Sleeping Beauty Ballet.

Photographs taken from the programme

It is odd to think that I have never been to a ballet in my entire life, and I have been to three in the last six weeks. This one tonight was a spectacular visual experience, but it is not my favorite story, that has to be the Nutcracker followed closely by How Green is My Valley. Whilst the latter is the better story, it did not lend itself to a dance routine as well as the other two, but so cleverly done. That was danced by a different ballet Company though, The Welsh National Ballet, while the other two were danced by The Russian State Ballet Of Siberia.

The Opera season begins in January and we are booking for Tosca - and my most favorite of all time - Carmen. I am looking forward to the New Year - for the first time in over five years.

A surprise evening!

Having stayed in the valleys on Sunday night, woke up to 3" of snow Monday morning, had to be dug out, skidded on black ice during my journey back to the city, (no damage) I arrived home to find my phone ringing furiously. When I eventually thawed out enough to investigate who was calling, it was another friend from the valleys asking if I would like to go to the ballet that same evening!

The person she was going with was snowed in (I'm not surprised) and would I like the ticket - no charge. I said that I would be delighted and that's exactly what we did. The ticket had cost £40 and the seat was in the third row from the front, right in the middle of the stage. We were almost in the orchestra! It was a lovely production of The Nutcracker by The Russian State Ballet of Siberia. This has to be one of the worlds most famous ballets and it was performed by a very young company just starting out on their careers.

The ballet was in two acts with prologue and apotheosis. The set design and lighting was magnificent. It was all set in an old German town in the 19th century where snow is falling and the whole town is filled with cheer for Christmas eve. All superbly done and was magical for me and my lovely companion. A really great evening.

On a sadder note, my friend has cancer and she looked pale and frail tonight. It almost broke my heart.

God speed you my lovey friend through Christmas and through 2010. I am cherishing all these lovely moments together as you help me to rediscover the world of the arts. Thank you xx.

The accidental sack!

This little pottery sack pictured above is my pride and joy! Not only was it made by yours truly, but is was an accident - a fluke! It is made of paper clay, the first time that I had used this form of clay, and it started life as a holder for a tea-light to use over Christmas. I moved it from the modelling board to the desk, gathered up the cloth from the modelling board,which unbeknown to me had a stray thread which was stuck to the clay. I pulled the cloth to fold it and the candle holder fell to the floor.

When I retrieved it, this is what I found! The tutor decided to fire it and I painted it. This is the result. I have filled it with chocolate ormaments for Christmas for the grandchildren. I could never had modelled a Santa sack like this - 'I'm not clever enough!!!

The Mayor's Parlour.

Having coffee at the Mayor's parlour on Saturday was a really nice experience. Having visited the Civic Centre many hundreds of times over the years for business meetings etc. this was my first visit to the mayoral chambers and parlour. It was a more intimate gathering than I first imagined, and they Mayor and Mayoress had time for a chat with all their guests In the surrounding galleries were sales of work, thrift stalls and local arts and crafts on sale to support a charity of the Mayors choice which this year was St. David's foundation Hospice Charity.


A nice way to spend a Saturday morning and good to support a very worthy cause.

Newsy bits!

Around £4,000 has been raised for the new homeless charity Newport Night Shelter after 26 volunteers slept outside last weekend. Although our Church is part of the joint venture between the Teen Challenge and the Church to house the homeless during the two most difficult months of the year I did not sleep outside, but well done to all that did!

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A new valleys comedy film called 'A Bit of Tom Jones' has been filmed all in Tredegar! The independent film which was shot in just four weeks, centres around a man who buys a body part belonging to singer Tom Jones in a bar. I bet this film is hilarious and I bet the cast were glad they only had to spend four weeks in Tredegar too!

A night at the ballet.

I couldn't envisage a ballet performance of the time honoured story of 'How Green is my Valley'. However, this was performed at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff on Saturday night and I was in the audience. It was superb!

The performance was by the award winning company 'The Independent Ballet - Wales' who were excellent. This was a breathtaking version so I am told by people who have seen the performance before. I thought the whole evening was special, and this was my very first trip to the ballet.

I always had it in my mind that for all ballets the company wore tutu's and tights; this could not be further from the truth, they were in costume to suite the production. The music was played by one single cellist on stage and some background music from Newport Male Voice Choir. When they sung the closing piece 'Myfanwy' the whole of the audience was in tears, me included. What a stark contrast to the tale as it was written by Richard Llewellyn in the 1930's about that dirty substance that was the life blood of Wales - coal. I wonder what he would have made of this interpretation of his dire tale of a poor, but respectable Welsh valley family?