Here Comes Treble: Irresistible Invitations
Isabel Bradley and her husband Leon prepare for a long and exciting holiday on two contients - a holiday which will include special family events, meeting old friends, seeing new sights and making music.
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Preparing for a long holiday can be extremely stressful. It’s difficult to book flights, hire cars, plan visits and arrange visas in one sitting; life insists on interfering.
An invitation had arrived to our good friend Roger’s sixtieth birthday party; a fancy-dress – nineteen-sixties! This would be fun; these good friends live in Brighton on the south coast of England, we live in South Africa – lots to arrange.
With our busy daily schedule, all thoughts of a holiday were temporarily shelved.
Several weeks had passed when another invitation arrived: Michael and Andrea invited us to Joanna’s and Matthew’s wedding at Woburn Abbey, to be held just a week after Roger’s birthday party. Joanna is our son-in-law’s sister; we just had to go.
Acceptances were sent to Roger and his lovely wife Nina, also to Michael and Andrea. We arranged to stay with Roger and Nina before and after the party; then spend time with Leon’s daughter and son-in-law, Viv and Rich – and to gloat over our granddaughter, Mia.
We decided to fly to England three days before the party; then, after the wedding, fly to the United States. We arranged to collect my sister-in-law, Glo, near Orlando, drive up the east coast to Canada and visit my cousin, Liz, as well as our special musical friends, Roland and Marion.
After brief communication, we received an invitation to spend a week with Liz, James and their children north of Toronto; we’d visited them some years before and were looking forward to exploring Ontario further.
An invitation arrived from Roland and Marion, to stay with them in Toronto, play in several chamber music sessions and, great excitement, to take part in a sight reading play-through of Beethoven’s Ninth symphony.
In a recent edition of ‘Ledger Lines’, the quarterly newsletter of the Amateur Chamber Music Players, a lady in Surrey had commented in a letter to the editor that ACMP members don’t seem to contact British members as much as happens in the USA. Leon urged me to contact this lady with suggestions of resolving this unacceptable situation. After some friendly e-mails, we received an invitation to play chamber music at her home in Ashtead while we were in England.
Deciding on costumes for the Sixties birthday party was difficult. Eventually, following a suggestion from a friend, Leon decided he would like to honour our ex-President, Nelson Mandela, by wearing a simulated prison uniform with the great man’s prison number embroidered on it: 64-446. 1964 was the year of his incarceration, followed by his sequential number. I panicked for weeks about my outfit, but eventually settled on a gaudy red and white number: it was easy to put together and to pack. Then there was shopping to be done for wigs and other accessories. I was delighted to find a truly ghastly pair of red and white polka-dot shoes to match my blouse. Our friend, Ivy, embroidered the relevant details onto a khaki jacket for Leon.
Life – and Death – intervened again. In mid-July my uncle died, to be followed a few days later by our good friend, Clive. The memorial services could not be termed invitations but were important events to celebrate the lives and mourn the passing of two people I had loved.
We would be away from home for six deadlines of ‘Here Comes Treble’; every spare moment was used to prepare enough pieces to keep the on-line magazine supplied with columns while I was away. The last of these was sent to Peter, the editor of www.openwriting.com, a week before our departure.
A month before we left, Olga, a Russian pianist, and I performed at the University of Johannesburg’s Sundowner Concert, to which we had been invited some months previously. We were thrilled that the discerning audience enjoyed the recital as much as we did.
With a week’s notice, Olga and I were invited to give a recital at Sandton’s ‘Theatre on the Square’ lunch-hour concert, just before we were to fly to England. This necessitated several unscheduled rehearsals with Olga. Again, all went well, we and our audience thoroughly enjoyed the hour’s performance.
Leon and I eventually packed our small suitcases on the morning of departure, cramming in our sixties costumes and shoes, our elegant suits for the Woburn wedding, and jeans, t-shirts and warmer clothing for nearly six weeks of autumn weather in the northern hemisphere. Travel regulations concerning liquids, gels and one piece of hand-luggage were strictly adhered to. Hours later, we were surprised to see that many people were allowed on the ‘plane with two or three pieces of hand luggage.
Bergen arrived to fetch us and we enjoyed his company as he drove us to the airport. Once we’d gone through passport control, we sat down, heaving sighs of relief.
With all the events and invitations of the last few months, we were more than ready for our holiday. But that is another story.
Until next week, ‘here comes Treble’.
By Isabel Bradley © copyright reserved
