daybook from holland

day 1
the fact i have to go next hours abroad was really surprising. i had no time to say goodbye. after this shock i went immediatelly to shopping centre and bought most necessary things and box of cigarettes because i knew that i will be very nervous next hours. i didn‘t slept at night and smoked whole box. i prepared a few things in the morning, took a bath and went to bed to take a little sleep. i leaved all real preparings, hurry and stress to afternoon, few hours before leaving. i was never packed so quick. i was looking forward to nice and comfy bus i used last time, but what arrived wasn‘t my favoured one. last time i had seat reservation ticket beside an old gypsy woman, so it was suffering, but today i got a seat by good-looking woman, but she didn‘t said any word. do i look so unfriendly? the the silence was broken by cute girl who sat on the opposite row, so time slipped away very fast. when i got off, bus driver started shouting on me, because he thought i‘m travelling to prague so he gave all my luggage to place for such passengers. it was little misunderstanding, but i was happy i arrived to my destination, where my collegues waited for me. we loaded everything up and begun our 1300 km mission.

day 2
it was after midnight and the roads were almost empty, so we flew through austria very quickly with small time-outs. a morning on german highway was peaceful too, but rising the temperature and time came along with increasing the number of cars until we stopped due to traffic jam. hundreds and hundreds of angry people were beat down by sun on their cars standing on motionless road. by the way, did you know that you can find a highway church on german highway? maybe you can find a highway cemetery or highway kindergarten, too. after that torture we drove to holland almost without some big breaks and arrived on early evening. an official reception by our assistant ensued. she always have to listen the stories from road first and then she can do her duty. i’m there fifth time, so she told just small changes of rules. i thought we’ll have a welcome party as ever, but everyone who arrived was very tired. we had a visitors just for a short time, but we went to bed really soon. it was very needful.

day 3
we started our day with small shopping because of summer sale, so i bought some togs and i bought also bigger memorycard and better batteries to my camera. it continued with dinner with all colleagues which ended on evening. we talked a lot. after that session i went to our temporary cottage to watch a movie, then a festival recording and when i turned off the tv, my day was over.

day 4
i had to wake up really soon to pack all stuff back and move to zandvoort 180 km apart to play there just on afternoon. we fix our eyes at landing airplane near the amsterdam airport and we turned to bad direction to haarlem, but later we found out it wasn’t so bad step, because we missed the traffic jam in town. we have been there very soon so we thought that we’ll prepare our sound system in advance, but it took more time as we expected and we had also problems with sound settings, but the final result surprised us very much. it was amazing. we were afraid of that before, but after first song we knew that our afternoon will be without any stress. there was a little detail, that lights didn’t work, but we succeeded anyway. after that we had to load our van once again and travel 250 km to lodge us, so the day wasn’t over yet, but we suffered that somehow. i needed to shower and bed immediatelly.

day 5
when i woke up i was too lazy to unpack the rest of my stuff, so i was lolling on my bed really long. after bathing i had to go to dinner and prepare our instruments for evening. if i told that i was satisfied with sound yesterday, i can’t compare it with sound there. it was clear and delightful. the audience rewarded us with applause a lot of times. it’s a wonderful feeling when i see they’re satisfied. i like it. i wonder how it will be tomorrow. we have to play longer on sundays. hopefully it’ll be without any problems and we will tingle all hearts.

day 6
what to write? day begun like the others, but we had to set the installation a little bit earlier and play six hours, but it passed off without any problems. our duty is now routine activity and the time is passing very quickly. soon it’ll be boring for us and we’ll be forced to add some new pieces to liven up our repertoire and make our playlist over. we are too lazy to do that this days, but it will be necessary i think. i have to say that i feel i’m in the groove like never before. i realized i must take care of my condition. i must improve in all things, i can’t be satisfied at all. never. that’s me.

day 7
i opened the last box of cigarettes i bought on gas station in homeland. i smoked one box each day. i think it’s time to give it up. i won’t pay more than double of price there. i started doing that just because i was very nervous, although nicotine isn’t the best thing to tranquilize, but i was smoker for eight years or more with little breaks. i can stop anytime, but the problem is not to start it again when some problem occurs. when i’ll take the last one, i want to start several small changes in my daily life. just a details, but maybe significant. i just have to play tomorrow evening and i’ll have free for the first time. i want to see the nearest town to buy some littleness.

day 8
today we got a first payment from british guests. soon we’ll visit the amsterdam and parking there isn’t very cheap, so this money came on the right time. we tried to make a small changes in playlist to fresh it up, because it became really boring for us. i wrote that before. i knew it’ll happen.

