The evening before yesterday was filled with a visit, with my daughter-in-law to our local arts centre (The Artrix) to view a live feed of ‘La Traviata’ direct from the Royal Opera House in London. When we booked the seats all of the balcony seats were indicated as sold so we did not have a lot of choice half way up the stalls. But when we got to the theatre, there was hardly anybody there and there must only have been 30 people at the most in a 300-seat capacity theatre. The staff explained to us that when the theatre shows tribute bands they are almost completely full but they know that opera will be nowhere near as popular) but, after all, this is Bromsgrove. So, they indicate all of the balcony as being ‘sold’ to give the impression of a much better filled theatre, but they use the profits from the full capacity tribute band audiences to cross subsidise less popular offerings such as opera. My daughter-in-law and I were really enjoying the performance but the sound levels had been set incredibly loud so at the first of the two scheduled intervals, we had a word with the theatre manager and he moderated the sound to a more acceptable level for us. We really enjoyed the performance and in the last scene where Violetta dies (slowly) in the arms of her lover, I was weeping copious tears but silently so that nobody would notice in the dark. During the first interval, we had a word with another couple who told me about a Bromsgrove community choir which meets about once a week at the Methodist Centre on Thursday evenings. As men are in short supply (outnumbered about 3:1 by the women) I might be tempted to join this choir, particularly if there are opportunities to socialise afterwards. However, I am not convinced that my singing voice reaches choir standards but it might be worth a try. Both of the lead singers in the opera performance were older than we might to led to expect and the singer who played Violetta had performed the role more than 300 times and this only enhanced rather than detracted a virtuoso performance. Violetta has a huge part and is singing her heart out for most of the opera, but she realises that she is destined to die (from tuberculosis) and so a vein of sadness and impending doom runs through the whole of the opera. When I got home, I texted my Droitwich friend to see if her boys would like one of my spare briefcases as they are both college students and texted over photos of the same before engaging in a little computing before bedtime. I had discovered another little program which manually, rather than automatically, flicks through a series of photos and this had a footprint which was 40% smaller than the previous one to fulfil this function for me and, again, was easy to tweak. So this adds to my little repertoire of useful programs so need to document it in my software book so that I do not forget how to tweak the program to fit my needs.
Our domestic help called around today rather than two days ago and we had quite to discuss after we had cleared out some material which had been stored under the eaves of the house. This delayed me somewhat so that I missed the slot for my Tai Chi class but turned up at the very end hoping to make contact with my friendly retired bank manager. He was not there this morning but four others who I know by sight and myself inhabited the ‘chatty table’ and entertained ourselves with travellers’ tales and the like. I needed to buy some cleaning products for our domestic help and so left once my hours of parking was due to expire but probably on account of the rain, trying to secure a parking place nearer to the centre proved impossible. At one point, one of the nearby car parks had a queue of six cars waiting to park so eventually I trusted in the faithful Waitrose car park and walked down into town to secure some cleaning products for my domestic and an (impulse) buy pair of casual trousers for myself. Then I returned home and prepared myself a huge lunch with bits and pieces left over (onions, peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms and some greens and made into a huge Spanish omelette. After a delayed lunch, I went for our weekly shopping at Aldi and when this was concluded met up with my Droitwich friend where we discussed some of the practical arrangements for a housewarming party she is organising for a couple of day’s time. After our clearing out activities the other day, I had rather hoped that I was to be spared a long journey to the domestic refuse tip particularly as the old and empty suitcases had disappeared and I made the assumption that the crew on the disposal vehicle had taken them away. But when I collected my wheelie bin from the kerbside, I realised that the removal men had emptied the wheelie bins and then put the abandoned suitcases back inside the wheelie bin. So they are forcing me to make a long and time expensive round trip to try to eventually dispose of these items and it seems a very churlish attitude to refuse to dispose of any additional unwanted items.
There has been another high defection from the ranks of Tory ex-ministers. to the Reform Party. Robert Jenrick has joined Reform UK, Nigel Farage has today confirmed at a press conference in Westminster. The ex-shadow justice secretary was sacked by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch this morning, after she allegedly got wind of his plan to defect – and booted him out of the Conservative Party. As that news broke, Reform leader Nigel Farage played down expectations of Jenrick joining the party, confirming that he had been in talks with the top Tory – but denying that a deal was ‘signed… and sealed’. But events clearly move quickly – as Jenrick has now become the latest, and biggest, high-profile signing for Farage’s outfit. Farage describes it as the ‘latest Christmas I have ever had’. Jenrick then joins him – after a minor panic due to his late arrival. One is very tempted to use the expression ‘rats from a sinking ship’ but that is how appears to most of us. Robert Jenrick was excoriating on the attacks that he made on other Conservatives who until a day ago were fellow members of the Shadow Conservative cabinet.