I'm involved in a music cafe programme tonight! Sound check in half an hour! We're doing a live percussion jam/jazz session that I started (whoo!!!) yesterday. I hope it goes well.
Today I swept the decks, helped loading cargo from a new container (food, books, etc), I love doing this. Ropes and the crane and all. Then after lunch I was helping an engine room welder with removing a large air-vent from above the book ex deck. This involved standing below making sure no sparks caused a fire, pushing and shoving on a large piece of metal trying to make it move, pumping something like a car-jack to try and lift this air-vent, jumping up and
down on top of it while he hit it with a hammer, attaching a block and tackle metal chain type affair to whatever random bits of deck or railing we could find, attaching the other end to the air vent, and pulling, and then stopping when the railing started to bend too much, and then finding another railing to try. Yeah. Fun day.
I've also been introduced to a really cool board/stratergy game called carcassone (possibly wrong spelling). It's about building cities, roads and so on, and is for 3 to 5 players. Cool game, and wonderful for strange conversations about word meanings, work, and all kinds of odd topics. Very cool.
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Thursday, February 09, 2006
We arrived 3 days ago at the ship, and have been mostly doing training so far. I'm enjoying it. I'm working in the Deck department again, so will spend 40 hours a week as a deck-hand. Cleaning, scrubbing, painting, chipping rust, and making this ship look beautiful. Also today we had watch-keeper training. So 40 hours a month each of us will be on gang-way watch, crowd control, and keeping order. We are currently in the port town of Sharjah, in the UAE.
I bought half a kilo of cashew nuts yesterday! For about 1 CYP, I think. I'm still having problems with converting the numbers.
Today I finally saw the doctor, and got some anti fungal cream for my feet. The athletes foot problem has appeared again...
I love cashew nuts.
I hate athletes foot.
I love chocolate too. In the fireroundsmans training today, we learned: accept bribes of chocolate from curfew breakers, eat it, and then write their names down anyway.
Oh! Yeah, and I also got a nice new sun hat for around 80 cents as well yesterday.
I bought half a kilo of cashew nuts yesterday! For about 1 CYP, I think. I'm still having problems with converting the numbers.
Today I finally saw the doctor, and got some anti fungal cream for my feet. The athletes foot problem has appeared again...
I love cashew nuts.
I hate athletes foot.
I love chocolate too. In the fireroundsmans training today, we learned: accept bribes of chocolate from curfew breakers, eat it, and then write their names down anyway.
Oh! Yeah, and I also got a nice new sun hat for around 80 cents as well yesterday.
Sunday, February 05, 2006
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Text messages arrived:
Training is going well. Please pray for my Japanese brother who has much trouble with English.
V. tired. So many sessions. Culture adapting, safety, did practical firefighting today. Extinguishers and all. We are in amazing holiay resort. Lovely food. Huge chalets. Is good but all just want to get to the ship. We need to do this to get our seamen crew certificates though. 3 more written exams. Did 1, was not too hard. Need sleep. Good night.
Training is going well. Please pray for my Japanese brother who has much trouble with English.
V. tired. So many sessions. Culture adapting, safety, did practical firefighting today. Extinguishers and all. We are in amazing holiay resort. Lovely food. Huge chalets. Is good but all just want to get to the ship. We need to do this to get our seamen crew certificates though. 3 more written exams. Did 1, was not too hard. Need sleep. Good night.
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Thursday, January 19, 2006
man.. so busy. we leave here at 8am on saturday. The Logos2 people leave at 5am!!! flights. evil. so gotta pack and do last laundry and stuff tonight probably. tomorrow there is no early afternoon session, so i plan to do some more packing then.
hey, about the weight allowance, God is good, and we have a nice miracle. we can take 30 kg each! cool, eh? Mind you, we are supposed to take not quite so much hand luggage (mine was about 12 or something before, I think?) so what I will do, I think, is leave my sleeping bag to come with the next container (March), and perhaps a few things like that, and then put my old clarinet in my main luggage. That will help a lot.
hey, about the weight allowance, God is good, and we have a nice miracle. we can take 30 kg each! cool, eh? Mind you, we are supposed to take not quite so much hand luggage (mine was about 12 or something before, I think?) so what I will do, I think, is leave my sleeping bag to come with the next container (March), and perhaps a few things like that, and then put my old clarinet in my main luggage. That will help a lot.
