I am sorry this letter is such a long time in coming, but it is, nevertheless, very sincere and with love. Firstly, I wanted to say an enormous thanks for my last Sunday with you. It was a day I shall never forget and perfect from start to finish. That lovely morning service, Margaret’s brilliantly fitting and apt cake, followed by the super Junior Choir prom and then a wonderful lunch with David, Lucinda and the regular choir members, was a great start to the day. The choir gave me some wonderful presents and cards to remind me of Hampstead, them and the Junior Choir. Already the choir photos have pride of place in my lounge. And then evensong… I was so surprised by the number of singers who came back to sing. People like Damian Thantry, Mike and Alicia Entwisle, Ruth Gomme, Patrick Craig, Ed Price and many other distinguished singers and old friends. Everyone was delightfully friendly and encouraging and it was great catching up with them all. What a sound the choir made – Howells’ St Paul’s Service was stunning, but my all time favourite, the Finzi, was sung better than I have ever heard it. Topped off with Barry Rose’s wonderful piece and the final hymn ‘The Day Thou Gavest’, I am not sure how I held it all together (well, I didn’t really). Thanks to Stephen for his really kind words about me and also to Bishop Peter for preaching so well.
The very generous presents from the FOM and the church has allowed me to buy a mac mini (a powerful box without keyboard), which means I can watch all of my favourite UK programmes here and listen to music easily ‘from the clouds’. It also helped to buy a few bits of electrical equipment for my new apartment. The lovely gift box from Maggie with a wonderful picture of the organ on it, the cocktail shaker, the sketch of the church, the Junior Choir tea towel and lots of other gifts mean that I have a daily reminder of my wonderful friends and colleagues at HPC. I am so grateful for your great generosity and thoughtfulness in choosing such apt gifs. I have really enjoyed reading the kind comments from you all in the card too.
I have been here three weeks now. I fell in love with the apartment straight away. My first weekend was spent in a busy social whirl (I was still hoping to reach recovery mode from several farewell parties in London and this all took rather a toll on my energy and liver). The 12 new staff were entertained to a super evening meal at a typical Brazilian BBQ with every type of meat you could imagine, cooked to perfection. Sunday was a Mexican lunch and then the following weekend we were treated to a day at the beach. My new colleagues are all young and great fun.
The weather has been perfect since I have been here: about 27 degrees on average. After a very frustrating day of red tape at the airport two days later I eventually collected Sue and Ollie, my two lovely dogs. I waited from 5am until 3.30pm to get them, but it was worth it. They have taken to Sao Paulo very well. In fact Ollie, a long haired miniature dachshund, is quite the celebrity and has many admirers.
The school is lovely and people have been most welcoming. It is a bit of a shock to the system having a full day’s teaching each day, but I am loving it so far and then pupils are eager and polite in the main. Music is not advanced here and will be a real challenge, but that is the joy of it.
I have been to the monastery each Sunday and will be playing there very soon. The boys’ choir will start next term when my Portuguese is better (it is getting there, but very slowly).
Otherwise, I am immersing myself fully into the Brazilian ways of life. Caipirinhas (many different flavours and fruits), cheese bread, feijoada, samba, bossa nice and MPB (Brazilian popular music) are all becoming familiar and I hope to hit the ‘classical’ scene this week.
My 18 years at Hampstead have been the happiest in my life. I miss you all already and know it will be difficult when you start term and I hear about the new outfit. I know that James and David will be a wonderful team and that the music will continue to go from strength to strength. Do be as welcoming and loving to James as you have been to me and keep me informed of what’s going on 😉
With happy memories and much love,