Quintus

No, better! If I got nostalgic I could always burn a pair of old socks!

I would wave my wand and make all forms of tobacco completely unconsumable, whether via taste or arsenic-like immediate toxicity. Aside the global health benefits, this would mean I could finally sit outside restaurants in France in the sunshine instead of cowering inside away from the noxious fumes of every other diner...

BT sneaky charges. It's worth anyone on BT checking their bill, given my experience. I get phone and very creaky broadband from them, as being in a rural location I have no alternative. Some time last year they bundled in free 'BT Sport' as an extra - some kind of online sports streaming service. I had no interest in this whatsoever, but it just turned up. I recently noticed I had twice been billed £17 for it. It turns out they 'converted' the unwanted freebie to a paid taken up service without asking; and this de facto change was apparently communicated somewhere on the e-bills (which to be frank I never look at unless the headline figure is unusual). I think this is a really underhand way of doing business, more akin to the scammy techniques of a double glazing firm than a big corporate. Adding a charge should have involved a direct and dedicated communication, giving the consumer a choice. It has taken me a lot of heated argument and escalation to get them to cancel and give me a credit - and they still won't admit there's anything wrong about the practice. So I suggest forum members with BT go check their bills...

Could have done with that at the Russian Icons gala. The wretched woman in front of me, must have been row G in the balcony, was checking her phone between every performance, and I've seen someone on Instagram post multiple video clips which must have been taken from the stalls. Perhaps someone could come up with a small plastic hand that attaches to a selfie stick, so we can clip the ears of offenders in front of us. Grrr.

I just had an email from Cineworld advising the local showing of Romeo and Juliet on 14/2 has been cancelled. The wording was generic suggesting it affects multiple or all Cineworld cinemas. They are refunding the tickets and giving free vouchers by way of compensation. Still annoying though, I'd rescheduled various things around this performance

I have a suggestion for the next Celebrity Big Brother. Let all the Z listers into the house, lock them in, organise games etc and let them think all is proceeding as usual; but don't film or broadcast any of it. Then 'evict' then one at a time and just broadcast their reaction when they realise they've been locked up for weeks and got no publicity out of it.

this doesn't help with wasting money scanning duplicates, but once it's all scanned you can easily find and remove duplicates - your scans will be images and there are free apps available that go through a photo collection spotting and removing duplicates.

to balance my Room 101 moan about gym machine hoggers, last night at the gym brought a smile.... a guy was shoulder-pressing his girlfriend! They must have been dancers - he span her across his chest and hip then up across his shoulders, then lifted her overhead twice. Not something you see every day in an East End gym...

Have we done gym etiquette yet? Last night there were two common behaviours winding me up. I like to get in, work out like a dervish with a some cardio and a tour of the machines, and get out. For other people it seems to be an alternative to an evening at home. The first thing that winds me up is people (and this is almost exclusively young women) sitting around on the machines for several minutes between sets, texting. The other is going round in groups (and this is largely young lads) - there was a group of three young Chinese lads hogginp each machine for 15 minutes at a time; not only does it lock out other people from using them, but they don't even get a decent workout themselves. To balance this, there was a positive thing last night which I'll post in room 202!

Are there prizes? I'll punt Daria and Vadim, Swan Lake, more likely white than black.

Phew, glad I spotted this and just grabbed a pair of balcony seats for Mrs Quintus and me. I just hope they all actually turn up this year - last year the Russians were rather thin on the stage. Particularly looking forward to seeing Maria Kochetkova for the first time, and the delectable Polina Semionova for only the second. Vasiliev should be a treat too, a gala is the perfect opportunity to show off big time!

I worked in an insurance firm where the meeting rooms had this feature, turning off the lights if no movement was detected. It needed 15 minutes of no movement, but I've still been in meetings where they went off !

I saw the first section, with two dancers from San Francisco, then Maia Makhateli and Artur Chestycough (sorry I know it's not quite that, but it's irrevocably stuck in my mind as such), then Iana Salenko and Marian Walter. My rural broadband is terrible, and I think they were also suffering from a good few technical glitches, so my viewing experience was not great, particularly for the SF pair, and it's difficult consequently to comment on the dancing - though Maia and Artur did a lovely piece. The dancers took Q&A afterwards - I'd sent in a couple of questions which both got used, and I fear they didn't have too many others to choose from. It did feel somewhat ramshackle, but the interviews were interesting - hopefully they'll do it again and have learned from the technical gremlins. Someone had sent in a question to Iana and Marian about whether dancing is now too much about showing off technique and not enough about artistry. I thought that might have been a little dig at Iana. Marian gave a good response to the effect that in order to get to a stage in your career where you have the opportunity to develop the artistry, you have to get yourself widely known, and technical virtuosity is the most effective platform for doing so. There's clearly an interesting challenge for this couple currently, as while both principals, her career is taking her al over the place, and he has to take something of a back seat, and as she pointed out, organize the babysitters! As an aside, it struck me how linguistically accomplished some of these dancers are. Iana is Ukrainian but speaks good English and German, Maia is Georgian but speaks fluent English and Dutch.. I wonder if any of our native Anglophone dancers are similarly gifted?

