Last weekend Bizerka travelled 963km to play at a Maltese wedding! Thankfully
we flew there - but man, it was still pretty exhausting.
Although our flight left at 12:30, we had to be at the airport 90 minutes
early to sort out the logistical problems of putting a Cello on board. We'd
purchased a seat specially for it - but it needed a harness - and who knows
what sort of issues you're going to run into with security these days.
To everyone's relief, there were no problems at all. Ditto regarding the Violinest
taking her instrument as hand luggage - as she'd stated before the flight -
"if it doesn't go with me, I don't go!".
It took us less time to fly from Melbourne to Sydney than it did to get to
the airport :-)
We'd been unable to find a gig on the Saturday night so we all went into the
city and met up with my sister for a few drinks.
On Sunday I woke up at 8am while the rest of the band woke up at a more respectable
11am. We were off to the wedding ceremony about 1pm. Our Cellist had never
been to a wedding before and was quite blown away by the whole thing - not
to mention a bit giggly that our Guitarist was Best Man!
After the wedding ceremony we headed off to the reception venue which catered
primarily for Italian weddings. It was all pretty glitzy and glamorous and
every person had been given hand-made Bonbonnieres.
Most of us had played at weddings before, but were not prepared for 190 people
(which is apparently a middle-sized Maltese/Italian wedding).
Bizerka were booked to play while the guests settled in - and then got to
eat, drink and be merry until after the Bridal Waltz. It was then up to us
to get everyone dancing.
It all went down well and despite the fact that we play a lot of Greek and
Romanian tunes, everyone enjoyed themselves.
Our second last piece was Havah Naghila which apparently went down well with
the Jewish relatives of the groom.
For the last piece we'd learnt the Tarantella due to it's Italian origin.
This went down really well and most of the crowd were up and dancing - even
the older ones!
Afterwards we were complimented about the music which is really nice coming
from old Italian men and women!!! Some even wanted to book us for another gig
at a 40th - but once we explained that we'd come 900+km's to do this one......
Once back at the place we were staying, a couple of us drank until 4am - only
to have to get up at 7am for a 7:30am taxi to the airport. There were some
big hangovers and very droopy eyes all the way home - I couldn't sleep, but
two of the band did on the plane.
As soon as I got home about 1:30 I went to bed and napped for a few hours
- very rare.
Ah, so much fun!!! |
