MAB

Well, Osipova isn't just as a 'romantic' dancer anyway and Macrae is growing in technique and artistry all the time. Personally I would love to see their partnership develop.

I don't think Balanchine created his abstract ballets to express emotion, rather an interpretation of the music. I've seen around five different companies dance Jewels over a period of about 35 years and by pick and mixing it would be possible to have the ideal cast, but I've never seen a couple dance Rubies better than Osipova and McCrae last night.

I note the director gives herself the lions share of the performances.

I second that wholeheartedly.

All these guests! Has there been an increase in funding at ENB?

Least logical incident in Don Q used to be the Parisian apache dancers that used to turn up in the Bolshoi's 1970's version. What the hell they were doing there was something I never did figure out. Have to say although I have a couple of reservations about the Acosta version, I found it enjoyable enough on the whole.

Could the mystery blond be the late David Ashmole? I can remember the two dancing the Ashton pas de quatre regularly. They shared the wonderful Lesley Collier with WE dancing Romeo with her and DA Swan Lake. Yes I was always in Cecil Court too and have gorgeous photos of these three. When Wayne wasn't dancing with Collier his main partner was Jennifer Penney.

One of my colleagues received an honour, an OBE I think, a few years back, he has just received a knighthood in the latest round, so you can get both. Not sure about honours for sportsmen, though David Beckham does a lot for charity including donating his entire salary at his last club, PSG. How do you compare a sportsperson who wins a lucrative prize to someone who spends a lifetime working in their chosen field?

I want Elena Glurdjidze to be made a Dame.

My ballet of the year was Ratmansky’s 24 Preludes for the RB and I will long remember the beautiful duet he created in it for Benjamin and Cojocaru, all the more poignant now those ladies have departed. Best new production has to be Le Corsair by ENB, tremendous performances by the company as a whole, but whether it was a wise choice for ENB’s repertoire remains to be seen as I’m told ticket sales at the Coli are slow. Best visiting company for me was Mark Morris; both programmes were outstanding with the beautiful and moving Socrates in the first programme contrasting with the laugh-out-loud A Wooden Tree in the second. Best performance by a ballerina? I can’t choose between Glurdjidze in Raymonda and Novikova’s remarkable Giselle, actually they were the best two performances I’ve seen in some years. Best male dancer has to be Vadim Muntagirov who just gets better and better every time I see him. His recent performance in Nutcracker with Cojocaru looked to me like a great partnership in the making. Best newcomer: Kristina Kretova of the Bolshoi, a witty charmer who is far more than just technique.

I planned to see her on boxing day but was grounded by the train problems others have referred to. I certainly intend to see her on 5th - just hope that the predicted bad weather on Sunday doesn't prevent me from travelling again.

I object to hyper extensions on aesthetic grounds and tend to forget how damaging they actually are to performers. Years ago a high extension was seen as positive, an indication of inherent suppleness in a dancer, but back then no one went as far as 6 o'clock. Now the wretched things are everywhere and I still cringe when I see them. My new criteria for a ballerina is someone with the good taste not to display her crotch.

Your teacher was quite right Fonty, though Nureyev gave good performances with Merle Park and Lynn Seymour too and I believe he worked on his footwork over time. I miss the great partnerships a lot and I'm told that because of the higher injury rate these days it is preferable to have a chop and change policy so that all the dancers are familiar with one another should there be last minute cast changes. It makes sense I suppose. As I said Macauley's attitude to Wayne Eagling was irrational. In style he was loose limbed with an exceptional extension, when I first saw the teenage Tsiskaridze I was instantly reminded of Wayne, and Edward Watson is similar in dancing style too, indeed he seems to have inherited a lot of the Eagling roles so perhaps people in the RB have spotted that similarity too.

I went to my mobile phone provider in the end and explained the situation, they checked out my account with them and were happy to sign me up with another direct debit. The reason I didn't go to them first was because another company was recommended to me by an IT guy at work, but in the end the cost was about the same. I'm not so much angry about being turned down - it's the reason why that has got to me.

