No tunes to hum on the bus

After another early start and a morning in College yesterday, I went into the CBS office to spend time with Julie our administrator and Jane, our Sage accounts trainer as together they worked at entering financial data from our existing accounts system into the new set up that I've been preparing this past few weeks. I was glad to discover that my work was not in vain, and that it had given them a head start in the work they had to do. Some of the questions I'd raised yesterday got answers, others will get answered in due course. It's a lot of work, but worthwhile for the control and understanding it gives of how the business is moving.

Ashley collected the Asus Tranformer Infinity he'd ordered by phone from John Lewis as soon as we knew supplies had arrived at their warehouse, but we were too busy even to admire it. At the end of the afternoon it came home with me and went on charge overnight.

We went down to the Millennium Centre by bus after an early supper to hear the WNO production of Alban Berg's 'Lulu'. After a tiring week and a challenging day of Q&A about recording anomalies in the old account system, I wasn't much in the mood for going out again, and not looking forward to an evening of avant-garde early 20th century music. Both of us were surprised at how engaging and listenable Berg's richly dissonant orchestral music was, and how powerfully it supported the dramatic action of the story.

Lulu's story is a powerful melodrama, recounted in a theatrically mannered way, of a femme fatale, whom men and women fall helplessly in love with, yet she admits she doesn't know what love is or if God exists or matters. She's not like a spider that consumes its mate, yet those enamoured of her end up dead. She does evil things in order to survive, but seems enmeshed in a web of relationships which she accepts as if inevitable, although they lead to her eventual demise. There's a good deal of sex and sexuality in it, but not a hint of the 'redemptive' procreativity of which the Old Testament scripture speaks. 

It's about a woman whose downfall is determined by the desirability of her body, quite a philosophical reflection to arise from a few decades before the social critique of late 20th century feminism. I'd have loved to take a group of students to see it, just to see what kind of discussion would emerge afterwards. We came away feeling refreshed, stimulated to deep thought, even if there were no tunes to hum on the bus going home.

This morning I spent configuring Ashley's Asus ready for use and took it into the office for him. It was all locked and quiet with no Big Match on this weekend. Clare and I met up at the bus station afterwards and went to Penarth for lunch. It was too grey and damp to go for a walk, so we returned to town and did some shopping before heading home for a quiet evening, getting ready for Sunday and the week ahead, also browsing over next year's WNO brochure to consider what operas we want to book ahead for. In 2014 they have several operas grouped in themes, one of which is 'Faith', featuring Verdi 'Nabucco' and Schoenberg's 'Moses & Aaron'. Music and God, without going to church! Whatever next?