Concert at the Opera House

Today was 99 degrees Fahrenheit (37C) and it was too hot to go for a walk. We finished up a long week of conferences and I was glad for a little downtme. For some reason, I fell asleep around 3 a.m. last night. I realized I needed a good rest today, but I was offered a ticket to a Mahler concert at the Opera House and I decided that I would take advantage of a kind offer like that.

The Symphony was good. The orchestra members were very young - many of them under 40. I would imagine the concertmaster to be around 48. The conductor, Vladimir Ashkenazy, was quite good, even despite his jerky movements. He is intense and jagged and it fit the musical arrangement, but I could not figure out his conducting signals.

I had front row seats so I could not gain an appreciation for the ways the music filled the hall. I could see the front row of musicians, but had a good view of the concertmaster and the violin section. The orchestra is in the middle of the hall with many seats encircling the pit. It seems to be an unusual arrangement, but the place was packed. I believe this was the beginning of the concert season.

The musical score was: Richard Strauss - Don Juan - poem, Mahler's Blumine and Songs of a Wayfarer, and then Symphony No. 1 in D. I enjoyed being back in front of a symphony. I realized that I was spoiled in Portland and with the Magic of Christmas chorus.

The trip home was something I want to erase from my mind. I took the train to Pymble because the Gordon bus was not running. Pymble is only a 12 minute walk. Since I did not get exercise today I welcomed the walk home. It had drizzled part of the evening in Sydney and I figured a little bit of light rain was tolerable, maybe even refreshing. Well, when I got off the train, we had a terrific thundershower. I knew there was no bus there and there were no cabs as well. I decided to wait out the showers. I stood under an awning to stay dry. I looked at all the store fronts for a cardboard box to use as a makeshift umbrellan just in case I needed to make a mad dash. Nothing. I waited under the awning for 45 minutes and the shower were not letting up. Lightning was right above me and thunder was intense. I had to do something so I began to walk home. I was immediately drenched. About 10 minutes into the walk, I found a piece of plastic that might have been a sign at one time and I used it for cover. Wouldn't you know, the rain lightened up. Just as I was five minutes away from the house, I placed the plastic covering into a neighbors recycling bin so it would not be left as trash. The skies opened up again and I got soaked to the bones once more. I was frustrated but almost there. I saw our recylce bin at the bottom of the driveway and I decided to wheel it back to the house. It was filled with water but I decided not to empty it. Well, as I'm wheeling it up the driveway, the wheel gets caught on a branch and I stumble. The open bin surge foward and douses me with more water and I am not happy. I had one last redeeming thought as I was near the house. The cook was leaving a plate for me for dinner. How thoughtful of him. So I went in and had fish and chips, but those chips were just as soggy as I was.