The best weather for transporting instruments

Ideally, the best weather for transporting instruments is a fine day without the rain and the storms. The sun should ideally not be too scorching. The day should be relatively cloudy with occasional breezes. A relatively dry weather will be good for transporting instruments without having to worry that the instruments may get raindrops on themselves.

Unfortunately, this afternoon's weather was far from the ideal. It was a rainy and wet one. But I guess I have to be thankful that there was no downpour. Thank goodness! There was only a drizzle at about 1.15 p.m. when the lorry was here to transport the instruments to the University Cultural Centre, Hall.

Orchestra rehearsal for this afternoon was held at the University Cultural Centre, Hall. This will be the same location where our pre-tour cum fund-raising concert would be held this coming Wednesday. I hope everything will fit well together that night.

Anyway, back to the transporting of instruments, there was only one lorry, and it was drizzling.

This is a list of instruments we had to transport to the University Cultural Centre by 2 p.m: One harp (in a flight case), four double basses, one timpani set (four timpani drums), one gong, percussion instruments, two cellos, two trombones etc. I was helping with the loading and unloading of the instruments until I felt quite exhausted when we finally unloaded the instruments at the University Cultural Centre.

Carrying double basses was not an issue with me since I was so used to it. It was the harp in its flight cases that came a little more tricky. Thank goodness I was just one of the many people who were helping with the loading and unloading.

I suppose having served as a logistic officer of the orchestra several years ago has helped me to empathise with the kind of efforts that a logistic officer has to put in to ensure that the logistics are well taken of. As such, I guess I felt there was always a call in me to help with the transport of instruments wherever time and commitment could allow me. Sometimes I wonder if I should just be less helpful because it can be tiring to help. Then again, I would not be true to myself if I don't offer a hand. In addition, I would anyway prefer to carry my own instrument, I might as well just spend a bit more time and strength to carry a few others.

Back to today. Thank goodness it was only about ten minutes drive to the University Cultural Centre. Still I think we were behind schedule when all the instruments were unloaded. Rehearsal was supposed to start at 2 p.m.

For rehearsals, we started with Butterfly Lovers violin Concerto. Mr Foo is the violin soloist. I could still fondly remember how he shared with us about what the concerto was all about. There was humour in the way he did the sharing.

Then we played the first movement of the Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony. We spent quite a fair bit of time on it. I am moved when I played it today. When I played several passages, I have this feeling that life must have been a misery for Tchaikovsky at some points in time. Yet, I seemed to hear through the music that there were also attempts to conquer the setbacks that life has to bring. Reflecting, I wish I could have enough strength to conquer those life challenges that life may bring.

Actually, I enjoyed playing for the rehearsal today. I don't know why, but I felt quite alert during today's rehearsal. As such, I was able to concentrate playing the music. I was so focused that when I hear an orchestra colleague asking me if I had a double bass stopper, I could not respond appropriately. All I knew was to focus on playing. Of course, there were a few times when my concentration levels slipped and I missed a few bars. Emily, my stand partner for the concert, had been nice to give me the needed reminders when I had missed playing because I did not hear the conductor's instructions. It has been a pleasure to play with Emily. It is a pity that she won't be playing during the Aberdeen International Youth Festival, but it is of no fault of hers that she could not.

I am looking forward to share the music with the audience this coming Wednesday. I keep my fingers crossed that the miracle will happen. I saw that we have yet to have enough audience to fill the ground level of the hall, but I know everyone in the orchestra is doing his/her best to make the concert possible.

Special thanks to many people for helping to publicise this concert for us. I wanted to mention names but I worry that you might not like the limelight, so I shalln't. You probably know whom you are. Thanks a million.