Lost and found

Our friend Gail arrived from Worcester yesterday lunchtime for another night at the opera together. This time it was Verdi's 'Sicilian Vespers', something none of us had heard before. I didn't realise that it would be in French, composed as it was for a Parisian audience, although the story was based on the historical uprising of the Sicilians against their French overlords in 1282, so I expected it to be in Italian with some French as a bonus. Not so. It's not so well known or often performed as Verdi's other operas, but the music is rich and powerful.

It was presented with another timeless minimalist set made up of large mobile open frames. It was too dark for my liking but nevertheless highly effective. The singing was as ever, top class, and the middle section included an imaginative and superbly performed piece of contemporary dance, as a medium for telling the background story of two main characters. There was just one interval in the three hour long performance, and that came after the dance intermezzo, so the first Act was two hours and the second was one. For me, that length of sitting was too long in the seats we had booked which were somewhat cramped for a tall person at the best of times, but with the state of my behind was uncomfortable and stressful to manage. 

For the past hour I moved up to the viewing platform for wheelchar users at the back of the stalls where there are half a dozen stand-up places, and a few seats with more legroom. I wished I'd thought about this from the outset. We were sitting in the same row as last time, when it was also equally uncomfortable, but it didn't cross my mind as the wound is far quieter these days. But there's still a limit to the amount of direct pressure I can take while sitting so I need to move around. Hardly the best thing when you're in a front row seat with a dozen rows behind you.

This morning I celebrated and preached at the St Paul's Grangetown Eucharist again, and afterwards officiated at the baptism of a one year old boy. Interestingly, twice as many attended the christening as there were for the Eucharist, and all different people. It was the first christening at the church in a year. The regular congregation hosts a Sunday school with up to thirty primary aged children, so there are young families in the area. There's work to be done by a new parish priest to build bridges between the few families that still attend just for a christening and the Sunday School ministry, and it's not so easy in this highly mobile era of ours.

By the time I got home, Gail had already left, hoping to find a train still running. With warnings of heavy rain and high winds over the weekend, some train cancellations had already been announced. As it turned out, she was lucky in that the train she went for actually did run, although later ones did get cancelled. Walking in the park this afternoon was quite challenging, with occasional gusts of wind of about thirty miles and hour. There had been torrential rain overnight and in the morning, but fortunately, not while I was out. The river Taff at Blackweir bridge had risen by over two feet overnight, with the torrent water covering the fish ladder tunnel, and the water level rising to within a foot of the western side foot path. Huge flocks of gulls and crows were grounded in the fields. For some strange reason, the flocks of starlings congregated in a few select trees.

Clare leaves for Phoenix to visit Rachel and Jasmine tomorrow. She's been packing for a week and is very nervous about every aspect of the journey there, starting with the 05.55 coach to Heathrow's Terminal Five. This afternoon she was distress to find that she'd lost an earring while changing over cardigans. We hunted high and low, with no success. It was only when we emptied the dishwasher after running it that she found the earring in the cutlery basket. It's had to imagine how it go there. Then a little while later, she couldn't find it a second time and fretted about this until she realised she'd re-attached her ear for sake keeping, having taken off the other one for safe keeping earlier. Pre-flight nerves! I wonder how I'll be when I'm about to fly again for the first time in eighteen months?