Bring in 2008

We're back from our holiday in the U.K. with Claire and Geoff. A really nice, but short, week. This time we got to see a little of Northampton on a busy Sunday-before-Christmas shopping spree. We had a great time -- a family visit and not tourist marathon.

The day we drove up, the frost had accumulated for several days and the trees and ground near the highway were all white. It looked like a Christmas card. And it was a very clear day for the crossing. There was hardly any serious traffic on the drive around London, so we got to Duston in good time.

Sunday, we went into Northampton for a bit of last minute shopping and to see a bit of the town. But mostly we relaxed. We ended the evening at home watching TV and then "The Wizard of Oz" as preparation to see "Wicked", the musical. It was a good review for all. Homemade pizza around the coffee table and a fun evening.

The next day Geoff had to go to work. The rest of us got up late, and aside from going into Duston with Claire for some food, we all spent the day in. Anne, with perfect timing, came down with a cold on the first day of the vacation and was really stuffed up and needed the rest. Claire and I prepared dinner - Paul's birthday, after all. (Claire wanted lots and lots of stuffing, but I mis-calculated the amount of bread needed for the quantity of vegetables be put in and also the bread was probably not dry enough, so it ended up being tasty, but soggy. But that was the only thing that didn't come out perfectly.)

Christmas day we all got up early and went down to Woking, to Geoff's parents' home for Christmas lunch. We packed up all the gifts to open them down there and set off. It was a much more tranquil visit than the previous one when there were 14 of us. It was a great opportunity for us to get to know Alison and Ahmad better. Ahmad speaks French, so both Paul and Ahmad are happy. In fact, the whole day was spent sliding from French to English and back for everyone. We, the French contingent had brought foie gras and maccarons, which we staralmostted off with while we prepared the vegetables and then opened the presents. Then came lunch/dinner - stuffed turkey, cranberry sauce and plenty of vegetables. (Geoff took the picture.) We took a long break before getting to the cheese and never did get to the pudding! After a few games of poker and blackjack, we called it a day.

Claire and I pooled together to offer our now traditional family theater outing. We treated the family to "Wicked", the musical comedy prequil to the "The Wizard of Oz". It's the story of how the wicked witch of the west became wicked. It's all very politically correct and can be seen by kids from about 8 on. I think we all enjoyed it, but now, I can't readily hum any of the tunes. They didn't stick. And when I went to the website to find the link for you, I noticed that the composer/author was not given any billing - you have to look for them in the "Cast and Creation section and you even have to click again to get to the creation page. It's never referred to as Schwartz's "Wicked" or Schartz and Holzman's "Wicked".

But before we went to the show, we went up on the London Eye to get a bird's eye view of London. It was still daylight when we set out and already nightfall as we came down. It's a beautiful ride. It's not easy to get a steady picture; this blurry view of Westminster at the end of the ride, when the lights came one, is the best I got.

We never got around to any Boxing Day sales. The shops we ran across were closed on Boxing Day, in line with tradition. We made up for it with an excursion to Guildford the next day. The High Street was packed with shoppers and there are several shopping centers that all seem to have High Street entrances, so it is a major shopping town. It certainly is not an empty city center that lost its customers to peripheral shopping centers. In fact, these in-town centers are quite common: there are two in Woking and it's seems the same in Northampton.

We wanted to treat the Husaunndees to dinner, since they had us for Christmas. The best solution was to bring the restaurant to them and we ordered from an Indian restaurant. (You can't go to England and not eat Indian at least once - I love it!) I really didn't think I could eat any more, but we ended up finishing almost everything! And then we finished it off with the Christmas pudding we had not had on Christmas day. I never realized the sauce was so easy - a bechamel base with sugar and rum. Alison showed me a new way to make lump-free bechamel - putting the butter, milk and flour all in the pot cold and heating it slowly, stirring constantly.

We got back home on Friday evening after a fairly rough crossing. And now it's time to wish you all a very Happy New Year!

It's a Small World

It's truly a small world. On Saturday, Rita invited me to join her in going to a concert in Paris. A high school friend of hers was playing Gershwin. You can take me to hear Gershwin any time. So, we went. First of all, we discovered the Institut Polonais in Paris on Ile St. Louis, facing the 5th. Such a location! And it's a beautiful building, recently restored. It looks like they have some interesting programs and the artwork on display was already well-worth the visit.

