Swings and Roundabouts

Well that was quite a weekend! I find I am now lurching rapidly towards my new life, but I am also at exactly the same rate leaving my old life behind.   Every day there seems to be a fresh river crossed, bridge burnt, or point of no return passed.   I have just heard from my solicitor and we have exchanged contracts, so in just under two weeks I will be exchanging my comfortable three bedroom house, which I can't afford for a tiny flat which I can.   I am having to get rid of a lot of Stuff most of it is just that, "Stuff" the ephemera that gathers around a life, odds and ends that were acquired on the basis of "it seemed like a good idea at the time" books read once and then put aside, and things that were laid up as they "may be usefull one day".

I will have such limited space that I simply will not be able to afford the luxury of all this stuff, I had already managed to find homes for some bookcases, the garden furniture, some chairs and other odds and ends. I still have to arrange transport for the desk I am currently writing at, a sofa and a fridge~freezer. I will have to replace my old seperates Hi Fi system with a smaller more modern micro system; but the bits that hurt a little this weekend, were giving away our fish and the aquarium, and hardest decision selling a tuba!

I know that it is well over two years since I last played my BBb tuba but she has a special place in my heart. I bought her at a Brass Band contest at least 35 years ago. I bought her simply because I liked the way she looked, but after my first EEb Yamaha was stolen she became my prime instrument for some time.

Me and Mrs T at Expo '92

When I played at Expo '92 in Seville this was the Tuba I took, and played for a couple of hours every day as part of a resident German Band at the Bierkeller. It was flying home from this gig that she acquired her name. I only had a soft case so there was no way I was going to allow her in the luggage hold, instead she had a ticket and an allocated seat.   The way the system works to have a seat you need a boarding card, to have a boarding card you have to have name, British Airways also require a title, so I ended up with a boarding card in the name of "Mrs Tuba"   The name stuck and she has been known since as Mrs T.

Trying to squeeze three tubas, a euphonium, a bass trombone, a P Bone (my latest toy!) and a bass guitar and amp into a tiny little flat is never going to work so at least one has to go, and I'm sorry but that means Mrs T    She is now the subject of an E-Bay auction, and in a couple of days she will no longer be mine. This definitely feels like the end of an era!