when in finland...

[Ken Gargett]

i have just emerged, and i promise i am not making this up, from a finnish opera. i am now headed to crash as i think i need it. since wednesday, have had about 5 hours only, but not felt at all tired. is someone drugging me? perhaps i sat next to someone from essendon on the plane.

anyway, the said operatic treat was performed by a village female musical group from lapland (they had a few of the national stars included, but all that really did was to highlight the yawning chasm in talent).

trust me, it gets worse. the opera was about, and i only wish i was making this up, knitting woollen socks. i kid you not.

tragically, it was based on a true story - apparently most regions in finland have their own flag. this area of lapland did not want that. they wanted, you guessed it, their own regional socks.

extraordinary that someone would write an opera about knitting. more extraordinary that someone would produce it.

the theatre smelt like a very old and cheap barber's shop. the crowd pushed 85 people, of which i was one of the youngest, by a long margin.

every opera needs conflict in the plot. this one had a dispute between two women over hanging clothes on a washing line. again, i swear i am not making this up. indeed, that was so pivotal to the plot, apparently, that they burst into the dramatic bit from verdi's aida and carried the clothes line across the stage.

i doubt i will have much trouble sleeping.

mind you, 99% of the time here has been brilliant. dinner last night - 15 vintages of haut marbuzet back to 1945, an extraordinary burgundy from 1961 and a mindboggling margaux from 1877!

[paulF]

...

mind you, 99% of the time here has been brilliant. dinner last night - 15 vintages of haut marbuzet back to 1945, an extraordinary burgundy from 1961 and a mindboggling margaux from 1877!

WOW!!!!

[Ken Gargett]

WOW!!!!

yes, that was worth sitting through any opera.

quiet day in a friend's boat to one of the island for brunch (who knew that finland had some 200,000 islands - finnish people probably, but i had no idea) for brunch and then back on planes to a b and b outside paris (catch up with mates tomorrow and head to germany).

[AndrewNR]

A 1877... Sometimes Ken... I'd be willing to sit through all the springsteen you've seen in your life for some of the glasses of plonk you've had.. Don't get me wrong I don't dislike the boss.. But god man.. thats allot of springsteen.