Michaelmas Outing

There was something rather satisfying about having Owain with us all day, working remotely on his office laptop, for the usual prescribed hours. He's part of the internal communications team for a big government agency, with a website with tens of thousands of reference documents and hundreds of web pages. I was allowed a brief overview of his work-space, set up to manage collaboratively dozens of concurrent writing and editing tasks, and still using a securely locked down version Windows 7 Professional! Although he complains that the work can be quite dull, it certainly makes good use of his experience as a digital artisan.

While Clare and Ann went to town for a swim in the health club pool, I drove to the School of Optometry for a my biennial eye checkup, a couple of months early, as my sight in the left eye has deteriorated noticeably over the past year, while the right eye hasn't changed. As a result I ordered a new pair of driving specs. These may not arrive until after I leave for Spain next Wednesday, so I'll take my old pair with me, as they can be used for now. I'll get left lens replaced when I return.

When Owain had finished his work day, he headed back to Bristol, as he has a gig to prepare for, and the three of us drove to the Millennium Centre for the WNO's production of Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky. I don't think I've seen it before. Russian opera doesn't appeal to me that much, but the music was truly beautiful, even if I couldn't understand a word of the libretto. There wasn't a weak performance on the part of any of the cast of singers. The singing and dancing of the WNO chorus was, as ever outstanding. The set construction meant the choreography of the two ballroom scenes was unusually tricky. It combined the required accuracy of movement in a difficult with a balance of formality and informality of movement, so that the ensemble didn't appear rigidly drilled. All this while singing in Russian too! 

This night out was a birthday treat for both Ann and Clare, me too. I was apprehensive beforehand about my creaky back giving me trouble, as it'll be Monday before I visit Kay, our osteomyologist for a treatment, but I found a comfortable sitting posture on my seat, so all was well right through.