AnneMarriott

Oh, good grief!

Or Windsor for a half-day visit, just under an hour from Waterloo by train to Windsor and Eton Riverside or via Slough from Paddington to Windsor Central. The Castle, The Great Park and river trips through pretty countryside all a nice way to spend some time.

Perhaps the enthusiastic gentleman is a plant - employed by the management to stimulate applause if the audience seems a bit quiet.

Bundesjugendballett now on the ROH website.

Now available on the ROH website (with a few programmes still to be confirmed). See my posting under Next Generation Festival in News and Information.

I emailed Customer Services and am happy to say that most of the Next Generation Festival is now on the ROH website. Only Bundesjugendballett, a Symposium and NFG Creatives are still to be confirmed, but the rest are in the Linbury, except for one programme in the Paul Hamlyn Hall.

This festival runs in June and early July. Performances by Queensland Ballet JPYAP, The Royal Ballet School, Rambert School, ZooNation Youth Company, New English Ballet Theatre, Rambert 2 and Bundesjugendballett. According to the Friends Summer 2020 magazine, venues, and I presume information about the programmes, is available from the ROH website. So far I have been unable to find out anything at all - all I get is "no results found". Can anyone help?

Having posted my little triumph with administration of tablets to a cat, I'd like to put vet consultations ito Room 101. My cat had a sore paw (left front foot). I told the vet who then proceeded to examine her eyes, teeth, temperature, heart beat and legs, putting each leg through a range of movements starting with the back two and finishing with the front left. She then put the cat on the floor and tried to make her walk. Lexi declined. After an eternity of fiddling about with her paw there were antiseptic soaked swabs all over the place, a very distressed cat and a very frustrated owner. The vet then took 20 minutes to research the treatment before sending us away with antibiotic tablets, Metacam (guaranteed diarrhoea in my experience), a bottle of Hibiscrub and some gauze swabs. The vet was clearly far from well, coughing and spluttering during the 45-minute consultation. I am now coughing and spluttering and feeling rotten, the cat seems fine.

So far no luck. At the merest whiff of antiseptic solution she squeezes herself into one of many places in the house inaccessible to humans, or dashes out into the garden which rather defeats the object of the exercise. However, she's not limping any more so my fingers are crossed for the follow-up appointment when I hope she'll be signed off.

A small miracle to report: our rescue cat, who is very resistant to handling, has been prescribed antibiotic tablets. After an initial failed two-man attempt to get the tablets down her I have happened upon the following solution: Using two spoons or a pestle and mortar, grind the tablets into a fine powder. Mix the powder into a teaspoonful of Gourmet Gold Pate (or whatever your cat's favourite wet cat food might be) and add to a regular meal. Success! All I have to do now is find a fool-proof method of bathing a sore paw with an antiseptic solution ...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!

Snap! Sadly however the magic disappeared with subsequent viewings and I shan't book to see it again - or at least I'll sit it out ...

I agree, Jane - and I have been doing that with the two other Ashton ballets that I have never liked, namely Two Pigeons and Marguerite and Armand. However when a piece is in the middle of a triple bill it's hard to avoid unless one sits it out in the bar (as my other half did!). However I used to wonder what all the fuss was about over Month in the Country and then I saw Genesia Rosato do it and suddenly "got it". Now it's one of my favourites. And I know your feelings about Manon which I really love. It takes all sorts ...

Sorry to be a party pooper but I saw the triple bill this afternoon and it just served to confirm that the more times I see Enigma the less I want to see it. I enjoy the music and designs but the ballet itself just leaves me cold. It appeals to so many balletgoers that I can only assume the problem is mine. (Puts on tin hat).

In view of the effect she has on all the men, perhaps the ship's crew tried to get frisky?