Travelling Companion

I've been coping well since Thursday's return to my own place. I managed to host yesterday's music session with a little help from my friends, and today I went with a group from the Group to Belfast for a performance of The Flying Dutchman.

Paul and I opted to go by train, while the rest went in a couple of cars. This is Paul about fifteen minutes into our 2-hours-and ten-minutes journey (why so long, we wondered). It was a good day, bright and dry, so the train experience was pleasant enough. We met up with the others (nine of us in all) for a bite to eat before the opera and settled down at 2:00 pm in Belfast's Grand Opera House. The first act was a dreadful disappointment for some of us (me included), while the majority were feeling hard done by because the opera was sung in English without any prior warning at the point of booking tickets.

Fortunately, things improved out of all recognition after the interval, as if the conductor donned his football managers hat and read the orchestra and cast the riot act. From then on we were swept away by some magnificent choral and solo singing, while it seemed as if the orchestral personnel had all been changed from the beginning of Act 2. An enjoyable experience overall, so. Just time afterwards for a coffee in the Fitzwilliam Hotel next door and then it was time to catch the 7:00 pm train back home.