Convention Centre Lightshow

Very much a down and up sort of day.

Busy, busy. Began at 7.30 am and worked until 4.00 pm, split between the final part of the do-us-a-favour work for the Sitges wedding and the quarterly magazine.

Frustrated, frustrated.
<rant>
Ongoing problems with my broadband connection. Actually, it's more a connection/disconnection rollercoaster. I'd filed in a customer support web form and had gotten an utterly unhelpful reply. What's the point of asking for information about operating system and browser if you're not even going to read the information provided? I'd told them I was running Mac OS X and using Safari. Despite having provided that information, the reply gave some trouble-shooting suggestions "if you're using Windows". Things got so bad today that I actually replied to the "support" email, pointed out how unhelpful the email had been, and gave further information about my setup. A reply came surprisingly quickly, giving me further troubleshooting advice aimed at resolving my problem with flashing lights on my router. Flashing lights? What flashing lights? I replied again, reiterating how unhelpful the so-called customer service was, and pointed out that I didn't have a flashing light; I had a red light which clearly proved that my internet connection was being lost. In my original web form submission I'd asked if they were aware of a problem in my area or with my exchange, and had asked if it was being attended to. That, of course, had never been addressed or reacted to. So, is there a known problem? If so, is it being attended to? That resulted in a third email reply, telling me to phone the tech support help desk, "where an agent will troubleshoot any issues you may have and possibly escalate your case to the engineers". I'll do that tomorrow (if they're open to provide help on Saturdays).
</rant>

Satisfied, happy. I met a few of the Music Group guys for an early bird meal in the Shelbourne Hotel. Great value, wonderful food, excellent service.

Enthusiastic, ecstatic. Food was a prelude to a visit to the National Concert Hall for the opening concert of the 2010/11 National Symphony Orchestra season, and the inaugural concert of Alan Buribayev's new tenure as Principal Conductor. I'd heard great things about him, and it's all been fully justified. He inspired the orchestra to provide glorious support to Simon Trpceski in Rachmaninov's Fourth Piano Concerto, and capped that in the second half with an astonishing performance of Rachmaninov's Second Symphony. In the Finale especially, the NSOI played their socks off. The standard of music-making was top-class and hugely impressive and exciting.

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And then I finished up on the South Quays to watch the lightshow being projected onto the front of the new Convention Centre. An impressive display, and a perfect Blip opportunity (thanks, Derek, for letting me know about it). At least the day ended on a high, what with the concert and the lightshow. (As I type this, I see that I've been connected to the internet for over three hours uninterrupted. That still means that there was at least one further interruption while I was out. I'm hosting the weekly music session tomorrow, so may not get round to contacting the tech support help desk. I'll keep my fingers crossed that things will improve. Anything would be better than today's on-again-off-again experience. Of course, it's only when there's a problem that you realise how much an always-on broadband connection is taken for granted.)

Big lightshow