but here I am. Will try to keep this
friendship at a distance.
#Post#: 3216--------------------------------------------------
Re: Back - from London
By: The Dudely Lama Date: March 7, 2019, 7:57 am
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im pretty tolerant but willful ignorance is something i also do
my best to avoid. the arrogance that so often accompanies it
has a stench that is unmistakable.
#Post#: 3219--------------------------------------------------
Re: Back - from London
By: indigo_dave Date: March 7, 2019, 1:19 pm
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I loaded my London and Brighton photos to my Amazon cloud
storage. I won't comment now, but if anyone has a specific
question, I will of course be happy to try and shed light. Also,
I'm hoping to swap photos with the my friend later on.
London
HTML https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/3or4K7ciip9U02L1c09LsjaJmrMVQlKQhCd10P0tEk
Brighton
HTML https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/WYQ8AS1uuRZIyo3nZ81pzhwqnyfOPDOBi8rjRcUY1PH
#Post#: 3220--------------------------------------------------
Re: Back - from London
By: AJ Date: March 7, 2019, 6:32 pm
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Interesting collection of shots Dave. Mt favorites are the ones
of you at that piano. ;)
#Post#: 3222--------------------------------------------------
Re: Back - from London
By: indigo_dave Date: March 7, 2019, 8:59 pm
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[quote author=The Dudely Lama link=topic=340.msg3216#msg3216
date=1551967058]
im pretty tolerant but willful ignorance is something i also do
my best to avoid. the arrogance that so often accompanies it
has a stench that is unmistakable.
[/quote]
Interesting thing. It gave me an idea for a song. About don't
wanna know. Don't need to know. Like that. So the weirdness in
the living situation for 11 days, could end up being a positive.
I'm playing around with ideas. Trying to assemble a "song" .
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