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
We've been doing a lot about personality type and working as a group and all this week, using mainly the "4 temperaments" system. I scored highest (surprise, surprise) as "Harmoniser". A lot of this is very well known to me, because of doing so much Myers-Briggs type stuff at home so many times. But it has been good, and many others are learning loads of stuff and realising a lot about team dynamics and all. Yeah.
We're all beginning to get even more excited about leaving in a few days time. There are quite a few juggler type people (stilt-walkers, and all sorts!) so it will really be cool on the ship, and at pre-ship, with all the stuff.
We're all beginning to get even more excited about leaving in a few days time. There are quite a few juggler type people (stilt-walkers, and all sorts!) so it will really be cool on the ship, and at pre-ship, with all the stuff.
Friday, January 13, 2006
It snowed! Germany is so beautiful, and snow makes everything looklovely.
Conference is going well. It is amazing meeting all these people, and learning so much about what God is doing around the world. Meeting people from every continent going to every other continent.
Had a time today looking at all the different places where they need workers, seeing what they do, and met up with some people from a training centre in the UK who are praying for a drama person to come along and start doing full time drama ministry, teaching sessions with their students, but also putting together professional level productions, and taking them to schools and churches around the country.
It's a place we visited in October, and I didn't really feel very inspired by them then, as it seemed to be training all just by lectures, but speaking with the guys today, they said they are slowing trying to revise the system there and make it more interactive, not so lecture oriented, and really want to make the arts a priority. That could be interesting to do in a few years time, after the ship, maybe. I have their contact information, and will be praying about it. We shall see.
The group from Germany had a whole load of juggling equipment and stuff lying around too at this time, everyone was milling around, looking at different places like a market. Many people were playing with the juggling stuff, so I picked up a set of balls, and did a bit of practice, and then the German rep asked if I could be bribed not to go to the ship, and if they gave me lots of German chocolate, would I stay in Germany! Rather cool....
This evening we had a long session looking at the history of the organisation, seeing how it all began, and had phone-calls with some of the longest working people. Amazing.
God has used and is using so many people to do so many things, it is kind of mind-blowing.
Anyway, it is a very busy schedule, so I do not know if I will get time to post much during the conference. The first session starts at 8:45am, and the day ends at about 9:30pm. Although there are breaks, there is not enough time to get back to the hostel and back.
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Arrived safely, at last. The flight was uneventful, which is good. Only problem was that they were playing Christmas songs throughout the whole flight. And they only had about 15 minutes worth of recorded songs, so they repeated, and repeated, and repeated...
Frankfurt airport is huge. Kind of confusing too, you have to go miles to find things, like baggage collection. And You see a big sign for it, follow along for a while, and suddenly all the signs are gone, you ask someone, and in fact you are on the right path, but there are just no signs. Everyone spoke good English though.
I found the Fernbahnhof (long distance train station), got my ticket and all. At the actual platform, there was another train sitting there, which had loads of officials wandering about it, and firemen, and so forth. So we stood around, 70 or so people who wanted the train, and I, for about half an hour or more waiting. Eventually, there was some kind of announcement, and we all got told to go to the next platform (up an escalator, along, and down), and get on a different train. My bag is so heavy! I may try and lighten it for the flight to the ship, by wearing heavier clothing and all.
This train got us there, and when we got to Manheim, where I had to change trains, I followed my ticket instructions, and went to the right platform no, and waited. The train turned up, a bit later than it said on the Ticket, but I thought "OK, so everything is delayed today". I got on, and off we went.
About half an hour later, or perhaps more, I started thinking that the station names looked wrong. So I tried to find a map. I found one, on a wall, and examined it. Indeed, we had been going in the right direction, but were now on the way to Worms! So I got off at the next station, found another map, found which train I needed, and headed back to some place which was on the right route. Then I changed trains again, and was now avidly checking the map and the "Näschte Station" sign things.
After a while I heard some people talking in English. Then I heard them mention a conference, and when I was sure they were also coming for this, I went and said hi. One of them is just here for the conference to help cook, and the other is going on to another part of the world. We all got off the train at the right station, and it was a good thing I went and said hi, as neither of them had a map of how to get from the station! So we headed off together, found the right place, and checked in. It turns out we were all staying in the Youth Hostel, which is about 5 minutes drive from the base. We met a few other people who had already arrived, and had dinner.
