Long Overdue

2009-01-11T14:37:00+01:00

Hello, everyone! Happy New Year! Jesus, has it been that long since I posted? Yeesh. I see on my little blog stats page that you have visited The Brain Dump a total of 364 times. And I, lazy schmuck that I am, have not been posting. For that, I apologize.At the same time, I must announce that I will be going on hiatus until about the third of February. This is because Christina and I will be traveling to the Yunnan province for the remainder of the month. We leave Tuesday evening, arriving at the provincial capital, Kunming, on the morning of the 15th. Everyone we have mentioned our plans to tells us that Yunnan is one of the most beautiful provinces in China. Christina and I are very excited. We have a loose plan and a few hostel reservations, but we're remaining flexible, as we have come to realize that is the only way to make any plans in China.I apologize again for not posting. I may post (very) sporadically along the trip at an internet cafe here, an internet cafe there, but don't count on it. The plus side is I bought a brand new spiffy camera to take lots and lots of pictures with. So there will be a payout at the end of this.As for today, I was walking along one of the back alleys in-between our apartment complex and the school when I happened upon this little scene (also the first picture taken with my new camera). Some sort of Chinese street opera. It was pretty fascinating to watch.

Here's another to give you a proper sense of the scale we're talking here:

More to come!

A Night At The Opera

2008-08-10T23:20:00+02:00

l like opera, and most of us at one time or another has listened to an 'aria' - a popular and usually well-known song from a production - and derived enjoyment from it, whether it be 'Nessun dorma' from Turandot or 'O mio babbino caro' from Gianni Schicchi.

So l am looking forward to a trip to the theatre in a few weeks time to see 'La Boheme'. lt will be something new and different, and of course a chance to dress up! Always a novel experience since l spend alot of my working day in sensible and unglamourous clothes.

To familiarise myself with the songs and storyline l've been listening to a cd of it, so when l'm watching the show l can understand what's happening, and also wait with anticipation for my favourite songs. Joining in won't be an option as l don't think the audience would appreciate my enthusiastic warblings, and it's being sung in Italian anyway, but l may be tempted to hum along under my breath !

Quote: 'lt was the best of times, it was the worst of times.'

Charles Dickens

Last posts on opera

Long Overdue

A Night At The Opera