ugh, you know that exhausted, worn feeling you get after... well, exhausting yourself? *nods* yup.
Right, so *does a quick peek backwards to see where see left off in terms of actual proper updates * what? March? Oh dear, sorry about that one! (lol. Not that, I'm sure, anyone is suffering too much from not having been updated on the mundanities (nope, not a word. yes, it's staying right where it is ;) ) of my life over the last few months). *Quickly runs to grab calendar to remind herself what she's been up to. yes. she is that old* I did wind up seeing Onegin with Linna and her mum. It was lovely. The new sets and costumes were rather neat and the second and third acts were just amazing! In terms of comparison with the old one, I have to say that while I loved the costumes and thought the set for the first act was really interesting (in a good way!), there is something to be said for the simple romantic country feel of the old one. I also saw Rex Harrington the last time (though Aleksander Antonjevic and Piotr Stanczyk did a phenomenal job, particularly in the third act) so that was a lot to live up to. His ballet talk before this performance was just adorable too! The Mixed Russian Program was also quite lovely... well barring Apollo which, while danced quite well and choreographed by my favourite choreographer, remains my least favourite ballet of all time. Symphony in C was well done (though, of course, did not quite match up to the Bolshoi's rendering of it ;) - I'm not sure how I feel about a number of the younger female dancers who are being promoted in the company... hmmm... I will have to keep watching. And what's up with our huge lack of incoming males? ) *sighs happily* I just love Balanchine's choreography though. It was Devon's first ever ballet and she quite liked it too I am happy to report :D. Russian Seasons by Alexi Ratmansky was really good. I loved the colours (minus the little box hats all the women were wearing... very odd...) and choreography. So well done. A nice blend of modern balletic styles with the feeling of classical. I was initially worried when I heard that the National was putting on new modern-style Romeo & Juliet next season but now that I know Ratmansky's the choreographer I'm really excited to see it. This one was very contemporary without feeling in anyway disjointed. Loved it :).
Hmmm... what else have I seen lately? Ooh, got tickets to Calendar Girls with Jess, Devon and Tacha for Jess' birthday. Thoroughly enjoyable :).Some of the accents slipped a few times but overall very well done and highly recommended. Also saw Alan Shonfield int the Scarborough Players Production of Much Ado - I love that play! Definitely my fav Shakespeare comedy. It was well done and definitely good value for money. Also Alan, you make a wonderful drunk ;). Other than that, spent most of April dancing, circus-ing, seeing the fam for Easter, working at Indigo and marking papers - with a little bit of writing fitted in on the side. I will not mention the election other than to say... well... it'll be interesting to see how well our country's reputation survives. Just remembering what 8 years of Bush jr did to that of the States makes me shudder.
Best part of April though was definitely the visit from the French branch of the family. I got to host the girls at my place and the rest at my parents just across town. It was loads of fun to have them here :). Also, the return to full fledged French immersion for the week was great mental exercise for my brain - completely shot my ability to speak english at work the day after they left though! Got Ma to help me take them on a tour of the old parts of the city - which by their standards was brand spanking new of course. Went up the CNTower, explored ChinaTown and Queen street, headed out to Niagara for the day - where we not only got to go behind the falls - Thank you Fabien - and stay for the light show in the evening but, met up with a troop of Star Wars re-enactors who had a real working R2 unit with them!!! So awesome!!!. Met up with the rest of the family for the day on the Sunday and had a blast playing bop-it and introducing the French cousins to Rummy-cube (to which our family is addicted and at which we are uber competitive). Apparently they are now training so we can have a real tournament next time they come back to visit ;). And just generally had a great time :D. Can't wait until either they come back or I make it over to Normandy for a visit.
Had a crazy few weeks there as I went back to work for two days right after they left before I took off to visit Ma in Calgary for mother's day. This was my first time back there when it wasn't winter in about 12-15yrs so it was rather nice to get to see the city again. It really is beautiful and there are so many art and culture initiatives that it's hard not to get jealous - Mayor Rob Ford take note, you can be conservative and cultured - who knew?! So many awesome things got packed into that weekend that I couldn't even choose a best part to that trip if I had to! Headed out to Drumheller and the badlands on the Friday (the town looks exactly like the one in Pixar's Cars. No joke. I couldn't stop laughing) to see the dinosaur museum - Dinosaurs :D!!! The collections at the Royal Tyrell Museum are incredible and soo well presented. I loved all of the displays and the fact that many were interactive. Plus, Dinosaurs! The badlands themselves are pretty awesome too. We got to go for a wander and the geology is just wonderful. Multicolored layers of chalk, ironstone, coal and shale set against the backdrop of a cotton-puff cloud sky. The drive up to it is really impressive too. It looks this massive rend in the patchwork quilt of the prairies that just comes out of nowhere. So cool to see. We also went on a bit of a hunt and managed to track down some mini-hoodoos. Nothing like the size of those in the Grand Canyon or Cappadocia but very cute all the same!
Uh oh! Time to head off to ballet. More on Calgary later!
