I’ve been home now for three days and am having a miserable time with jet lag. My first night, I didn’t arrive into Honolulu until 10:30 pm, and by the time I retrieved my luggage, it was after 11:00 pm when I tried to sleep. Mind you, I had been awake since 6:30 am London time (11 hours off from Hawaii time), and watched five movies and three TV shows en route! My flight from London to San Francisco was delayed by two hours, which meant that I missed my connecting Hawaii flight. I ended up landing in Kahului, Maui, and transferring to Hawaiian Airlines, for an additional flight to Honolulu. Thank you for this, United Airlines!

Well, it wasn’t until 5:00 am that I fell asleep, absolutely exhausted! But it wasn’t for long—I was up by 7:30 am, just 2-1/2 hours later! The next few nights I’ve awakened at 1:00 and 1:30 am accordingly. Today has been better: 3:05 am! I’ve decided that since I’m awake at those ungodly hours, I may as well be productive and have managed to take care of some of my responsibilities—yes, even though I’m officially retired, I have commitments!

My first early morning project (timestamped 1:26 am–yikes!) was creating a postcard for Early Music Hawaii’s opening concert: Purcell, Royal Odes and Anthems. This concert is slated for Saturday, September 16 at 7:30 pm at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu.

Director Scott Fikse has assembled a stellar cast to perform an all-Purcell program, including “The Bell Anthem,” “Ode for Queen Mary’s Birthday,” and “Ode for King James,” and the famous “Dido’s Lament.” Guess who will be playing organ continuo?

I also just finished the monthly newsletter for my condo association. It’s just a two-pager, but still takes time to collect the various stories and lay it out.

While I was in Europe, a high-rise condominium fire in Honolulu made international news, as there were three fatalities, a dozen people injured, and 30% of the building’s over 500 apartments were damaged. I reminded my readers that my building has sprinklers and monthly fire alarm tests, so we’re okay on that score.

Then yesterday, I was back to teaching organ lessons—five, to be exact. I am grateful to my former organ student, Joey Fala, for teaching my kiddos in my absence!

Joey took me out to lunch at Bloomingdales—my first time in the new Honolulu store. He left the next day to take up new responsibilities as the Organ Scholar of Duke University—I hope to visit him in the spring when the flowers are blooming.

As I’m painfully getting over my jet lag, I’m already getting ready for my next trip, the Historic Organ Study Tour to Venice and the Veneto region of northeastern Italy, for which I’ll leave in just two weeks. Yes, back across two ponds, and back to a 12-hour time zone difference! We’ll be visiting and playing 27 organs in the cities of Venice, Treviso, and the magnificent ski area of Cortina d’Ampezzo.

We have been alerted by the tour director, Bruce Stevens, that twelve of the organs are one manual only from the 17th and 18th centuries, with only a short pedal board. Ten other instruments are two manuals but also have short pedal boards. In other words, I’ve been on the hunt for music with either no pedals at all or with limited pedal work.

Looking forward to visiting these beautiful churches and playing these organs! (even though I’ll be jet-lagged!)