View from the 34th floor Just another hotel room
I didn’t mention the flights between Bangkok, Brunei, KK and Tawau but they were as good as flights get. Especially the little hops of only 45 minutes. These days anything under 3 hours and not involving any kind of drama or epic delay I count as, if not actually pleasant, at least forgettable.
The airport at Tawau was small but functional despite a lot of building work and I found a little coffee shop with free Wifi and sat and tried to work for the two hours wait before boarding the plane. I wanted to look at my prepared Boogie Woogie Pieces and try to write an index and plan on how to share the pieces with you all. Only partially successful at this point but the coffee was good.
Long taxi drive to KL and the driver was rather quiet. Arrive at the Hilton DoubleTree and find that a reservation has been made for me, somewhat of a relief at the time as the friend arranging it for me had not managed to confirm this. Discover that the room rate is going to quickly outstrip the expense advance from the University and that I could end up with a hotel bill I couldn’t pay even if I didn’t eat during the 12 night stay!
Feeling somewhat worried I get to my lovely but suddenly unnecessarily expensive looking room and after only a few minutes the phone rings and I hear ‘Dr. John, Mr. Joshua requests your company in the executive lounge for drinks’. I get saved by my friend Joshua who I know from my restaurant in Bangkok. The executive lounge gives free drinks and food in the evenings to Diamond Card members and their guests (see funny YouTube video about Diamond Card misuse http://bit.ly/1aEbCzn ).
There follows 4 days of examining which included Acoustic Guitar, Classical Guitar, Piano, Jazz Piano, Drum Kit, Electronic Keyboard, Violin and even Conducting (more about the conducting later).
The Jazz Piano perhaps predictably enough includes pieces in a Boogie Woogie style but what can be a surprise to many people is that the ‘Standard’ Pianoforte examination can also include Boogie Woogie style pieces. A good example is ‘Hand Over’ by my friend and fellow examiner Tony Pegler which can be found in the LCM Piano Handbook: Grade 3
You can check it out on YouTube
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