Home Thoughts Weekly

Those of you who warned me about the stubborn nature of sinus infections were right as I now wade my way through a second course of grim antibiotics. Not much fun, especially in a week which has highlighted the ‘ticking time bomb’ of antibiotic resistance. My daughter, Lily, has sent me some interesting news about an alternative treatment for sinusitis which can only be described – look away if you’re eating – a bogeyectomy. Nice. I shall look forwards to that then. On a happier and far more aesthetically pleasing note, we made it to see Matthew Bourne’s amazing production of Sleeping Beauty at the Millennium Centre. Just. Wet weather, road works and farm vehicles added an extra frisson to the timings of our journey, but we arrived at the venue with ten minutes to spare. Enough time for a comfort break, certainly – but, quelle surprise - I have to run up to the third floor before I find a queue for the Ladies that doesn’t have ten women in front of me and even then it seems...

This week , I’ve been clobbered by another sinus infection which I thought I could beat by myself until The Earache from Hell drove me to the GP. Having consumed more  pharmaceutical  weapons of mass destruction than you can shake a stick at, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll see some improvement. On a brighter note, Friday was our wedding anniversary, Tom filled the house with daffodils and sent me a very beautiful card created from one of his epaintings.   The weather’s been largely dry and bright, but we only managed a short trip out and about because my ear didn’t enjoy the cold very much. Next week , though, we’re doing something I’m very much looking forwards to. The girls and their other halves kindly gave us vouchers for the Millennium Centre for Christmas. Earlier in the year, I was keen to see the Welsh National Opera’s new production of Alban Berg’s Lulu , but the more I thought about, the less inclined I was to brave such a depressin...

'In These Stones Horizons Sing' .  Interior view of calligraphy. It’s a couple of hours’ drive, at best, from here to the Millennium Centre in Cardiff, but since that pretty much takes us from door to door, it’s worth the occasional marathon for a good night’s entertainment. Tonight, however, in addition to the journey, we have a marathon opera; five and a half hours of Tristan und Isolde … although that does, thank goodness, include two intervals! I fear, as we take our seats, that it’s also five and half hours of adjusting to the ablutionary habits of the man to my left, suggestive of a rather ‘stuff and nonsense’ approach to fancy shampoo. However, as the show begins and the exchange between Isolde and her maid, Brangaene, goes on at length, I get rather comfortable and enjoy a little power napette which refreshes me nicely for the rest of the performance. The wooden curves of the concourse galleries. I’ve come in the hope of being converted to Wagner, but by t...