Eccentric Sheep and "The Happy Endings Tour".

when I roll out of bed on Saturday morning it is half past eight, Graham and Lillianne are already up and eating breakfast, the welcome aroma of fresh coffee fills the house. Miraculously I feel OK and after breakfast, we all get ready and take Frankie to the Kralingse park in the city. We drive there and park well into the woods, not far from a small cafe, before letting Frankie off his lead as we start our walk. It is a clear, bright morning and there are plenty of people about, a group near the car park are practising body balance and there are numerous walkers, joggers and cyclists, all making their way around the network of paths. Frankie has a field day finding, fetching and carrying sticks. Eventually our wanderings bring us to the Kralingse lake, where over a hundred small yachts are sailing, weaving between each other, as they tack and turn. A flock of sheep are grazing by the lakes' edge, protected from Frankie and all the other dogs, by an electric fence. One sheep appears to have died, it is lying on its back with it's legs in the air, but gets up and wanders around for a while, before resuming it's previous posture. An eccentric sheep, only in Holland! After our walk, we drink tea, sat on a table outside the cafe with Frankie, before driving home. Once indoors Graham bakes some baguettes and creates a wonderful pumpkin soup, which we eat as a light lunch, as we are eating an early dinner before the Jazz concert in Rotterdam this evening. Graham and I take Frankie out for his afternoon walk before it gets dark and are caught in a sharp shower, it seems wet weather has started to set in. Later we eat a mixed salad, with most of the ingredients from Grahams allotment, and a grilled salmon filet for dinner, with crusty baguette to accompany and a glass of crisp white Chardonnay. Afterwards we all have a nap for an hour and then get changed for the concert. We drive to the Metro and then take the train into town, it is only a few hundred metres from the station to the theatre, but it is pouring with rain and as a consequence, we hug the sides of buildings to try to keep dry. We arrive at the Rotterdamse Schouwburg, without getting too wet and have time for a coffee before the concert starts at eight fifteen. The cafe bar " Floor," that serves the theatre, is packed with an eclectic crowd of people of all ages and dress styles, happily eating and drinking, but the average age drops dramatically, as the audience for the Willem Breuker Kollectief "Happy Endings Tour", makes it's way to the auditorium. Willem Breuker died in 2010, from asbestosis, after a career spanning forty years, the musicians of his Kollectief are doing a final tour in order to say goodbye to his audience, all loyal fans of avant garde "free jazz". Graham and Lilliane had already booked before I decided to visit, but kindly managed to get hold of another ticket. What I know about free jazz can be written in capital letters on a very small postage stamp, nevertheless I adopt my usual approach to any unencountered art form and give it the benefit of the doubt, reserving any judgements until after experiencing the whole thing. The concert is a multi media retrospective of Willem and the Kollectief, in the style they believe he would have liked. Various pieces are played and songs are sung, as each individual musician is introduced, gives a solo and explain how they came to meet Willem and join the Kollectief. Each one is an accomplished musician and by the time the band takes a break for the interval, I have started to appreciate the creative balance between resonance and dissonance, that is there hallmark. It is also almost impossible not to be enthused by the joyful way the musicians create their art and the generosity with which they support each other. At the end of the concert, the audience almost brings the roof down and the fans leave with a mixture of feelings, having enjoyed the music, but sad that it is all over. I guess the "Happy Endings Tour", is an appropriate title. Willem Breuker's colleagues and fans certainly gave him a good send off from Rotterdam. It is still raining when we leave the theatre, around half past eleven and make our way home on the Metro. At this time of night, it is mostly young people out and about, but I am both surprised and pleased, to see disabled people in wheelchairs and scooters, manouvre freely onto and off the trains, whose carriages are level with the platforms. We arrive home, slightly damp around midnight and eat bread, cheese and salami with a glass of wine. There is much to discuss, and despite our good intentions, it is after two when we turn in, tired but happy.