It was in September 2019 that my relationship to other fans of the TV show, “Doc Martin,” and my life changed. I had already joined several Facebook groups, “Doc Martin (Martin Clunes) Fan Club,” “Doc Martin Fans,” “Season 9 and 10 Doc Martin Spoilers” etc. and was happy to see other people’s posts about the… Read More Doc Martin fans — Reunion!
It was bad enough that the total flying time from Honolulu to London was 15 hours, plus a 2-1/2 hour layover in San Francisco. On Thursday morning, I got up at 5:00 am to be ready for a morning flight to SFO, and arrived the next day about 1:00 pm London time—watching two movies and… Read More Sleepless in the U.K.
You probably know that I’ve been struggling to learn Spanish over the last three years, spending two hours per day with Duolingo, listening to Spanish podcasts, attending online classes, having daily Zoom tutoring sessions and watching Spanish telenovelas every night. And yet … I consider myself an intermediate student with only a moderate fluency. Sure,… Read More It’s not fair!
Cleveland to Denver, then Denver to Burbank, then Burbank to San Francisco, then San Francisco to Honolulu Yesterday I woke up at 4:30 am Cleveland time and finally arrived in Honolulu at 6:30 pm, 18 hours later, after taking four separate flights—at least they were all on the same airline and I didn’t have to… Read More The loooooong way home
Yesterday was a first for me—playing two recitals in one day and prepping for one only an hour before! The morning started out leisurely, and I was able to indulge in my usual concert prep practice of studying the score away from the keyboard. I was especially paying attention to stop and manual changes in… Read More Two down, one to go
Today was both a treat and a privilege. Joan Ishibashi and I were given a special tour of the Norton organ at Severance Hall, led by curator Todd Wilson. The tour was all made possible by Joan’s two violinist friends in the Cleveland Orchestra, Sae Shiragami and Takako Masame, who joined us on the tour.… Read More The Norton organ at Severance Hall
This afternoon was the whole reason I came to Cleveland—and that was to hear the baroque orchestra Apollo’s Fire in person. It was absolutely glorious! Right away, Joan Ishibashi introduced me to Noha Ryder, General Manager and Director of Development of Apollo’s Fire. Little did I know that Joan had sent her the link to… Read More Echoes of Venice
Superman was created in Cleveland! Getting to Cleveland was uneventful, after an unexpected tumble in a restaurant the night before when I reached over to retrieve my purse from across the table and fell into my grandson’s high chair. My first thought as I was falling was, “oh no! I have to play three concerts… Read More Welcome to Cleveland!
I have been spending a few days with my family in California and you’ll never guess who else is here? It’s Joan Ishibashi, my “London agent” (!) who is here in California visiting her family. Joan has finalized all the arrangements regarding our Cleveland trip, and just today sent me the information on the Berghaus… Read More Guess who?
In the last two days, I have been on four separate airplane flights. Yesterday I flew to Lihue, Kaua’i and back for my biweekly organ lesson with Hank Curtis; and today I flew to Burbank via San Francisco to spend a few days with my family before joining Joan Ishibashi in Cleveland. It seems I… Read More Trinity, Trinity, Trinity!