A Benign Universe, Providing According to Need ...
Thursday, September 4th, 2003 08:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranthIt's autumn now (and nearly the end of the beach season), so the end-of-summer malaise has lifted as suddenly as it appeared. The universe has been administering gentle kicks and rewards as necessary this week; a long-awaited cheque on Monday -- payment for nearly a year's worth of magazine columns -- turned out to be less than expected in more ways than one, but the universe very kindly arranged for me to have an interview for a job that'll provide some excellent hands-on experience. I'd promised myself that I'd look for a job in September, but hadn't expected things to work out quite so neatly that by the end of September 1st I had an interview set up ....
Tuesday morning my friend Maggy's 8 year old niece, Zoe, was in London, so we spent an exhausting few hours showing her some sights; Changing of the Guard--St James' Park--Buckingham Palace--Green Park--the mud where the Golden Hinde usually is--the Millennium ('wobbly') Bridge, from below, as we spent a happy half-hour messing around on the foreshore and picking up treasure (water-smoothed glass, bits of old lemonade bottles -- the sort with lettering on -- bones, teeth and The Plug. (See my Fotopages page). Then off to Camber Sands with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ladymoonray; the water was cool but delicious, the light was wonderful (Goths do swim and sunbathe, but only with sufficiently dramatic cloudscapes). And thence, via pizza, to the late-night Prom at the Royal Albert Hall; Purcell's delightfully short opera Dido & Aeneas, given by the Orchestra / Chorus of the Age of Enlightenment. Sarah Connolly wonderful as Dido, Carolyn Sampson even better as her confidante Belinda. I was especially taken by the effectiveness of half of the choir simply turning their backs on the audience to provide the faint 'echo' part of the choruses.
Wednesday saw me beginning to catch up on the last ten days' LJ ... then off to Camden with personal shopping assistantladymoonray to Shop. It was wonderful to be able to walk around without battering our way through crowds of [a] teenage neo-punks [b] tourists [c] street artists. Had set my heart on a t-shirt; bought two. Could've got ten in Matalan for the same money, but these are ever so much cooler. One of them came with extensive user instruction and a mini training course, too. Along the way we also picked up a pirate hat (for ladymoonray) and satin eyepatch (for me; until yesterday I actually needed it, due to another exciting manifestation of Mystery Ailment). These are because we have no intention of going to b_movie in actual beach-wear; for one thing, I can't dance in flourescent pink jelly sandals ...
Then off to Victoria to meetladymoonray's mother for dinner, and thence to another Prom. This one started with some nasty modern stuff -- Insomnia, by Esa-Pekka Salonen, which was surprisingly interesting, and featured a truly impressive percussion section; seven gongs (from saucepan-lid to Rank leader in size) plus various glockenspiels, percussion blocks, drums, hanging things and other things. (Am not up to speed on Identifying Percussion). Then the main attraction; Pierre-Laurent Aimard (who I'd never really heard of) playing Beethoven's Piano Concerto #5. Wonderful. More to the point, he enjoyed playing it so much; the exultant look on his face once he'd carried off the final cadenza just made me break out in a matching huge grin. Did not stop grinning for some time. This is one of my top three or four pieces of classical music; it nearly always uplifts me (possibly even in the David Brin sense) and I know it pretty much note-by-note, so it was interesting to hear Aimard take some liberties with the phrasing in the adagio. Interesting in a good way; for all I know everyone else has been playing it 'wrong', and anyway it was nice. ... Second half was Brahms Symphony #2, which I also enjoyed very much -- possibly the first time I've heard a live Brahms symphony, though I am extremely fond of the piano concerti. .. Because, as has happened all week through some benign intervention of the universe, the trains worked -- ladymoonray's mother got her train with minutes to spare -- we were back in Lewisham for much-needed Sleep by 11pm.