day 9
we spent our first day by shopping at coevorden. it’s just a small town, but with a lot of little shops, so we visited every interesting one. i like shopping, howbeit a whole day if it’s possible. i bought just a little things, which really told me “buy me, please”. sometimes it’s hard to say no, chiefly when you got enough cash to accept their begging. this day was short. i thought i can enjoy free day more.

day 10
my first day without cigarette. first days are always easy, but the worst will come after week or two. i hope i will suffer that without taking a fag again. tonight was the last performance at the same place, we’ll move elsewhere for a week, so i have to pack my stuff. the place where we gonna move looks very nice, i’m looking forward to be there.

day 11
i was packed so quick like i usually do last day of contract. i left some things there, because i’ll bring them back when i’ll return. the journey was a little longer, because we chose bad direction in amsterdam, but we saw more of amsterdam then we originally meant. my new room looks great. i like it very much. we visited our czech colleagues by their performance on evening, but i moved to my new bed very soon. i was really tired.

day 12
our show began on afternoon and we played especially for chocolate people who just wanted to drink just one beer but they enjoyed us so much, that they stayed almost to end of our performance. our six hours were successful, the audience was more than satisfied, they danced and had fun. that’s our purpose and our job.

day 13
the rush of zandvoort’s race circuit woke me up very early so i was searching for the way to see the event there until i saw the whole circuit. it was nice watching, but it was a little bit cold outside, so after a hour i returned to warmer place, my room. the playing tonight was boring, but it seemed shorter as usually. why i’m writing there less than on the beginning?

day 14
i went to circuit directly from bed again. there was a motorcycle training. i was on a beach but my batteries said me goodbye when i wanted to make some pictures. it’s very interesting place, so now i know where to go, when i’ll feel bored. i felt really bored by our evening performance. the people were quiet like fishes. there are lot of german teenagers from schooltrips and they won’t sit in café to listen us. they just came to drink and have sex.

day 15
i went to sea with two pairs of fully charged batteries to be sure i will make same pics for sure. the weather wasn’t as good as yesterday, so i didn’t dipped my legs; i had strong lust to jump to water, but i was there with improper people. i can imagine enjoying the sea with my girlfriend. i bought first beer after two weeks. it was a good choice. this evening was better than the other. i sang with ease and tried to look unstudied. i enjoyed it.

day 16
day began with awful weather, so first i thought we have to reschedule visiting of amsterdam, but we risked it and we did good thing. there was quite good weather whole time. i felt the scent of amsterdam again. i really love this beautiful place. but i was there with the wrong people again. this time just two, but it was the same disgrace. i tried to enjoy the town as much as i can and paying no attention on them. i can write a novel about their behavior. exactly what dumb foreign tourists usually do. they belong to stupid holiday destinations, but not to amsterdam. few hours of walking tired them so much, that they overslept the dinner. i don’t want to undergo something similar as long as possible. god forbid!

day 17
on this day horrible weather lasted whole day, so i didn’t moved from my room. i had a lot of time for myself. i added two pieces to my repertoire. it’s not much, but this day was very short. that’s good. it’s closer to the end.

day 18
i heard terrible wind blew outside whole night, so i thought it’s terribly outside, but when i looked out of the window i saw clear sky. wind is here more usual, it’s seaside resort. i woke up because of rumble from circuit again. i had to pack my bags, because of moving to previous place for a week after our performance. i enjoyed it again. we had a perfect sound. i was reading a magazines whole 250km, so the journey seemed short.

day 19
i won’t unpack anything, i will pull out things i need directly from bags. just a few days and we have to move again. finally for the last time. it’s cold outside and the summer is definitely over. i don’t have there so much autumn clothes, hopefully i won’t freeze. we had a perfect audience tonight. we satisfied them and they satisfied us. nice cooperation.

day 20
oh, when i woke up i went to breakfast and few minutes after i prepared instruments. we played almost whole afternoon, started at two and finished at ten, but duty manager told us we have to play half-hour extended time, because of guests, so when i finally went down from stage i was completely exhausted but happy that guests are enjoying our performance. it’s their problem. i can’t listen to myself.

day 21
i didn’t get dinner, just oversalted soup. today we had less audition, so it was just a small probability of extended time. i love my girlfriend and i want the world to know.

day 22
i saw raccoons today. it’s interesting to watch their behavior for some minutes. i didn’t had a camera there, but i was asking myself if it is correct to make a pictures of caged animals, but on the other hand when i’m doing my performance on the evening, i’m also caged animal for a while and people are making pictures of me. i will see if i will do. the evening was good as usual.

