This week’s highlight had to be the performance of the Messiah that Katherine and I attended at the Adelaide Town hall on Sunday afternoon. There were three performances, over the weekend and I had booked a year ago for the matinee.
It was a stellar performance by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, the Adelaide Chamber Singers, and soloists Samantha Clarke, Fiona Campbell, Andrew Goodwin and Andrew O'Connor, conducted by Ivars Taurins whose body flowed continuously to communicate with the performers and channel the music. The final standing ovation lasted quite a while.
Even with the 160 minute uncut version in the less than comfortable seats I at no stage wished to leave. It was a mighty, uplifting, overwhelming experience.
By contrast, it was very quiet on desk hostess duty at the Guild on Wednesday. Two people called in briefly too drop of items for the trading table, but otherwise quiet enough for me to do a bit of phone research for my brother and read Silk. I needed to make notes as I read and the conditions were perfect for that. There can’t be many people in the world interested in its level of detail, but a couple of them are in WES Group! When I got home, one of the Christmas cards I had posted the afternoon before was in my letterbox, properly franked, no note, Sydney address clear????
Thursday was hot (38C). After watering everything, I left a little early for Pilates, planning to visit the Post Office to solve the letter mystery. The lift was waiting on my floor, lights on, doors open and periodically trying unsuccessfully to close. I rang our Strata rep, who was out shopping (and now facing the prospect of hauling shopping up the stairs). She reported the problem and I went down the stairs, dashed to the Post Office and phoned Pilates to say I’d be late (again).
The helpful Post Person worked out that the letter has gone through the letter scanner upside down, and read my return address instead of the recipient’s! I am mildly panicked, since I have stamped my address in the middle of the reverse side of about 50 cards, a practice that is no longer a good idea. Top corners are the best places for return addresses. Since no more have appeared in my letterbox, I’m hoping the rest survive the machines. Another habit I need to break.
By the time I finished Pilates the lift service company had promised to come that afternoon. My cunning plan to delay my return by lunch at the Queen Street Cafe was thwarted because their kitchen was closed, so I postponed lunch and settled for my lime milkshake and a rhubarb friand. Plan B went into action when the lift was still not working on my return. I took myself down to A Prayer for the Wild at Heart and had a very late lunch of Seared duck breast with Parisian peas and orange. That did the trick. When I returned 40 minutes later, the lift was working! Safely back in the apartment, the watered plants were doing OK in the heat so I settled with a coffee to finish Hannah Richell’s One Dark Night, a lucky pre- release find via NetGalley.
After a few more rows of the use-up-Rowan-wool shawl,
On Friday morning I spent an hour at the dentist, half with the hygienist and half with my dentist, who, after carefully noting the work to be done on the areas we are monitoring, told me she is leaving the practice at Christmas because her childcare needs can’t be accommodated. She suggested who I might book with in future and we agreed she would not have time to do the work she had suggested for me before Christmas. We were both sad. I have been seeing her now for 6-7 years. I made an appointment with her successor for my next session in April next year. About 2 hours later, the practice phoned me to say they had found two spots in my current dentist’s schedule before she leaves, and booked the lab to make the required crown in time to fit! I was astonished and moved. It means missing a Christmas lunch with friends but I didn’t feel I could refuse.
Then, late yesterday, as I was bringing in the washing, the myxoid cyst on my right index finger burst. It has been inflamed and enlarged for some time and I had been advised to tolerate it rather than intervene. I immediately applied iodine and a bandaid before exposing to the air today and calling the hand clinic. I now have an appointment with a hand therapist on Thursday, in lieu of Pilates. I need Pilates, but need to prevent infection more.
On Saturday, after some shopping, I resolutely reduced my pile of hardcopy books waiting to be read. One was the RSN stitch book, read but not written up, two were partially-read books about mitochondria and metabolism, two were crime fiction titles borrowed from a Book Club member and 3 crime fiction I had bought. As Sunday was our last meeting of the club for this year, I had an incentive. Yes, I skimmed, but in about 6 hours I got most of them read.
Since taking the photo, I have read the top one - an astonishing book for someone who thought she knew a lot about WWI. This copy was borrowed and I have now ordered another to lend to family and friends.u
list. 
The pile is now down to books I need to read and note for talks I’ve agreed to give next year, and which I’m really looking forward to reading. There is still a huge number of fiction titles waiting on my Kindle and Kobo, but that’s OK. It’s the physical piles that irritate me. The finished crime fiction is now circulating around the Book Club, I have borrowed one of our three recommended titles for next month from the library's ebook collection, so that is now at the top of my reading.I did less well with yarn, succumbing to a new, and obviously limited, line of alpaca yarn from one specific animal from Adagio Mill - Casper, a lovely brown. I’m thinking of putting it with 3 balls of black alpaca I already have and make a jumper. I did, however, resist the fabulous colours of the current Bendigo Woollen Mill Italian Solstice Cotton import.
My year's supply of toilet paper, paper towel and tissues was waiting for me at Katherine's place on Saturday night. It's easier to have it delivered there than at the apartment. Fionn helped me load it into my car and yesterday I managed to empty and reorganise several cupboards to fit it, for the first time, into the apartment rather than store it in my carpark locker. Progress.
Then yesterday a box arrived for plastic recycling.Since the soft plastic collection service at supermarkets collapsed under the weight of their failure to recycle, there has been no option but landfill. After much research and checking, I’m as confident as I can be that the TerraCycle company based in Victoria do actually recycle soft plastic, but it’s an expensive option for individuals.
You buy a box which they send to you. You fill it and return it using the prepaid label they provide. Once a year they have a sale. This year, when they reduced charges by 30%, I worked out where I could place the box and plucked up courage to try it. It holds up to 20kg. If it holds 6 months of my discarded soft plastic I will regard it as a good investment. 4 months I might begrudge but continue. I am, of course, trying to reduce usage.
There was no family dinner at my place this week, as most were busy. I used the time to dig out a few Christmas decorations and sort out all my Christmas presents. I finished off a few details and have a couple of gifts to top up and some cards to write, but basically I'm organised.
Today Panayoula and I caught up at length over a couple of coffees, sharing news of our families, health, mutual friends, hopes and fears. In this last month of 2024 we are both encouraged by our children and grandchildren's capacity to find their way in the world, contributing and overcoming adversity. It is so good to share this and encourage each other well beyond our paid working life.
Hallelujah!
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