A progress report from home
This morning, apart from all the usual computer palaver, I finished the Covent Garden/King's College opera course while P. went off to lunch with Robin S. In the evening, I went off to a small Penguini dinner at Zen with Pat, Bryony, Julie and Andrew. A smallie but a goodie. Home again for a quiet night. Thanks, Bryony, for the lift.
This morning, I went on with the opera course and have now finished week three. One week to go which I should finish this week. It is quite interesting, mainly for the clips from different productions. Sally S. dropped in to discuss our mutual travel plans while P. went off to secret U3A committee business. Melbourne is alight with talk about George Pell which is starting to get boring. P. made delicious roast pork for dinner with crackling that worked! The usual Wednesday night teev with so-called comedy on the ABC.
This might be the last of the bookings which are getting a bit boring but we are now going to a piano concert as part of the Aix Easter Festival, as well as Handel's Semele in London and Monet's Giverny garden. All now done and dusted, and probably no more bookings. Now back to the opera course. P. went up to Kew shopping and brought back shepherds' pies for lunch. After a nap, we went off to Blondie at the Recital Centre for a good dinner, then went to Musica Viva to hear Natalie Clein (cello) and Katya Apekisheva (piano) play works by Kodaly, Natalie Williams, Beethoven and Rachmaninov (very moving).
Both Polly M. and Kelly D. got back about our travel plans which are nearly now finalised, except for a possible trip to Giverny to the Monet garden which seems to always elude us. Soup for lunch. I also continued the Covent Garden/King's College opera course, oddly since we won't be going there. However, we will be going, with Polly M. to Handel's Semele at the Barbican. I made anchovy, lemon and breadcrumbs pasta for dinner which was not bad, if I say so myself. Normal Monday night teev.
The crossword was despatched quickly with only one error (theirs). A quiet time reading followed with cheese, tomato and ham toasties for lunch. All three of us had a leisurely day. P. made a chicken casserole with harissa for dinner which was delicious. Baby cheeses to follow with dips and salami. The Cry turned out to be a totally predictable dud, an example of an international co-production which lost its way (or never had one). However, Mrs Wilson, which followed, was excellent. Rupert Everett on gay history was entirely predictable.
The usual shopping day, prefaced by the papers, then a visit to Noel's to drop his shopping off. He is in good form surrounded by an auction at the flat next door. We had salmon cakes for lunch and salmon with dill for dinner. David slept in a bit after a big night out last night (as he doesn't have to work today).
This morning, La Scala let me book two seats for Ariadne auf Naxos with some difficulty. The credit card demanded a code from P.'s mobile even though I thought I'd fixed that problem with the bank. Clearly not for international transactions. I've now booked everything that can be booked in advance for the trip, I think and hope. P. and I went to Teresa Pitt's U3A film course, this week for Blonde Venus, a very atypical Hollywood film in which the bad woman wins out, or does she? It has been described as a 'ragged' film, though in fact it seems very calculating and calculated. It works as a melodrama, for me at least. I think I'd rather have Cary Grant than the dud husband. Tonight, P. and I had a very good meal at Bistrot d'Orsay followed by a great show at the nextdoor Athenaeum memorialising Sam Cooke, starring happy-clapper Catholic Gary Pinto who performed with amazing stamina. It also starred some splendid instrumentalists and backing singers (one his wife) who made it a great show.
More booking today, though La Scala won't play ball till it hits 9am in Europe. Big Bus in Hong Kong is booked though. P. went up to the shops to collect his drycleaning and buy the paper, milk and bread. God, our lives are boring and predictable: we had soup for lunch. In the arvo, it was off to Brunswick to have a good but quick meal at a local cafe (bugs for goodness sake!) then to the Brunswick Uniting Church for an excellent Plexus concert with works by the famous, Beethoven, Debussy and Khatchaturian, and the less famous, Strong, Chatman, Grenfell and Broadstock. It was a truly amazing hour and a half of music. Perhaps our lives are not so boring. Also at the concert were the not so famous Ed Lagzdin and Peter Rose.
Finally, I think we are going to meet up with Jesus in Milan at the last supper. A tour date has been confirmed, I hope, for our last full day in Milano. All the morning computing has been done so all that is left is soup for lunch. In the arvo, we met up with Frank at the Palais for act one of Parsifal, a marathon in itself. Then we had a good pasta dinner at Rococo in Acland Street and returned for the next two acts. It was a fine, well sung and played production. The Australian Youth Orchestra performed magnificently and the spare production worked dramatically. Congrats, Victorian Opera.
