From Bath to Cork with Baby Grace

We went to Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera (Masked Ball) on Saturday.

It was wonderful and the performance far exceeded my expectations.

I met Padraig (The Wall).  He looked great and so like Pavarotti. I last met him at the performance for Mike Hegarty in about mid 2007: we both performed that night. We also met Marie Broderick who told me all about Friends of Opera 2005.

For the record, in Ballo:

(1) Rabekah Coffey (Oscar) was magnificent

(2) Ceri Williams (Madame Arvidson) was stupendous

(3) Simon Thorpe (Anckarstrom) was great

(4) Cara O’Sullivan (Amelia) was excellent

(5) Jeff Stewart (Gustavus), the tenor, had a cold, probably shouldn’t have sung because his voice gave out in the last act.

(6) The woodwind sounded very good.

I hadn’t heard of Opera 2005, so I’m thrilled to discover that it’s possible to find brilliant opera in Cork.

If there is anyone near Limerick reading this, beg, borrow or steal a ticket for tomorrow evening at the Concert Hall.  For the first time, Opera 2005 performs in Limerick, and I wish I could be there to review it for the Limerick Leader, as I did for Wagner’s Ring years ago.

While Grace was playing near the teahouse, I was playing by the water…

99% perspiration, 1% inspiration -

of how many things can this be said?

As I dug out the last of the soil, and wheeled it in the new barrow, I was dripping.  Sure sign that I’m out of practice. It felt great to have imagined a task and completed it over two days of a fine weekend. Adrenalin satisfaction.

I got the airer up too, after taking it back to B&Q to have it explained to me: I couldn’t get it to work. An excellent man Neil did the trick.

Bit of a makeshift job eh!  Skirting board jammed in to keep it vertical.  I now know I need a crowbar job: I met Pat, one of the neighbours while I was out looking for a heavy hammer; he told me he’d tried hammering his airer support yoke into the ground and hit hardcore. He got one of the builders to sort the problem with a crowbar. I went out looking for one thing and came home with something much more valuable- a new friend and excellent advice.

Grace helped too.

I do hope I’ve done the right thing piling all that soil up against the back wall.  I’m thinking that I’ll need it for the flowerbeds I’m going to make.

While I was working and letting the mind wander around the question of how my mother is, a new thought came to me: was Jesus depressed?  Did Jesus Christ suffer from depression? Strange what can happen when you are hard at work perspiring…