Category: life

life

Haven’t updated in a while whoops!

christinahopgood
It’s going to be a busy month ahead for me!
I’m performing my first recital of my Honours year next Friday the 29th.  It was a bit of a rushed decision to put it so soon, but I realised that next month is going to be amazingly busy with rehearsals and performances for the Canberra International Music Festival and I’d better just get it out of the way.
So!  I’m playing Marimba Concerto no. 2 by Ney Rosauro.  He’s a cool dude!  I saw him play that piece in 2009 when he was visiting Sydney (he’s from Brazil) and all the Canberra kids trooped up to hang out.  He also was judging the Percussion Eisteddfod which I played in the next day.  He was really nice and interesting – just like his compositions!
I just had a rehearsal with my accompanist (and friend) Ella this morning.  I think it’s going to be okay.  But gosh I’m nervous!  And I seem to be getting a cold just in time for the Easter weekend!
Here’s a lovely blurry photo of me and Ney Rosauro at the Percussion Eisteddford in 2009.  See how long his arms are compared to mine?  They’re like twice as long as mine.  No wonder he puts so many big intervals in his piece.
I can’t believe I’ve had that skirt for so long.  I need to make a new one.
life, percussion, travel

Time to spill the beans…

christinahopgood
I am going to America!
(Just for a couple of weeks).
I have been accepted to the Bob Becker Ragtime Xylophone Institute which will be held in Delaware this August!  Ragtime xylophone music is something I’ve always had a lot of fun playing, and I’ve even decided to do a themed Ragtime recital this year.  Ragtime is old-timey jazz.  So, it’s fitting that I’d want to go to this workshop this year.  Bob Becker is The Guy for ragtime xylophone.  He’s a famous percussion dude!  I’m going to learn a lot from him.
Conveniently, there’s a simultaneous workshop on Jazz Vibraphone which Charles has been accepted to!  It’s being held at the same university and we can share a room!  This will be living the dream – we’ll both be going to do awesome separate things in a cool place with famous people!  Learning lots and playing music all day!  Then coming home and being together in the evening!
While I’m in America, I’m thinking of going to New York for a few days to see all the things!  I’d love to see Central Park where Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers roller skated.  I’d love to catch a They Might Be Giants show – but I don’t know how to do that.  And I’d love to go to Tokyo Rebel, since I’ll be there a lot sooner than I’ll be in Tokyo.  Fun times approach!
Here’s a video of a great percussionist Morris Palter and his group playing a rag called Jovial Jasper.

Here’s the video of my last Recital (third year).  I played a rag at the end BY BOB BECKER, so skip to 35:40
earrings, life

Interesting Earrings Story!

christinahopgood
So I was at work the other day at the music library, and a girl came up to the desk to borrow something.  I noticed first that she was wearing mismatched earrings that looked *kind of* the same but were obviously different.  I looked closely… and one of them I had definitely made, and sold at my church’s Arts and Crafts show!  It was pretty much the most exciting thing ever.  But I had to keep my composure. 
 I asked her where she got her earrings.  She said she couldn’t remember, but they were mismatched because she’d lost one of each pair and they’d gone reasonably well together.
Anyhow the truth came out and I told her I’d made one of them.  And then I offered to take it home and make her a new matching one.  So I did!
It was a really nice little run-in!
life

Home.

christinahopgood
I’ve been home for two days now, and I’m slowly putting my life back together.

Leaving Charles at Arlanda was the hardest thing I’ve ever done – harder than leaving him at Perth, because this time I was also dreading my giant flight.  It totally tore me apart and I’m still very sad.

The flights were much more tolerable this time round.  Flight no. 1 from Stockholm to Bangkok went through the night, but to everyone on the plane it felt like day.  They turned off all the lights and stopped serving meals to make us sleep, but those crazy Swedes drank all the alcohol on the plane and talked the whole way.  There was also a very naughty little girl in the seat behind me who kept playing with the tray table and kicking my seat and yelling.  GOSH.  Anyhow it didn’t matter much because nobody was tired.  Bangkok airport was much easier because my phone had reception this time around!  Such a feeling of reassurance when one’s phone works.

