Lesson 130 - Orchestra blues

I've a sneaking suspicion that the world does not want me in an orchestra.

With an hour to spare, I set off for the venue knowing that I was the most prepared I could ever be. This comfort was shattered rather quickly when the usual train was announced delayed and then cancelled due to flash flooding. Upon rushing to the other train station by foot, the train to Leeds was also delayed due to a foreign object on the line but I was reassured by an attendant that it just pulled out of the next station so at the very most, it will reach the destination 15 minutes late. This is now half an hour later which meant I'd have a snug 15 minutes to walk briskly to the venue.

The train finally came begrudgingly, seemingly from the 1970s and as we reached Leeds, I realised I had only 7 minutes to spare which was reduced to 2 minutes after the train faffed about in the station. But still I persisted, ran through crowd and traffic with a cello that is bigger than me on my back, got to the venue, signed in, paid the fee sweating and huffing and then proceeded to get lost and almost crashed a performance in a wrong theatre hall.

I found myself in a corridor of many windowed doors before rushing towards the one that sounded like Dvorak; it was locked. Pushing and pulling did nothing, everything and everyone seemed too engrossed to care and I couldn't face the embarrassment. I looked down at my phone and saw that I was 12 minutes late. I could still hear Dvorak. I left the venue with my refund and my eyes just welled up.

Later I realised that the trains after mine were all cancelled due to landslides and lightning.

On the plus side, Deryn still wants me to audition for the LSO so we looked at another piece, Daniel Van Goens' Tarantella, with Elegie as back up.