Today, I'm off to the Health Centre for a stockup on pills. Then it's time to read up on Parsifal for tomorrow's mammoth performance and I'm still trying to sort out our last supper with Jesus in Milan. It seems as though it's a bit of a racket with the tour companies snapping up all the tickets so that you have to do a tour to get one. As our house guest David put it so pungently, 'You mean you have to buy a ticket in advance to see a painting?' By the way, he is now in his third week of employment and is still going well and enjoying it. P. has gone off for a photoshoot for the U3A brochure. What a star! We had David's leftover mince on toast for lunch and emptied the fridge of leftovers for dinner plus P. made more radicchio with blue-cheese dressing. Lots more Mad Men followed on a dismal night for free-to-air. We're now nearly at the end of season six.
I did some bookings (Alice in Wonderland, the ballet that David should be in) and other things plus travel reading. P. went off for a haircut and we had leftover chicken, potato salad and fish curry for lunch. P. went off to staff the U3A office after lunch. After a nap, P. made rosbif for dinner.
Yesterday (Saturday), we had the usual avalanche of Saturday papers then leftover French onion soup for lunch, then I headed to the Wheeler Centre for the very rewarding memorial to Judith Rodriguez presented by her children. There was a huge rollup for splendid tributes to Judith and readings of her poems. There were drinks afterwards downstairs at The Moat. I then joined Frank and P. for a quick but good meal at Yoyogi, then to the Recital Centre for the Gabrieli Consort and Players performing bits of Purcell and Dryden's King Arthur. It was a breathtakingly good performance. Today (Sunday), we completed the crossword quite quickly. Then we packed Billy the Corolla and David and went off to the Bellbird Picnic Area for the annual family picnic. There wasn't a good roll-up this year but it was good to catch up with some of the Churchills and Coupers. As long as Aunt Ellen keeps coming I won't be the oldest one there. After a nap, I made pad thai for dinner. It was not bad, but next time I'll make the sauce from scratch instead of from a packet. Lots of teev to follow. Mrs Wilson is quite intriguing, while The Cry is a pile of pox. Best offering for the night was Silent Witness on endless repeat.
This morning, P., Frank, Barnaby the Yaris and I went off to Victoria Gardens, did our normal shop and delivered Noel's few items to him. P. and I and Frank retired to our respective homes for leftovers for lunch. This week I've bought fish for two fish dinners: fish and pea curry and pad thai with prawns. We had the fish curry for dinner tonight after David had a hard day's work at the ballet and are now settling in for the Gardening Australia wallow in the past.
This morning, I continued with the Kings College/Covent Garden opera course, plus a small amount of travel research. P. has gone off for lunch with Robin S. After a nap, P. and I joined Frank at the Pope Joan pop-up in Collins Place (where Pei Modern used to be) for a 'Valentine's Day' dinner. It was a fixed-course meal with an array of seafoody entrees including anchovies, sardines and yummy mussels, followed by steak with a good array of vegies and salads, then rice pudding with rhubarb. It was superb and good value but unfortunately not that well patronised. I hope better luck next time.
More opera course this morning plus a very long E-rewards questionnaire about holidays. P. went off to a U3A committee meeting. After a nap, P. and I went into the city to Chocolate Buddha for a very satisfying dinner, thence to Homo Hall for a Chinese Lunar New Year concert conducted by Tan Dun featuring Inner Mongolian rock group Hanggai. While some of Tan Dun's music (he conducted two of his own pieces) is a bit like film score music, he used some good gimmicks in the second piece, like getting audience members to load up some bird sounds made by Chinese instruments and play them as directed during the piece. 'You've got to have a gimmick,' as Gypsy Rose Lee said, but do you have to have so many? Hanggai were at their best when channeling Mongol folk songs into a new format. It was a very enjoyable concert, with about a half-Chinese audience. Some of the orchestra's front desk took the night off, perhaps because they object to playing film score music.
I started this morning by continuing with week two of the opera online course from Covent Garden and King's College, London. It is entertaining and informative but a bit 'opera light'. Then I did more travel research and itinerary building. P. went off to the Health Centre to renew scripts, vax etc. In the arvo. I went off to The Club (RMH) for an ENT check-up. I waited in outpatients for so long (nearly three hours) that I used all of my reading matter. Then a young ENT surgeon did the usual checkup and finally produced this evil instrument which he proposed sticking down my nose to my throat to look at it. When I said I thought that wouldn't work, because of my gag reflex established when I had polio at six, he squirted some anaesthetic into my nose cavity. I remonstrated again and he hurried off to consult with his senior colleague and came back to say all was well and I went off. On the way home, I consoled myself by getting a pocket guide to London with maps. Then I made anchovy pasta for dinner which was very good, even if I say so myself.
