alison

I'm not sure that *is* necessarily backwards. There are a lot of security loopholes in chip-and-PIN cards, I believe.

Including two former principal ballerinas with New York City Ballet. I can't remember who the other one is, off-hand, but it was another high-ranking dancer.

We keep trying to persuade our marvellous pianist (who even composes her own pieces) to make some recordings, but no success thus far

Oh, and I meant to say: TfL have been persistently closing down booking offices, seemingly regardless of location (tip: avoid Victoria Underground booking hall like the plague - it is hell at peak times, whenever those may be!), so I'm surprised your husband was able to go to any type of window at all. As a result of the staff being shifted elsewhere, it's quite possible the person he spoke to wasn't really au fait with the current situation.

You *can* still buy paper day Travelcards for Zones 1-6 only (he'll need that for Buck'rst'ill, but I think only from railway stations (that may not include Overground stations, as they are part of TfL). Note now that in an express attempt to fleece the tourists (well, he didn't *quite* put it that bluntly, but it was made clear) Boris has put the price up to £12.00 from somewhere around the £8 mark - but that happened at the beginning of January, so presumably applied when you were here, Melody. Nothing has changed since then. As far as I know, they are valid from 9.30 am onwards on weekdays, with no evening restrictions (and probably until 4.30 am the next morning). Boris has also got rid of the off-peak cap on Oystercards, which means you might just as well join the crowds commuting in the mornings, because you're paying for the privilege. Your husband can either give in and get an Oystercard (£5 returnable deposit), or if he has a card with Contactless technology he can use that instead, in exactly the same way (remembering to use the same card to touch in and out, and preferably all day). Whichever one he uses will be capped at the standard Oyster peak cap (I think £10.90 for Zone 5). If I haven't covered anything, do let me know.

Yes, I suspected so as well - along with the above-referenced article on Ed the other day. The performance is sold out, so it's not as if they need to shift tickets.

Sounds highly tempting. Thanks, DQF.

There is a large feature on Francesca Hayward and her debut as Juliet in tonight's Evening Standard. Given the fact that a recent article about Ed Watson doesn't seem to have made it online, this one may not have done, either. Edit: I was wrong: http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/theatre/francesca-haywards-spectacular-leap-from-young-fan-to-star-of-romeo-and-juliet-a3084611.html

I got caught by the BRB fundraisers recently. I think from what he said that they are paying them something less than £6K and aiming to get something in the region of £48K in donations, so I suppose it's worthwhile if they hit their targets. Unfortunately, because I was caught unprepared, I'd forgotten my reasoning, so didn't tell the guy this

Yes. Definitely. As, of course, were a load of hardened critics (But then we've had this conversation before). Mind you, his final performance in his first run in 2007 was pretty special, too. I was standing in the stalls circle for that one, and the acoustics usually tend to dull the sound of the audience reaction somewhat. Not on that occasion - it was quite deafening, IIRC. Cojocaru and Kobborg in what turned out to be their last Manon for the RB: I'm slightly iffy about this one, since I was watching it on the big screen in Trafalgar Square, where the close-ups may have influenced things, but they had me and my friend in tears, and there were an awful lot of sniffs (including masculine ones) from those around us, too. I think we need to start a new thread for this, or we'll take this one well off course.

I've just discovered that there's a film about the Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin showing in this year's London Film Festival: https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/lff/Online/default.asp?doWork::WScontent::loadArticle=Load&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::article_id=FF77ABC9-9575-4E9E-B990-215EF5D4E1A0&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::context_id=10C878D9-E9B0-4AA9-AECC-DF77116886F7

Yes, I decided to edit it, Tony, sorry - I don't think you can have hit "Post" before I did.

My reactions on seeing this bill was that Luke Jennings, at least, is going to have a field day I had what turned out to be a disappointingly restricted view of proceedings, so think I'd better leave it for others to give the main feedback. I did notice a number of changes, though: particularly Ed Watson having a higher ratio of dancing to cycling, and a change to the end of the final pas de deux, as well as the interpolation of the Raven Prince already mentioned elsewhere. I'm afraid that Connectome continues to do very little for me, and visually it seemed not dissimilar to Raven Girl, with its largely monochrome projections.

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I've just received an email from the Barbican stating, among other things, that Ballet Black will be appearing there next year: http://www.barbican.org.uk/theatre/event-detail.asp?ID=18677&utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CCBIT061015X&utm_content=&spMailingID=49702337&spUserID=NDc3MDc2OTQ2MAS2&spJobID=780638569&spReportId=NzgwNjM4NTY5S0 I guess this covers the closure period for the ROH's Linbury Studio Theatre.

I'm going to add the woman who, on a busy London bus this afternoon, was so busy texting that she didn't notice that her toy dog, which was on a fairly long lead, was wandering up and down the gangway, providing a very nice trip hazard for all those people getting on behind her. I mean, surely you tell your dog to sit, don't you, in those circumstances?

Had you been eating a lot of cheese before you went to bed, Lisa?

Today's Evening Standard has a feature (page 3, in case you missed it) saying that Ed is collecting his MBE tomorrow and then returning to the ROH because he's performing in both parts of the double bill. I can't find it online as yet, which doesn't surprise me much since the ES website in its new incarnation seems to be pretty rubbish.

Absolutely disgusting. I agree with MAB: if there is some sort of regulatory body, they should certainly be reported.

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I'd assumed this twitter.com/balletcoforum, but can't see any references.

It was mentioned to me the other day that casting for the triple bill at Sadler's Wells was out, but I forgot to mention it here. Here's the link: https://www.brb.org.uk/whats-on/event/variations-triple-bill-on-tour Looks like two(-ish? I didn't read it fully) casts for Enigma, 3 for Theme and Variations and 1 for The King Dances.

Thanks for bringing this up, Kate: until I saw your message about the general, I could have sworn the opening night for this was Thursday! Have now grabbed myself a cheap ticket.

Of course, it may be that they were just there out of interest - I know some do attend performances they aren't reviewing just to see additional casts, put things in perspective and so on. Oh well, I guess we'll wait and see.