Playing in Parks

I've started a new job that involves travel! I have no problems with that. I've decided to take my fiddle with me always, regardless of the nature of the travel just in case there's any spare moments to practice or play.

First work trip, Vancouver. We're staying at the Pan Pacific hotel at Canada Place. TED talks are coming to town so there's a nebulous shimmering net hanging above the ground just outside the front entrance.

The view from the hotel's rear terrace is of the harbour - stunning! I miss being near the ocean.

Breakfast the first morning was at a little Italian place called Brioche with entrances on Water and West Cordova Streets in Gastown was amazing. As was the coffee.

This morning I took the fiddle along for a wander to the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Chinese Garden, one of my favourite haunts in Vancouver's China Town. Spring is here! Such a contrast to snow-buried Winnipeg.

A mosaic of the Chinese zodiac lies on the ground just outside the gardens.

We saw a large coi, several ducks, and a huge blue heron up in a tree. He proved to be an attentive audience when I settled in the pagoda to practice. Seems like Vancouver has a large urban population of Blue Herons, which are a species at risk in BC.

Later, after lunch with a few more co-workers - same place: Brioche (so good!) we walked along the seawall all the way to Stanley Park. I took the opportunity to practice a bit more. Couldn't resist being surrounded by moss and trees.

Then back to work meetings. More meetings this whole week but hope to visit a bit more of historic Gastown on Friday before flying home to the frozen tundra of Winterpeg, Manisnowba. Can't believe there's crocuses already popping up here and no hope of seeing a single bud back home for at least another two months.

Definitely not happening in Winnipeg anytime soon :(

Travelling Vicariously

Soundcloud is another form of social media I am only just discovering. One Kristian Boruff discovered me through Soundcloud and asked to use my performance of Neil Gow's Lament. I was very surprised to get Boruff's message saying, "I've found a number of versions online, however yours is the best."

Boruff is a young American who spent nearly a month in Germany last summer visiting family, and has since been posting intensely compact - and hilarious - travelogue episodes. Averaging about 2 minutes, each Youtube video captures a day of Boruff's "Adventures in Deutschland" built with his own photos, video, and other borrowed images - all accompanied with sound effects including some taken from Soundcloud.

In this episode, he  opens with a Ken Burns-like montage accompanied by yours truly - only with the Neil Gow ballad, not the Ashokan Farewell - but only for a few moments. The result is quite amusing.