about leaving and skiing...

March 12, 2007 at 3:53 PM

I am leaving Austria, just as I wanted. And I'm moving to an awesome city where I got a cool job (i'll work as cooling and ventilation engineer, so it's a cool job) in a great company.

The cello teacher in the music school has a sister who plays as concert master in the local orchestra in Birr, exactly the village where the company is located, isn't this luck? I hope I'll get the chance to play with them. Anyway I'll keep rehearsing with my current orchestra even though I won't be here for the concerts. I'm sad about that. I'll miss them, specially the conductor. He always tells me about how grateful they all are about the web-page I did for the orchestra (http://www.villacher-kammerorchester.at), and I find it's such a plain, artless, simple job...

Skiing is fun but yesterday I was on the lift and I couldn't stop thinking about getting home and taking the violin for a 2 hour practice. For the first time in my life I had an accident with an old austrian man, he got quite mad but it was nothing serious. When I arrived home I was so exhausted that I couldn't practice more than 45 minutes. After taking a shower, having dinner and the short practice I went to bed, and it was just 20:00. Here are some pictures, so you can enjoy a bit of alpine beauty:

Here you have the whole collection, and you can see them bigger if you want:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/15319868@N00/

Fortunately I won't miss the Alps, since they have plenty of them in Switzerland too. I've been thinking about Parmeeta's comment to my last entry. The Pyrenees are not far from Bilbao, isn't there a place to ski somewhere close to where you are?

Now that I'm leaving there's a lot of work for me in the company. Usually it's only after 18 or 18:30 that I can drive to the music school for practice. I prefer doing it there because my neighbours have babies and complain. Last thursday the concierge forgot me and left closing every door. I was locked inside and there was nobody in the building... it wasn't so late, just 19:45!!
Here is a picture of the inner courtyard.
http://www.villach.at/bilder/inhalt/AltstadtMusikschule.jpg
I didn't want to bother my teacher, who leaves in Klagenfurt, 40 min. away, so I left the window open and used the roof drain to get to the inner garden (from the first floor!). After that, there was only a low fence. I was only afraid of falling because I had my violin on my back, but everything went fine.

Now it's back to work. Nice evening in Europe, good morning to all the rest, I guess... I'd love to share with you the Largo from Bach's C-major sonata that I'm listening now, but maybe Deutsche Grammophon would complain, and I'm not able to play it like N. Milstein yet. :(

From Karin Lin
Posted on March 12, 2007 at 5:45 PM

If you want to stop being called "hot violin dude", maybe you should stop posting pictures that confirm the appellation. :D

From Elizabeth Smith
Posted on March 13, 2007 at 2:39 AM

Lol, Karin.

From parmeeta bhogal
Posted on March 13, 2007 at 12:12 PM

Jesus,
There are a couple of stations in the Cantabrian range; in the decent one (Alto Campoo), with a capacity for 11000 or so visitors, you might not have access after 8:00 am cos carpark's full after a 2 hour and a bit drive!!
We do go to the Pyrenees- I like Gavarnie very much, but thats 4 hours away; I just have the impression that you have more stations to choose from and they are nearer at hand.
The Big Problem this year has been an unusually warm winter with very little snow. In fact, it has snowed more in the Picos de Europa than the Pyrenees.

From Terez Mertes
Posted on March 14, 2007 at 3:51 AM

OMG, what gorgeous scenery!

((And the mountains are nice, too!))

Karin, I think we're on the same dirty little married women wavelength now, aren't we? : )

From Pauline Lerner
Posted on March 14, 2007 at 5:31 AM

The Alps are gorgeous! How can you even think about your violin there?

From Jesus Contreras Espada
Posted on March 14, 2007 at 8:45 AM

Thanks for your comments. There are a lot of ski resorts close to where I live:
http://www.bergfex.at/kaernten/
I'm just 15 min. south from Gerlitzen, the big square just in the middle. The farthest point is maybe 1.5 hours away with the car.

I love the mountains here and I also like skiing very much, but getting there one week after the other since January makes it tiresome, the knees start to ache, the interest decreases and you wish you could sit warm and confortably in your room, with the violin under your chin enjoying some scales, etudes or beautiful pieces.
I would rather live without alps than without violin, pretty sure of that, but I'm happy to have both ;)

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about leaving and skiing...

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