The rooms at the youth hostel are really good. There are four beds to a room (two bunk-beds), and so far there are only two of us in here. More may turn up later, I guess.
I went and explored the base today as well. It is also very beautiful. The whole of this town is really lovely, with a river, many paths to walk, lots of countryside, and trees. There is a little snow on the ground in places, but it is not everywhere. Apparently it is going to snow this week. That would be really cool. Literally. And I haven't actually seen any snow in so long.
I've met quite a few more people so far, but most people have not arrived yet. I haven't met anyone who is going to join the ships, actually. Hopefully I will soon. The conference all looks like it will be good. There is Wireless internet access in the whole base, which costs €5 euros (for the whole conference). There is also a "internet café", which costs €1 euro per 15 mins. Apparently they introduced this because before many people were blocking the actual computers for too long.
This afternoon I will do some clarinet practice, work a bit more on my German fluency (ha!), and then go back to the base to send email. I'll probably then come back here to leave my laptop, and then go back to the base (again) for the meal and start of the conference.
It is quite cold, outside. Enough that I am glad of my hat, coat, and gloves. The hat is really good.
Frankfurt airport is huge. Kind of confusing too, you have to go miles to find things, like baggage collection. And You see a big sign for it, follow along for a while, and suddenly all the signs are gone, you ask someone, and in fact you are on the right path, but there are just no signs. Everyone spoke good English though.
I found the Fernbahnhof (long distance train station), got my ticket and all. At the actual platform, there was another train sitting there, which had loads of officials wandering about it, and firemen, and so forth. So we stood around, 70 or so people who wanted the train, and I, for about half an hour or more waiting. Eventually, there was some kind of announcement, and we all got told to go to the next platform (up an escalator, along, and down), and get on a different train. My bag is so heavy! I may try and lighten it for the flight to the ship, by wearing heavier clothing and all.
This train got us there, and when we got to Manheim, where I had to change trains, I followed my ticket instructions, and went to the right platform no, and waited. The train turned up, a bit later than it said on the Ticket, but I thought "OK, so everything is delayed today". I got on, and off we went.
About half an hour later, or perhaps more, I started thinking that the station names looked wrong. So I tried to find a map. I found one, on a wall, and examined it. Indeed, we had been going in the right direction, but were now on the way to Worms! So I got off at the next station, found another map, found which train I needed, and headed back to some place which was on the right route. Then I changed trains again, and was now avidly checking the map and the "Näschte Station" sign things.
After a while I heard some people talking in English. Then I heard them mention a conference, and when I was sure they were also coming for this, I went and said hi. One of them is just here for the conference to help cook, and the other is going on to another part of the world. We all got off the train at the right station, and it was a good thing I went and said hi, as neither of them had a map of how to get from the station! So we headed off together, found the right place, and checked in. It turns out we were all staying in the Youth Hostel, which is about 5 minutes drive from the base. We met a few other people who had already arrived, and had dinner.
The rooms at the youth hostel are really good. There are four beds to a room (two bunk-beds), and so far there are only two of us in here. More may turn up later, I guess.
I went and explored the base today as well. It is also very beautiful. The whole of this town is really lovely, with a river, many paths to walk, lots of countryside, and trees. There is a little snow on the ground in places, but it is not everywhere. Apparently it is going to snow this week. That would be really cool. Literally. And I haven't actually seen any snow in so long.
I've met quite a few more people so far, but most people have not arrived yet. I haven't met anyone who is going to join the ships, actually. Hopefully I will soon. The conference all looks like it will be good. There is Wireless internet access in the whole base, which costs €5 euros (for the whole conference). There is also a "internet café", which costs €1 euro per 15 mins. Apparently they introduced this because before many people were blocking the actual computers for too long.
This afternoon I will do some clarinet practice, work a bit more on my German fluency (ha!), and then go back to the base to send email. I'll probably then come back here to leave my laptop, and then go back to the base (again) for the meal and start of the conference.
It is quite cold, outside. Enough that I am glad of my hat, coat, and gloves. The hat is really good.
Monday, January 09, 2006
Sunday, January 08, 2006
In 12 hours, I shall, God willing, be on the flight from Cyprus. Scary.
It kind of feels unreal, and weird. Last summer, it all happened so suddenly, and it felt much smaller. This time, many people will have left the country by the time I get back in 2 years, so I am saying goodbye for perhaps the last time, or at least the last time in years and years.
