Recently, the Hunt family returned to NZ. Jess, Benji and Elliott were on the same MAF orientation as me, back in April 2019 in Cairns. They were the longest-serving family on our compound, and Benji’s engineering and teaching skills, and Jess’ hospitality gifting will be missed. But I look forward to catching up with them again on my next home assignment, and seeing what God does in the next chapter of their lives.
With Jess departing, I was keen to buy her piano. She warned me that it was horribly out of tune, but a few Youtube videos convinced me that with the right tools (and the right app) it shouldn’t be that hard to tune a piano. The bigger problem would be moving it from their house to mine.
I sent a request to the MAF PNG Facilities department, asking if they could spare four or five strong guys for an hour or so on a day I wasn’t flying, as we estimated the piano weighed 200 kg or more.
On my day off last week, three Facilities guys turned up and were about to start moving the piano when I told them to stop, so that I could explain the plan and the technique to them first! They roped in our two compound security guards as well, and we managed to get the piano out of the house and down the stairs.
The security guards disappeared, and the Facilities guys asked if they could finish moving it on Monday! When I told them no, they decided to go back to the base and get some more manpower.
An hour later they returned with three more guys, and between the six of them were able to carry it across the lawn and the carpark. By this stage it was threatening to rain, and when bigger drops started to fall, it was enough of an incentive to finish the job. I think they got it up the stairs faster than it had initially come down!
During the process, two conversations made me smile. The first was when they realised how heavy it was. “We thought it was going to be like Connie’s” (a digital piano). Obviously they didn’t get the memo about the 200 kg!
The second was when the piano was on the ground floor and someone lifted the lid and pressed a few keys. In astonishment he asked, “How does it make a sound when it’s not plugged in?” I opened the top and revealed the answers to both questions.
A couple of days after the move, I disassembled the accessible parts of the piano to give it a good clean and unstick some keys. Then, armed with my tuning kit (a Christmas present to myself) and app, I spent three hours tuning it. When I first played it afterwards, I was immediately transported to my happy place.
Getting the piano up the stairs before the rain comes!
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| Getting ready to reassemble and start tuning |
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