Manet and Onegin

Sorry for my absence - it has been caused by a busy weekend and by living in the 1830s! 

On Saturday we went to the Manet exhibition at the RA with Josh.  It was great to catch up with Josh and lovely to see the paintings - although very busy. Using the headphones helps to tell you so much about Manet and his paintings. He was quite a weird fellow and some of his paintings are quite strange. I love this one on the right - especially because of all the detail which you can't see on this small copy. I wish I could paint. 

We then went onto the Royal Opera House to see the ballet  Onegin. The end scene is where two people who love each other but can't be together dance. It is so beautiful and shows their struggle perfectly, with no words. The ballerina was so supple getting her body nto shapes that I have never been able to get mine - even when well!

We also managed to meet up with Ed and Chloe after the ballet and went for a chinese meal - in China Town. It is all ready for the Chinese New Year next weekend and was decorated with beautiful chinese lanterns. Chloe had spent a long day at a revision course and Ed had cycled 6 times up Box Hill and then walked from Wimbledon to Piccadilly to meet us.

Our family history is coming on well. I have now got back in some cases to the 1800. I have been researching the 1830s to give the facts some life and just realising how hard life was for most people, without all our modern day conveniences and without modern medicine. It is so sad to be tracing a family using the census and to find a child in a family and for that child not to be there 10 years later and then you find the death certificate and they have died at 1 or 6 years old. I would love to go back and have a glimpse of their lives. 



I am glad to see the sun shining again this morning. I used to hate February with its cold, dark days but recently I have been more observant and see the promises of life appearing in the gardens. Buds on trees and bulbs appearing. We have some beautiful purpley, pink Christmas roses shyly showing their faces. The promise of spring is just around the corner.

This week - the usual house cleaning stuff, coffee with friends, housegroup, some shopping for trousers(mmm my spare tyre in case of more chemo is still growing oh dear), tutoring, cooking, bible study, flowers and of course family treeing. I am hoping to work out how to scan the pictures in this week. So look out for old family pictures later in the week! We have some very beautiful people in our family tree and some characters! As I am sure most familys do!