Part 1 Departure, Arrival, Parade and Opening Concert.
At long last, the instruments and their respective flight cases are back in where they belong. All thanks to the 3 who were stranded in Aberdeen to assist in the negotiation. Understand that the negotiation has been difficult, million thanks there. Glad that the 2 stranded in Amsterdam are finally back as well. Hence, everyone is finally back in the tropical island.
Alright, now for tbe Part 1 of the Updates.
Departure.
Anticipated that the departure will definitely meet with loads of resistance especially for the bulky items. The airline has not been very co-operative in this matter but glad that the lighter instruments were finally allowed hand-carry. The flight cases were overweight by 32kg and the airline refused to carry them if not they will be surcharged as excess baggage. However, the travel agent is supposed yo have settled this weighty issue but seems communication is really bad (more on that in Part 4). Fortunately, 7 of the members travelled by another airline and they were nice enough to take in the extra load. Other than this minor incident, departure went smoothly.
Arrival.
We arrived in Amsterdam at 0540 Amsterdam time. The Schiphol airport is rather humongous but due to the early arrival, there wasn't a lot of people and some shops are not opened yet. Spent 3 hours at the Amsterdam airport doing window shopping as most of us only had pounds with us and so we left for Aberdeen, the granite city. Arrival at Aberdeen was good, met with a warm welcome by the police. Somehow, as we were trying to load the instruments, the truck was reprimanded for illegal parking. How exciting is that! The hostel we stayed at was an university hostel which I must say is very cosy and of a rather high standard. One person per room, so you don't get to listen to your friends snores, or mine rather.
Parade.
In total there were about 10 countries participating in this Festival. China, Hong Kong SAR (Used the same flag, I thought HK will use the SAR flag), Singapore, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Canada, United Kingdom, Cayman Islands, Belgium, Trinidad and Tobago. I guess that is about it! All the other countries displayed their traditional costumes while we paraded with red or white shirts. Most of them managed to get sponsors from their respective cultural ministry or tourism board for a jacket or windbreaker while we paraded with mostly Nike or Adidas windbreaker of our very own. Oh well! I enjoyed very much waving and smiling to the public, was like some sudden celebirty status. The atmosphere was very warm and the public lined the streets with much enthusiasm. Fortunately, the weather was cool! I thought our contingent sang our national anthem with much emotions and that was all good.
Opening Concert.
NUSSO had the honour to perform in the opening concert. The repertoire was exactly the same as the UCC Fund-Raising Concert but due to jetlag and a change in environment, we did not perform optimally. However, I guess the crowd really enjoyed the performance such that there were some who gave us a standing ovation at the end of the concert. Reviews in the newspapers in Scotland were favourable, one mentioned that the solo in Butterfly Lovers Concerto was like a silken thread while another mentioned the grandeur of Tchaikovsky 5th. A private letter from a music critic was also sent to the conductor and mentioned how the music touched her heart and soul.