My cat is sitting on my lap as I type this. She knows I am going away. Has been very disturbed all week, with me packing and all. Doesn't know what to do. I hope she is OK.
My digestive system is all messed up, I feel all squirmy inside my stomach area, and just generally feel weird. Exactly how I feel before the premiere of a new show.
Ach well. Today was a good day. Said my farewell in the Sunday church gathering. God prayed for (whoo!!), and said goodbye to so many people. Had so many people shake my hand and say how happy they were to see me go. So many people hug me and say they would miss me.
Met up yesterday with another friend who juggles, we hadn't met up for months, and did some juggling and diabolo on the beach. Then went for coffee and beer on the seafront. He will be in the Cyprus army (they still have conscription here) while I am on the ship, and will be coming out a few months after I come back, so we can meet up again then.
So many things. I dunno.
I need to go get some sleep.
Please pray that the airport people are not too strict about luggage weight. And that I get there correctly and safely.
It kind of feels unreal, and weird. Last summer, it all happened so suddenly, and it felt much smaller. This time, many people will have left the country by the time I get back in 2 years, so I am saying goodbye for perhaps the last time, or at least the last time in years and years.
My cat is sitting on my lap as I type this. She knows I am going away. Has been very disturbed all week, with me packing and all. Doesn't know what to do. I hope she is OK.
My digestive system is all messed up, I feel all squirmy inside my stomach area, and just generally feel weird. Exactly how I feel before the premiere of a new show.
Ach well. Today was a good day. Said my farewell in the Sunday church gathering. God prayed for (whoo!!), and said goodbye to so many people. Had so many people shake my hand and say how happy they were to see me go. So many people hug me and say they would miss me.
Met up yesterday with another friend who juggles, we hadn't met up for months, and did some juggling and diabolo on the beach. Then went for coffee and beer on the seafront. He will be in the Cyprus army (they still have conscription here) while I am on the ship, and will be coming out a few months after I come back, so we can meet up again then.
So many things. I dunno.
I need to go get some sleep.
Please pray that the airport people are not too strict about luggage weight. And that I get there correctly and safely.
Thursday, January 05, 2006
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
I changed the background slightly, made it a bit lighter, mum said it was too distracting while reading long posts.
I forgot to mention I'm learning to cook now. Yesterday or so did spagetti, which I love, and which is hardly ever served on the Doulos. And tonight made a lemon merengue pie with mum. I love those too. And again, didn't see many of them while on the ship this summer either. So for all you people thinking about following my bold example and setting sail, learn to cook whatever really lovely foods you want, so that occasionally you can cook them in one of the mini-galleys on board. And because I gave you this hint, you can share it with me. Remember I'm vegetarian, though.
PS - I'll post a picture of the merengue tomorrow or something.
I forgot to mention I'm learning to cook now. Yesterday or so did spagetti, which I love, and which is hardly ever served on the Doulos. And tonight made a lemon merengue pie with mum. I love those too. And again, didn't see many of them while on the ship this summer either. So for all you people thinking about following my bold example and setting sail, learn to cook whatever really lovely foods you want, so that occasionally you can cook them in one of the mini-galleys on board. And because I gave you this hint, you can share it with me. Remember I'm vegetarian, though.
PS - I'll post a picture of the merengue tomorrow or something.
Today I had the last of the vaccinations I am having here in Cyprus. I really don't like vaccinations. I also found out that I am blood group O+, apparently. Kind of strange, as we all thought I would be A+. Some friends of ours introduced us to the "Eat Right 4 Your Type" bloodtype/diet theory a few years ago, and our family seemed to fit it. My dad (O+) prefers meats, and seems to do well on them, and my mum (A+) prefers veg, and white meats, and seems to do well on them. My brother and I, we didn't know our bloodtypes, but as he is a meat person, and I am a vegitarian, we guessed perhaps he was O+ and me A+. Anyway. All rather confusing.
I also went and got my eyes tested, and my old glasses fixed. One of the "arms" had fallen off, and although Dad had glued it back, the spring was gone, and they kept falling off my face. Also one of the rubber feet things for the nose had fallen off. But they are fixed now. The optician will have a new pair of glasses ready for me this evening, as well as a new hard case for my old glasses, and a spare hard case. To join the ship, I need to take 2 pairs of glasses, according to one of the random pieces of documentation they gave me.
