Whether the Weather...

...be sunny or soggy is a tough question. With just a couple of days to go before we set off,the answer is really anything but clear. With hundreds of sites on the web offering their view on the weather in Belgium for the next few days, it's hard to know whether to think we're in for hardly any rain at all, as per this site, or some pretty serious soaking, like it says here.

Hopefully, whatever happens we'll all have a good time and I think we'd be pretty unlucky if it rained solidly for four days. Equally, you never know, so fingers crossed...! Now...where did I put my sunglasses...and that umbrella...?

Cutting it Fine

With not very long to go now, I was pleased today to receive an official permit from the fine city of Antwerp for our concert on Sunday (2:00 in the bandstand on the Groeenplats if you happen to be in the area!). I suspect that if I'd known we needed a permit before I received it, I'd have been quite worried by now, but these things have a way of resolving themselves, I guess. Sadly, it's not as good as the Bruges permit which was addressed to Sir Owen but I suppose you can't have everything! On the plus side, it does thank us "for your initiative that contributes to the positive image of our city" and wish us every success, plus is signed by the mayor!

PS...know any good clarinetists? We find ourselves slightly short at the last minute so if you are (or know) anyone, please let us know...!

There's no such thing...

...so the saying goes...as bad publicity. Here's hoping that that's true since although I'm usually quite at home designing posters, writing copy and generally publicising concerts, I have to admit that attempting all of the above in Dutch (and the Flemish version of Dutch at that) is something of a new experience for me! Bruges kindly offered to display some posters and leaflets for our concert, so assisted by the Dutch-speaking colleagues of clarinettist Jen, we've sent some of these off to Belgium, ahead of us:

Hopefully the inhabitants (and tourists) of Bruges will get the gist and arrive in their droves to admire our music-making! The culture department also sent me a link to their events website where you can upload the details of forthcoming events. Being fairly technology-minded, I thought that I'd give it a go and, a few hours later, including completing numerous forms in Dutch and registering for an account, success! Click here to see our concert, advertised in the Bruges events diary...I think that I even managed to get the date right!

So...hopefully we might get a bit of an audience for our concerts...well...at least in Bruges!

The Itinerary

Well, after my weekend of frantic activity two weeks ago, it's all beginning to slot together quite nicely now, so I think I'm in a position to reveal the itinerary for WCB's first ever international tour!

Day 1

• Early(ish) departure from Woodley
• Ferry Dover - Calais
• Arrive Ghent early afternoon
• Boat trip on Ghent canals

Day 2

• Day trip to Antwerp
• Trip to Antwerp Diamond Museum
• Afternoon Concert in Groeenplats
• Late afternoon return to Ghent

Day 3

• Day trip to Bruges
• Guided Chocolate Walk (including tastings!)
• Afternoon Concert in the Markt
• Late afternoon return to Ghent
• Final meal
  

Day 4

• Morning at leisure in Ghent
• Lunchtime departure for return to Woodley
• Ferry Calais - Dover
• Evening arrival at Woodley

Hopefully that will be enough to keep everyone busy and provide something to keep everyone entertained!

Busy, busy, busy.

It's been a busy day in tour-planning HQ today, with large numbers of emails sent, websites trawled and online forms completed (some of them in Dutch, too!), not to mention cakes baked for this week's fundraising cake sale (Rocky Road this week, although I may have forgotten to buy nuts making it more like Slightly Bumpy Road).

As for the results of all this frantic activity, you'll just have to wait and see, but in the meantime, I stumbled upon this little video from the hotel we'll be staying in...I think it may be the blogging equivalent of elevator music...slightly pointless but oddly inescapable!

Ibis Gent Centrum Opera - Ghent Hotel

Magnificent Music-Making, Here We Come

Well it took a little while, but the lovely people at Antwerp got back to me yesterday and it's all systems go! We've now got two concerts confirmed for our tour:

Antwerp
We'll be playing in Antwerp on Sunday 2nd May at 2:00pm in the bandstand located on the Groenplaats (literally Green Square).

It looks like rather a nice place to play and there'll hopefully a decent number of people in this picturesque square which is located at the foot of the Cathedral at the heart of the city, surrounded by cafes.

Bruges
Famed the world over for beautiful buildings and chocolate (not necessarily in that order), what better place could there be for our second ever international venue than the main Market Square (the Grote Markt) in Bruges. Woodley Concert band will be performing here on Monday 3rd May at 3:00pm.

Bruges is always busy and the main square is nearly always full of a mixture of locals and tourists so hopefully, we'll get a decent audience!

So...we've got the concerts confirmed...now...what else shall we do...?

Money, Money, Money!

It's offical...I'm obsessed. Since the start of the year, I must have spent hours carefully studying various sites to see how the Pound is faring against the Euro...it's nail-biting stuff!

The pound's not been doing too badly recently and by complete coincidence, I managed to pay the deposit for the hotel on the day that Sterling's been strongest against the Euro since about September last year which is good news. The Pound's had a bit of a boost today, too, courtesy of some unfortunate issues being experienced in the Eurozone but there's a long time to go before May...who knows what might happen in the interim!

Ah well...not much we can do for now...back to the planning!

Patience...patience...

WCB's fate hangs in the balance...how much longer must we wait?

Maybe that's a little melodramatic, but I'm waiting for an answer from the city of Antwerp - I'd like to claim that it's been months, but actually it's more like a week and a half (which is perfectly reasonable, if we're honest).  I'm waiting to discover whether they're going to be nice enough to let us play in their fair city during our little trip - in practice, it's not all that urgent but it would just be nice to know...that way, we can get on with arranging all the other bits and pieces for the trip.

In the meantime, I suppose I'll just have to sit and twiddle my thumbs, ponder whether there are any well-known traditional Belgian pieces that we could include in our programme and look forward to the closest we'll get to going abroad before May...the WCB Spring Concert - A World of Music - tickets available soon!

Gent...? Wrong!

I have a big dilemma. Throughout this blog so far, you'll have noticed I've talked quite a lot about Gent...but is it Gent? Or should it be Ghent? This is obviously a serious issue worthy of some lengthy research and some in-depth analysis...!

Unfortunately, it turns out that there's not a great deal of research to be done - it's simply the case that Gent is the Dutch name for the city whilst Ghent is the English, in much the same way that Bombay was (until 1995) the English version of Mumbai. For language fans, the French for Gent (or Ghent) is Gand and the English version used to be Gaunt - you may have heard of John of Gaunt (born, of course, in Gent in 1340) who was the Duke of Lancaster, the fourth son of Edward III and cropped up in Shakespeare's Richard II.

All of which means that technically, I suppose I ought to be talking about Ghent, at least until my Dutch improves significantly but as a fan of languages in general, this doesn't sit very comfortably so for the time being, I'm afraid that you're stuck with Gent!

The Numbers Game

So, we know all about where we're staying and how we're getting there but is that enough? Well no, of course not. "What we need," I hear you cry "is some proper information about Gent...enough of the airy-fairy waffly bit, we want some cold hard facts."

Without further ado, therefore, here are some of Gent's vital statistics...

24,144,001	Metric tonnes of freight in the harbour
236,629	Inhabitants (‘Gentenaars’)
475	Restaurants
250	Types of beer
239	Miles from Woodley to Gent
134	Rooms in the Ibis Gent Centrum Opera Hotel
108	Days before WCB sets off on its first ever international tour
74	Parks
30	Hectares of pedestrian space in the city centre
26	Civic ponds
20	Fountains
19	Museums
10	Chocolate shops
2	Mediaeval Castles
1	Impressive City!