On the second flight I sat next to an Irish dude who was visiting Australia to see his girlfriend.  He drank 5 beers and then fell asleep.  I watched a cool movie called “Not You Again” or something.  Anyhow I just endured it for long enough to get into Sydney and meet my parents.  They kindly picked me up from Sydney and drove all the way home to Canberra.

I was kind of sick the next day… jetlagged and bilious.  That kind of flight is quite an ordeal to get over, for someone wimpy like me.  I’m both physically and emotionally drained.  I felt so lame I didn’t even try on my new dress until the evening.

I had fun making outfits with my new Victorian Maiden dress and my new Secret Shop shoes.  I ordered those shoes back in June, and they arrived the DAY AFTER I left for Sweden, in December.  Worst timing ever!  Photos of both these things to come, when I feel more energetic.  The dress fits me absolutely perfectly.  They only have one size, which is kind of unfairly exclusive.  There must be lots  of girls who would like to wear VM but don’t fit.  It would be nice if they could introduce a couple of sizes.

Today I amused myself by throwing out lots of old clothes.  It’s something I really enjoy doing – the chance to clear out all the junk and stuff I never wear, the mistakes, the worn out clothes I loved to bits.  A chance to make room for new, more awesome clothes.  I always try to throw out more than I bring in, because in the last few years my wardrobe has become kind of ridiculously bloated with unworn clothes and shoes.  I also like having a clear wardrobe so that I can see clearly what I actually have.  Lots of clothes get forgotten because they’re simply not seen.

While I was away my parents painted my brother’s old room and fixed the carpet so that now it actually looks nice!  It’s bigger than mine, so I’ve decided to change rooms.  A change is as good as a holiday, and even though I just had a holiday, I feel I need a change.  Going away and living independently for so long has made me realise I really need to sort my stuff out, and this is ONE step along my process.  It will probably make me realise that I have a lot of stuff that’s not wanted any more.

Once all my stuff is sorted and I’m no longer busy organising, I hope to get back into craft and stuff.  I have actually been knitting a jumper, but haven’t taken photos.  I’m worried it’ll turn out weird!

life, paris, travel

Recent adventures: Paris

christinahopgood

It’s been a while since I blogged!  Well, since I blogged here anyway.  I’ve been writing a travel blog with Charles about all our adventures.  Link here.  It’s also the blog we used for both of our Japan trips.

Paris



We did so much stuff in Paris!  All the things you’re supposed to do, we did.  Plus lots of other things while we were at it!  Mostly we visited museums: the Pompidou Centre, the Louvre, L’Orangerie, Palais du Tokyo, Arts et Metres, Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, Musee des Arts Decoratifs, and a Dali museum.  That’s a lot of museums!  Luckily we had a 3-day museum pass which let us get into lots of places for free!  


Lots of these museums are stupidly huge and contained vast amounts of stuff.  All the stuff is really cool, but it gets a bit tedious to go through the umpteenth hall of contemporary art that doesn’t make any sense.  We could easily have spent many more hours at these museums except we got bored of them.  An exception was l’Orangerie, which is only two small rooms, with four paintings in each, of Monet’s Waterlillies.  There are benches in the middle of the room so you can relax as you view them.  It’s really nice.


We also did lots of cool stuff that wasn’t museum-related.  Charles and I went to a morning service at Notre Dame on Christmas Day.  That sounds pretty good doesn’t it!  The choir and organ was great, but the rest of the service… well, it was long, and in French.  So it was a bit (boring).  Our Christmas lunch was at … McDonald’s!  It was the only place we could find that was open.  A bit sad.


