Chris Curtis Web Site

Amazingly, this blog is four years old today! I started it when I was convalescing from an operation and it has kept going since then. Thanks for reading.

The alto sax was (a kind of) 50th birthday present to myself but I have bought a tenor sax as sheer self-indulgence! Actually, it could have been worse.

The beast in question is a Walstein tenor sax from woodwind and brass. It is gorgeous with a deep, rosy phosphor-bronze body and brass keywork and sound divine too. It has had rave reviews all over the place while being made in China and being far cheaper than you would believe possible. I love it already though it will take me a while to adjust - it feels like pushing an awful lot of air, though that mellow, smoochy sound is to die for!

I have wanted to play the sax since I was small. It is such a cool and expressive instrument. I keep seeing and hearing excellent sax solos (most recently from the guy in Elkie Brooks’ band) and the idea would not go away, so it is time to take the plunge.

I drove over to Crowborough, to the nice people at saxophones.co.uk and talked about an ex-hire sax in perfect condition. An hour or two later I was very excitedly on my way home with a horn in the boot of the car. It is a Trevor James Revolution II Alto. It looks gorgeous and came with a good case, stand, a tutorial DVD, a couple of reeds and some cork grease. I had to buy a box of reeds and a tuner/metronome. I also bought John O’Neill’s “Jazz Tutor”.

The first attempts were both easier and harder than I expected. I was delighted to be able to get notes from the sax straight away, but my lips and face are very quickly tired, I am not always in tune and it does not sound that much like a sax yet. Still, early days.

I was planning to go Orienteering with the Army today, but despite this being the only day of the half-term week I told British Gas not to come, they came. They needed to do the last part of “making good” the botched installation of a new central heating system which they put in during May. I could have been difficult, but did not want to give them any excuse to drag this sorry mess out any longer.

At least the engineer was pleasant and looked like he knew what he was doing. By the end of the day, the system is working properly at last and I hope I have seen the back of them.

No running at all for the last two weeks though I suppose backbreaking physical work might count as some kind of training.

Our old bathroom is gone: piled up in a skip (dumpster) by our front door and we have a fabulous new bathroom. Although most of the work was done brilliantly by our kiwi builder I have been running around fetching and carrying and most recently up and down the stepladder filling, sanding and painting. Anyway, we now have a walk-in power shower, wall-hung loo and bidet and a corner bath - luxury! I have had the gas board back to repair the central heating they installed two months ago (which needed a new hot water cylinder) and everything works brilliantly. We need to buy new curtains and flooring and everything is done.

What a nice event and what a pleasant evening!

Summer evening events are low-key and a little “different”. This one sent us out in roughly matched pairs - one with a map for the “A” course and one for “B”. Some controls were in common, but elsewhere there were two controls in close proximity, on similar features - and the control descriptions did not have the control codes, so you had to use fine navigation to be sure that the control you were punching was the correct pit, ditch junction, horse jump or thicket when there were two to choose from.  Thirty-second time penalties were imposed if you punched the wrong one or punched both! You had to keep thinking all the time, and there were the usual summer orienteering challenges like man-eating nettles and sky-high bracken in places too.

Borde Hill was being set up for a cross-country equestrian event, with the many jumps and challenges all tricked out in flags and greenery. It made the park feel very unusual.

Afterwards, Ali , the planner, shared cake and fizz for her birthday and in the warm sunshine and light breeze almost everyone sat around for a while chatting and laughing. Very relaxed and a great way to spend a long summer’s evening.

I was in a particularly good mood. As I drove to the event my son, Nathan, phoned me (hands free) to say he had passed his medical degree with distinction - six years of extremely hard work gaining a fantastic reward! I was (and am) thrilled and very proud.