Best Day Ever

Above: A new candle appeared to replace my burnt down Christmas candles. Sweetest husband. 

Yesterday was an unexpectedly wonderful day from start to finish--I feel entirely too lucky and too spoiled. Well, I knew it would be great to have the kids back in school. And to have the space to do my first bit of writing in probably 2.5 weeks. Everything has been stewing and shifting around in my brain in that time, so it was a delight to start organizing and sketching a new chapter. After a solid hour of writing and of course time for emails, Francisco and I biked to a Turkish restaurant that he wanted to try (first biking together since the fall--so so fun). 

My hopes were low--nothing has yet topped my favorite Turkish restaurant in a city near us, but this one really did. We ordered mezze (above) and a little Turkish pizza. They threw in the yogurt and cucumber and dill spread and the lovely beetroot salad. Everything was wonderful. After a big lunch, we still left with two boxes for dinner. 

The cherry petals are starting to fall in our garden. 

Our friends told us about an app, Too Good to Go, that sells you cheaply leftover pastries and other food from restaurants and cafes at the end of the day. So we tried it out at our favorite coffee shop and got 6 assorted pastries for 7 pounds. That is a lot of pastries--coconut lemon (!!), blood orange, apple cake, almond croissant. So good. We enjoyed them at the park and with tea at home. I think I'm going to like this app. 

Below: Massive fern unfolding in our garden. 

After a dinner of leftovers from the weekend and from lunch, I headed out to a play that I had been really anticipating--London Tide, a remake of Charles Dickens' Our Mutual Friend, with music by PJ Harvey. I had sworn off musicals after one in New York about Robert Moses, but this combination made me risk it. 

I had fun and enjoyed myself during the 3 hour and 15 minute (!) musical. It was a weird combination of Victorian dress and Harvey's low-voiced grungy, rocky music played by a three-person band of piano, keyboard, drums, and guitar rocking out on the stage. 

The set was minimal--a lot of the motion on stage was made by the extensive, modern stage lights moving up and down in a rhythmic pattern like the river. 

Ben Power, who adapted the play from the original, changed some stuff, notably the ending of one of the characters, making it way more feminist. My complaint about the play--he made it just too overt and explicit. Structural oppression! No choice! Difficult circumstances! He took the subtlety away. (I haven't read the Dickens--just saw the miniseries a million years ago; I'm assuming Dickens is more subtle, but maybe he's not.)

The songs, too--were a bit overt, though I appreciate it there, because I have trouble following the plot if you stick it in a song; I'll just miss stuff: London! The city! The river! Connects us all!

Some of the story is a bit difficult to translate into the contemporary world--it's difficult to feel that someone could be ruined because their parents are falsely accused or because they know someone poor/in disgraced circumstances.

Jenny Wren was my absolutely favorite character. She was not disabled in the play; rather, Bellah's sister, Lavinia used a wheelchair.  

Two different people I overheard after the play saying, "The was a dickens of a Dickens!" I don't get it, but they cracked themselves up. 

***

Oh--the other day I read this in the NYT about Richard Wilbur: 

someone would pick a thing, and the rest of the family had to find an unexpected, funny, or surprising opposite. Wilbur and his family enjoyed the game so much that he ended up publishing a book of the resulting poems, called Opposites. Here’s one of my favorites:     

            The opposite of doughnut? Wait

            A minute while I meditate.

            This isn’t easy. Ah, I’ve found it!

            A cookie with a hole around it.

Ilana gave us the book when Q was born--such a wonderful book. But I'm not sure that I realized that the book emerged from a game. We tried this game on the way to mass the other night and had a lot of fun. Let's do more this summer, Nana!