I was accosted in the street yesterday afternoon by a Mormon missionary lady who asked what had made me happy that day.  I replied shamelessly yet truthfully - "drink".  Taken at lunch with some former workmates in a sufficent but not excessive quantity.

Many other things have made me happy in the last couple of weeks.  Scotland's amazing recovery in the Calcutta Cup match for example. Technically a draw but it felt a lot better than that.  Contrast our footballers in Khazakstan.  They need to bring in Davie Robertson from Real Kashmir to sort them out.

Ewan was here for a few days en route to ski in Austria.  While he was here we went to see the new stage musical version of Local Hero.  It was fun, if a trifle long but this was its very first performance so it will probably be trimmed.  According to Ewan the scene set in Houston needed a few stetsons and cowboy boots to give it a more authentic air.  He had various social engagements but the one pleasure he unaccountably missed was hearing my daily saxophone practice. Surely not intentionally.

As a measure of how long it had been since my last cinema visit, when I went to see Capernaum all the adverts except one were new to me.  It's a wonderful film.  Read the review I've linked to and go see it.

Another lovely film was Born Bone Born or Senkotsu in its Japanese title which is the custom that lingers on in some small islands of a family gathering together to wash the bones of a dead relative a few years after the death once most of the flesh has fallen away.

That sounds pretty grim but it was a delightful and frequently humorous family drama, and it made the bone washing ritual a respectful and dignified ceremony that one might like to experience.

In comparison to those films The Aftermath was a more familiar story of a couple whose marriage is on the slide.  There's a bit of extra-marital rumpy pumpy naturally but it ends happily.  The particular circumstances, their different feelings about the death of their child and the setting, the British administration in Hamburg at the end of the war are what gives it its flavour.  Not an unentertaining film but accurately valued by the critics at two stars.

I think two stars is what Claire has awarded Beauty and the Beast in her mind given her reaction or lack thereof to the performance at the Festival Theatre last week.  I thought it was better than that though I can't raise the delirious applause of the Telegraph's Ballet critic.

The SCO gave an interesting concert last night and as a woodwind player I could only marvel at how clarinettist Max Martin softly pulled long, low, dark notes from silence. Astonishing playing.  And he was only one (if perhaps the best) of a talented body of players.