新玩具New Toy

過去的兩個星期，就如預期中地忙碌，又是婚禮又是生日派對的，生活的步調更為緊湊，連喘口氣寫篇文章的時間都沒有。所有都按照計畫順利進行，唯一狀況外的，是我的新玩具。
We’re so busy as we’ve expected during the past two weeks. There’re weddings and birthday party, so many events that I didn’t even have time to sit down and blog. Luckily everything went smoothly, and I also received a new “toy” by accident.

這得要從克里斯和希薇亞的結婚派對說起。
Everything started at the wedding of Cristian and Silvia.

他們倆人結婚的當天，除了早上典型的教堂典禮和中午的婚宴以外，還多了一個專門為朋友辦的派對，晚上包下了一間酒吧，準備了簡單的餐點，邀請了七八十個朋友一同分享他們的喜悅，暢飲無限。因為這群人裡頭有不少是搞音樂的，有DJ有鼓手，也有幾個會談鋼琴，因此克里斯除了要求大家夥兒提供自己的家私以外，還專程跑到樂器行去租了一台電子鋼琴，讓這些難得聚在一起的人，一起即興演出一番。
The day of their wedding started with the ceremony in church, continues with the feast in the restaurant and then the party in a pub. To celebrate with all friends, they booked the pub for the whole night, providing some light foods and “all you can drink” beverages. They’ve got some friends who play some music. There’re some DJs, a drummer and some pianists. Cristian asked them to provide the DJ tools and the set drum, and also went to rent a digital piano so that people can play a jamming session together.

派對進行地非常順利，一直到深夜三點多才結束。隔天（星期天）就要出發去度蜜月的新人，因為沒有時間去還樂器，便央求米奇代勞。米奇因為跟樂器行的老闆熟識，也就答應了下來。派對結束後，便把鍵盤給載了回家。
Everything went well and the party continued until 3AM in the morning. The newly wed would leave for honeymoon the next day and didn’t have time to return the instrument. So they asked us to return the piano. Michele knows the owner of the store well and happily said “yes”. So we took the piano home after the party.

在客廳裡擺著也是擺著，我便坐到鍵盤前玩了起來，這才發現，從我上次玩電鋼琴以來的十年多，電鋼琴不論在硬體軟體上的發展都往前跨了一大步。以前的電鋼琴常常因為琴鍵重量太輕，被我嫌到不行，彈不到十分鐘手指就開始發痛，因此在剛搬過來的時候，我並沒有接受米奇想要買台電鋼琴給我玩的提議。
We put it in the living room and I got the initiative to try it. Then I discovered that there’s been quite some advancement of digital piano no matter in hardware or software since I last touched it ten years ago. I used to dislike digital piano because the weight of the keys is normally too light for me and my fingers started to hurt in ten minutes or so. That’s why I didn’t accept Michele’s proposal to get one when I just moved to Italy.

我只說了一句：「這個琴鍵的重量比我之前試過的還重，也許這種我可以適應…」哪知米奇一聽到這句話馬上跳了起來：「我明天還琴時順便問問多少錢，這台是二手琴，應該不貴…」
I only said “the keys are much heavier than anything I’ve tried before, and maybe it’s playable for me…” Michele was so happy to hear this: “I’ll ask how much it costs tomorrow. It’s a second hand and shouldn’t be too expensive…”

隔天，米奇還了琴回到家以後說：「我看了一下，有很多款式，我想妳還是去試試比較好…那台二手琴大概六百，不過老闆說價格可以談，我也有看到山葉新出的電鋼琴，彈起來也不錯…」滔滔不絕地講了一堆，硬是要我找一天試琴去。
Michele went to return the piano the next day. After he came back, he said, “there’re many models and I think you’d better try before we make any decision… the secondhand one is about 600 euro but the price is negotiable. There’re some new Clavinova models from Yamaha and they sound nice…” He continued to talk and insist that I should spare some time to go there and try them myself.

我對於買電鋼琴這件事還是遲疑，不過看他那麼躍躍欲試的樣子，過了兩天，我們還是到了樂器行。
I was still hesitant about buying a digital piano, but Michele was so enthusiastic that I just didn’t feel like saying no to him. Two days later, we went to visit the shop.

一個半小時內，我大概試了不下十款電鋼琴，選來選去比較能夠接受的，還是從小就習慣的山葉，挑到後來名單裡剩下兩款。因為價格的關係，其實我比較中意便宜的那款，反正我只是要拿來練手指而已，畢竟對我來說，電鋼琴永遠都是電鋼琴，絕對無法取代任何一款鋼琴，現在買電鋼琴只是退而求其次的選擇，畢竟以我們現在的經濟狀況，沒有辦法負擔起一台好鋼琴…
I’ve tried more than ten ditigal pianos in one and half hour. At the end the more acceptable ones are still Yamaha products that I’m used to since I was a kid, and two models remained in the list. Price-wise I prefer the cheaper one. In any case I’ll just use it for moving my fingers… For me, electric pianos cannot replace a real piano. And the decision is made only because we can not afford to get a good piano at the moment.

只是，到了米奇身上，他就開始挑剔了。便宜的那款只有一種聲音採樣，另外一款差價大概三百多，卻是用了三種聲音採用，聽起來自然點，而且還有錄音功能，也可以插上隨身碟，把自己彈的東西錄進去，拿到電腦裡處理…最後，我竟然順了他的意，選了那台比較貴的琴…老闆也做個順水人情，原本定價將近兩千三百歐元的新琴，一千四成交，還可以分期付款。
However, when it came to Michele’s decision he became picky. The cheaper model only uses one kind of sound sample. The expensive one applies three samples and sounds more natural. The latter also has recording function and USB for file transfer between piano and computer. At the end, I followed his decision and chose the more expensive one. The owner is a good friend and gave us really good discount, from the listed price of about 2300 euro down to 1400 euro that we can pay in several installment without interests.

琴馬上被我們運了回家，而我在義大利的生活也多了一個練琴的‘功課’…本來只是隨口說說，結果竟然真的買了琴，其實我到現在還是無法相信…
We bought the piano home immediately and there’s one more new “task” now for my life in Italy… Honestly… I still can’t believe that I’ve got a piano now…