The girls and I spent the day on our own as Mirinda, Fi and Lauren went into Stockholm to do a couple of things that I’m not keen on. Firstly there was a visit to the ugly palace and then, possibly worse, they went to the ballet.
The ballet was Le Corsaire. Originally written by Lord Byron in 1814 as a verse poem, it was adapted to music by a number of composers. Then along came master choreographer Marius Petipa (1818-1910) who applied his choreographic genius to it and created the ballet in 1856. For this version, Spanish choreographer José Martinez had adapted it for a more modern audience.
There were also three alternate endings, depending on a vote from the audience. Mirinda, Fi and Lauren voted for the ending that featured the best looking dancer. The full synopsis of the ballet is here.
They also went to The Hairy Pig for food. Originally we’d booked for them to visit the Viking Bar but, weirdly, they had a fire and had to close the restaurant then, obviously, cancelled our booking. Mirinda hadn’t been to the Pig since before Joseph left while I went last summer. She thought the food was pretty much the same but the decor a bit more muted. Mind you, Joseph did take the big boars head with him so that’s going to leave a sizeable gap.
In the meanwhilst, back here at home, the day was pretty much taken up with admin stuff. I had to organize Harald to go and pick up some of Mirinda’s Auctionet winnings and let them know he’d be collecting them. That done, I also had to organize a broadband supplier now we have full fibre.
You’d think that would be easy, but you have to figure in a language you don’t understand. It means translating everything, every step of the way, in order to make sure you don’t promise something like your firstborn child as down payment for a giant water tank…or similar.
Having looked through the many options of supplier, I settled on Telenor. That was very silly of me, particularly considering my previous bad experience with them. Having completed the application and sent it off, an hour later I received a text saying my contract was null and void because of my non-existent credit rating. I started again.
This time, I decided to go with Telia, mainly because I already have my phone contract with them. The reason I didn’t start off with Telia was because, somewhere or other, I’d heard that they didn’t supply the Trosa area. This is patently untrue because the application process went through without a hiccough. Well, after translating everything as I waded through the dense marshland of text.
Still, it worked and we should have a router in the next few days and then [YAY] really, really fast broadband. That’ll make Sophie happy.
I also did some work on tax and other financial matters, as well as take the girls for a walk into Trosa and back. All pretty easy, really. Though this was my view for most of the day.
The others returned at around 23:30 and Mirinda and I sat with a cup of tea while she filled me in on her day. According to my wife, Fi and Lauren claimed I was mad for not loving ballet because it’s so good. To which I say, they’re mad for not loving modern art because it’s even better.
