
The 14 days of self isolation is nearly over…and it seems surreal to be seeing London reported every day on Japanese news. How quickly the situation has changed, and I hope everyone is safe and stocked up for essentials. The difference in scale of covid cases is huge: Tokyo is on top alert with around 500 daily cases, so it’s a zero missing from UK stats…
Today I received Pipers in the post, a Japanese wind magazine in Japan, with my 4-page article (and one of my favourite photos when six Peter Eaton players happened to be in the same concert!). I was immediately hit with how ‘old’ the article felt already: I had shared this report of London life in mid-October, summarising my year thus far. Here is a summary:
I spent New Year 2020 in Japan with three generations of family (something impossible to do now even in Japan) and enjoyed working in Jordan in February with the Etihad Chamber Orchestra, a time when working abroad felt so natural. Despite growing concerns over the coronavirus and wanting to wear a mask, I felt unsafe to do so at the airport in case of racial attacks. Fortunately masks are now normalised, mandatory in fact.
Then with our first lockdown in March everything moved to working online, and there was an explosion of creative online collaborations, so I shared this video with my lovely Isolation Quintet 🙂 Many of us also used the extra time at home to unleash creativity in other ways, like my wonderful colleague Hannah who’s created Pine Pals! My own crochet passion lead to studying online for a diploma, and I also started Arabic lessons (which has sadly taken a back seat now).
I ended by sharing the current situation (in October) of freelancers being told we would only receive 20% SEISS (which thankfully changed with lockdown 2), musical protests happening in London and Birmingham, and that ‘Fatima’ poster which spread like wildfire. All of this seems like a lifetime ago now, and whilst it’s a dark and quiet Christmas, one thing being in Japan has proven to me is that things Can, and Will, get better. Flicking through upcoming concerts catalogue Bravo there is so much going on and a huge appetite for live music. For now, we need to stay creative and lifting each other up. If you need some festive joy, check out this page will be posting short music videos from Christmas day!
And with that…wishing everyone a wonderful winter break with feel-good movies and warm blankets!