Quintus

People who can't drive tight round corners and bends. It's why you have gears and a steering wheel, for gawd's sake! Currently in the Haut Jura and faced ever 10 minutes with some suicidal French driver hurtling round a mountain bend straight at me on my side of the road. On the 1000km here the drivers were all pretty civilised, but they seem to have been taking the loony pills up in the mountains.

I'll second that. We're booked to drive across France to Geneva next week. It's forecast to rain every day we are over there, and on top of that the French industrial action is hotting up again, so there is petrol rationing and long queues to get it.

Progress on the beasts... Given that this is an owl box rather than an open nest, the usual had happened when I just look, and they had grown to a size where they could not get out, and one was dead. Given the other one, let's call it Crowbart, would have gone the same way, I had to take it out and set it at the bottom of a tree to take its chances. It is well feathered so can't be far off fledging age. There are currently lots of crows buzzing round the tree, so they are aware of Crowbart's situation.... In other news, this morning we had three buzzards overhead and behind them someone doing aeronautics in a small plane - busy skies in Suffolk!

My experience echoes that of 2dancersmum above - while my son was at uni (before dropping out with two years of loan and nothing to show for it...), he tried to claim benefits during the holidays and was told the maintenance part of his loan was intended to cover the whole year. The subtext is that parents are expected to pay, as the amount that they actually get loaned for maintenance is also dependent on the parents' income. My other son, having tried to make a go as a DJ straight from school for a couple of years, has now decided to go to uni and from the student finance forms it looks like I'm going to be expected to pay his living costs .

Caught it at last tonight. I was middlewhelmed. The first act needs some pruning, there were some definite longueurs there, but the second act really picked up. I think some of the music is too bland - this is a Gothic story and the music could contribute more to building that atmosphere - as it does do successfully, swirling and unsettling, in the ballroom scene, which I found reminiscent of the film adaptation of Poe's Masque of the Red Death. I didn't find it emotionally engaging most of the time; I very much remained an interested but detached spectator rather than being immersed. McRae was impressive, though I knew what to expect there from all the publicity clips. The highlight of the evening for me was Fran Hayward, who did draw me in emotionally and was altogether a delight to watch.

would the cream work on my wife? she doesn't have wrinkles but I'd like her to be able to dance

Coincidentally we watched Room last night too, with maybe too high expectations based on Mark Kermode's review. I found it interesting, gritty and worth the watch, but it didn't blow me away as I'd been expecting. The abductor's sudden credulity jarred, and frankly we couldn't stand the little boy - although that was possibly a testament to his acting conveying what the situation would have done to him. I had at the back of my mind another film, 3096 Days, based on the true story of the Natasha Kampusch abduction (around the accounts of which there is still much controversy). That was a tougher watch and brought out the abductor's chilling character more starkly; worth looking it up.

You simply click on the little icon of a picture in the message box lower row tool bar, and paste in the url of your picture. The picture needs to be hosted somewhere on the 'net; I happen to use Photobucket. The pic itself is not stored on balletcoforum - just the link to it.

Other people get cute fluffy chicks, I get these hideous crow squatters in my owl box... Mind you, every parent will recognise the behaviour!

The lighting may have depended quite a lot on where you sat - I was three rows from the front of the circle and I didn't find it dark at all. However, I hadn't been to the Palladium before and have to say I found the seats excruciatingly small and cramped. I had a lucky choice of seats - I was just across from the judges and where the large block of company dancers were seated, so got a great atmosphere from all their whooping and shouting. A comment above referenced Jeanette Karakeka being too skinny, which I don't find - I think she looks pretty athletic, in line with most of the other dancers. However, I thought the corps member who got the award, Jennie, looked really quite unhealthily thin, in fact worryingly so.

An enjoyable evening. The atmosphere was great - most of the ENB company had turned out to support the finalists and were whooping away in the circle, and indeed populating the bar. It's quite an exposing event by its nature, as the dancers are performing roles that they wouldn't typically get at their level, and the nerves did tell in the occasional stumble. I think Cesar Corrales was such a predestined winner this year that it was almost a shame for the other participants, who clearly have to put a huge amount of extra work into this above their day jobs. I did start to wonder whether there should be a male and female winner, but actually it's rare and refreshing to see an event where men and women compete together, so perhaps not. I particularly liked Isabelle Brouwers' contemporary piece 'The Pelican', and she was perhaps the most consistent across her performances among the girls. Jeanette Kakareka (or Kakaraka as Ms Kaplinski announced her, perhaps envious at being out-K'd by 33%), made a very worthy go of the black swan PDD and got huge applause. She has those long, long limbs and is always very eye-catching, but she wasn't as seductive or fascinating as Odile needs to be; actually what this kind of event does make a naif spectator like me realise is that huge leap between being able to execute the difficult choreography and then bringing in the characterisation. Must say I was a little underwhelmed by previous winner Jin Zhang in the pas d'esclave (or 'esclavay' per Ms K) from Corsaire. For me he lacked snap and fire, but perhaps my receptors had been numbed by Corrales' fireworks earlier on. As a footnote, I was sitting quite near Tamara Rojo and have to say she scrubs up very well! Wow. Ahem. Anyway...

