So, we are on the road.  After months of preparation, we are leaving Edmonton to go on our first European tour.  The tour came about thanks to our international contacts.  Together and separately, we've been collaborating for years with foreign artists and presenters on a number of projects.  They like what we do and when the news spread that the six of us started our own multimedia performance project, Ensemble Mujirushi, some people in Europe wanted to see us there.  Nice.  Invitations came from Belgium, where our dear friend, André Posman, based in Gent, runs a presenting organisation, and from Poland, from the Audio Art Festival in Kraków (You'd better get used to learning the original spellings of those names; this is the politically correct tendency these days!), whose Artistic Director, composer Marek Choloniewski, really wanted to include Canadian music in this year's edition of the festival.  With two great gigs secured, it was logical to submit more proposals - and five more were accepted!  In the end we've got that fantastic date in Gent plus six more in Poland, all in major centres: Kraków, Warszawa, Gdansk, Lódz, and Katowice, the latter Piotr's former home town.

On Nov. 16 we flew from Edmonton to Calgary (why does the utterly provincial Edmonton Airport still bear the proud moniker of "International" we do not know; one of those mysteries that still resonates in names such as the City of Champions, Cultural Capital of Canada etc., which have nothing to do with the sad reality).  From Calgary, a long and boring flight to Frankfurt.  It is obvious that fat CEO's of those airlines are trying to cut costs at our expense.  Stewardesses and stewards walk along the aisles much more seldom than even a couple of years ago, offering few more drinks including water!  Our advice: take your own water aboard - and your own food.  Gerry and Michelle were saved by the sandwiches they took with them!  Piotr, the only vegetarian in the group, comes the clear winner, his two veggie meals, first a kind of tofu stew, then tofu "scrambled eggs" much better (even "delicious" as he says) than the shoe sole-tough beef served to the rest of the group.

The movies to choose from are mostly American.  Chris opted for one of them, "Transformers 2", which he then called "simply awful, but what I needed".  Michelle went for "Julie and Julia", which she said was no good.  Gerry watched one of two non-US productions, the clumsily titled "Coco Avant Chanel" (she said it's OK), and Piotr, on the one hand adamantly against men using their power to sleep with women or men, and on the other hand against American chauvinism, and brainwashing expressed in their movies, watched an East Indian film about an aspiring pop singer who is in love with a sister of a very rich and, naturally, very nasty (and very badly shaven!) guy who, in turn, contemptuously shags the singer's sister (luckily, the latter recovers her dignity and dumps the rich bastard).  According to Piotr, the movie is so terrible you can only admire it.  A great alternative to US productions.

Our violinist, Jerry, left for Europe a bit earlier and this is what he added about his experiences on his stay in the UK, where he went to explore some contacts.

"I stayed in Northampton and Daventry with the friends I haven't seen in a long time.  There I went to see some spectacular historic sites including the quaint village of Weedon, which dates from Roman times and is the location of a Royal Military Depot that housed troops during the Napoleonic and Crimean Wars; Sulgrave Manor, near Flore, which was the ancestral home of George Washington's family. But the most spectacular of all was Fawsley Hall, located about seven miles from Daventry -- originally constructed as a royal manor house in 1536, Queen Elizabeth I stayed there on occasion.  It is now a spectacularly beautiful and luxurious hotel for the rich and famous.

All this is fine, but I just couldn't wait to join the group!  England's nice and I hope to play there at some point - but bye for now, UK!  I am flying to Brussels to join the rest of the band."

We arrived in Frankfurt and then off to Brussels, where Jerry joined the rest of us.  (Charles is still back home, taking care of some urgent, end-of-term business at his school, The King's University College.  He will fly directly to Poland where all of us will finally perform together.)

Fortunately, everything works like a Swiss watch.  Despite our flight being late, our friend André was there to pick us up, Jerry arrived a few minutes later - and we were driven to Gent, one happy family.

And then disaster strikes.  Somehow, André missed our e-mails in which we included our stage plot and tech requirements!  He was not aware our show relies so heavily on technology.  Nothing's ready!?  Goodness gracious, what is it going to be now?!