Swan Lake

I queued for twenty minutes with Bethany but missed out on tickets to Swan Lake, broadcast from the Opera House and played at regional cinema's including Mum's local in Singleton and ours in Wagga. Thankfully I found out afterwards that they are also putting it on ABC2, so I am taping it. It would have been a very late school night for Joss so it worked out pretty well even if our screen is much smaller.

So, I am listening to Swan Lake in the background as I play scrabulous on Facebook and make bikkies for Bible study tomorrow morning. I made Nigella's chocolate mint biscuits a while ago but didn't find them minty enough. These ones should be plenty minty as I slipped a bit with the bottle (should have used a spoon)! They look pretty chocolaty don't they?

A year or so ago I tried to read Vanity Fair but I didn't get very far, I think because the characters were so unlikeable. I found a BBC production of it at work the other day and decided to give it a go - I am so glad I did! It was funny, sumptuous, disgusting and moving. Most of the characters are really awful and I didn't expect that Andrew or I would like it but we watched 3 hours on Saturday night and the remaining 3 on Sunday night, we just needed to find out what happened. Major Dobbin is the only character I could really like and there was one scene where Andrew said you could see his heart break. For me, of course, being terribly involved, I said that my heart was breaking too. I was even moved to call Amelia a very uncomplimentary name, but she got a talking to in the end while still ending up happily.

We are also watching To the Manor Born as we bought the set from the UK (thanks for the tips Roger!). Jossie is enjoying it too.

I have just finished reading A town like Paris: Living and loving in the City of Light by Bryce Corbett, which is one of our book club books. It was a fascinating insight into life in Paris from an Australian bloke's point of view. I would probably have liked it more if it had been written by a woman who enjoyed over-eating rather than getting drunk, but I still found it a good read. I have started Bernard Schlink's Homecoming and, so far, it is very good. As I can't ever be reading just one book, I am also reading William Tyndale: God's outlaw. This is the story of the first Bible in English and the man who gave it to us - brilliant. I just love history.

Swan Lake is still going and I have been surprised by how much of the music is familiar to me. I can't wait to watch it with Jossie - I'm sure it will have been worth missing Spicks and Specks and Location Location Location.