Now I have to learn it

It arrived in the biggest box known to man (according to Dave)... a day earlier than expected as well. I had to reboot my laptop (...shame...) so came out to do a quick unboxing before lunch.

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It was very well packed in lots of that blown plastic stuff, came already in its bag and comfortably contained. I couldn't wait to take a look, so undressed it and took a photo (excuse the mess). It was still quite cold from being in transit, and I was actually supposed to be at work, so I decided to let it warm up before I tried to tune it.
We had wine down this afternoon, so Andrea challenged me to show off my new toy, which I was happy to do. However, I finished up work before playing with it any further.
Once done, I got it undressed again and extracted the tuning key. It wasn't a great fit, and I think I might get a new one (looks like it might have had a bit of a bash at some point) in time. Nonetheless, I fired up the tuning app, found the bottom note and had at it. It didn't take much of a turn to make quite a difference, so once settling on A2, I went on by ear, checking occasionally on the app. Once I got to F, I remembered E flat tuning... It probably took a good 40 minutes to get it approximately in tune. I do need to work on semitones :)
I had a strum and a pluck and a mess about before looking at the book (discovered an interesting flipped/reversed page9/95 segment, but hey, these things happen!) and moved past the first few exercises (I can already read music etc) so stopped at chapter 4, which is about getting comfortable. Now, though it's a lap harp, it's a big lap harp - so I got the small stool from the bathroom and decided that was a nice height for practising. And off I went. Once I'd had a bit of a go, I released all the levers and put it back in its bag for safekeeping. I then emailed the chap I'd been corresponding with at the Early Music Shop (Anthony Calvert) to check that releasing the levers was the right thing to do (it was, he replied virtually immediately). I am going to work through the teaching book so I don't develop any bad habits, but I am looking forward to learning the harp!

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I think I can, I think I can...

My pretty...