I have a lot to tell you

I have a lot to tell you. I have not even told you about Stockholm yet and so much else has happened.

On Friday night we went to see some modern dance. La la la Human Steps is a modern dance company from Montreal which we have seen before in Australia and I remember them as being sensational. We used to see a lot of modern dance in Australia. I don’t know why we do not go here. It does not matter whether the program is in German or not.

This production was a bit out there for me and I did not understand any of it at all. It was very chaotic and frenetic and was all conducted under spotlights and in shadows so that you could not actually see the dancers except in silhouette and the movements were as those of swans with tourette syndrome – but without sound apart from the panting of the dancers who I must say did dance their butts off.

The man next to Cate reacted badly and sat with his head in his hands a lot of the time. Some of the time he rested his forehead on the seat in front and dangled his arms down onto the floor – much like a gorilla looking for a banana he had dropped out of a tree at the zoo.

I thought it was an over reaction - although the flashing lights did give me a  bad headache as did the music which was provided by a piano and some stringed instruments which I could not see and they were often quite good when they played the same tune.

I certainly had no idea at any stage what was going on – but this is often the case with modern dance and it’s certainly not like opera which to me always has a story which could be told in two minutes but which is always sung in four acts over five hours and usually has someone dying or jumping off a cliff. This is probably an exaggeration but I really cannot get hold of a genre that has people singing the bits between the songs. Why not march the bits between songs – makes just as much sense.

Anyway we did not actually get to see the dancers until the lights stopped flashing and I found that the one who I thought was a child was indeed a child and could have been on work experience. Is it Stuvac in Canada at the moment?  I mean this kid was being tossed about all over the stage by this thug in tights and if I had been her father I would have jumped up on the stage and given him a good thrashing.

Anyway the kid got the best round of applause and would be well pleased even though she will be black and blue and the thug will have a lot to explain to child welfare when he gets back to Montreal.

Things are going the way of the US deficit talks around here at the moment. The day we got back from Stockholm we walked into the apartment and it was the hottest it had ever been – and that is pretty damned hot.

The cats were lying flat out on the floor looking at us reproachfully and inviting us to poach eggs on them and it was quite apparent that the air con was not working at all.

This is nothing new but this time it seemed to be blowing hot air.  I should mention that – generally speaking – old apartments in Vienna keep reasonably cool but ours is on the top floor and has lots of glass – and the two bedrooms on the top floor – which we use as our studies - would make ideal hothouses for growing orchids – or for glass blowing.

To be continued…….