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Marcus composed workshop music on the plane...
the view as we came into Sumburgh
the smallest airport in the world?
Stuart explains the geography to Marcus
Marshall, the pilot, on the left - Marcus on the right!
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Odyssey Blog - a journal of events 24 March: by Claire Friday. Stuart said with a knowing smile that although the itinerary looked great, it was all bound to change... he's been to Shetland before, and knows the terrain. However, we were on to Plan B way before we even got north of the border, with a cancelled flight out of Heathrow. As we were on connecting flights, BA sorted us out with a later flight to Aberdeen, and a hotel. However the first morning flight to Sumburgh arrived too late for us to make our 9am flight to Fair Isle, there wasn't room for us all on the 3pm flight, and the weather was threatening to get worse... If we did not get to Fair Isle on Friday we would not be able to get there at all, as there are no flights over the weekend and on Monday we are due in Unst. With the weather deteriorating, the Tingwall office of LoganAir decided to bring the 3pm flight forward to 1pm, and our standby seats came through thanks to some clever juggling by the other passengers on the plane, one of whom was the headteacher of Fair Isle School, Gilly, who sent her son Oliver and her luggage on ahead on the 9am flight when she heard about our plight. After splitting our luggage, taking only what was strictly necessary, and weighing everything that was going on the plane, including ourselves, we climbed aboard the tiny 8-seater plane and set off on a spectacular trip down the east side of Shetland south to Fair Isle. I was feeling extremely green, as I had gone down with food poisoning in Aberdeen (thank goodness I had packed Imodium), but even in my very wan state I enjoyed the stunning rock formations as we bumped our way to a landing on the north of Fair Isle. My heart was warmed by the welcome that lay there for us - Lise jumping up and down with delight to see the plane and the waiting folk waving enthusiastically. As we were popped out of our little seats and helped out by the welcoming committee (doubling as firemen in Ian and Fiona's case) we were enveloped in huge hugs and cries of welcome and bundled rapidly across the rain-swept airfield into warm cars. Before we knew it we were sitting with hot mugs of tea in our various host's houses, cosy and safe. Quite extraordinary to think that apart from Stuart and Evgeny, we were strangers who had never met before, but that is the Fair Isle way of hospitality - immediate, warm and generous. There was little time to relax, though, as we had already lost half a day with the children, and were keen to get into the school and start work. The teachers and children all unanimously agreed to stay late to do this, and what's more, add a session to Saturday's workshops to give an extra hour for rehearsing the piece before its premiere performance to the islanders that night. Sadly, by this time (and probably not helped by two flights that day), my gastric situation has worsened, and I was ordered by new surrogate Mum Anne to stay at home close to the bathroom. I was sorry to miss the first workshop, but all reports came back that it went very well. Anne is full of ideas for the giant knitting, but is going with two sails, one created from the wide ribbon I've brought with me, and the other from a shawl. The children will also be making ropes out of the ribbon by looping it through itself during the performance. Stuart and Evgeny are delighted to be back on the island, and Marcus is amazed at how remote and very different it is, thoroughly enjoying his first experience of Fair Isle life. Its certainly a contrast from Lyons, where he flew from to be with this trip (and indeed Nice, where he has a concert next Friday)!
Fair Isle 24.03.06
Claire's Blog (the project in chronological order):
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