Lost in the woods

A routine start to the week with cleaning chores after breakfast, and a re-write of mt Thursday morning reflection on the difficult passage in Matthew ten in which Jesus talks about his ministry causing division, an uncomfortable message. Thursday is the start of the UN's annual campaign against violence to women, a sixteen period marked by supporters wearing a white ribbon. It proved possible link this to Safeguarding in the church, and back to the Gospel. Once I'd made the connection, writing and recording was easy.

As I was busy, Clare cooked lunch. I went to the shops, then recorded and edited my Thursday service. We had supper early, then set out for the Royal Welsh College over Blackweir Bridge and through the park for an opera Gala Night. In trying to reach the cycle path three hundred metres through the woods beyond the bridge, we took the wrong path twice, added twenty minutes to the walk, and arrived dead on seven thirty, as the Welsh National Opera orchestra was tuning up. 

Failure to find the right path, not way-marked for some stupid reason no doubt, while easy in daylight was impossible at night, though we have walked it at night in the past. It's a case of remembering the lie of the land, which changes when the undergrowth is overgrown. Anyway, we walked down the playing fields, couldn't exit by the ambulance station, but found a way out by the new service entrance gate which, though closed wasn't locked. I was pretty certain that there was a permanently open way out of the park at night next to the College, but Clare didn't believe me, though we've walked that way before. It was quite a bizarre predicament to be in, but we laughed our way through it more than we bickered.

The concert was wonderful, Carlo Rizzi conducting the WNO orchestra with great energy and the opera students rising admirably to the challenge in eight extracts from operas, only one of which we knew. The last piece was from the end of Verdi's Falstaff with ten singers on stage singing a fiendishly complex fugue with much gusto. It was offered, as Carolo said, in memory of David Seligman, a long standing patron of the College, and music making generally in Cardiff, who died earlier this year. It was more in keeping with the spirit of the man than a minute's silence, Carlo said.

Sitting in front of us was Eileen, the caretaker at St John's church. She was already at the bus stop to get the 61 home when we arrived there after the performance. It was great to find a fellow enthusiast among our local church members. What a night! Lost in the woods, then arriving in the nick of time.