Monthly Archives: May 2024

Saxophone lessons again 🎷

I’ve been indecisive about taking saxophone lessons again in the last few months. I feel guilty because I haven’t spent any time on improvisation in the previous six months. Furthermore, I’m unsure if I have enough time for the lessons.

But I have signed up for the saxophone lessons. I figured I would never do it if I didn’t sign up. I would never be ready for it if I didn’t have someone to be accountable to because I wouldn’t practice for it.

I signed up, and later that day, Dean (the same teacher I had last year) messaged me, welcoming me back and asking what I wanted to work on. Phew, now it gets real. I’m looking forward to it, but I’m also a bit nervous that I won’t be able to handle it.

My terrace after the gardener has done the work
My terrace without weed

Shopping in Germany 🛒

I have been shopping in Germany. Most people think I only shop in the border shops because they contain Danish groceries, but I shop in German shops instead. I want a wide variety of German groceries. The quality is better because the German people will not accept the poor quality of some of the Danish groceries.

The picture shows ⅔ of the shelve with a special kind of food, which I don’t know what it is called in English. The amount of different types of it and different brands makes it hard to choose :-)

Part of a shelve with groceries in a German store

New big band conductor 🎺

We got a new conductor in the big band. It is still unclear whether it is permanent or only lasts until the summer of 2025, but at the moment, I’m enjoying learning something on Mondays.

The new conductor is excellent and teaches us to play swing. Yes, it sounds silly, but most of the musicians don’t know how to do it. And that is kind of crazy since most of the music we are playing is swing, and several musicians have played in the big band for more than ten years!

We are getting better, and it is great to be challenged. The conductor also has a better overview than the old one. He hears when someone isn’t playing what is written in the sheet music, and then he corrects it. And suddenly, everything sounds a lot better. Not everyone is happy about it, but I think it’s great. How will we improve if we don’t get corrected when we play something wrong?

I’m looking forward to hearing the result with this conductor in 6 months or so.

Part of the pathway before the weed was removed
Before the gardeners work
Part of a pathway without weed
After the gardeners work

Gardener 🍃

It has been difficult to find someone who will remove weeds from my garden. Apparently, most gardeners do not want to do this, but I finally stumbled upon one who wanted to do the work.

It took a week to complete, but now the garden, pathways, driveway, and terraces are beautiful again. I don’t know how to describe it, but now I enjoy looking at my garden. I hadn’t imagined that the result would be this great. The gardener has done everything I wanted (and then some). She has also cut some of my bushes and small trees.

Furthermore, I’m lucky enough that she will also maintain my garden in the future, so we made an agreement that she will come by periodically to remove weeds and maintain the garden in general.

Now, my garden is no longer a mess to look at.

Part of the pathway before the weed was removed
Before the gardeners work
Part of the pathway without weed
After the gardeners work