I think I have time to do this – it’s a little after 7:00 am, I’ve already had coffee, pills, and read the NY Times and done the Wordle. Need to get the machinery going at 7:30 or so.

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Flight to Manchester quite painless, and no problem going through customs and picking up luggage. I’m quite familiar with the Manchester airport by now. You can easily get to Buxton by train or bus, but I knew the bus would let me off pretty much across the street from the B&B, so went for the bus. Oh, that’s odd, nowhere to buy a ticket. I had no idea what time the next bus was. Signs say “buy the ticket online”. I download the app, which then pretends to not be able to find the bus to Buxton (they run every half hour). I’m struggling with this when the bus pulls in. I show the elderly driver the app, he shrugs, then points to the card machine – oh, I can just pay on the bus with a credit card, and it’s only 2 pounds! So, go fetch my luggage, back on the bus and we’re off. I’m sitting in a priority ‘if you’re disabled or elderly’ section, and probably shouldn’t be, but need to keep an eye on my luggage, which wants to tip over on curves.

Somewhere after Stockport, a guy gets on with some sort of long rod-thing with fake leaves on the end that he’s purchased and sits by me. He ends up being chatty – the thing is a shower curtain rod, he’s just moved into a new house. We talk about the countries we’ve visited and so on, and have a very nice time. (this is not a flirtation situation, if anyone’s brain is heading in that direction) And he finally shakes my hand and gets off the bus… at a delightfully-named pub I’ve noticed every time I’ve taken that bus, the “Dandy Cock”. Heh heh. Heh heh.

And in not much time after that, I look out the window and realize, oh, we’re in Buxton now, by the train station! Much happiness ensues. This is 20 years since my first visit, but 11 years since my last one, and it’s very much a delightful return a place that I have great affection for. Bus tootles along and up the hill to the end of the route in the marketplace. I get off, cross the street and then realize I’m not exactly sure where the B&B is. (look it up on the phone, oh, it’s just down the street a ways) Turns out the Queens Head is primarily a pub, but with rooms – how old-timey! They are delighted to see me (they’d called me just as I was getting my luggage at the airport to verify I was coming) and Tanith helps me to my room, which has a private entrance off the alley. Up a staircase to a very nice room – but which has very little storage space.

Ah well, I’ll figure that out later, I need to get cleaned up and get together with my eager, but pushy, assistant (who I’ve never met) to go over the score and discuss tempi. I’ve got enough time, though, to have a late lunch and buy some things for the room. I eat at a restaurant called “Noonology”, which has an all-day breakfast. I’m at a table by the window, which I’m facing, and as I eat, I see cast members of my show arriving and walking by on the way to their various lodgings – they don’t see me and I’m too lazy to jump up and pop out the door to say hi – I’ll see them all soon enough.

Takes me a bit of time to find the house my assistant is sharing with my buddy Marisa (who was my assistant last time) and a couple of the actors. He’s a very skilled up-and-coming pianist and conductor, British, and very sweet. We go through stuff, nothing seems to be problematic- and we stop rehearsal at a reasonable time because he has to accompany some stuff for other companies. He drives me to a local store to pick up more stuff (we both do) and I end up walking the ‘shopping street’, but by this time, it’s closing down. (by this time I’ve managed to pick up stuff like toothpaste and bottled water, but still haven’t managed to find the uniodized water for the CPAP machine – and may never, we’ll see)

I figure a lot of people will be gravitating to the Old Clubhouse, the pub next to the opera house, and so I head there – and immediately run into Stuart, an old friend who was in my first show and who directed the Pirates I conducted in 2015. So we bought each other drinks and got caught up and really agreed how wonderful and ‘back to normal’ it was being in Buxton.

My buddies in a different opera company were performing the Gondoliers that night, but I was beat and Gondo is a long show so I declined. I did say hi to a bunch of people outside the Opera House before they went in. Then I went in search of dinner – I’d stupidly not brought my Kindle, and I like to read if I’m eating alone, so went back up the hill to the B&B and picked it up and went across the street to the Old Sun pub. I had a fried chicken sandwich and sides and it was really … well, everything about the meal was great except the chicken breast itself, which was dry and bland. So that was a drag, but not a big deal.

I was not about to stay up and go to the festival club after the show I wasn’t seeing, not with rehearsals starting the next day (festivals are fun party times usually, but when I’m the MD, I tend to be kind of monkish). I did manage to finally figure out how to unpack and get the room organized and now that’s nicely set up. And zonked out circa 9:45.

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Coming up – adventures in Rederring!