Miriram and Her Violin

Pik and Stefan have raised their kids to study some music.  Peppo and Miriam both have some experience with the violin and Tara has become quite accomplished on the piano.  Her parents invested an enormous sum of money for a very good second hand Yamaha upright.

Most of the kids and Pik can play some guitar  and there are two decent ones at hand.

Miriam has a suitable full size violin, but her bow is in terrible condition.

It's a cheap wooden stick with long-worn out hair, and I tell Pik it would be better to buy a new one since it would be cheaper than a rehair unless she can find someone who works with the saw duang or saw u (Thai fiddles) who can probably rehair a conventional bow for cheap.

I considered buying Miriam a replacement bow but the problem is she's never really had a steady teacher so she remains rather unmotivated.  Occasionally she will tool around with the instrument, reading from Suzuki book 1 and other materials (all the kids can read music).

I've identified a couple key areas which might help Miriam if she wants to spend half an hour with me.  I leave it up to her.

Meanwhile, the family is readying for the big trip to Germany.  It's Stefan's first trip "home" in six years, and it's Tara's second trip to Germany.  She will stay with Stefan's sister and mother and attend school for one year.

This is Miriam's first trip abroad.  (Casper made his first trip to Germany with Tara and Stefan six years ago.)  She really doesn't want to go.

"She complains almost daily about having to do this, " Stefan says.  "She doesn't want to miss any school here with her friends.  But I tell her it will be good for her to see something different (apart from Thailand), and anyway it's only for two weeks."

Stefan himself is ambivalent about the trip.  In his 20 years in Thailand, this will be only his second trip to the country of his birth.  He knows from experience that that makes him an oddity there.

"I'm not even sure how to talk to people there; here I never speak German, only English or Thai all the time.  When I go home it takes a real effort for me to process what people are saying and asking me, and it's a headache for me to make sure I reply in proper German."

Three hours before Stefan and the girls are due to depart for Chiangmai Airport, Miriam finally takes me up on my offer.  I use the A part of Khang Khao Kin Kluay (Bats Eating Bananas), an old Thai favorite, to help her with first finger anchoring, standing up straight, and learning from "listen and play" since she's fallen into the trap of only using notated music whenever she plays.

By the end of the half hour she is drilling one of the tricky bits.  "This is what she needs to do, " I remark to Stefan.

"She's never worked like that before, " he says.

"Really she needs a teacher, " I say, and we agree that I shouldn't invest any money into a new bow until it becomes clear that she might want to continue with it.

"I would really like for her to do this, but she's at an age where it has to come from her, otherwise it's as if I'm forcing her, " he says.

Argentina & Brazil Sent Home By Germany & Holland

Frankly I was rooting for South American powerhouse teams Argentina and Brazil in their losing battles with European bigshots Germany and Holland, so it wasn't much fun to see both teams whipped by large margins this morning and yesterday.

However I wasn't really rooting for Argentina coach Diego Maradona,he of  the notorious "hand of God" who scored a critical goal against England way back when that many said was a handball.

If memory serves me, Maradona also was sent home from the 1994 World Cup in disgrace after testing positive for cocaine.  The press, then and now, seems to eat him up because he's always good for some juicy ridiculous comment.

Another player from 1994, Dunga of Brazil, is now his team's coach as well.  As I recall he was certainly a lot less controversial than Maradona, serving brilliantly as goalie and captain of the team that year.  And if I remember correctly Dunga was the "old man" of his team--in his thirties--and his World Cup appearances marked the end of his playing career.