SATURDAY NICE. SUNDAY NICE TOO.

The 'sheep' were cast members dressed in full-body fluffy outfits with Venetian masks. Brilliant.

We saw Leonard Bernstein's  CANDIDE on Saturday night at the Auckland Town Hall.
This was great  entertainment - more in the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta style rather than formal opera but brilliant nevertheless.

 New Zealand Opera, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and Freemasons' NZ Opera chorus all came together to put on a first class show with the chorus joining in the farce with great enthusiasm and drama. I'm so glad we went to see this. The quality of performance that we have in Australia and New Zealand is outstanding. I hope that others can get to see this.

The version we saw was the one that Bernstein updated from his 1956 original and had input from Stephen Sondheim which shows in the lyrics. It's almost as if he had input from Kurt Weill  as well (although he was dead when Bernstein wrote this) with the sometimes edgy compositions that underscored Bernstein's comic European operetta tunes and modern dance rhythms.

Outstanding.

Lynn bought us great seats alongside the stage that was like a catwalk designed as a pier with the orchestra and the chorus at the 'T' end. We were right alongside the action and caught all of the great expressions the actors used - including the chorus who got into the action physically.

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We signed the sale documents for the apartment on Saturday afternoon and hopefully now we are all good to go.

On Sunday morning before I caught the bus north after an excellent brunch at the inner city 'Scarecrow' urban grocer deli we went for a walk around Auckland's legal and university-fringe precinct to look at potential 1 bedroom apartment options (from the outside).  We had a look at a character building that we've long admired and then moved on. Serendipity came into play and The Old Girl spotted a woman walking down the road towards us with an 'Open Home' sign under her arm. T.O.G. told her we were looking to buy an apartment and bingo, she led us back to the apartment building we had just been looking at. We went upstairs to view a 1 bedroom apartment that has almost everything we are looking for. It's for sale by auction though which is something we haven't considered in the past but, knowing that we will be cash buyers in a few weeks we might go to the auction and hope for a good deal.

After leaving this apartment building we continued on our way up the same street to look at another building we like and sure enough there was an 'Open Home' sign outside . we went in and looked at a studio apartment that is smaller than what we desire but a hell of a lot under our budget. If it was down to me I'd buy it on the spot but I'm not the one that will be living there. T.O.G. will be there 4 nights a week so it's only fair that we get something that she likes.

Still, it's encouraging. We have reconciled ourselves to the fact that a 30 square metre (plus or minus) 1 bedroom apartment in inner city Auckland will cost as much as a 3 bedroom house with section in other cities in New Zealand.

We continued our walk back to our own (for the next month) apartment and looked at a few other desirable buildings. I'll be busy over the next few weeks looking at options.

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It was a great weekend and I've arrived back in sunny Northland to a magic afternoon. I opened a bottle of Deutz Blanc de Blanc and am sipping away while writing this with late afternoon sunlight coming through the study window.

I don't know if it was the 'opera' that has inspired me for my evening meal but on the way home I stopped off at the local supermarket and bought the makings for lasagne with a rocket and pear salad.
I also bought a Sara Lee tirimisu dessert (don't tell The Old Girl).
That with a nice Waipara Pinot Noir should make the evening go well.