Stunt Driving and The Best and Worst of Christmas Concerts

The biggest news is certainly my trip to Khojand with the Ambassador, but since I just got back today, I haven't had time to get the pictures ready so it will have to be later. Of course, there's always something to report, so here's some other recent goings on...

As expected, this week was pretty busy given the ongoing work related to the house fire and getting ready for the Ambassador's trip on Wednesday. To make things even more exciting, I got to play 'Dukes of Hazzard' on the way to work on Tuesday. I was breezing down the road to work when all of a sudden, a car decided that it no longer wanted to wait in line at the left-hand u-turn and begin driving slowly across the street in front of me. I only saw one way to avoid an accident so I took it, swerving into the bus pull-out and making a huge splashdown in a mud puddle that went completely over the top of the car. I hadn't even had a chance to slow down much and I noticed that the idiot had caused a big traffic jam, so I took advantage of the other drivers' misfortune and cut back out onto the road at the next exit and continued on my merry way. It doesn't sound as impressive when I write it out, but Boss Hogg wouldn't stand a chance with my skills.

On Tuesday night, Stephanie and I went to the Indian Embassy for what was billed as a Christmas concert/sing-along. There were some Christmas songs and there was some singing along, but there was a lot of other stuff too. There was an operatic French singer who was actually quite good. They also had the loudest flute player I've ever heard in my life. Thunderous fluting sounds like an oxymoron, but this lady was belting it out. Then there were the two other performers - and I use the term loosely. I'm not sure if I'd liken it to bad karaoke because bad karaoke is at least entertaining. They attempted a wide variety of songs including some Beatles hits and other random tunes like 'Summertime', 'Down By The Riverside', 'Misty', and 'The River of Babylon', and weren't entirely successful. The best parts were definitely when the crowd got to join in and drown them out and when they made the French Ambassador come up and sing - because he was quite good. On the bright side, Stephanie and I had a good time snickering and the event did raise money for a group that assists disabled kids in Tajikstan, so in the end, I'm glad we went.

I was in Khujand for the rest of the week. Since that will come later, all I have left to report is that when I got home tonight. Stephanie suggested a concert at the Opera House. I was dubious since she was the one who suggested we go to the Indian Embassy, but this sounded promising.

I'm so glad we went. There was some ballet featuring a few bits from The Nutcracker, along with some others. The orchestra also played a few tunes. Then, the choir from a local Catholic church performed very good renditions of 'Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring' and 'The Hallelujah Chorus' with the orchestra's accompaniment. Then they did a very interesting medley of songs from 'Carmen' mixed with some John Phillip Sousa -which was surprisingly excellent. The choir finished with 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing', which got a standing ovation and brought tears to Stephanie's eyes. It was really nice to do something Christmas-y outside of our own home.

The only funny thing was that since the choir was composed of some locals, there was a pretty strong accent. So during the last song it sounded like, "Peace on earth and mercy meeld, God and sinners reconceeled." If anything, it enhanced the experience and although tired from the trip, I was very glad to have gone.

On the way home, we made our way to a fast-food restaurant and picked up what turned out to be a rather passable pizza. Not bad for little old Dushanbe.