day 23
it’s my name-day. i was anxious to know who’ll notice that and i was completely right. just my girlfriend, mum and best friend. i appreciate it. you all means a really lot for me. thank you. today was the most boring of all days spent here. we visited small town in germany and realized that it wasn’t the best idea. later i was arguing with my colleague about bullshit like always, but he angered me very much and spoiled my mood for whole day. just a few days and it’s finally over. i will be happy like never.

day 24
well, our last performance here in huttenheughte is over, “the last song of this night just sounded, we wish you a good night and we are happy to see you next time” said my bandleader every night with broken english. he is reading this sentence every night. he cannot compose his own simple sentence, because he don’t speak english. when something happen and he haven’t sentence for that, i must save the situation. why i cannot present our performance? because i’m not the boss? it’s not fair. he is just a parrot. he claims he know german language, but his vocabulary of few words is not knowledge. it sounds like the funny speaking of apache. but it’s not funny, i find it rather awkward.

day 25
i woke up and thought i catch a chill, but it happened some mornings before too, so i wasn’t afraid it’ll be getting worse. it doesn’t means i’m ok. a changes in the weather cause changes in the health. we moved today for the last time. everything went off without a hitch. i was on the beach again. my legs fell in love to sand and my eyes to sight of the sea. i’d like to thank my sweetheart for really sweet postcard.

day 26
i slept like a baby. few minutes after taking a bath i had to prepare for the last longer evening. the rest will be the shorter ones. first hours were there only very freaky people who drained me, but i rescued it with red wine. later was dance floor occupied, so it was satisfaction after our effort. i’ve got enough.

day 27
the weather wasn’t very sunny, but i decided to feel sand on my feet again, so after taking a breakfast i went immediatelly to beach. the water temperature was pretty pleasant and sand with seashells was the perfect feet massage. why is summer already gone and why i walked there alone? i wanted to stay there longer, i feel there really great, but i’ve got duty. we started with terrible sound so now i’m sure my chief is deaf. i stood my ground we sound bad and after five minutes of insists we made it better. conjure a passable sound there is really mastery. the person who projected that soundsystem is jerk.

day 28
i was not sleeping whole night, so i went to beach on early morning to collect some nice seashells. i was very tired, walking like lifeless and the beach was unpeopled so i took a little sleep there. when i woke up, there was still no one, so i did something very crazy and i’m proud i was dare do it. i returned after hours just because of stormy clouds, but i wanted to stay longer. after it, a lot of interesting things happened. i don’t want to bore you with all details, but i felt a little bit paranoid. hopefully there was not any hidden cameras on the beach. the evening was pretty nice, i enjoyed it very much.

day 29
yesterday began with breakfast, then long way to port zélande to do one and only evening performance there. bandmaster had whole time intestinal problems, so we were prepared to unexpected “technical” breaks, but thank god nothing happened. the audience there is always the most boring, but it doesn’t interested us so much. we did what we had to do and we knew about this fact anyway. it was ugly weather outside so i didn’t saw more than place we played, but i already have around 600 pictures.

day 30
i had to wake up very early, because today was pay day, so we drove 100km to residence of our agency to get our wages. it was a nice feeling holding such sum of money. i must take care of them until i’ll deposit them into my account. of course i did some small shopping, i always stock up with energetic drinks and something to peck, because the way home will take almost whole day. it’s around 1700km, so it’s really long journey. i can’t afford to travel by airplane. i never flew, yet. i can’t believe i have my bags almost completely packed. i’m very happy i’ll meet my girlfriend soon. i’m crazy about her. (honey, i love you)

day 31
i waited for it whole month. today will everything be over. i didn't slept a lot, because i had to finish my packing, but i took a nap before we went to market dome for the last dinner and last playing. you don't care so much how good your performance is on your last day, but we were ready on the stage like other days, but their sound system failed, so we started one hour later and finished sooner because of this. so, it was really nice ending of our work indeed. our van was really filled with almost milimetre accuracy.

day 32
the last thing we did was returning of keys from our cottage and after that our journey began. we were on german borders very quick and we missed the main traffic jams because we drove in night. i was very tired, so i slept maybe half of whole time spent in car. when we came to the railway station i was in hurry to buy a ticket and the surprise was i bought the last ticket. what a luck! i was so happy that i went to train without my jacket. i had pleasant co-traveller so it wasn't boring journey.