It seemed a sort of celebratory thing that I took myself off in the direction of Preston to visit young Scot in his new house. I took over some of the surplus hostas and grasses that we had from our garden.
Things are moving on apace.
I let my colleagues know officially that I would be leaving during a training meeting. The main purpose of this was to head off having to spend the summer organising a PTLLS course. This appears to have worked.
I missed out on seeing Linda and Mary when they came up for a quick half term visit but I did manage to make my bookings for the new season of live relays from the Met and so I shall definitely complete my viewings of Wagner's Ring Cycle.
I then resigned officially from Connect on Wednesday.
I'm trying to ensure that I use up all of my annual leave before I depart (otherwise I should lose it) and so I took the afternoon off.
It seemed a sort of celebratory thing that I took myself off in the direction of Preston to visit young Scot in his new house. I took over some of the surplus hostas and grasses that we had from our garden.
As ever, he was obliging and accommodating. Hem.
And he does look quite splendid on his hands and knees pushing back to meet my every thrust. Good man.
Ross and I then had another of our Gifted and Talented days to sort out. This time it was a Space Day at Knowsley. It went rather well.
Sam has now finished as a student. It really doesn't seem like seven or so years since he started at University but here he is now about to become a real life professional doctor. In the mean time, he's been taking a break running in the London marathon and camping in North Wales.
To be honest, I do not know what he's holding in his left hand but if it helps him blow bubbles then it's all to the good I suppose.
I've also been spending some time in the garden. There's not been a lot of that this year. The cold weather at the beginning did some harm but most things have now recovered - even our twisted willow which looked to be a gonner for a long while.
And, at last, I've mounted the garden clock which was a present from Sue last Christmas.
Unlike the New York Met, London's Royal Opera has not got its act together with regards to live relays. So, I took the opportunity to catch this broadcast of Verdi's Macbeth with alacrity and I was not disappointed. Roland had already told me that he liked Phyllida Lloyd's production and I can heartily say that I agree with him. The whole evening moved with pace and looked very handsome.
The jewel of the evening however was Liudmyla Monastyrska as Lady Macbeth. By gum, she had a fabulous voice fully up to the difficulties of the role and much, much more. Simon Keenlyside took Macbeth and whilst he is always a watchable and listenable performer, very intelligent in everything he does, he's not really a top notch Verdi baritone. Nevertheless, it was a very good evening out.
![[Three and a Half Stars - Very Good]](3_5star.jpg){kind=small}
Elsewhere I've got the car's MOT sorted so that the insurance should now just follow. Strategically, I means that everything is reasonably plain sailing for my time as a student and hopefully there won't be too many unforeseen extra vehicular expenses.
Camelot graced our screens. It seems to fall into the recent spate of programmes that have historical settings plus lots of sex and violence. Well, there wasn't a lot of gratuitous violence here but there was some nice sex. Our hero as Arthur was Jamie Campbell Bower and he took the trouble to show us why he should be king.
