Cutting it fine: Travelling between projects

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Sigh... this coming month is a hectic scheduling of juggling projects and family life. This is probably always going to happen with being a freelancer... but there are going to be periods where the timings are just going to be tighter than is comfortable.

Now, don't get me wrong... I have no issue with the tight timings from the point of view of the performance and music side of things. Just before a concert, I'm usually just reading a book or playing a game on the Deck or laptop... so, I have no need to "warm" up beforehand... I just need to open the case to make sure that I have the right number of strings and have brought the right tools to the right job! More problematic is whether or not I have dressed myself correctly.... I have a habit of being a little bit scruffy which does cut down on the time that I need to make myself presentable, but sometimes I have walked on stage with my grubby street shoes instead of the concert blacks. So, I always just need half a second to make sure that my shirt is tucked in (if it needs to be).. and to check if I have the right shoes and that my fly is done up!

No... I'm talking about the travel component of getting to the right place in time. This is the part that I tend to worry about... and I have had nightmares where I have arrived late to performances!

Normally, I will give myself a nice big buffer to get to concerts and rehearsals before time... I prefer to be waiting around (with my book or a computer game!) instead of crazily racing to get where I need to be.

Most of my flights and other travels are designed with this in mind. I will arrive with plenty of time to spare...

... but there are always going to be flights that are determined the scheduling BEFORE the flight... which limits WHEN I can travel. My brother was quite surprised last week when I said that I was going to head straight from the airport to the concert venue... but I asked, what else am I going to do beforehand?

These days, this can be even more difficult with the labour shortages with Australian flights resulting in cancelled or delayed flights. Thankfully, this hasn't happened to me yet... but I think that it is just going to be a matter of time. Anyway, that is what you get for firing all of your ground staff and trying to outsource it all... I hope that the short-term profiteers will learn their lessons (spoiler... they won't... it is a sort of variation on the theme of "everyone is a genius in a bull market").

So, tomorrow is going to be one of the REALLY tight ones... but I am driving, and so there is more responsibility that I can take for it all. On the other hand, it is driving and personal responsibility... so, if anything goes wrong... it will be much harder to rectify.

I have a rehearsal that finishes in the afternoon... and I need to be 3 and half hours away by car for a concert in the evening. I have pretty much exactly that amount of time... and I was booked for the concert with that knowledge. Actually, I said that it was too tight and that it would likely not work... but they went ahead anyway!

So... I will have to make the trip... hop out of the car, meet my wife (who is also playing) and hope that she has remembered to bring the instruments that I need for the concert (which are different to the ones that I have with me at the moment). I will be driving dressed in concert gear (maybe not the shoes... and my wife has scolded me before for walking on stage in the wrong shoes... I don't really mind, they are comfy!)... and it will straight up from the carpark and onto stage (well, maybe a pit-stop to have a pee and unpack the instruments!).

Needless to say... I'm a little bit nervous about the travel (again, not the performance)... I hope I don't hit any kangaroos or wombats on the way... it will be dusk, and that is when the animals decide it is a good time to play on the motorway. No car problems either... although, it has been recently serviced, and was given a good bill of health!

Oh crap... I also forgot that I was supposed to give a little talk about one of the composers. Hmmm... probably should look up some stuff so that I can internalise it in preparation for my usual "winging it" audience talks! I know that the guy was sentenced and executed in a single day during the French Revolution (well, the chaos following the Revolution)... and was later found to be a case of "ooops"!

That should make for an interesting tidbit of a story!

I can also be found cross-posting at:
Hive
Steem
Publish0x

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