#65 - Jump to hyperspace / Warp 10 / [insert nerdy sci-fi reference here]

No photos in this one, but there is a little bit of bitching...

Let the nostalgia begin
Today was our last class ever.  A career lecture (different from the one last week for Patisserie which was more about writing a CV and a few other tips) - there was a man from a recruitment agency as well as our head pastry chef, Chef JW.  There was discussion about career progression and the amount of time one expected to see on CVs as careers developed.  So short and sweet, then I cleared out my locker.  Others still have their exam on Wednesday but I am pretty sure I will still not be deemed fit to work in a kitchen so a decision was made to start organizing.  Ok, I can't believe I was silly enough to think I could just pack up a couple of things on Thursday and Friday, then have movers here next week and be out of the flat.  Had to start a list (or rather, a list with 3 parts) so that I can keep track of what's where as I am going to store a few essentials (uniform, knife kit) here for when I return for exams.  Then there's a question of what do I send where so all in all, more in the way of logistics than I had anticipated.

Covent Garden - again
Tonight I took myself to see the opera.  Originally supposed to be a study break from preparing for exams, but then changed to a packing break from sorting stuff out - a much bigger and more stressful task (how is there so much junk after less than a year when I've been trying to be so careful about not buying stuff???).

La Traviata - Spoiler alert - don't read if you don't want to know the ending (although you will if you go to the opera and read the program and synopsis)
Boy sees girl, girl is a courtesan, they meet, they fall in love (after he declares himself a year after they meet and she thinks about it for about 10 seconds), boy's father convinces (dying) girl that she will ruin boy's life and his sister's because of her dirty past which can't be redeemed by their love, girl ditches boy (he doesn't know why, follows her to a party, insults her), boy and father show up just before girl  dies in boy's arms and you wonder if at some point he lives happily ever after.  Oh, and boy's father finally realizes that she actually was dying -  apparently she wasn't clear when she told him that she was going to die soon.

Analysis (Legally Blonde style) of above story
The boy and girl are happily living in the country and I'm guessing he hasn't been contributing to expenses.  This based on the fact that she has been supporting them both and he doesn't realize until she sells the horses and carriage.  Really?  How is it that men seem to be so clueless?  (Ok, I'll leave the gross over-generalizing out of this and move on.)  Like, how did he think they were financing their life out in the country?

I suppose you could also take it as commentary about the importance of having similar backgrounds as applicable today but that could just be the late hour talking so I'll stop there.  All I can say is, love isn't enough and it makes for much better theatre than "and they all live happily ever after" after the boy rescues the girl (from wicked stepmother / poverty / being a courtesan).
The music
So part of the reason why I went alone was so that I could be bitchy about the music in my head if necessary.  It wasn't.  Oh, there were a few little things [Violetta's high notes in the first act were a little thin and weak but she got stronger as the performance went on, some of her virtuoso bits were a bit mush, Gastone's voice was nice but very weak - he sounded like Alfredo when Alredo was singing in Violetta's dreams (i.e. behind the scenes), Alfredo's money notes were thin and weak] but the way the voices blended for all the duets was amazing as was the musicality of all the singers.  Side note re Gastone - he was part of some sort of exchange/young artist development thing so it may be that his voice will eventually sound stronger - it was only that he was singing with such full, strong, controlled voices that his sounded a like it needed to fill out a bit.  It sounded the way an adolescent boy looks before he fills out and grows into his hands and feet.

Orchestra was excellent.  I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but there is a noticeable lack of females in the pit, and those that I have seen are generally in the strings except for the lone female French horn player during Sleeping Beauty or Manon a few weeks ago.

In which love doesn't conquer all
Took precautions during the second interval of stocking up on napkins because I didn't have any tissues.  Good thing I did, spent most of the 3rd Act quietly snuffling into the tissues as poor dying Violetta's small voice projected itself into the back of the big theatre.  Amazing how many audience members were coughing while she was dying onstage of consumption.  However, all misunderstandings were cleared up, forgiveness was sought and obtained, a rapturous reconcilation duet then the death and curtain.

Death by opera
One of the nice things about Italian operas is that they tend to have beautiful melodies.  Of course when you read about debuts of the operas, sometimes they were canned at the time for being light and fluffy with little musical merit.  On the other hand, I'm pretty sure I've heard a lot of these melodies in movies (and I wonder if there was a ballet???  I know La Dame aux Camellias is a ballet, but I can't remember if it's Verdi's music) or elsewhere.  Also, the actual dying, at least tonight, was very quick and efficient (having a fatal illness from the beginning doesn't count).  This is in contrast to what I refer to as musical medicine - that is to say, Wagner, where it's the same tune (and not a pretty one) for 15 - 20 minutes where they say the same line for that entire time and when someone gets stabbed in the heart, he sings about it for another 15 minutes before finally (mercifully) expiring.  Yes, I really must learn how to have an opinion...

