Struggling Along

I'm like a kid when it snows (although some people would say that I'm like a kid most of the time!) and whenever it's really snowing (the big fluffy kind of snowflakes) I just want to be outside being snowed on. Like yesterday, these mini blizzards never lasted long so after wistfully watching a few pass by through my window I was very grateful to be able to catch this one at lunchtime. It was just about the last of the day.

This poor fellow provided a good metaphor for my own day. It's a struggle at the moment. That's a given. But I know I can do more to help myself - like wearing a hat and some gloves for example. I need to work on being kinder to myself in the office. Putting a marker down there for future reference!

I received an unexpected invitation for an evening out at the opera last night, to see La Traviata at the Grand Theatre in Leeds (the dress rehearsal). The timing was good because I suffered a bit of a mental meltdown in the afternoon and reached a point where I couldn't think any more. It was good to have a reason to escape. The performance was also a good rest for the brain - because I was pretty much disengaged for a couple of hours!

I will quite openly admit that I just don't 'get' opera. Apart from the fact that the dialogue is sung in a foreign tongue, I just don't understand the language of this art form. It's not a sensibility I've ever acquired. In the closing scene when Violetta is dying of tuberculosis, I couldn't get past the fact that she was still belting out these pitch perfect notes rather than being consumed by coughing!

Nevertheless, although I'm not necessarily moved to acquire this sensibility in life (and if Kendall reads this I'm sure she will have something to say about that!) it was an experience I am happy to have had. Best of all though was the opportunity to get to know some new people, something I find myself enjoying more and more these days. And I had a whole evening completely away from the computer.