Can you imagine a world where the US has Trump as President and the UK has Corbyn as PM? It's unlikely, but still possible ...... Less a 'special relationship' and more a relationship between 'special' people.

'Be like Bill' memes on Facebook. Self-congratulatory, auto-generated, unoriginal bilge. Followed by a tide of derivative memes attacking those along the lines of 'Kill Bill', but which are also unoriginal and mass copied. Just stop! Put your own thoughts on your social media and don't try to outsource wit! If you don't know what I'm ranting about, then be happy and don't go trying to find out...

So it'll be back of the Amphi with a pair of powerful binoculars then, a combination that worked well for me last time to catch Zakharova in Swan Lake - and she was stunning.

Nice pics - looks as though mime has moved far beyond my prejudices of stripey shirted types in invisible boxes... Having said that, the said invisible box would add a nice layer of challenge to an interpretation of 'Schrodinger's Cat' as a follow up to this. Invisible cats who may or may not be in invisible boxes.....hmmmm!

New rant... I'm finding the BBC news website increasingly frustrating. An incarnation or two ago, it had a lot of content, presented mostly as text. Now, even in dense mode, there is a lot of white space on the page, the articles are very superficial, and there is heavy use both of video and of embedded links to Tweets. Now that might be fine and dandy if you are either at home or working in a media business. For 99% of people at work however, it is not possible to access Twitter because of security blocks, and it is not practical to sit and watch a video; you get sacked... Can the wannabe luvvies in the BBC IT department please take a step outside into the real world, and can the journalists please get back to writing detailed and insightful text!

[What a romp this ballet is but I love it!! I feel I ought to read the poem by Byron now just to see how much licence has actually been taken with it all ......something must have inspired him to write the poem .....pity he couldn't see the show today....] this reminded me - while we were waiting for curtain up, one of the old chaps behind us read out 'Lord Byron' from the big Le Corsaire pictorial curtain (or whatever you call those) and said in all seriousness "Is Lord Byron here tonight then?". Bless.

I loved last night's performance. That pas d'action had Mrs Quintus gasping, as did the threat of me trying to recreate one of those inverted lifts with her, after topping up the life insurance... Isaac Hernandez was particularly impressive. I must see whether there are still seats around, Id very much like to see a Lauretta + Ksenia casting.. One quick boo to the oaf in the front right dress circle box who had his phone screen lit up in Act 1.

That Evening Standard review really irritated me, and felt that it was somewhat preconceived based on the ballet itself, and the reviewer's personal agenda for reeducating ballet goers, irrespective of its performance ????

I don't know Aileen, I imagine there likely are - I couldn't see who was directing in the stalls, and I just picked out Tamara's voice as the dominant one on adjustments, requests to redo sequences etc. There was an amusing correction when three background figures who just had to march in and stand by pillars holding swords didn't line themselves up to their pillars to TR's satisfaction. When they redid it, they got a major round of applause from the audience

I think an ad in Pigeon Fanciers Monthly would reach another overlooked market..

I went to the working rehearsal at the Coli last night. based on what I saw there are plenty of good casting options to see. Lauretta as Medora and Ksenia Ovsyanick as Gulnaire were both excellent, and I may well scout around for a further ticket to see them. Alison McWhinney was a fine odalisque. Junor and the boys were all spectacular. Tamara suddenly went from being a voice on the megaphone to ripping through a couple of scenes as Medora. There are a few rough edges to polish out, but I'm really looking forward to Saturday.

'nil carborundum illegitimi' would be my advice, Ian Back to the Bolshoi. I will certainly scrape out my wallet to see Zakharova again, and would dearly love to see Smirnova, which may involve auctioning a spare kidney. I don't think Obraztsova is down to come, which is a shame, as I find her a beautifully expressive dancer with minimal flashiness.