Oh dear I have indeed been caught checking out promising coat buttons more than once already

Failed to buy one yet but I shall be staring at people's chests at Emerging Dancer tonight...

For French speakers or those happy with subtitles, I'd heartily recommend 'La Famille Bélier', which is available on the Amazon Prime video service. It's about a girl who acts as the bridge to the outside world for her deaf family of farmers, and who discovers she has a talent for singing, a gift they cannot appreciate and which pulls her away from that role. I had a good few belly laughs early on, and it becomes quite emotional towards the end. I have to say I watch far more French, Belgian, German and Romanian films than Hollywood, as they seem to retain the art of focusing on characters rather than action.

How's this for an ominous Friday 13th sighting? I was driving down a country road this morning en route to a wallet-rupturing tyre replacement appointment, when a big crow flew low across the road in front of me - with a snake in its beak. The snake must have been 15-18 inches long, quite a load for the bird. My sons are currently trying to turn this into some Game of Thrones prediction about Jon Snow

well given that such well known European countries as Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkey and Israel all participate, I think our nul points are guaranteed for years to come whichever way it goes

For the British members, can I put the whole Brexit 'debate' into Room 101? It's not that it's not a critically important decision, but that the basis for debate is so appalling and fact-free. Side A ( or 'Eurin' as I like to think of it) says 'our study shows leaving the EU will cost the UK 4 gazillion', Side B says 'our study shows leaving the EU will save the UK 4 gazillion'. Business leader or foreign politician A weighs in with an opinion, counterpart B weighs in with the opposite opinion. More migrants, fewer migrants. Migrants are good, migrants are bad. Flower-Garlanded unicorns will flock to the UK and sunsets will be red, white and blue if we leave. The average summer temperature across the EU is 22C, in the UK it's 15C, so we'll have warmer summers if we stay... There are no facts in any of this, it is all meaningless conjecture and supposition based on personal hunches or prejudices. In, out, in, out, shake it all about - but just get it over with!!! And breathe.

I have mixed feelings towards birds this morning as the dawn chorus which woke me up at 4.45am seemed to be at the volume of a football match! The rain coming after a couple of hot days seems to have got them all stirred up, maybe it brings the worms to the surface. Since moving to the countryside I've become far more tolerant of species such as pigeons and magpies, which are real pests in town but I think just need a lot of space. Our pigeons are fat, clean and brightly coloured, unlike the manky flying rats I dodge in London, and the magpies here seem mostly to dig for insects rather than eating all the baby songbirds as we used to find in town. They are still thieves however; we put out a couple of dozen night lights with shiny aluminium bases for a party last year and they nearly all got stolen! I'm looking forward to the buzzards reappearing, which seems to be a sign that summer is here - I like their unearthly cries, and when one occasionally swoops overhead they are of a truly impressive size.

You can help yourself to some of our crows, we have dozens of the wretched things just across the road making an unholy racket..... I have a few bluetit boxes which get used; it hadn't occurred to me to put boxes out for the robins and wrens, and I might knock some up now. What we do get in abundance are swallows in the stables, and I love it when they all first emerge and start swooping round.

Ungrateful owls. I made an owl box to the RSPB spec three years ago and all I've had in it are pigeons and crows; in fact I just found another clutch of 5 crow eggs in it. And they talk about a housing crisis.

I couldn't quite see how to order a single badge from that link. I may just use a felt tip to draw a blue circle on my shirt...

Or with a sniper dot, leading to BalletcoForum members being heroically flattened to the floor by would be rescuers....

Aileen, Jocelyn Pook's team just answered the question: Yes, that was indeed a basso profundo, and was not pitch-changed but natural. It is the voice of Voya Zivkovic who Jocelyn met at her local café which he used to run! He’s not classically trained but has a naturally low-pitched singing voice. His voice has featured in many of her projects including the soundtrack to Julio Medem’s film Caotica Ana and on her latest CD, King Charles III.

That wretched presenter pops up every time, presumably because the powers that be think that associating sport with ballet makes it cooler. He appears to do no preparation and always fluffs names. This time we got 'Federica Bonelli' as Romeo. Go back to your football, mate! ????

TCP?? Parfum or just eau de toilette?