The last couple of months have been extraordinarily busy. First, I changed to a Six Sigma project, on which I am an MBB coach. Some of the places I have had to travel to are Frankfurt, Milan, Como and Kosice, in Slovakia and Düsseldorf.
On one trip to Milan, I got the chance to see a bit of the city. I started at the Duomo (it is the 4th largest cathedral in the world, St Peter's in Rome is the largest), which has recently been cleaned and is nice and white now. It is famous for the sheer volume of marble statues in it. After wandering through it at a reasonably quick pace (all cathedrals and churches are starting to lose their individuality for me), I headed up to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the rather glamourous covered passage that houses big name shops like Prada but also has the poshest McDonald's I have ever seen. On the other side of the Galleria was supposed to be the greatest opera house in the world, Teatro alla Scala (where Bianca Castafiore sang Faust - there's a low brow reference for you!). When I got there, it was not immediately obvious where it was as it is a nondescript, grey building in a square full of buildings of equal size. Even a couple of Italian tourists had to ask a passer-by where La Scala was. I happened to go into the shop and a back door was ajar from which I could have a peek at the front hall. What a difference! The inside is all white and gold with red velvet curtains and chairs and crystal chandeliers hanging from ornate ceilings. Next stop was the Castello Sforzesco, a visit that was marred by African men tried to sell me hand-made string bracelets. One even got one onto my wrist while insisting that it was free and then tried to get money from me, which I duly ignored (I had the hardest time getting it off later). Next stop was the Santa Maria della Grazie church, whose convent houses The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. Unfortunately, you have to book a month in advance to get in to see it. Last stop was the Basilica Sant'Ambrogio, the patron saint of Milan. His earthly remains, along with those of 2 other saints lie in the crypt in all their glory - brown, shiny bones with crowns perched on their brown, shiny skulls all in a big glass coffin.
On another trip to Italy, my client suggested I come to her in Como instead of the office in Milan. So, I got on the train in fog in Milan one morning and arrived 50 minutes later in a fog-bound Como. It cleared enough by lunchtime for my client to point out George Clooney's mansion on the other side of the lake (the rich side, as she put it) before the fog descended again and I was not able to see anything for the next 1 1/2 days. Como really isn't the ideal holiday spot in winter. The town is quite pretty but nothing spectacular, similar to the towns of the Tuscan region, with a cathedral, some other churches, old houses and little squares dotted all around.
In November, I visited Auntie Hannah twice in Leeds. The first time I went by myself and we drove up to the Brontë museum in Haworth. I know very little about the Brontë sisters and was surprised to learn that they all died before the age of 40. Their mother died shortly after Anne was born and 2 of their sisters did not make it to adulthood. Their brother Branwell was given all the opportunities but failed to live up to expectations. He allegedly had an affair with a Mrs Robinson, the mother of the children Anne was governess to and Branwell was supposed to tutor. This is supposedly why the character in The Graduate is called Mrs Robinson. He died in 1848 and months later Emily followed with Anne dying in mid 1949. Charlotte made it to her late 30s and died 6 years later. Their poor father outlived them all and died at the very respectable age of 84.
On my second visit 3 weeks later, I was accompanied by Taffy and also David and Alex, who was back during uni holidays. It was the first time I had met him. I also met Uncle Greg so I have now met all but one of the Yiu side of the family. They taught me to play mahjong, which is quite the most boring game in the world. No wonder people gamble to make it interesting! We also played trivial pursuit, with me, David and Alex pitted against Uncle Greg, Taffy and Auntie Hannah. I gave Uncle Greg a real run for his money, racing to 5 pieces of pie before we fell apart at the end.
In the 2 weeks in between, first Lang came (for the wedding of 2 of his friends in Jersey of all places(!) ) and then Kuhn & Jane. Kuhn will be in Bristol for 3 months while Jane will stay for at least a year. I think it is the first time I have seen Lang in 3 years or so and 1.5 years since the last time I saw Kuhn and Jane so it was good to catch up with them all.
I had been meaning to go see The Nutcracker at Covent Garden every year at Christmas and have never been organised enough to do it. This year, I looked online a couple of months ahead of time to find that it was completely booked out on weekends and Wednesdays and there was limited seating available on a Monday. I found a seat with a reasonable view (according to the pictures they supply on the website) in the nose-bleed section that wasn't £200 or more. The Royal Opera House is beautiful but also an incredible maze. I got lost getting to my seat and when I came out for intermission, I couldn't work out where I was in relation to where I had been. I must say that the Royal Ballet is infinitely better than the English National Ballet, whose Swan Lake I went to see a couple of years ago. There were a couple of inadvertently funny bits, one of which was when the soldiers were trying to fight off the mice. One of the soldiers died and his mate was trying to drag him off the stage. The poor kid couldn't get a good grip on his legs and meanwhile the rest of the cast was bearing down on him, coming closer and closer in formation. You could almost see him sweating while he tried to solve his problem. He eventually got hold of one leg and managed to get the other kid offstage. It is amazing how much Fantasia has coloured my life. Many of the dances from the second half were in the movie, including the mushrooms, my favourite in the film. I would recommend the Royal Ballet's The Nutcracker if you are in London at Christmas time but book early! Having seen 2 English ballet corps (and the crazy Trocadero boys), however, I am now extremely interested in seeing the Bolshoi, as the quality of the dancing I have experienced is still below my expectations. Perhaps ballet really is that hard to master that very few people can do it beautifully, with stamina and with charisma.
Last week, I was in Düsseldorf for a team meeting and had a bit of time to see the Aldstadt, the Old Town. There were Christmas markets galore there but the stall that drew my interest was one that only sold potatoes. It had many different varieties in big boxes all around the stall. That German consumers are that discerning really surprised me. I wouldn't know the first thing about what the special properties of different potatoes are. I also visited our office, which is situated in a tourist attraction. The set of 3 buildings on Neue Zollhof were designed by Frank Gehry and are quite interesting. One is white, one metallic and one brick, all with offset windows. Our office is in the metallic one, which, in my opinion, is the best one. From the little that I saw of Düsseldorf, it seems like a nice city to live in but I won't be in a hurry to visit again.
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