Work and play

I've not been overly busy, just lazy. Work has been getting busier, with the election looming, and I've been rehearsing for Nun danket alle Gott at St John's tomorrow morning. Unfortunately it coincides with the changeover to daylight saving; I have to get up even earlier (or go to bed earlier).

Gloriana rehearsals continue as well; the Britten is just as tricky as I remember, but it's a great challenge and I think we've done some very valuable work on it. The rest of the program is interesting too - I hope we get enough time to do it justice.

I had Thursday off because of working today - I managed to do some shopping, and later nephew SP came for dinner. A very enjoyable day.

Today was work. Nothing out of the ordinary happened; I managed to process a couple of sections, and as I got in early I was able to leave around 4pm.

Interesting to see George Cole and Dennis Waterman together again in New Tricks tonight. Nice to see Battersea power station, too

A week in the country and a day by the river

In Maldon

I spent an enjoyable time last week in Newstead with DG - it was great to spend some time with him, despite the fact that I had the mother of all colds. We ate well (I made my famous tagine and DG made a delicious bolognaise), watched a few DVDs (when we could make the DVD player behave) and generally relaxed. On Friday we took a nice drive around the area to St Arnaud and other places coming back through Maldon.

Because of my cold I decided to come back earlier yesterday than originally planned - I put on a load of washing before retiring to my bed. I've just found out that it's May last year since I've had a proper cold, so I shouldn't complain - I knew this blog had its uses.


Kookaburra by the Yarra

This morning I was up again at sparrow's as I was being collected by B&S to go on a fascinating "Yarra Yabber" tour arranged by the Yarra Riverkeepers. It was very well organised and the bus took us to various sites between Warrandyte and Christmas Hills; at each we got talks from great speakers (including a man from Melbourne Water, a geologist and a State Park Ranger), each talking about an aspect relating to the river and its water problems. At the lunch break we had an al fresco meal of P's delicious "weekend chicken" with a watercress and orange salad. In all, a very satisfying day.

Giggling at the opera

On Thursday I dropped in to see BN in hospital after her partial hip replacement; she wasn't too happy and was in quite a bit of pain. I dropped in again on Friday after work, but her door was closed so I tiptoed away.

Instead of shopping on Saturday I was working - I got in at 8am so was able to leave at 4pm. It was fairly quiet so I managed to get quite a bit done. After work I met up with B&S and B's father BS at the Park hotel for a quick meal before we bused into town to the Athaeneum to see Melbourne Opera's production of Rossini's The Italian girl in Algiers.

Sally Anne Russell was a great Italian girl - in fact almost all the principals were top notch, with a special mention going to David Gould as Mustafa. The production (sung in English), of what is a very silly piece, kept everything moving along; the sets were minimal but effective and the only disappointment was the rather geriatric male chorus, some of whom looked as if they weren't quite sure where they were. Some wonderful singing and well-articulated patter songs left me laughing, especially at the end of act one.

On Sunday, after a tasty dinner at Mum's, I dropped in at the Epworth again to see BN. This time she was very much improved and even got out of bed and walked around, with her walking frame, while I was there. She was in good spirits and starts her physio today.

This morning, the first of my week's leave, I went to the Mediterranean Wholesalers in Brunswick where I bought some reggiano and a few other goodies to take up to DG in Newstead tomorrow. On the way home I stopped in Carlton and bought myself the new Ruth Rendell and a recording of Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch. Then this afternoon I took the laptop up to LE's to let her have a play around with it - she's thinking of buying and I'm more than happy to help her make her mind up.