The Colombians, whether innocently or duplicitously, didn't put a best before date on this sachet so I don't know how old it was.  It must be some time since Ewan was last in Colombia though.

I used it anyway and it wasn't too bad.  However, on the whole I prefer non instant coffee.

The way the Richard Alston Dance Company swing themselves joyously around to Scott Joplin in the final piece of their current show, having already expended lots of energy in the almost obligatory nod to Britten in this his centenary year, they must have refuelled on coffee as the show progressed. 

Lots of energy went into Crime and Punishment but it was pretend vodka (I assume pretend) fuelling that one.  This is an excellent production that brings to vibrant life Dostoyevsky's novel about the destitute student who posits the idea that any crime is justified if it is for the greater good.  Not a few dictators have thought along those lines.

I like Quentin Lett's review in the Mail and am pleased to see that my reaction to the Brechtian presentation makes me less of an old fogey than him.  Rush to see it at The Lyceum.  Judging by the attendance the day I went you'll have no trouble getting a seat.  Shameful.

I may not be an old fogey but I fear I am more the gullible old fool than the wordly-wise sceptic if my reaction to Paul Bright's Confessions of a Justified Sinner is any guide.  This is another absolutely excellent piece of theatre but when you get the programme at the end of the show you realise all is not what it seemed. How could I have been so blind?  I'll be helping Nigerian bankers free up their millions next.  Get to Summerhall by the end of the week and see how you get on.

It could have been better attended too, as could last night's SCO concert.

There was some Britten and a wee bit of his teacher Frank Bridge but it was probably the brand new Sally Beamish piece for soprano and chamber orchestra, Flodden, that kept the crowds away.  I find that I rather like contemporary music and Sally Beamish for one keeps turning out stuff that I enjoy.  Both her Saxophone Concerto that I heard at the Sax Congress last year and her Percussion Concerto played at The Queen's Hall last season were great.  I think if more people came to hear work like hers they would find that they can enjoy it.

Flodden was of course commemorating the great battle of 500 years ago and started off with a gut wrenching wave of sound from the singer interspersed with the ringing tones of a bell or a triangle.  This was described as a wordless lament in my neighbour's programme notes at which I cast a cheeky eye.  When words did come for the most part I couldn't make them out.  Whether the band were too loud or the singer not loud enough or the music too heavily scored I don't know.

Nonetheless I enjoyed the music but it would have been nice to know what was being sung.

The conductor abandoned his baton in favour of a violin to lead the orchestra in the final piece.  Metamorphosen by Richard Strauss.  It's powerful and tragic tones fitted like a glove the concert's billing as The Pity of War.