With Ross away at his parents
over the weekend it was a lonely weekend guaranteed intimacy free.
This probably accounted for the
fact that I caught up with a lot of housework - all of the ironing is
done - and finally erected the shelves in the the living room for the
TV and video and my LPs, which have been languishing in the attic for
nearly three years now.
What a pleasure it was greeting them again after such a long time - so many long lost friends. And actually it was a joy to encounter the LP format again. Now, I recognise that CDs have convenience value (slam 'em in and press the button) and that the sound is crackle free but that 20/25 minute per side format means that it's much easier to vary your listening.
One of the things I dislike about CDs is that, with 70/75 minutes to play with, no-one has really cracked the art of producing sensible programmes for the format. In the classical world, it's either three Mozart string quartets or a couple of Beethoven symphonies or the complete Chopin waltzes. Well, frankly, that's a surfeit. I'd much prefer a more balanced programme of works. People work hard at this in the concert hall but on CD they assume that you're there for the duration.
There's a benefit, of course, in longer pieces, opera, Mahler, Bruckner and the like. But even I don't always feel the need for such excess. Anyway, skipping about from LP to LP was a delight.
I'm getting out of time synch. That all happened Sunday and Monday whilst I was ironing. Firstly, there was Friday night at Covent Garden with Ross, Colin and Robert, a friend from Liverpool days. The production was Janacek's Katy'a Kabanova.
I love Janacek and this was a lavishly, beautiful account of the score. But it was all just too, too. I really prefer the old ENO, WNO and GTO experiences of newly minted discovery. There's something raw and difficult about Janacek's work. It almost shouldn't sound too achieved. You should believe that the performers are just, but only just, getting through it. I missed that element of danger. The natural elements of the score sounded wonderful but folksy bits sounded a trifle gemütlich. It was all too restrained, too easy. But there was a wonderful cast and it was fabby to hear voices at full pelt.
Saturday lunchtime Ross's parents arrived and, before carrying him off, deposited a sofa with us that precipitated a frenzy of room re-designing upon me. As I've said, the shelves began to get sorted, varnished mainly, and various bits of furniture got moved around. The first iteration produced a very cramped and claustrophobic effect. But I was too tried to continue and settled down to relax.
Out of the blue, came a phone call from Donna, who's a friend of Gill's and who I'd known in my Liverpool days. We chewed the fat for half an hour or so catching up on all sorts of history. Then I settled into some wine and a video.
I'd been down to Tesco's and the video store earlier in the day.
So, I watched Fear on video, not because it was going to be any good
but because it had Mark Wahlberg in it - Marky Mark as was. Yes, I'm
sorry but I have to confess to a bit of a pash there - sort of unthinking
man's crumpet.
Sunday was more housework, the shelves went into place, there was more washing, more ironing, and more moving of furniture. The second iteration was no better than the first. More wine, more television and a phone call from Ross to delight in.
Monday brought more of the same but the afternoon was spent with Gill and Robert. A pub lunch followed by a visit to an open air craft fair - the highlight of which was ferret racing. Well, what fabby beasts they are. I bought some interesting marmalade and a sorrel plant that still needs planting out.
Back home, I got the ironing finished, sorted some more of the weeds in the garden and attempted another iteration of the furniture reorganisation. It ended up with there being no room for the brown wingback chair downstairs so the only place for it for the moment was the bedroom. The living room looks much better but the bedroom is now in chaos.
So, it's been a productive weekend but, frankly, most of that has been displacement
activity because I've been lonely. I really miss my Rossi.