In an hour I am off to my interview. Think kindly thoughts of me! But in fact, lulled by the general goodness of life and the working-outness of everything this week, I don't mind whether I get the job or not. If I get it: money (for a month), useful Dreamweaver experience, looks good on CV. If I don't: more beach trips (and general excursions, when it finally gets too cold to swim), more writing time, not having to get up in the mornings.
No doubt the universe will flip into awkward mode again soon, but meanwhile I'm enjoying the ride!
Tuesday morning my friend Maggy's 8 year old niece, Zoe, was in London, so we spent an exhausting few hours showing her some sights; Changing of the Guard--St James' Park--Buckingham Palace--Green Park--the mud where the Golden Hinde usually is--the Millennium ('wobbly') Bridge, from below, as we spent a happy half-hour messing around on the foreshore and picking up treasure (water-smoothed glass, bits of old lemonade bottles -- the sort with lettering on -- bones, teeth and The Plug. (See my Fotopages page). Then off to Camber Sands with
ladymoonray; the water was cool but delicious, the light was wonderful (Goths do swim and sunbathe, but only with sufficiently dramatic cloudscapes). And thence, via pizza, to the late-night Prom at the Royal Albert Hall; Purcell's delightfully short opera Dido & Aeneas, given by the Orchestra / Chorus of the Age of Enlightenment. Sarah Connolly wonderful as Dido, Carolyn Sampson even better as her confidante Belinda. I was especially taken by the effectiveness of half of the choir simply turning their backs on the audience to provide the faint 'echo' part of the choruses.Wednesday saw me beginning to catch up on the last ten days' LJ ... then off to Camden with personal shopping assistant
ladymoonray to Shop. It was wonderful to be able to walk around without battering our way through crowds of [a] teenage neo-punks [b] tourists [c] street artists. Had set my heart on a t-shirt; bought two. Could've got ten in Matalan for the same money, but these are ever so much cooler. One of them came with extensive user instruction and a mini training course, too. Along the way we also picked up a pirate hat (for ladymoonray) and satin eyepatch (for me; until yesterday I actually needed it, due to another exciting manifestation of Mystery Ailment). These are because we have no intention of going to b_movie in actual beach-wear; for one thing, I can't dance in flourescent pink jelly sandals ...Then off to Victoria to meet
ladymoonray's mother for dinner, and thence to another Prom. This one started with some nasty modern stuff -- Insomnia, by Esa-Pekka Salonen, which was surprisingly interesting, and featured a truly impressive percussion section; seven gongs (from saucepan-lid to Rank leader in size) plus various glockenspiels, percussion blocks, drums, hanging things and other things. (Am not up to speed on Identifying Percussion). Then the main attraction; Pierre-Laurent Aimard (who I'd never really heard of) playing Beethoven's Piano Concerto #5. Wonderful. More to the point, he enjoyed playing it so much; the exultant look on his face once he'd carried off the final cadenza just made me break out in a matching huge grin. Did not stop grinning for some time. This is one of my top three or four pieces of classical music; it nearly always uplifts me (possibly even in the David Brin sense) and I know it pretty much note-by-note, so it was interesting to hear Aimard take some liberties with the phrasing in the adagio. Interesting in a good way; for all I know everyone else has been playing it 'wrong', and anyway it was nice. ... Second half was Brahms Symphony #2, which I also enjoyed very much -- possibly the first time I've heard a live Brahms symphony, though I am extremely fond of the piano concerti. .. Because, as has happened all week through some benign intervention of the universe, the trains worked -- ladymoonray's mother got her train with minutes to spare -- we were back in Lewisham for much-needed Sleep by 11pm. In an hour I am off to my interview. Think kindly thoughts of me! But in fact, lulled by the general goodness of life and the working-outness of everything this week, I don't mind whether I get the job or not. If I get it: money (for a month), useful Dreamweaver experience, looks good on CV. If I don't: more beach trips (and general excursions, when it finally gets too cold to swim), more writing time, not having to get up in the mornings.
No doubt the universe will flip into awkward mode again soon, but meanwhile I'm enjoying the ride!
