Skiing and the Base Sax

My apologies to all my faithful followers. At the end of the last blog entry I said there would be another one soon. It was meant to be about my first ski trip to Lake Mountain, back on June 13th. But as we all know life goes by so fast and It's been a just over a month since I logged on to blogspot.

The ski trip was good. Nothing like skiing in around Mt. Hood. There was only about 14" of snow to begin with and the forest was gum trees not evergreens. It was over run with families sledding and tourist that had never seen snow. $35 to get into the national park and $12 to get a ski pass. Much more than the $5 Corina, Ed and I are used to paying. I skied about 8km (5 miles) and only fell twice. Considering it had been over year since I was on skis I didn't think that was too bad. After this weekend the snow melted and the places with snow are more than a 4 hours drive from the city. I do have another trip planned with my work mates at URS for August 22nd and will try to be better about making a posting. So for now enjoy the photos and I'm not going to go into my usual lengthy dissertation about every detail of the trip. (some of you are saying THANK GOD! I know)

The real reason I finally got on line and did a blog update (besides the guilt hanging over my head) was I went to buy a new mouth piece for my saxophone, today. My skill level has improved and it was time to invest in this critical hard resin item that is so crucial to being able to make full, well rounded notes on my instrument. Several weeks ago I stopped by Melbourne Brass and Woodwind to test the pieces out and try to decide which would be best for me. Eric Budd, the Sax Salesman was very helpful. Along with some guidance from my instructor, Andrew Brooks, and my band mates I settled on a Selma C-star for $190 and a new ligature, another $50. Upon entering the store today I noticed they had a big Base sax in the window. Being the inquisitive person that I am (ok more like nosey) I checked the price. There was a big ? on the tag. Eric explained that particular sax was owned by a collector and if someone made him and offer he would consider it. You know I had to ask what kind of offer would be acceptable and Eric replied Around $45,000 AU! Translated into US dollars at a fair rate of 80 cents is $36,000! That made me let go of the tag in a hurry! Eric did mention they had one in the back sax room for a mere $11,000 AU (US $8,800). We went to the back of the store and I tried out 3 mouth pieces and a couple type of ligatures (they hold the reed on the instrument) Once I had made my choice we chatted for a few minutes and I asked Eric if I could play the cheaper Base sax. Since these things cost as much as cars a test drive is not out of the question. He grab a synthetic reed and mouth piece and move it up to a chair for me. I was hesitant to move it myself and it's too big to actually big up. All I can say was it was AWESOME beyond words!!! As you can tell from the shit eating grin (sorry grandma but it was just that cool!) on my face I was very excited. I played a little ditty Meg (my first instructor) had taught me back in Portland. something I play a lot when just warming up or wanting to close my eyes and really enjoy myself. I can't tell you how cool this was! By far the most exciting thing that has happened to me this month and I had to get on line and tell you about it!

Things on the horizon for me are the before mentioned ski trip with the office. Then in early September I'm taking Tommy the Tank into Central Southern Australia (the state) and to Coober Pedy. A small opal mining town where in the movie Priscilla Queen of the Dessert, Felicia gets punched when a bogan (redneck) miner figures out she's a drag queen. Now I won't be in drag and occasionally can keep my gayness in check. (No laughing Phyllis! I can do it! I think anyway) so I should be ok. This will be my first trip into the center of Australia and to the famed Outback. I'll try to do a blog entry for the ski trip before I leave on the road trip but there's only 5 days between so I make no promises.

I better do some birthday wishes now while I can.

July 20th was Robin Elliott's birthday, July 21st was my dad's, August 7th is John's, my LITTLE brother who will be 39!!!!! and August 22 is Chris Hall's. I'm sure there's someone else I'm forgetting and you know I wish you the best.