That's about all the news at the moment...
Dan
I also went and got my eyes tested, and my old glasses fixed. One of the "arms" had fallen off, and although Dad had glued it back, the spring was gone, and they kept falling off my face. Also one of the rubber feet things for the nose had fallen off. But they are fixed now. The optician will have a new pair of glasses ready for me this evening, as well as a new hard case for my old glasses, and a spare hard case. To join the ship, I need to take 2 pairs of glasses, according to one of the random pieces of documentation they gave me.
That's about all the news at the moment...
Dan
Saturday, December 31, 2005
Well, less than 2 weeks to go. Scary, wot?
I've done quite a bit of sorting on my room, now it's a total mess again, as it was a week ago that I sorted it. Trying to spend as much time as I can with family, and all.
Here is a picture of my bag "proto-packed", with all the clothes in that I think I will need to take, as you can see, there is still some space, so I will fill up the rest with sheet music.
God is providing everything amazingly. I have not got all the financial support I need yet, but He is quite good at surprising me with things. Yesterday when I went to get my ticket, He got me a ticket for about 50 CYP less than I had originally reserved it for. Cool, eh?
Anyway. People keep telling me I should post more often, so I won't post any more now, and perhaps I'll remember tomorrow.
I've done quite a bit of sorting on my room, now it's a total mess again, as it was a week ago that I sorted it. Trying to spend as much time as I can with family, and all.
Here is a picture of my bag "proto-packed", with all the clothes in that I think I will need to take, as you can see, there is still some space, so I will fill up the rest with sheet music.
God is providing everything amazingly. I have not got all the financial support I need yet, but He is quite good at surprising me with things. Yesterday when I went to get my ticket, He got me a ticket for about 50 CYP less than I had originally reserved it for. Cool, eh?
Anyway. People keep telling me I should post more often, so I won't post any more now, and perhaps I'll remember tomorrow.
Saturday, December 10, 2005
Friday, December 09, 2005
Mum told me I had never posted any pics of my new clarinet, or some new ones I just got developed from the ship. So here they are (you can guess which is which):
I'm thinking of doing a bit of a redesign of the look of this blog... It's kind of boring, and I wont have a chance to do anything really to the look of it for the next 2 years so...
I'm thinking of doing a bit of a redesign of the look of this blog... It's kind of boring, and I wont have a chance to do anything really to the look of it for the next 2 years so...
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
OK.
So, now I'd better start getting this blog on the road again... "why?" you may ask, well... heres the news:
I'm goin' back! Yeehaw! and so on.
I went for my interview with OM UK, and have been accepted to go back to the Doulos in February, so, God willing, I'll be leaving Larnaka sort of middle of January for the conference and pre-ship training.
It's actually all quite complicated. Yesterday I went and reserved a air-ticket to the conference. I need support for 2 years on board, and am just this week discovering how complex that all is. Some people had already offered to support me, and I met up last week with a church elder and treasurer and parents to discuss it all. They were all very supportive and encouraging, and said they don't think there should be any problems raising it all. I was supposed to be getting up in church last Sunday to tell everyone about what I'm going to be doing, and how much I need and all. But... I was struck down by some kind of virus or something, and instead spent most of Sunday throwing up. I couldn't even take a sip of boiled water during the morning. I'd have much rather got up in church and asked for support! I'm still not totally back to normal, but working at it. I guess God is telling me to rely on Him, not on my amazing oratary skills, or something. heh.
As well as the Doulos costs, I also have to raise money for their medical/travel/etc insurance, which equals more than another 2 months normal Doulos money. Also envolved are travel costs to and from the conference, and the cost of the conference itself.
I wanted to get my clarinet insured too. This is all quite complicated, as I need insurance worldwide, traveling, etc. I looked at various possibilities, like joining the British Musicians Union, as you can get good insurance with various agencies in the UK through them, with a discount. But... The agencies in the UK all require permanent residence in the UK, which I and my family do not have, as we live in Cyprus.
I misread the policy of the normal Doulos company, and thought they said in order to get "business items" cover (ie, expensive clarinets), it was another 500+ pounds a year, which utterly shocked me, as for that price I could almost buy a new clarinet intirely after 2 years of that... but happily, I was wrong, and I'm now emailing them getting my poor ol' brain to actually understand it all. It's well complicated!
