In just four short days, our decorator completed in the front room what it has taken Ross and I to accomplish in the kitchen.
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The one thing I was determined of this year was that that tatty bit of wallpaper over the television was not going to appear on the Christmas photographs yet again. |
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So, the wall's got stripped and the ceiling painted. |
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And then the walls were painted and the woodwork glossed. |
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And then we started moving back in again. |
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Meanwhile, back in the kitchen, the painting has been paying off...
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The cold, white walls have been transformed by liberal applications of colour from brush and roller... |
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into a jolly environment. |
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All we have to do now is to gloss the woodwork, get the cupboard doors stripped and wax all the exposed wood. And we shall be very proud of our achievement. The colour already makes a difference. The kitchen light up of an evening when the lights go on and is brightly welcoming in the morning when I struggle down for my breakfast.
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In the world of televisual entertainment, we are still enjoying Daniel Deronda which has a slow, cumulative, burning power. |
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I love the understatement of the acting and the attention to period detail. |
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Doctor Zhivago , however, whilst better than a lot of the dross on television, does not captivate as much and has, let's be frank, rather skimped on the budget which would have been required for some of the more epic moments. You can't really stage the whole of the failed 1905 revolution with two dozen extras in a back street. |
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Better indeed was Solid Geometry taken from a short story by Ian McEwan and starring Ewan McGregor. That's him on top by the way. |
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For the record, Mark Owen won Celebrity Big Brother. He cried. That alone probably added a few tens of thousands of sales on to his new album shortly to be released in the new year. Goldie was evicted first making it two black guys in a row to get the first drop. Anne Diamond avoided doing an Anthea Turner by showing herself to be above it all. Sue Perkins almost did a Vanessa by not really coping. Melinda Messenger was hoping for more out of it all and was a bit shocked to go out before Les Dennis, who may well get the Claire Sweeney award for career enhancement.
Our one artistic outing of the week was down to Stoke to see Glyndebourne
Touring Opera's production of Eugene Onegin. I'd done the trip once before
to see their La Bohème. I
characterised it as "an enjoyable evening out" but I felt that "I was not as affected
as I should have been".
I really wasn't much taken by this show at all. The band felt very lumpy and the singing was mostly over-parted. The dancing was not in character - too elegant for the country scenes - too freaky for the court scenes. And I got fed up of the curtains flying back and forward. I'm going to take some persuading before I venture that far again for that company.