Out and about

Managed to crack a couple of jobs that had been lingering on my to do list for too long this morning (it puzzles me why I just can’t bring myself to focus on completing, or even starting, some jobs, whilst I happily do others without a fuss).
Afterwards, I was just wondering what to do next when the garage phoned to say the car was ready to collect, so took the bus out to Musselburgh, listening to the new book group book The Wren the Wren by Anne Enright. Took a while to get back, partly traffic, partly had to stop to pick up some stuff to make mincemeat. Still no sign of my keys, despite the garage having been right through the car….so odd!
After a quick lunch I met CS at EFI and we had a tour of the areas that are now open (only about a third of it so far). Lovely to see all those spaces that I’ve spent years following how they’ve been coaxed from near death to this new life. The many meetings discussing the uncovering of yet more rot, the decisions to be made to try and constrain costs, the hard hat tours as the place was stripped back then shored up and rebuilt…… very good to see it coming together and tackling the inevitable snags.
Met a few people I knew as we walked round, and some live ‘fusion’ teaching going on, with groups of students around screens where their classmates from other parts of the world joined their discussions. To think of how we’d planned all this yet somehow wondered if it would ever happen!
From there went to meet some young opera singers telling a few of us about their experiences on the emerging artist scheme. They were really lovely and very inspiring to hear their stories of how they’d come to this point in their careers. Two will be singing tonight so it was good to get to know them better.
Home and made the mincemeat before meeting LE for supper at the Malaysian restaurant and onward to Barber of Seville (extra). Brilliant production…jam packed with clever touches in the staging and direction, great singing and the orchestra on top form. It was very funny and, for a change, the soprano didn’t meet a sticky end!
Good day