As well as all this, there are more vaccination type thingys. I need to be vaccinated against Hepatitis B, according to the docs. Which is the troublesome one from before. There is, apparently, a super-accelerated one which takes 21 days. (1 jab, another after a week, and another after another 2 weeks). Anyway, I phoned my friendly doctor here in Larnaka, and she told me that they don't have this type in Cyprus, only the 3 months variety. OK... So I told the UK office this, and they said they would check if I could have the vaccinations on the ship.
Then...
Yesterday evening my friend at the theatre company told me his sister had telephoned him (His sister is the friendly doctor), and that she had found that this Hep.B vaccine IS available in Cyprus after all. I love how Cyprus works!
So I will phone her today, and ask how much it costs, as it may be cheaper on the ship anyway, and I need to check about her schedule too, as Christmas is coming up, so I may not be able to get it within the time before I go.
It's really complex! there is just so much stuff to do!
Our landlady wants the house we are renting back soo, so my family are probably going to be moving house sometime during the 2 years that I am away, which means I have to pack up all my stuff here really really well, so that it can be taken to the new house well. Besides that, other people will probably stay in my room sometimes.
Stuff. There is too much of it!
We cleared out our house in the UK, as my parents are FINALLY selling it, and we had (we thought) a few boxes left in a cupboard there to bring back here. Anyway, it turned out we had about 7 cubic metres of stuff, so we packed that all up, shipped it here, and now our house here is even fuller than before.
So I'm starting to clean my room out at last. I had about 2 cubic metres of old cardboard and kitchen roll-inner tubes, empty plastic milk bottles, empty tissue boxes, and so on, on top of my wardrobe, which I was going to use for crafts and construction, which all have been there for about 5 years now. I actually have used bits of them occasionally. Like I built a lens-camera a few years back using a bunch of old washing-powder boxes and a magnifying glass and some string, it's so hard for me to throw anything away... So I got rid of 2 black binliners of stuff yesterday, and have another 3 to sort out today. I wish Larnaka had paper recycling.
I've also been doing video editing and poster design for the theatre group, as well as occasional performances. We have a rehearsal tomorrow for the Christmas Special production of "The Little Man's Best Friend". It should be fun. I hope.
(WARNING! CLARINET GEEKY PARAGRAPH!!!):
I'm trying out some new reeds, my new teacher says that I was playing on too hard reeds, and so I've been trying out some Vandoren 2.5 and (V12) 3s. She also got me some Vandoren 56-series 2.5 reeds, which is what she uses. I've had them 2 days, and they are driving me mad! I can't get my top octive in tune! I'm practically biting through my lip, and yet they top G is about 20 cents flat! And then the reed stops responding, and gets squeesed shut totally. It's crazy. Also the tone is so edgy and has no depth to it. The Vandoren trad. 2.5 is much better, and I think if 2.7 would be even better, if such a thing existed. Anyway. these 56-series 2.5s are so hard to sound nice on. Mind you, I can flinger/lip glissando from clarion D up to C on them with barely any effort at all. That's kind of cool... Normally I can only manage from G, and then its very hard. I dunno. I kind of wish I had tried a bit harder to play on those Lomax and Walter Grabner mouthpeices in the UK. Oh well.
Anyway. That's all the news I can think of at the moment.
I think I need to go finish off the last of my science and church history. I need to be finished by Christmas. There is so little left!
*sigh* Perhaps I'll just go get some herbal tea.
Dan
So, now I'd better start getting this blog on the road again... "why?" you may ask, well... heres the news:
I'm goin' back! Yeehaw! and so on.
I went for my interview with OM UK, and have been accepted to go back to the Doulos in February, so, God willing, I'll be leaving Larnaka sort of middle of January for the conference and pre-ship training.
It's actually all quite complicated. Yesterday I went and reserved a air-ticket to the conference. I need support for 2 years on board, and am just this week discovering how complex that all is. Some people had already offered to support me, and I met up last week with a church elder and treasurer and parents to discuss it all. They were all very supportive and encouraging, and said they don't think there should be any problems raising it all. I was supposed to be getting up in church last Sunday to tell everyone about what I'm going to be doing, and how much I need and all. But... I was struck down by some kind of virus or something, and instead spent most of Sunday throwing up. I couldn't even take a sip of boiled water during the morning. I'd have much rather got up in church and asked for support! I'm still not totally back to normal, but working at it. I guess God is telling me to rely on Him, not on my amazing oratary skills, or something. heh.
