Birthday and Opera

It was my birthday yesterday. I spent most of it feeling quite low, but that's just the aging process for you ;)

I went to my favourite restaurant, Sapporo Teppanyaki, for a meal. Ooohh, yum yum! I really love the food there. I had Ika Tempura (battered, deep fried squid), Maki sushi, duck in raspberry sauce with fried rice, vegetables and potatoes, and ice cream for dessert. Kayte told them it was my birthday, so they came out with drums and tambourines and a special birthday ice-cream 'cake' singing happy birthday. Much fun was had by all (especially when drinking the sake/pimms/ginger ale cocktail.)

On Saturday night I went to see 'Carmen'. It was the first time I have been to watch an opera, and I was quite impressed. The sets were good, the costumes were fantastic (the flamenco skirts were amazing, I wanted one!), and the music was great. The only problem I had was that at some points the orchestra was much louder than the singers, and the woman playing Carmen didn't have a fantastic voice. In parts she almost sounded like a pre-pubescent boy when his voice is breaking. The surtitles also helped me a bit, not knowing the language. Someone said that the surtitles distracted from the opera, but I didn't think they did, in fact, there were times I was totally enraptured by what as going on on the stage that I completely forgot to read what was on the surtitle screen. I think I may have to go and see another opera soon (Madame Butterfly, hopefully!)

Principessa has been a funny one lately. I bought two teddies, one for her and one for me, and you can take the wheat bag stomach out of them and warm them in the microwave. Principessa was quite impressed by that last night, but over Friday and Saturday, she has just been playing with the teddy. She called her ted Jack, and I called mine Frax, after one of the characters in my story. Well, Principessa has decided that Frax is the more cuddly, and has robbed him! Cheeky monkey.

She was in the car when Grandand picked us up last night. She was having fun with Uncle Gaz playing with her Lunar Jim slippers when she turned to Gaz and said:

"Nanny said she would take the scissors to Jim!"

I couldn't help but laugh at that! I told Nanny, and Nanny said she was a fibber!

Hmmm, NaNo. Not been going too well. I have decided that my goal is to get 10,000 words before the end of the month. So far I have around 7800 words, so I have to do 2200 words in the next four days. That's 550 words per day. Hmm, that's some work to do. At least it seems to be going somewhere now!

Day 23: 538 words
Day 24: 429 words
Day 25: 0 words