A night at the opera

Thank you so much for all your congratulations on Adam’s graduation yesterday. It was a very special day for us and we are very proud of him, I almost even forgave him for that dreadful haircut he currently has! I won’t respond to all your lovely comments as I just don’t have time at the moment, but I have read all of them and am grateful for such kind comments.

Last night the Summer Ball at school was a wonderful event, very well organised by a team of mums from the school. The food was delicious, the caterers managed to feed about 550 people with no problems. As always, the vodka luge was a great attraction – not for me I hasten to add! It was an extremely hot evening, and I could not summon up the energy to get all sweaty dancing. I was feeling a bit tired from the excitement of the day in Cambridge and we left before midnight.

This morning I dragged myself out on a run through the woods with Gavin – not having much more than about 9 hours sleep in the past 48 hours (I slept very badly on Friday night) does not help one to feel energised on such a run! But I managed it and felt better for it.
Today has been a very lazy day. Thomas was meant to be at all day school orchestra rehearsals but he is not feeling well with a bad cold and so has excused himself. I finished editing Adam’s graduation photos, gosh that harsh sunlight really did spoil the photos, such heavy shadows over the eyes, but I tried to correct them as much as possible.

I said it has been a very busy time for us…tonight we were invited as guests of friends to attend the performance of Don Carlos at Grange Park Opera. Grange Park Opera is Surrey’s answer to Glyndebourne, and the beauty of it is that it is only about 5 miles from our house. Unlike Royal Opera House in London, it has a formal dress code so most people wear long dresses and black tie.  We arrived at about 5pm to have pre-performance drinks in the beautiful grounds, and then went inside the concert hall for the first three acts of the opera. There was a very long interval between the two acts when we ate our picnic supper. Our hosts had prepared a sumptuous picnic supper, so many dishes of food to choose from. We then went back to the hall for the last 2 acts. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, and somewhere I would like to visit again especially as it is so close to home. 

The photo is of us all dressed up about to go out. The extra is a phone shot of the old manor house at Grange Park that is slowly being restored, the newly built concert hall is not seen here. The grounds are lovely and we picnicked in one of the many gazebos that they have dotted around the grounds.

Tomorrow morning we leave for Durham for Luke's graduation on Tuesday morning. A very busy time at the moment!