Opera North do Peter Grimes at the Theatre Royal

23 Nov 2013: We saw Britten's Peter Grimes at Theatre Royal. Most of the opera we have ever seen has been from Opera North. This one is touring the country.

Here is the Guardian review of the same production http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/sep/15/peter-grimes-review

It is interesting how the audience are manipulated.... PG confides to the audience (and we realise he is mentally challenged), and we can also see (when PG is off stage) how gossipy and self righteous and malicious the townsfolk are. We all finish up on his side, even though we can agree with the townsfolk that he should have an adult fishing partner, not an apprentice. The whole idea of apprenticeship is to teach something. What master of an apprentice would send his youngster ahead down a 40 foot cliff in the dark, with the intention of sailing after a shoal of fish in stormy weather, without teaching him anything about fishing, and without stocking the boat with water? So, at the end, one can be a witness to a tragedy that nothing can avert.

Tosca!

9 November 2013: We went to a live broadcast of TOSCA from the Met in New York. We were joined by Lucia Indah and SiYi Wang, students of DNC's tall buildings design module. It did not disappoint - a wonderful experience, hankerchief needed most of the way through to dab tears!

It was quite nice that during the 30 min intervals, they had interviews with the singers, and scenes of the scenery crew changing the enormous set.
Of course, we can't take pictures during the performance... but it's on screen. Here is a link to the NY Times review of the production, to the Met, and to the production.
If you are going to introduce Chinese or Indonesian students to Opera, surely this is the best one to start with!

Richard III with international students

2 Nov 2013: We booked tickets for Richard III at the Nottingham Playhouse…. at the last moment we had the idea to introduce three international students (Indonesia and China) to Shakespeare!

Eating a bar snack in the Limelight bar before the production


Anticipation of the play starting (one cannot photo once it starts)



Richard III 2 Oct 13, Playhouse's photo off the website

West Bridgford Farmers' Market 25 May '13

25 May 2013: West Bridgford always looks its best on sunny saturdays when the Farmers Market is on. Sally is still in Linden Lodge, City Hospital, so I usually do the shopping early (by car) then return here on the bicycle to enjoy market shopping and coffee at Belle and Jerome.

Looking south

 

Looking North…. Oh. the focus wasn't good, sorry. I must learn to take two of each photo and pick the best.

 

Snow present on April 1

1 April 2013: I wish it was an April Fool's joke, but it's true - there is still a bit of snow in our garden and on Sharphill. It had blown into extra deep drifts along the line of the hedge.

Stoning the paths of Sharp Hill wood

17 March 2013: DNC is in the Friends of Sharp Hill Wood and we have noticed that the paths have become quagmires. We have spent time in the last two years laying wood chip on the paths, and they looked splendid in 2011. Over the rainy months of 2012 and 2013, there is almost no trace of the wood chip, the thousands of footprints have mixed it with the mud completely and now people have to walk in the undergrowth alongside the paths. The only solution is to drop stones on the paths.

It has become a sort of personal quest, and I am spending a few hours each weekend picking up stones and barrowing them back to the wood to lay on the paths. The barrow won't go into the wood, so they have to be bucketed in for the final delivery.
    At this rate, it will take a lifetime. It is not totally futile, because for thousands of years, since long before even the Romans, people have been turning muddy paths into roads by laying stones, and it worked splendidly. I just don't have a legion of Roman soldiers to help with the work.


This is what many of the paths look like, some are much worse than this. The photo shows a spotting of stones dropped in each wet footprint, and more than that. Some of the paths on the west side are becoming slightly walkable as the muddiest patches get filled in.

     I have an idea, which is to get a cubic yard of roadstone and have that parked at the entrance to the field - and a notice asking each dog walker to bring string bags next time and carry some up and drop them on the paths. All the dog-walkers I have asked have said they would, because the conditions up there are so unworkable! The work of a thousand walkers might be more effective that little old DNC picking each stone off the field.

Birthday Saturday 9 Mar 2013

9 March 2013: Sophie and Henry are visiting for D's birthday weekend, and we enjoyed the morning in Belle and Jerome, our usual Saturday morning coffee house. 

We are waiting for S and H's partners to turn up by train and car respectively, Meanwhile, D and Henry are getting ready for the Forest game against Wolves

 

Forest finished 3-1 winners, part of a remarkable run of wins by Forest during the first weeks of the new management of Billy Davies, returned after a 2 year absence.