Anyway, I just wanted to share this amazing night with you because the singing was truly spectacular.  Boy's father was able to hold his own singing opposite Violetta, which is quite a feat because her voice just got stronger as the night went on.  Highly recommend going even if you think you won't like it.  Frankly I wasn't that enthused about La Traviata when I booked it but I am regretting not having gone to some other ones.

Had the thought earlier that it would be lovely to live here and go to the opera and ballet every few weeks, but that would entail having a job that finishes at predictable hours (instead of always having the possibility that an emergency might keep you back) or not having a job and having unlimited funds to enable such pursuits.  So amazing what people can do and the emotions they can elicit.

So until next time, I hope your dreams are filled with music and happily ever afters.

#58 - A day off, followed by ER (minus George Clooney, Noah Wylie et al)

Day off and confusion reigns for 10 minutes...
Monday was a day off.  I assumed it was a public holiday - it wasn't.  I called school to make sure I had read my schedule correctly - we never have a day off during the week!  Ok, we did...

So it was mostly a nice day. I'm skipping the not nice bits - because it hurts to type.  Afternoon tea in St James's Place followed by a walk to Covent Garden and the Royal Ballet.  Graduation present (belated) for LM.  Found out later it was her first ballet, so glad we did it right.  Fun girly day / night out.


ER (don't look if you are squeamish)
So yesterday was another day of sugar.  My sugar leaked a little out of piping bags...got some spectacular burns - put my hand in water / ice periodically, but wanted to finish class.  I think the smart thing would have been to go to the doctor right after, but I had another class so I stayed for that one too. Finished the centrepiece but still have a few kinks to work out for the final.  Pretty safe to say I will avoid piping sugar for the final so will need to consider alternate technique which minimizes potential to come into contact with sugar.

After class, before ER

Unsuccessful attepts to blow sugar during second session. May have had a little to do with the fact that my dominant hand was useless.  Blown sugar will break if you blew it thin enough and then don't pick it up gently enough.  Definitely no apple of discord in my batch of misshapen fruits.  Finished with a practice rose so class wouldn't feel like there was nothing to shoe for it.

Finished early so got a book and went looking for the nearest ER when my fingers started go feel numb.  Surely that can't be good...Google said there was one about 10 minutes' walk away.  Turned out it was some kind of meeting group organizing thing, which is good.  It was in a building where I expected lunatics to come barreling out from nowhere (I pressed a button to get in, the door buzzed to let me in, reception was closed and no one seemed to be around.  Just saw a lot of empty rooms...).  Eventually found someone who gave me directions to the hospital (you go along this road, then turn right).

24 hours after injury...

Temporarily crippled
Eventually got to hospital where I had to ask for directions for the entrance, then directions to the ER. When I finally saw the triage nurse, she asked why I had waited so long to come in. I told her I had class, then got lost. Eventually saw the doctor. One look at my hand and she went to get a more senior doctor. Left hospital a little after midnight with note so I can miss class while my hand regains some functionality. Hmmm, might be while, today is worse than yesterday. Can't be good when the chefs freak out after they see my hand.

Had a pretty walk to class this morning, then yummy dinner near St Paul's - Gordon Ramsay's Bread Street Kitchen - although I didn't know it was Gordon Ramsay's when I picked it or might have boycotted it (you know, general bad language, personal attacks on people, etc etc).

So food:  seared scallops with apple and bacon, short rib burger, green beans with shallots, mac 'n cheese (all of which LM and I shared);

then dessert:  pineapple upside down cake for her and another mac 'n cheese.  The waitress laughed when I ordered my dessert, then laughed a little more when I told her it was the best dessert in a while.

Took forever to wash hair with one hand unable to do anything.  Need more painkillers but afraid to take any.  Dinner was a while ago and you have to take these with food...

Have mock exams coming up but hand is out of commission for at least 7 - 10 days.  Need to do the practice but don't want to damage hand further with exams just over a week away.  Can't hold a pen or spoon, much less a knife so will have to figure something out.  Silver lining - can't fake this kind of injury.  Tiny lining, but there nonetheless.  Going to sleeep now, hopefully some healing will begin to make itself felt because it's starting to hurt a bit now.  Any mistakes are due to exhaustion and pain, but apologies anyway.

So until next time, please stay safe and may you not need to search for silver linings.