Travel Is Not Tiring!
Just a quick thought while sitting here in the lounge, watching over the airfield of Melbourne airport. Everybody complains about how hard travelling is, and the commute to Australia is indeed quite long, but how hard is that at the end of the day? I think it is really just a matter of perspective: I left on Sunday evening and will arrive Tuesday morning, 5 movies, 3 meals and half a book later. Hard? Yes, maybe I am just lucky and fortunate to be able to sleep 7 or 8 hours during the night, but maybe it is also just an attitude problem. I would never dare to compare the "work" I do with a genius like Mozart - but at the end of the day he was a travelling musician as well, and here we can talk about hard travel. Two or three days in horse carriage from Vienna to Prague (or even longer), and this ain't business class in one of these International carriers, not even economy...
Ok, that changes the picture, I did fly business class, but I promise, whenever I have to pay for the ticket myself (to the US for example), I arrive as well rested after a night in economy class, maybe even more rested, because they don't show as many movies. It does help that I am rather short (5'9 or 1.75m) and not very big, but again, I think it also depends on the attitude one takes before and during travel (oh god, my manager will kill me when I talk about not really needing business class to perform well, but it is the truth - luxury doesn't make us better musicians, rather the contrary... that doesn't mean that I don't enjoy it though :) )
When I arrived in Dubai and had a 4 hour lay-over, I started getting a bit annoyed with the huge amount of people running around in the airport. As soon as realized that, I forced myself to think positively, and really, within a few seconds, I had a smile on my face while walking through the mass of people with my cello, thinking how lucky I am to be able to do what I do and to live in the time I live in. I wouldn't want to travel in a horse carriage, being afraid to be robbed or thrown into the mud with a broken wheel. And last night I even found my piece about not being able to spend the next three weeks with my family, because I know they'll have a wonderful time with the grandmother in Puert Rico, and they won't even miss me. And I can read, practise and play some nice concerts in some gorgeous countries, how bad is that...