Day #6 - Sat 12/04/08

The Wind Band are home again!

Yep we're all back safe and sound. Also very tired after another long coach journey. At passport control there was a sign saying "Wait here until you are called" and then another with a picture telling you to turn off your mobile phone. Scott thought it meant they'd call him on his phone....

Thanks for reading the blog over the last few days - if you haven't been listening to the podcasts, there's a chance to catch up in one go with the link to the omnibus episode below.

That's all from me this year - hopefully I'll be back in a years time with more from Germany,

Byee!

Rhys
Omnibus Podcast

Day #5 - Fri 11/04/08

Well our tour is nearly at an end. Today was spent wandering in the park and town again, as well as doing some shopping. I had a rather nice lunch in a Flunch restaurant too!

The concert with the choir went well but there's not much to report - I haven't seen much of Scott today so no Scottisms I'm afraid! :-(

Long coach drive tomorrow - leaving at 4am.

Rhys
Podcast #5

Day #4 - Thu 10/04/08

Hello again,

This morning we visited the Chateaux du Goulaine which started with a look at the butterfly farm there. This was followed by a tour of parts of the chateaux istelf and a look at the Lu biscuit museum that they have there. The visit ended with free wine and biscuits.

We then headed back to the centre of Nantes for a spot of lunch before making the obligatory daily visit to a patisserie! Then came this evening's concert - apart from an interesting section of Hootenany courtesy of the trombones (well in fairness, it's not like it's a piece we play often is it? :-p), it went pretty well. The Nantes Uni Big Band were really good too - though there was too much enthusiastic dancing going on by members of the band for my liking! We ended the concert with a joint performance of Sing Sing Sing which worked better than expected!

Only one day left on tour - and we won't be doing a great deal apart from the concert with the choir in the evening I don't think. I'll leave you with todays Scottisms:
"Did you know Walmart is the richest country in the world?"
"If I wet myself now, I'm never coming to windband again!"

Byee!

Rhys
Podcast #5

Day #3 - Wed 09/04/08

Well a slightly later start today with a concert in the park at 12pm. Unfortunately someone (possibly me, but I'm not gonna give anything away) may have forgotten to press record on the mp3 recorder and so we don't have a recording of that one.

We spent the afternoon at "La Galerie Des Machines", a museum of various mechanical animals that were demonstrated to us and test driven by other visitors there. This included a ride on a giant 12m high mechanic elephant. Controls for making various parts of the elephant move and making it trumpet were there for visitors to use, and some got splashed a bit when the trunk pointed back in on itself and squirted cold water!

Todays Scottisms:
Rhys: Scott, do you think we should start playing page one first??
Scott: Nah, that's for beginners!
"One of my big toes is bigger than the other"

All in all good fun and we're off to a creperie for food tonight! Tomorrow includes wine tasting, biscuits, butterflies and a big band, bye for now!

Rhys
Podcast #4

Day #2 - Tue 08/04/08

Today has been fairly full but also good fun. We started off with the Town Hall Reception - a couple of speeches, some free food and drinks and we got to meet some people who are taking part in some of the other concerts we are performing at later this week. Oh, and someone from Pile (just 5mins drive from my home in Bridgend) too! The Mayor's speech was made in English but Jenny was still asked to translate for some reason....

Anyway we actually got there a bit early so had time to take a look at Nantes Cathedral first - apparently it burnt down in 1972 and so many of the designs in there are very modern.

Once we had grabbed a spot of lunch, we jumped on the mini road train which took us on a tour of the City. The announcements were in French but they gave us a convenient English transcript of the complete voiceover so that was all fine.

A quick stop at a bakery for a meringue, a look around Nantes castle, including a walk of the ramparts, and then it was back to the hostel for our first concert. It wasn't the biggest audience in the world, but the bus driver did clap very enthusiastically...


I've had an extremely nice meal in an equally nice restaurant this evening, including the largest portions of profiteroles (each the size of a clenched fist) I've ever seen for desert!

That's all for today apart from these Scottisms:
"Everytime you eat pickle, you kill a baby"
"The urinal is out in the open... but it might have been a sink!"

It's only fair that I point out that I'm still being my usual clumsy self - listen to the start of the podcast and you'll hear me pause while a tractor goes past. Straight after I restart talking, you can hear me walking into a bin....

Rhys
Podcast #3

Day #1 - Mon 07/04/08

La Wind Band Sont Arrivés (not sure if that French is entirely correct but nevermind....)

The Wind Band have arrived in Nantes, nearly 5 hours later than planned but we are all here in one piece. It was quite surreal driving through France past snow covered fields. Not much to report since we've been sitting on the coach for most of the day but I will leave you with what we are now calling "Scottisms"...

"They should build a glass tunnel between here and America - it would only take you 25 minutes to get there then"
"If this seat vibrates any more my spine is going to break!"

That's all for now - we're off to see the Mayor tomorrow morning and then we have a concert here at the Youth Hostel in the evening.

Bye!

Rhys
Podcast #2

Day #0 - Sun 06/04/08

Hello and thanks for reading this, the first blog entry for the City of Cardiff Concert Band's tour to Nantes.

Over the next week, I'll be posting daily summaries of what the band has been up to as well as an accompanying podcast in association with Xpress Radio.

Hopefully we'll be bringing you highlights of our gigs in the podcast, and even more exciting, after it's success last year, the return of Scott's Quote of the Day! Last year included such quotes as "The Pyrenees? They're really small people aren't they?"

This evening we've had a rehearsal with Matt, our conductor who has stepped in to take us for this tour, followed by a meal at a local Indian restaurant and some drinks in the pub.

I'm gonna sign off now as it's 12:15am and I haven't yet packed!

Rhys
Podcast #1