We went to Baby, The Stars Shine Bright.  I almost bought a dress – the Vampire Forest A-line jumperskirt.  It was really pretty, but also… it had pictures of graves and scary stuff on the print, and I thought “I couldn’t wear this to church!” and then I thought “I couldn’t wear this anywhere!  It’s not really my style!” and then I shook of the Baby-induced crazy and left the shop.  It was fun to visit though!


We also went to a loli-fairy-kei shop called Boddywood, which sold a lot of Milk dresses (which were gorgeous) and Vivienne Westwood stuff (which was gorgeous and expensive) and some 6% Doki Doki stuff (which was super cute).  Angelic Pretty was in the apartment above the shop, and the shop girl from Boddywood had to come with us to visit.  So there we were, me, Lisa, Charles, and this shop girl in a TINY PINK ROOM with HUGE DRESSES.  There was no music.  There was no speaking.  It was the most awkward thing in the universe.


Food in Paris was really good, and reasonably priced.  The most delicious and cheapest way to eat (in my opinion) is to buy a delicious baguette, some camembert cheese, some prosciutto, and some sundried tomatoes and make sandwiches.  They’re like normal ham, cheese and tomato sandwiches, except each ingredient has levelled up to make the sandwich super awesome.  Charles and I did this for dinner many times.  But the best thing was breakfast: go into any bakery and order anything and it will be delicious.  We found a place that does toasted ham and cheese croissants, oh my gosh, they sound so NORMAL when I write it like that.  It was ridiculous.


Shopping in Paris wasn’t quite as fun as I expected.  The department stores like and Printemps and LaFayette were just really expensive designer brands – a whole floor consisting of ONLY haute couture by big brands – Louis Vuitton, Dior, Prada, Gucci, etc.  It’s fun to browse, but then you see someone with eight Dior packages and just KNOW that that person just spent more money than you’d earn in years.  I suppose because they have so many designer shops, Paris is renowned for its fashion.  I didn’t notice much crazy or special fashion on the streets, but I guess it’s hard to be fashionable when you have to wear one billion layers and a huge coat.


However, Paris (and many countries in Europe) have some cool Japanese shops that we love: Muji, and UniQlo.  Muji sells homewares and clothes, and UniQlo sells pretty basic clothes.  They’re relatively cheap compared to other French shopping.  I bought some good things from those shops, which I’ll blog about later.  We found these shops by accident walking around the streets.  The best way to explore Paris is by going to a cool-looking place on the metro and just exploring by foot.  Go down side-streets that look interesting!


Weather: super cold oh my gosh.  It’s a different cold from Sweden, because it’s wet in France.  It gets into your bones.  If you’re going in Winter, take waterproof boots and lots of thermals.  When the sun goes down, it gets way colder too, so always take an extra jumper.  I acquired myself a cold in Paris somehow, probably because I was too cold too often.  Be warned!


Crime: Apparently there’s lots of theft in Paris!  We witnessed something of the sort in McDonald’s on Christmas Day, some youths causing trouble and running away with stuff.  Lisa told me lots of horror stories about her friends getting stuff stolen, and apparently she saw some boys on the train going through a woman’s purse that they’d just stolen!  So if you go there, be careful, use a bag you can put over your shoulder and zip up, not a backpack that you can’t see.  Small bags are easier to snatch and are more likely to contain a higher density of valuables, so I’d recommend a bigger tote.  That way you can take an extra jumper too.


There are many homeless people on the streets in Paris.  They usually beg.  This upsets me a lot.  Often they have a dog that’s just lying there, looking like it’s been fed whiskey to make it look more pathetic.  Apparently there’s quite a good social support system in France, so I don’t know why there’s so much poverty.  It was sad.


We took the metro everywhere in Paris.  It’s really convenient and quick, and you get to know the stations well.  Some stations are smelly though.  Actually lots of Paris is smelly.  Lots of dog poop.


So Paris: Pretty good, you guys!  I highly recommend it.