Monday 14th September to Sunday 20th.
Last week at XXX & Y full time. Loll has about 25 hours, altogether, sorted out so her wage is going up pro-rata. She is very pleased about that, she thought the cut from full time would be a bit drastic (although she has simply been putting the difference into her back account so she wouldn't have missed it). He University hours are 16 so she'll be fine.
I am keeping my same split as before which suits both me, and my two locations fine. I am now going to engage my brain on looking for what to do next year when my RA post expires.
We had our September dining club night on Tuesday at Sarah's. She did amazing things with pork, cider and apples. Usually pork can be very dry, this was delicious.
For dessert we kept the apple theme as she'd made a version of my apple cake, which was just as good as mine.
They were all fascinated by our accounts of Arran and trying to spot otters. We didn't tell them about Heather and Andrea though. I think we may have persuaded some of them a visit to Scotland in Miniature could be worthwhile.
Once again we were the only ones going to the theatre this week. I was appalled by how few of them had even heard of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, never mind actually read it! I often think I am a separate species of life on the planet. I keep talking about stuff and getting looks from other people which scream, "What the F is she on about?" Laura used to have the same expression when we were younger but she has tuned in to Radio Maia and now sings from the same hymn sheet - well, almost.
Laura broached the concert by the Hallé which did relieve some of the weirdness quotient from around my shoulders I suppose although there again nobody had heard of Glinka and only a few of Rachmaninov! It prompted Helen to say, "You two really are well suited aren't you?" I am not sure if it was an insult or a compliment. When I asked Loll about it afterwards she thought it was definitely a compliment.
The concert was excellent. As it always is with the Hallé. We had new seats in the Circle this time, I fancied a change. It puts us looking over the violins and, crucially, down onto the keyboard when there is a piano in use. This proved useful for the Rachmaninov Third Piano Concerto, with Sunwook Kim tinkling the ivories. I loved his expressive and sympathetic playing. Since winning the Leeds he has grown in stature so much. This followed on from the Ruslan and Ludmilla overture and the other Rachmaninov piece, his extremely romantic Third Symphony. I am always surprised that a 20th Century composer could be so lyrical in his writing, unlike so many who feel they have to break with musical traditions and produce works which are deliberately grating to the ear. Oh dear, I sound like a boring old fart... LOL
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time was one of the best things I have seen at the theatre anywhere, ever! It kept very closely to the book but was a very avant garde staging, with the set leading you to expect something sci-fi like. It was a series of grids which lit up like large pieces of graph paper. The only props were a set of boxes which the cast shifted about when needed. Christopher was excellent. He seemed a bit old for the age of the character when you first met him but he was so convincing as an autistic teenager you soon forgot that. They had reworked the character of Siohban to be much more prominent and she sort of helped move the story along. The ensemble were very cleverly used, especially in the sequence when Christopher is looking at the stars being carried on the upstretched arms of the rest of the cast. I loved the way, at the end when Christopher came back up to explain a maths conundrum to the audience - half of them were already leaving. It was a really clever touch.
My resident Maths genius was completely stunned by the whole thing and she vowed to go and read the book again when we got back home. She spent a lot of Sunday doing just that!
If you get the chance to see this production jump at the chance; you will be stunned by it. Seriously.
Sunday lunch was spent at Mum's where we discussed the show again and Tony, who had accompanied Mum to the show with us, was completely amazed by the whole thing. he hasn't been much of a theatre goer up to now [why the hell not?] but I think this show may make him more inclined to want to go some more. This can only please Mum, too.
First Day of the new semester tomorrow... Oh Heck.
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