Final Treats
5 January

Well, my midwinter break is coming to an end.

We've hit the cold days with the ground frozen rock solid outside. However, it has been bright. The sun is coming back in the evenings and we've gained some fifteen or so minutes of light in the evening and the mornings are just on the turn. Each season has its delight.

The news from my parents is good in that my father feels as though he has turned a corner with regards to his treatment (you'll remember that he has been having radiotherapy for a cancerous lesion on his oesophagus). The burn marks on his throat are fading and he can now swallow without pain. He'll find out at the end of the month how successful this treatment has been in dealing with the cancer.

Ross and I have been taking a few trips out despite the fact that we have both been full of cold. In fact, had I not been on holiday, I should probably have taken sick leave for part of the time. My cold has settled on my chest with phlegmy consequences. You'll not be wanting details.

As a way of aiding the healing process, I've been using the holiday period to set aside an hour or so each day to do some yoga.

First off we went on a pilgrimage to Cheshire Oaks - home of cut price garments. Actually, it's the sort of place which makes you realise just how over-priced most clothes are in this country. I keep saying it I know but, if you can afford to subtract 50% off a price at sale time, then the mark-up has been extortionately high. I don't see the point of paying full price.

I got some knock-down Ellesse pumps, some Nike air trainers and a pair of light grey Ralph Lauren Polo needlecord jeans. The trainers replace the pair of Adidas trainers which I purchased in Seattle seven years ago. Ross managed some Nike tracksuit bottoms, Polo jeans and bright red jumper. We got a Charles Rene Mackintosh calendar for the kitchen and a few other bits and pieces.

Shopping closer to home has had its benefits. In keeping with our wish for this year to do more shopping locally we have been out and about on College Road. Gillon's, our butchers, were pleased to hear that we had liked our duck. We were asked at Satterthwaite's, the bakers, whether we had liked our cake or not. In the chemist's, the nice chemist was talking through the pros and cons of a treatment with a customer as I bought my Covonia. The grocer's chatted with us like old friends. Again, I know I have said it before but it is really nice to live in an area where you can become known.

If our Festive celebrations began in December with a Vivaldi concert at the Phil, it ended with Handel on Saturday night when Ross and I attended a performance of Messiah at the same venue. Apart from the well-known bleeding chunks, I had never sat through a complete Messiah live before - I've only ever heard performances on disc, radio or TV.

I can say right away that I was much taken with it and am happy to award it four stars in the new 2003 rating system. However, and this is a big however, Harry Bicket conducted a very Baroque performance with reduced chorus, reduced orchestra (strings and harpsichord/organ continuo with two trumpets and timpani sparingly used for colour) and four soloists. I think I should have hated a Victorian style performance with massed everything.

What became apparent to me was the spiritual nature of the music - I fear the Victorian excresences tend to the pious rather than the spiritual. I had thought that, like Bach's masses and other of Handel's sacred oratorios, this work was a narrative of the life and works. It isn't. With an eclectic choice of texts from some of the lesser known parts of the bible as well as some of the central passages, the three parts are more like meditations on the birth, death and resurrection of the Christ.

Illnesses meant cast changes. I didn't catch the name of the soprano but I didn't like her voice which felt too bright and light. Michael George was something of a dry voiced bass to start with but warmed for Why do the nations and The trumpet shall sound. Jean Rigby is a seasoned trouper. She was the Maddalena in the Rigoletto which Ross and I saw at ENO seven years ago in 1996. Her mezzo contributions were ripe and fruity. Ross and I have also seen and heard Toby Spence (the tenor replacement) at ENO in The Barber of Seville in 2001. He sang Count Almaviva well. He sang the Handel even better with great grace through all of the florid passages and even greater meaning. You felt as though he'd read the text and understood it in a musical context. He is a good looker as well.

We'll be hearing a lot of Handel this year if all goes to plan. We've already booked for another Basically Baroque concert at the Phil featuring Handel. We should like to see Jephtha in Llandudno performed by WNO. And then there will be the possibility of Thedora in the autumn performed by Glyndebourne Touring.

The final evening of the holiday gives us the second installment in The Lord of the Rings saga - The Two Towers.

Spectacular does not do justice to what you see on the screen. It is a whole alternative world seemingly come to life in front of you with the climactic battle for Helm's Deep cinema in an epic vein. I think that another four stars are in order.

I still think that the central book of the trilogy is hampered by a completely fractured narrative. There are just too many strands for comfort and the film tried to add even more. However, there is emotional, psychological and spiritual depth to the whole enterprise which places it at a remove from most blockbuster films these days.

Unbelievably poignant was the Gollum figure. Unbelievable for two reasons. Firstly, it is hard to credit that what you see on screen is only a Computer Generated Image. It feels real. And unbelievable because of the way they have chosen to portray the character. Traditionally, Gollum is a figure of pure spite and wickedness. This Gollum is tragic, a broken wreck of a being, almost childlike, torn apart, forlorn, ill-treated. I just wanted to hug it and reassure it and mend it. It made me cry.

And, traditionally now, we must note that the various alarms in the house have been re-set. Because of the cold snap, the central heating will have been on all night so the house will be warmed through. Just before seven, though, the music centre downstairs and the music centre in the bedroom will kick in with Radio 3 and the working year will begin.