I definitely need more sleep than I've been getting. I think my body is rebelling at the absence of adrenaline, sooo tired *yawns*. Speaking of Adrenaline, did you know it was the first hormone to be identified? Way back in 1895? Yupyup. Strange how the body works, I was so excited coming off the post-finishing/finding out I was going to Taiwan high that I began planning extra side trips left, right and centre... now I'm just feeling so drawn that I'm too tired to make attempts to sort everything through and stressed that they won't pan out! Enough about that tho - more on updates instead :).
Right, so *does a quick peek backwards to see where see left off in terms of actual proper updates * what? March? Oh dear, sorry about that one! (lol. Not that, I'm sure, anyone is suffering too much from not having been updated on the mundanities (nope, not a word. yes, it's staying right where it is ;) ) of my life over the last few months). *Quickly runs to grab calendar to remind herself what she's been up to. yes. she is that old* I did wind up seeing Onegin with Linna and her mum. It was lovely. The new sets and costumes were rather neat and the second and third acts were just amazing! In terms of comparison with the old one, I have to say that while I loved the costumes and thought the set for the first act was really interesting (in a good way!), there is something to be said for the simple romantic country feel of the old one. I also saw Rex Harrington the last time (though Aleksander Antonjevic and Piotr Stanczyk did a phenomenal job, particularly in the third act) so that was a lot to live up to. His ballet talk before this performance was just adorable too! The Mixed Russian Program was also quite lovely... well barring Apollo which, while danced quite well and choreographed by my favourite choreographer, remains my least favourite ballet of all time. Symphony in C was well done (though, of course, did not quite match up to the Bolshoi's rendering of it ;) - I'm not sure how I feel about a number of the younger female dancers who are being promoted in the company... hmmm... I will have to keep watching. And what's up with our huge lack of incoming males? ) *sighs happily* I just love Balanchine's choreography though. It was Devon's first ever ballet and she quite liked it too I am happy to report :D. Russian Seasons by Alexi Ratmansky was really good. I loved the colours (minus the little box hats all the women were wearing... very odd...) and choreography. So well done. A nice blend of modern balletic styles with the feeling of classical. I was initially worried when I heard that the National was putting on new modern-style Romeo & Juliet next season but now that I know Ratmansky's the choreographer I'm really excited to see it. This one was very contemporary without feeling in anyway disjointed. Loved it :).
Hmmm... what else have I seen lately? Ooh, got tickets to Calendar Girls with Jess, Devon and Tacha for Jess' birthday. Thoroughly enjoyable :).Some of the accents slipped a few times but overall very well done and highly recommended. Also saw Alan Shonfield int the Scarborough Players Production of Much Ado - I love that play! Definitely my fav Shakespeare comedy. It was well done and definitely good value for money. Also Alan, you make a wonderful drunk ;). Other than that, spent most of April dancing, circus-ing, seeing the fam for Easter, working at Indigo and marking papers - with a little bit of writing fitted in on the side. I will not mention the election other than to say... well... it'll be interesting to see how well our country's reputation survives. Just remembering what 8 years of Bush jr did to that of the States makes me shudder.
Best part of April though was definitely the visit from the French branch of the family. I got to host the girls at my place and the rest at my parents just across town. It was loads of fun to have them here :). Also, the return to full fledged French immersion for the week was great mental exercise for my brain - completely shot my ability to speak english at work the day after they left though! Got Ma to help me take them on a tour of the old parts of the city - which by their standards was brand spanking new of course. Went up the CNTower, explored ChinaTown and Queen street, headed out to Niagara for the day - where we not only got to go behind the falls - Thank you Fabien - and stay for the light show in the evening but, met up with a troop of Star Wars re-enactors who had a real working R2 unit with them!!! So awesome!!!. Met up with the rest of the family for the day on the Sunday and had a blast playing bop-it and introducing the French cousins to Rummy-cube (to which our family is addicted and at which we are uber competitive). Apparently they are now training so we can have a real tournament next time they come back to visit ;). And just generally had a great time :D. Can't wait until either they come back or I make it over to Normandy for a visit.
Had a crazy few weeks there as I went back to work for two days right after they left before I took off to visit Ma in Calgary for mother's day. This was my first time back there when it wasn't winter in about 12-15yrs so it was rather nice to get to see the city again. It really is beautiful and there are so many art and culture initiatives that it's hard not to get jealous - Mayor Rob Ford take note, you can be conservative and cultured - who knew?! So many awesome things got packed into that weekend that I couldn't even choose a best part to that trip if I had to! Headed out to Drumheller and the badlands on the Friday (the town looks exactly like the one in Pixar's Cars. No joke. I couldn't stop laughing) to see the dinosaur museum - Dinosaurs :D!!! The collections at the Royal Tyrell Museum are incredible and soo well presented. I loved all of the displays and the fact that many were interactive. Plus, Dinosaurs! The badlands themselves are pretty awesome too. We got to go for a wander and the geology is just wonderful. Multicolored layers of chalk, ironstone, coal and shale set against the backdrop of a cotton-puff cloud sky. The drive up to it is really impressive too. It looks this massive rend in the patchwork quilt of the prairies that just comes out of nowhere. So cool to see. We also went on a bit of a hunt and managed to track down some mini-hoodoos. Nothing like the size of those in the Grand Canyon or Cappadocia but very cute all the same!
Uh oh! Time to head off to ballet. More on Calgary later!
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