Although I have now stopped buying magazines due to lack of space, I actually have back copies going back to the 1960's and reading the reviews from that era, particularly in Dance & Dancers, it was difficult to find a negative review of Fonteyn. Nureyev was another matter and certainly I remember him as inconsistent as a performer though on top form you would be seeing the highlight of your ballet going life. I caught the end of Christopher Gable's brief dancing career and he was a rival to Nureyev in popularity at the time. Donald Macleary was a first rate danseur noble. David Wall joined the company a little later and also had a massive fan base. A few years later Wayne Eagling excelled in MacMillan roles and indeed had many roles created for him by MacMillan. Incidentally Alistair Macauley had an irrational hatred of Wayne Eagling and gave him some of the most vitriolic reviews I have ever read, he also detested the highly popular Margaret Barbieri. Macauley's reviews in the now defunct publication Ritz, were the most disgusting I have ever read and consequently he is one critic that I have always regarded with the utmost contempt.

I did meet Tito (post injury) a couple of times, he was a very charming man with a winning sense of humour. Not sure if all those rumours re the Arias family are true as I've been led to believe Fonteyn's step-daughter was devoted to her.

This had a topic of its own a couple of years ago, but this address theft business has turned nasty in my case. I live in a large old house with four flats over four floors and a massive amount of mail arrives for people that have never lived there, and in the last couple of years I've discovered more and more of this stuff specifically addressed to Flat D: my flat. Why this kind of thing isn't treated seriously I don't know as it is down and out fraud in my opinion, one letter was a follow up on a claim for child benefit for four kids! Though most are bailiffs' letters. I always send them back to the sender marked 'no one of this name has ever lived at this address', but they keep coming. A couple of days ago I was setting up a direct debit for internet connection when I was turned down for being uncredit-worthy and before anyone asks, no, I don't have any debts at all, have never had a county court judgement against me, never been a bankrupt or any other thing that would prevent me being turned down for credit. Then I remembered all those con artists that claim to live in my flat, it isn't me that is the problem - it's my address.

Ageism is a separate subject though, the favourite ploy of management for dealing with over 50's is to make them reapply for their jobs and then award that job to someone younger and cheaper: disgusting in my view. Where I work if you aren't prepared to put in the hours there is no point in applying for a job in the first place.

Okay, but the hard facts are that when the redundancies come round, it won't be the grafters that go first - it will be the clock-watchers.

As the only performer to sell out the Coli this year Carlos Acosta's audience is very substantial indeed, I doubt if he'll miss the old little Englander.

They may be committed but I see little passion.

Being unemployed and on benefits doesn't generate much happiness either.

Couple of thoughts here that probably won't go down well. We had a run of the mill job with a one year contract here recently and while sorting through the applications ( over 200 in all) I came across two applicants with arts administration degrees, neither of whom had ever done any actual work in the arts field at all. I discover from the CV's I've read that a lot of people with excellent degrees seem to finish up stacking shelves or working as shop assistants, which means that an expensive education has been wasted as there simply aren't the high flying jobs available for these graduates. Many of the jobs suggested here won't attact more than the minimum wage, surely it would be more beneficial to steer a child into those areas where there is a greater chance of earning a living wage, if not in the UK, than abroad. Science, maths, engineering, macro economics and languages usually lead to work.

Just when you think you've seen it all, and those with a weak stomach please don't read further. Came home very late last night after the opera and a trip to the pub afterwards and was walking along my road after midnight, a busy A road by the way, when I spotted a young man hovering on the pavement looking at something in the road. At first I thought he might had dropped his bag as he dodged the traffic but as I drew nearer I could hear him giggling as he stepped into the road to take a photo on his i phone of what I realized with horror was a dead cat. The poor thing was in two pieces its insides being a couple of feet distant from its body and this ghoul thought it appropriate not just to take a picture but to giggle as he did so. Sick!!

But we now have an extra hour of daylight in the morning, can never understand the logic of people who complain when the clocks go back.