12.11.206
How much can you tell about someone from the things that they do on their days off? Does it say anything about their personality? How much? People read my posts because they think they know me. And my writing, what I share in print of myself, I believe that is one of the best ways to know me and what I really think about things.
In the morning, I woke up fairly early and did meditation, chi building and light weights followed by press ups, stomach crunches and cycling my legs while I lay on the ground for a minute and half. What followed was a full breakfast before I set out for the commute for volunteering. On the way, I listened to the songs of the Ramayana movie and read ‘Great British Tales from History’.
On the way into volunteering, I picked up a book called ‘Japonisme’ in the nearby charity shop, about the Japanese way of life. I don’t understand why the title sounds like French, but that’s the typical weirdness of Western culture and its publishing eccentricities when it approaches Asian culture.
Before volunteering, I walked around in a park and afterwards too. I got some really amazing photographs which I will put up on an Instagram account I have opened for my photography which does not feature humans. Photography is one of my favourite hobbies.
Lunchtime was fish pie with steamed cabbage. I made friends with the young lady that rang up the till, learning where she was from and speaking to her in her language while she spoke some Indian words to me that she knew.
The Barbican library was next on the list. I was very carefully browsing the books for sale. I got the following:
Michael Palin ‘Sahara’ – general interest
Punjabi-English Dictionary – always trying to improve my language skills
Tony Juniper ‘Rainforest’ – signed copy – for my interest and work in plants and nature
Ian Cobain ‘The History Thieves’ – related to a topic I’m studying and writing about
I then met up with my friends for an opera concert, ‘Scenes at Six’, a selection of opera scenes with music direction by Linnhe Robertson and stage direction by John Ramster. Performances included:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
La finta giardiniera
Premiere: Munich, 1775
Act 1 Scene 1: Opening Ensemble
Johann Strauss II
Die Fledermaus
Premiere: Vienna, 1874
Act 1: Aria, Dialogue & Trio
Benjamin Britten
Albert Herring
Premiere: Glyndebourne, 1947
Act 1: Opening Scene
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Così fan tutte
Premiere: Vienna, 1790
Act 1: Recitative & Sextet
Giacomo Puccini
La rondine
Premiere: Monte Carlo, 1917
Act 1: Opening Scene
Leoš Janáček
The Cunning Little Vixen
Premiere: Brno, 1924
Act 1 Scene 2: Farmyard Scene (performed in English)
Gian Carlo Menotti
The Saint of Bleecker Street
Premiere: New York, 1954
Act 1 Scene 2
Gioachino Rossini
La Cenerentola
Premiere: Rome, 1817
Act 2: Sextet
The opera was good fun. Some of the performers I had seen before and spoken to. I enjoyed one when everyone was cheating on everyone else the most, the comedic elements of it.
I headed out with one of my friends for a birthday party where I ate a grand christmas dinner of turkey breast slices, pork and sage stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, carrots, some other vegetable in it which I couldn’t identify and pigs in blankets. All washed down with a J. D. Wetherspoon’s ‘Raspberry Refresher’. We sang happy birthday to him in the car as I wasn’t sure whether he had told the others it was his birthday or not.
