The End is in Sight

It's come to my attention just how close I am to the end of my contract - and, unless something very interesting comes along in a couple of weeks, moving back to Malaysia. Actually I'm looking forward to it, I've been getting some mass e-mails from a friend who just moved back to Penang, which is sort of like an older version of a blog, and reading some the stories, I really miss keeping in touch with old friends. I miss the simple things. Tosai is high on that list.

I'll be back for a holiday 17th-27th October, during which time I should start moving a lot of things back, because a little over month after that, I'll be moving back. My plans after that are to just work, either in Penang or KL, and apply for scholarships for graduate studies in the US, aiming for the fall semester of 2006. I'll be meeting a KL contact who will be teaching at SAYOWE this year, so will have to see if the capitol has interesting prospects.

My top immediate priority is to prepare an audition CD to send to the States. Weber's devilishly tricky Andante and Hungarian Rondo is back on the front burner, not so much due to my regularly fickle mind, but simply because I've got an invitation to perform it as a soloist with the Chulalongkorn University Viola Ensemble right before I leave Thailand. It will be either at the university under the patronage of a Royal Princess, or in Chiang Mai, though scheduling might not make it possible at all.

Next week I'll be playing at some function with the Prime Minister of Thailand. To be honest, I'm not that keen - it's a string quintet (quartet plus double bass) and the other four are all Latvians, so I'll be at least socially and linguistically a little out of place, and geographically it'll involve trips to the main campus which I'm never eager to do. No offence to the PM, but I've done this sort of thing before at some other function with then PM Dr Mahathir, and I've never felt more like window dressing. Quite literally the sound of the cameras clicking (hard to imagine how many photographers there were) were louder than that ensemble. Plus, for this function I have to leave at a freakishly early 5am. Sheesh. After that it'll be SAYOWE, which will hopefully include a visit to the Violin Club.

I had somehow imagined this post being more artistically written, somehow including the words "swirling clouds" and some sort of attempt at shaping it with meter. But this is what I've got, and now it's time to get back to practice.