Most of this morning was spent on travel research, trawling through old travel guides for information, which then, being old, had to be checked on line. It is a fairly arduous, though stimulating, process and led to some finds of interesting museums and galleries in places like Cannes and Aix-en-Provence. Leftover vera on toast for lunch. After a nap, P. made chicken veneto for dinner (like cacciotore but with potato). A normal Monday night on the teev before Tony Jones' departure. David has renovated his long board, the details of which I do not understand.
P. and I did the crossword this morning, lickety-split, though one clue was dodgy. Par for the course. For the rest a quiet day, reading and making French onion soup, plus a nap. The soup was for dinner, followed by baby cheeses and dips and a bit of teev. David went off to the St Kilda Festival to see, among other things Cat Empire, after resting up most of the day after a late-night party last night. Oh, to be nineteen again.
Today P. and I caught the train to Ballarat with Sally S. and Rennis W. We made our way to Polly P.'s place for a splendid lunch with lots of chat and gossip (which we also had on the train). Her new abode, a retirement village, is very comfy and she is pleased with the move. Unfortunately, Ann de H. was too crook to join us from Castlemaine.
Yesterday (Thursday), I did some more travel planning while P. went off to have lunch with Robin S. We joined Frank at Barre at the Arts Centre after P. had a doctor's appointment, for a good meal then went to the Fairfax Studio for Merciless Gods, a quite confronting play based on Christos Tsiolkas' book of the same name. It was a well-performed, absorbing show, if somewhat puzzling in parts. Today (Friday), we picked up Barnaby the Yaris and Frank and went to Victoria Gardens for the normal shop, delivered Noel's shopping to Hawthorn then had a good brunch at Dr Morse which was very crowded (Friday lunchtime perhaps?) After a nap, I began, at Pat M.'s suggestion a Covent Garden course on opera which takes six weeks, so I'll just finish before heading overseas.
After a busy day yesterday all is quiet today so I can catch up on checking things for the trip plus exploring some places in more detail. It has repaid me with finding a couple of anomalies in the booking (places unpaid I thought I had paid) but most things seem okay. Now for checking the travel guides for nooks and crannies to explore. P. has been in bed most of the day with his gut problems. Sally S. dropped round at lunchtime and shared some quiches and we chatted about our forthcoming travels. Now for a nap.
A trip to the hospital takes up most of the morning. Genie the nephrologist says I am perfect, so I suppose I am. Back in three months, with any luck to be told the same thing. On the way home I visited Parisienne Pate for some treats and P. went into town for some shopping including my birthday treats, DVDs and a book. After a nap, P. and I went off to the Recital Centre for Ludovico's Band plus percussion for Music for Dancing, Spanish and Italian barocca dance music. It was a low key but enchanting concert followed by dinner at Yoyogi which was fine for me but seems to have left P. with food poisoning. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, David's second day at his new job went well and Michael P. has been offered a part-time job at a family law firm while he studies with a view to a full-time job later. A wonderful birthday present from both.
Having had two big dinners over the weekend, I had a quiet birthday with just an (exciting - not) visit to the Health Centre to get my referral for Genie at last. Home for lunch which P. got from the Convent, and now for a nap. A small amount of checking for the o/s trip was done as well. P. made delicious roast pork for dinner with lots of crackling and David's first day at work seemed to go well, so all's right with the world.
Nick and Maggie headed off early this morning in the direction of Moss Vale and David settled (sort of) into the front room. I need to intrude from time-to-time to use the computer. He's now gone off shopping for his start-of-work tomorrow and P. and I had leftover vera on toast for lunch. Now for a quick nap. Early evening, P., David and I joined Frank at the Regent Theatre for a really competent production of The Flying Dutchman by Melbourne Opera with a huge chorus. We had dinner afterwards with Cathy and Rod at The Box next door.
We got the usual Saturday papers and Nick, David and Maggie went off in various ways to see Melbourne. David's meeting up with his ballet company went well and in the evening we had a vego dinner then David and Nick went off to the Red Triangle and P. and I joined Frank for Homophonic which was a concert even better than usual. It finished with a rousing Ma Rainey song for the whole ensemble. Home again for a catch-up before bed.
With Franz but not Frank, P. and I did the shopping for ourselves and Noel, then came home for salmon patties for lunch. A bit more tidying followed, probably not enough but it will have to do for now. Nick, Maggie and David arrived late this arvo from Moss Vale and we headed off for the Green Man Hotel where we meet Michael, Mollie, Lesley and Louise. We had an excellent dinner then came home early as we were on the first sitting.
Live in a two storey house with Peter, work as a freelance editor and like good food! I'm not an Aries as the computer says but Aquarius. I'm a Pig not a Rat. Peter is an Aries.
