Heading for Sore Fingers in England

So I arrived safely in England and spent the day hanging out with Heather. We talked, talked, and talked, something we never have time to do when we see each other at the Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering. Knowing that Heather would have to go into school that evening for a few hours to meet with the parents of her students, I had offered to fix an early supper for us, so we went out to the market. This is one of the things I love to do in other countries -- it's always interesting to see what's on the shelves, how markets are arranged, what kind of things people buy, what technology is in use (or not) -- all kind of interesting social/cultural clues can be picked up with a visit to a supermarket. And of course you get a feel for the cost of living. I noted that the prices of most things were superficially in line with the prices I would expect to see shopping in Pittsburgh -- what I would have paid $1 for was market at 1 GBP. But of course the British pound is worth about $1.60, so in fact the cost of living in that area (Heather lives in Sittingbourne between Bobbing and Milton Regis near the coast of Kent) is about 60% higher. There is a price war on for petrol (gasoline) in England right now, so that was a lot lower than I remembered from our last trip -- .99 GBP rather than the 1.40 GBP it had been at in 2006. But that's still about $6.50 per gallon -- another indicator of the cost of living.

We made supper together, and then Heather went off and I caught up on e-mail and a shower. To solve the jetlag problem, I went to bed really late, and had the luxury of sleeping in until 10 the next morning. By the time Heather arrived home from her teaching around noon, I was fine. So we had a leisurely lunch and headed off for the weekend.

Unfortunately to get to the Kingham School (located in the Cotswalds near a hamlet called Chipping Norton which I think is in Gloustershire) we had to drive the dreaded M25, the ring road that surrounds London. And we were not fortunate on this trip: traffic was extremely heavy, and although we left at 1:30 we did not arrive until nearly 7pm. But a drive like that is a great chance to talk and get a feel for the countryside, so we talked as we drove, and Heather gave me a bit of commentary as we did so. I was amused by the British system of intersections -- they use what they call "roundabouts" (and I would call a traffic circle) almost obsessively. In some areas we would go through three or four of these in a row, each less than a quarter mile after the last -- first exit on this one, third exit on that one, second exit on the next, and so on. I'm familiar with many complicated intersections on the US interstate system, but have never seen anything quite this crazy in the way that it insisted on using exactly the same type of mechanism for EVERY "intersection problem."

Despite the traffic and the craziness of navigating through the roundabouts, once we got off the M25 and onto the A25 and even farther outside the city, the drive was beautiful. Due to a wrong choice at a roundabout, we ended up going through the center of Oxford rather than around it, so I even got a good look at that beautiful old town. Foot and bicycle traffic was thick everywhere, and we were more likely to be held up behind a bus than behind a line of cars. I guess starving students don't bother to have cars when the price of gas is so high :-) I also noticed that cars are uniformly much smaller than in the US. Heather commented at one point that she loved her little car because it was cheap to run, cheap to insure and (what I picked up on) cheap to tax: cars are taxed based on their size and larger less fuel-efficient models pay more. Now THERE'S a tax I could definitely get to liking!

So we arrived at the Kingham School, immediately ran into Sue, another of the British autoharpers I had previously met, and we headed off to supper. The place was packed -- there were nearly 200 people at this "Sore Fingers Weekend," most of whom were fiddle, banjo, mandolin or guitar students there to learn bluegrass styles. There was also an "American Old Time" fiddle class and a banjo class for the same style. And 25 autoharpers who were there for the instrumental instruction rather than any particular style. We met most at supper, then settled in our room (myself, Heather, and another friend, Nadine), tuned up an autoharp, and headed off for the Friday night jam. Autoharper Bob Ebdon, whose name I knew from the Cyberpluckers autoharp discussion group but who I had never met, was sitting down in the thick of things, playing for all he was worth. So I joined him and we spent the evening playing next to each other, leading a few songs and tunes from time to time and playing and skinging along with the others in that very mixed jam. Bob has a lovely voice as well as nice autoharp technique, so I enjoyed this greatly. At one point one of the guitar players, a really fine picker who had been leading some beautiful songs and spirited tunes called for "Wild Mountain Thyme" a beautiful old Scottish (I think) song. When he saw that Bob and I both knew it, he nodded to the autoharps to take a break, so we did together, with Bob playing out the melody and me backing him up with harmony and rhythm to the amazment of the bluegrassers surrounding us who had never heard a duet like that before. Definitely a "moment"!!

Needless to say we jammed too late before heading off to our dorm rooms for some sleep, but I justified it by telling myself that it would be better if I stayed up late so that I wouldn't wake up too early :-)

All right, enough for now. I'll write about the rest of the weekend soon, and then I'll catch up with myself in Utrecht which is where I'm writing from right now. Hopefully photos too if I can find time to upload a few...