Friday, June 20, 2008

Wellington, NZ

The little things that make me happy on the road.

Nothing makes one appreciate the act of doing laundry as much as living out of a suitcase for five weeks. I did my laundry today at the hotel in Wellington, and doing laundry has NEVER made me this happy. Obviously I had washed small things in my hotel rooms throughout the tour, but this hotel has washing machines and dryers, and it made me so happy to do my laundry! A real joy!!!

Another comforting thing to me was my stay in the hotel in Auckland. The rooms are set up like small apartments, with a mini-kitchen, a dining table, a living room area and the bedroom is separate. I very much liked keeping the “Do Not Disturb” sign on my door for the full three days. That way, whenever I came back to my room, everything was exactly the way I had left it, and it was like being in my own apartment. Not having new, perfectly folded towels every day was nice, but I think what really made it feel like a home away from home was coming back every night to see a clumsily made bed instead of a bed that had been made to perfection by housekeeping.

Today was a very tiring day for some reason. Perhaps playing the Prokofiev 1st Concerto with the APO last night, getting only six hours of sleep, and then having the following schedule had something to do with why I’m so exhausted right now…

7:30am - Wake up
8:30am - Meet Michael and Christine Hill for breakfast
10:10am - Hotel pick up to go to the Friends of the APO luncheon/interview
10:30am - Friends of the APO luncheon/interview
11:15am - Drive to the airport
12:30pm - Flight Auckland-Wellington
1:30pm - Pick up at Wellington Airport to hotel, then to NZ School of Music
3pm - Rehearsal with Diedre
6:15pm - Drive back to hotel
7pm - Start laundry
7:45pm - Move clothes to dryer
8pm - Dinner
9:30pm - Pick up clean, dry clothes from laundry room
10:30pm - Lights out

-Bella