MagnaCarta

Matt writes

The day the South African rugby team beat the Scottish. Go Bokke!
It was a fine day and a wonderful evening.

To start with I was woken up by a phone call of the technician of theatre 't Mozaiek.
He was checking our getting in time, the way we wanted the stage to be set up and if everything was still going according to plan.
I don't exactly know what he must have thought, but I'm absolutely sure that I didn't make a lot of sense to start with. After the private concert we did last night, Linda and I got into the liquor that was given to us in Heerenveen the night before - dangerous stuff with a devastating 'morning-after-effect'. Linda and I both decided to give it a miss in the future.

Anyway, when we all got round to earth again, we had a quick breakfast and as I was doing the dishes Peter, a.k.a. Billy Bookcase, rolled up. We had a cup of tea, before loading up the car. Then checked if we had everything and headed for Wijchen.

The journey went smoothly and in just over an hour we found ourselves turning off the motorway. We drove straight to the theatre, thanks to Eva (the Dutch version of Doris). I went out to let the people know we arrived. That was quite a job, so in the end I phoned the same number that woke me up.
A good guess! We got the instructions how to get to the loading dock, which meant driving another mile and a half, around several buildings and sport fields. The second time this tour.
In the end we found Erik who guided us to our spot.
As the rain started to come down, we quickly unloaded. We normally count five to ten minutes for that. This time it was done in half a minute! Where all these people came from I don't know, but suddenly there they were.
When all the equipment was in, the team went on with doing the lights. It was a true hive of industry.
As they were setting the stage lights, we couldn't do much but hang around -something we've become true professionals in!

The coffee trolley was pointed out to us...

but who's the trolley dolly?

...and we made ourselves comfortable. In the meantime Ward, the sound technician for the night and whom we've knighted to Sir Ward for the occasion, checked our preferences sound-wise again.

Bart-Jan, the person in charge of the whole technical team and the one who did the lights for us during the show, gave the signal that the setting of the lights was done and that we could build up our stage and sound-check. We got stuck in and had everything in place. The sound-check went fine and in a short while we found ourselves ordering pizzas with Hans, our host for the night.

Before the show some friends came in so we could have a chat. There were Liesbeth, Jet and my two sisters and future brother-in-law.
We all found a place in the building (mostly dressing rooms) to sit down and catch up on everything.
The pizzas arrived and we had dinner. Then we got changed quickly and did the thing we came for: the show!

To me tonight's audience were very alive and responsive. It had a warm feeling.

Audience to our right ...

Both sets went down really well and it was nice to see a lot of people sticking around afterwards in the foyer. Amongst them were lots of friends as well!
As we were out, Bart-Jan and his team (I'm now going to name them: Sir Ward, Erik, Wilan, Jasper and another Erik) cleaned everything away.
After saying goodbye to the people in the foyer, we got our things out of the way pretty quickly and packed up the car again.
A last round to thank the members of staff of the night and we headed for home.

At the cabin we unloaded and had a nice drink with Billy Bookcase before turning in.
It promised to be quite a day - more on that soon!