As well as the Doulos costs, I also have to raise money for their medical/travel/etc insurance, which equals more than another 2 months normal Doulos money. Also envolved are travel costs to and from the conference, and the cost of the conference itself.
I wanted to get my clarinet insured too. This is all quite complicated, as I need insurance worldwide, traveling, etc. I looked at various possibilities, like joining the British Musicians Union, as you can get good insurance with various agencies in the UK through them, with a discount. But... The agencies in the UK all require permanent residence in the UK, which I and my family do not have, as we live in Cyprus.
I misread the policy of the normal Doulos company, and thought they said in order to get "business items" cover (ie, expensive clarinets), it was another 500+ pounds a year, which utterly shocked me, as for that price I could almost buy a new clarinet intirely after 2 years of that... but happily, I was wrong, and I'm now emailing them getting my poor ol' brain to actually understand it all. It's well complicated!
As well as all this, there are more vaccination type thingys. I need to be vaccinated against Hepatitis B, according to the docs. Which is the troublesome one from before. There is, apparently, a super-accelerated one which takes 21 days. (1 jab, another after a week, and another after another 2 weeks). Anyway, I phoned my friendly doctor here in Larnaka, and she told me that they don't have this type in Cyprus, only the 3 months variety. OK... So I told the UK office this, and they said they would check if I could have the vaccinations on the ship.
Then...
Yesterday evening my friend at the theatre company told me his sister had telephoned him (His sister is the friendly doctor), and that she had found that this Hep.B vaccine IS available in Cyprus after all. I love how Cyprus works!
So I will phone her today, and ask how much it costs, as it may be cheaper on the ship anyway, and I need to check about her schedule too, as Christmas is coming up, so I may not be able to get it within the time before I go.
It's really complex! there is just so much stuff to do!
Our landlady wants the house we are renting back soo, so my family are probably going to be moving house sometime during the 2 years that I am away, which means I have to pack up all my stuff here really really well, so that it can be taken to the new house well. Besides that, other people will probably stay in my room sometimes.
Stuff. There is too much of it!
We cleared out our house in the UK, as my parents are FINALLY selling it, and we had (we thought) a few boxes left in a cupboard there to bring back here. Anyway, it turned out we had about 7 cubic metres of stuff, so we packed that all up, shipped it here, and now our house here is even fuller than before.
So I'm starting to clean my room out at last. I had about 2 cubic metres of old cardboard and kitchen roll-inner tubes, empty plastic milk bottles, empty tissue boxes, and so on, on top of my wardrobe, which I was going to use for crafts and construction, which all have been there for about 5 years now. I actually have used bits of them occasionally. Like I built a lens-camera a few years back using a bunch of old washing-powder boxes and a magnifying glass and some string, it's so hard for me to throw anything away... So I got rid of 2 black binliners of stuff yesterday, and have another 3 to sort out today. I wish Larnaka had paper recycling.
I've also been doing video editing and poster design for the theatre group, as well as occasional performances. We have a rehearsal tomorrow for the Christmas Special production of "The Little Man's Best Friend". It should be fun. I hope.
(WARNING! CLARINET GEEKY PARAGRAPH!!!):
I'm trying out some new reeds, my new teacher says that I was playing on too hard reeds, and so I've been trying out some Vandoren 2.5 and (V12) 3s. She also got me some Vandoren 56-series 2.5 reeds, which is what she uses. I've had them 2 days, and they are driving me mad! I can't get my top octive in tune! I'm practically biting through my lip, and yet they top G is about 20 cents flat! And then the reed stops responding, and gets squeesed shut totally. It's crazy. Also the tone is so edgy and has no depth to it. The Vandoren trad. 2.5 is much better, and I think if 2.7 would be even better, if such a thing existed. Anyway. these 56-series 2.5s are so hard to sound nice on. Mind you, I can flinger/lip glissando from clarion D up to C on them with barely any effort at all. That's kind of cool... Normally I can only manage from G, and then its very hard. I dunno. I kind of wish I had tried a bit harder to play on those Lomax and Walter Grabner mouthpeices in the UK. Oh well.
Anyway. That's all the news I can think of at the moment.
I think I need to go finish off the last of my science and church history. I need to be finished by Christmas. There is so little left!
*sigh* Perhaps I'll just go get some herbal tea.
Dan
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