Performance

I will be taking part in the ballet school production of ‘Sleeping Beauty’. Adults are guests at the christening and at the wedding… I will have to make my costume. Mine is to be hot pink… I am a bit reticent about telling people to come: when I’ve mentioned that I go to ballet lessons, some people always seem to think that I’m professional standard, yet when other people say they play tennis, these same people don’t seem to expect any Wimbledon champions. Annoying!

We enjoyed the play , although the school benches were a bit hard to sit on, especially for the first half. There was a nice notice on a blackboard, writ large, in the entrance hall. It said, ‘First half: 1 hour 15 minutes; Interval: 15 minutes; Second half: 50 minutes’ together with a large arrow pointing to ‘Toilets’.

I did a little bit of playing: the first in about 18 months. This time I was sensible. I didn’t try to play any of the pieces I used to, so that I wouldn’t get despondent… There was a Julian Bream recital here quite recently which was inspiration. He played a lot of modern pieces which mostly I hadn’t heard before but which I very much enjoyed.

Tonight I went out and gave my first public recital for our recorder group. I didn’t do too badly I suppose. We went to X, which used to be called ‘The Home for Incurables’. (What an awful name.) It is a centre for people who are physically disabled (through brain damage, MS and other things people pray they don’t get) and unable to care for themselves.

The other thing I enjoyed so much in Toronto, tho’ not at all cultural, was a marvellous production of ‘Show Boat’ which I had never seen – and I was so stunned by all the dancing, the pretty dresses and music as the curtain went up, I almost cried. It must be 30 years since I saw a spectacle like that. Maybe I am a moron, but a bit of clean, uncomplicated fun is rather rare these days. I see the show has opened to a smash hit in New York.