Back in town

Richard Goode

On Saturday we pootled in to town in the afternoon, well in time for me to go to my concert at the Music Academy.  Richard Goode was brilliant and his approach to Bach amazed me, as I have never heard any pianist play Bach this softly and almost like you would play a romantic piece. The jury is still out whether I liked it or not played like this, but overall the concert was very good.

On Sunday I was thinking of going to the Hash, but decided that I don't feel good enough yet to risk it. So, most of it was spent at home watching the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, at which Lewis won, but Rosberg managed to secure his World Championship win by coming second. I know Lewis had more bad luck and mechanical failures this year than Rosberg, but ultimately he lost his title on that serious drop in form that he exhibited after the summer break and basically deserved losing this year.  Never mind! He'll bounce back, although getting well into his thirties now he is no longer the young titan we all love. Moreover, there is more competition he has to overcome, like young Max Verstappen, than before.  We'll see how it goes next year!

Scene from Lucia Lammermoor

In the evening I went to see Lucia Lammermoor in the Erkel Theatre all on my own.  This is the third time that something clashed with my subscription ticket to the Erkel Theatre, so I had to go and see it later. The production was great, the singers very good and all in all I had a good evening even though I was alone. If only this excessive tiredness left me, I could enjoy evening programs even more!

Monday ended up very productive, in that we have started sorting ailing equipment, something  that had been planned for months.  In the morning I rang Szabolcs to see if he has time to fix some of my computers, as they needed attention.  He said yes, so we went and delivered three of them to his office. One of the old and one of the not so old (2 years) laptops needed to be cleared and have both the operating system and all software reinstalled.  The third one is brand new, I just wanted Office on it which they can do for me. Let's hope that Szabolcs does a good job, as this is the first time he is doing this, not Dylan.  Talking of him, he was actually in the office and Roy had a good chat with him. He looks a lot older than when we saw him last, which must have been at least 2, if not more, years ago. Hopefully the laptops will be done quickly, as I am currently suffering the non existent speed of my oldest laptop, which is miraculously still working (touch wood, I hope I haven't spoken too soon!!) after nearly 10 years.

After dropping off the laptops we journeyed to the other end of the city with my old Lumix camera, which had lots of problems in the last few months, including a couple of spots in every photo and trouble with the monitor losing its picture. A very nice guy said it would cost about £60 to have it cleaned and fixed, so we went for it. Szabolcs was not particularly forthcoming about how much his work will cost, but hopefully that shouldn't be more than about £50.

Julia Pusker

Then yesterday I was back to spending as much time in bed as I could, trying to shake this dreadful fatigue, so I only ventured outside for a much awaited violin concert with Bozsa and Arpi. The young violinist Julia Pusker was praised a lot online and by several of my friends, so expectations were high.  Unfortunately, she did not produce anything at all outstanding, although it was a solid performance. I always say that we have got the bar far too high, ever since we have become the fans of Kristof Barati.  It is nigh on impossible to impress us any more since we've known and loved him.

In search of a locust swarm (Planet Earth II)

Today I was trying to watch TV on the one remaining laptop, but due to its great age, that proved impossible.  This poor thing is so slow that in every one minute watchable broadcast there was at least 5 minutes of spooling.  I gave up.  Earlier on in the week, before my current laptop went to Szabolcs however, due to my incapacity, I have spent a lot of time sitting up in bed and watching TV. My two recent favourites are Great Canal Adventures with Prunella Scales and Timothy West on Channel 4 and the BBC's Planet Earth II with David Attenborough. I love the slow, relaxed pace of canal travel, even though that this year Pru and Tim have ventured as far afield as Venice. The photography and historical sidelines are very enjoyable and I am even prepared to put up with Tim's slightly patronising attitude towards poor Pru. I know he means well, but I bet she would be outraged if she wasn't so far down in her condition as she is.

Found the locust swarm

Planet Earth II is a magical, superb program and even 90 year old David Attenborough is a sheer delight. He is now physically not up to too much travel, but he is so all there, that I could not imagine this program without his dulcet tones, putting forward wise observations and brilliant popular science at the same time. Crying shame that there are only 2 episodes left, having seen Islands, Mountains, Jungle and Desert, I am looking forward to Grasslands and Cities still to come. Brilliant innovation since the first series all those years ago, is the last 10 minutes, in which they show the trials and tribulations of the film crew in bringing in those amazing images that will stay with me forever. It is all so superb, that should you ask me for my favourite shot, I couldn't choose. Honest!

Danny Dyer

Another program back is Who Do You Think You Are and the first episode was a tour de force.  I know there are lots of people out there who are not fans of Danny Dyer, but I so much loved his genuine Cockney self, interacting with professors, posh geneaologists and true artistocrats, that I think this is one of the best one I have ever seen, and I have seen all of them over the years. The sneaky smiles of others' faces, trying to stay serious listening to Dyer's observations and emotional outbursts, all the way to his wife's: "I always knew I was a princess!!" were a delight. I am looking forward to the rest of this series already.

I must go now as we are going to the baths, trying to extend my pass and then to the people where I can book my massages. I decided that I will have to get back to the baths regularly and follow every visit up with a trip to the masseur, as my joints and muscles are in a really bad way.  Currently I am fairly sure that this lurgy has attacked them, as well as all my other bits, but the old, tried remedy of natural healing methods usually fix me up, albeit quite slowly.

Next post before we get back to the village next Wednesday.