Hectic day

How could it possibly have taken the guts of five hours to clean and tidy the house in preparation for my hosting of the music group? However it happened, that's how long it took. Maybe I was more thorough than usual: that's probably it. Whatever, the reason, from 6.30 am to noon all I seemed to be doing was tidying and dusting and polishing and washing and hoovering and furniture arranging and ...

Because I was going to the final live screening from the New York Metropolitan Opera and that was starting at 5.00 pm because of the length Wagner's Die Walküre, I'd moved the time of the session forward to 12.30 rather than the usual 1.00 pm, but my early start easily got me ready to greet the first arrival with every appearance of unflapability. The new contact we'd met on Thursday evening showed up after all, even though he'd told us then that he wouldn't be able to join us because of a prior family commitment. He fitted in well, and seemed to enjoy the experience. Yesterday was the birthday of Tony, our eldest member and one of the founders of the Group. Fortunately I'd brought back a Sacher Torte as a souvenir of the trip to Vienna, so was able to offer that as a rather up-market birthday cake. I just hope our new member didn't get the impression that this sort of thing is standard for all our sessions.

He took me in to town afterwards, since I wanted to have something to eat before going to the cinema. I'd already decided not to take the car anyway, since all sorts of parking restrictions were already in place in the city centre in advance of the visit of HM Elizabeth II. He went out of his way to drop me off as close as possible to the cinema and I had plenty of time for a leisurely spot of Italian food in Mona Lisa's, just across from the Screen. Two former group members had season tickets for all twelve operas, so I met up with them beforehand and during both intervals.

Scheduled starting time was 5.00 pm, but there was a 35-minute delay, which we later learned was due to a technical problem with the elaborate stage machinery. The late start and the length of the opera combined to make it after 11.00 pm before we got out. I managed to catch the second-to-last bus home, and got in the door on a major high after a magnificent operatic experience. The programme for the next season of The Met: Live in HD was announced tonight. The final two operas of Wagner's Ring cycle form the highlight, but there are also three or four others which I could be interested in going to. It's a terrific initiative on the part of the Met, and it's been a huge success all over the world.

So, a hectic day all round.