The first part of the program was a Polish: Szymanowski (wikipedia, article in French), played by a Polish pianist, Teresa Czekaj. She's good; I just don't get excited by that kind of music. There were a few pieces from the first part of his career very reminiscent of Chopin and then the rest was from more twentieth century influences.

And then came the second half of the program: Jay Gottlieb playing Gershwin. I wasn't the only one in the audience almost dancing in my seat. You should have seen the heads bopping and the feet tapping, shoulders swaying.... For me it was special - if I closed my eyes, it was almost like hearing my mother play. Okay, she couldn't let herself play so loudly, but still, she was good. He played some songs, some pieces written for piano, and a suite from "Porgy and Bess" that he transcribed. I didn't realize how familiar Gershwin is to me. I thought I only knew a few tunes, but I think I recognized almost everything he played - maybe not all the pieces for piano, but still, they sounded so familiar. He got called back for several encores and could hardly get out of the room.

Rita wanted to say hello, of course. And we lingered. Rita introduced me to Jay. As we were lingering, I recognized someone - where from? AAWE? AARO? WICE? Turns out it's AAWE. So we had a nice chat. We both recognized each other and were running through the same list of organizations. We hope to run into each other again. Chilla's kids are about the same age as Louis and Anne, but if I got it right, they're in New York. The immediate result is that I am now on the Hilary Clinton mailing list.

But the clincher comes later. Yesterday, I wrote to Jay to thank him for the wonderful evening and, thinking that we're all about the same generation, asked if he knew my high school friend, Beth Levin, a fellow professional musician. I haven't seen her since high school, but keep moderately up to date via Erica. Turns out they have a friend in common and know of each other, even if they are not really acquainted -- enough so that Jay had her e-mail address, which he sent to me. And getting her address on December 17 meant I just had to write to her -- we had a joint Beth-Beethoven birthday party a "few" years ago, that I've never forgotten. (I found the picture and think I recognize Terry!) So now I'm back in touch with Beth and looking forward to whenever her schedule brings her to France!

So, it's a small world.

Odds & Ends

I got distracted over the weekend and forgot to write. Sorry. I seem to get more and more distracted, though.
I have managed to go to my art classes. I'm learning how to draw at long last. It's not quite as exciting as I had hoped - especially the Paris Sketchbook. We go to museums and draw from sculptures. I think I want to learn how to do fast sketches from life. I don't seem to have the patience for spending several hours trying to draw a sculpture. We'll see how this works out.
Last week, I signed up at ASSEDIC and the ANPE to make sure I get unemployment benefits if I'm entitled (I don't think I am.) and appropriate help in finding what I am looking for. I'm looking for short-term contract work. Yesterday, I managed to get off my CV for a job.
Also yesterday I made our ferry reservation for England at Christmas. I'm looking forward to that. But I've got to get some shopping done!
Yesterday, there was a walk in the Fontainebleau area, but I had to decide against it because my arm was hurting too much - same for the catch-up art class at the Louvre in the evening. It meant that I was able to "attend" the STC board meeting on Skype. For some reason, our Skype voice meetings are not any good anymore and we have to resort to typing. Very frustrating and I'm just not interested this year. It turned into a virtual shouting match and since I can't spend so much time at the keyboard these days, I dropped out. I will still try to cull the minutes from the conversation and post it.
What else? Jon has been in touch and it looks like the estate matters are winding down. All that's left is taking care of taxes. He will be so relieved to have that done with and, although it hasn't been any work for me, I will too. I think that what is bugging me about everything else is that I'm not able to really spend the time I want on the papers. Now that the rest of the papers and photos have been delivered I want to do that full time. But after half an hour, my arm is ready to fall off.
We did get the Suzie DePoo (Zuzek) wood panels up in the living room and they look great! (I took these pictures before we hung them up.) I'm thinking of having the Bruce Mitchell jazz musicians and my old circus copied. They were done in marker, which has faded to monochrome nothingness.
Time to get up and out.