Group 7-day waking average?

Morning folks. 🙂 9.4 here. Just shows what happens the morning following a day with no exercise!

It’s filthy out there. And set to continue, by the looks. My Saturday plan was to pootle down to Aberteifi for a day out. Looks like rain’ll stop play (according to the forecast) and I’ll be cleaning instead. Ho hum...🙂
 
Morning. A nice 5.5 on this grim looking day.

Well Tim Peake was quite interesting, I stayed awake anyways! The “theatre” was packed out. Lots of children, some dressed as astronauts. I don’t know about them, but he didn’t sell the role of astronaut to me. It sounded awful. I suppose a near enough 63 years old grandma probably isn’t the demographic!

Zara day today. Ready for battle. 😉

Have a fab Friday. And to all our teachers, TAs and pupils. Hurray! 🙂
 
Morning all. 6.9 today. Last day for 2 weeks! Hooray!! I enjoy the job i do but it is mentally draining. Its raining atm so i hope the weather gets better over the holidays
 
5.5 for me after only a few hours sleep + a 3.5 when I got in from the pub last night after a rainy walk home. (And rather too many crisps!) A year ago I didn't get readings this low after a walk home, seems to be a recent development.

Someone recommended a film (Molly's Game) so I started watching and ended up staying up until the early hours watching it.
 
Colin’s Cultural Corner


Akhnaten - ENO - London Coliseum


30/3/23




Here’s another cultural experience I approached with a certain amount of trepidation. Not that that was the only feeling I had before this one as I was also quite excited to see Philip Glass’s final biographical opera (the other two being on Einstein and Ghandi) as it has had rave reviews since it premiered 40 years ago and has become as legendary as the title character himself has.


We open with a series of hieroglyphs projected on to a curtain. I’m guessing that they spell out either the name Amenhotep IV or that of his father, who we see as the curtain rises, has just died.


The staging is three levels of scaffolding frame with the topmost occupied by the major Egyptian gods, the middle level rammed full of the populous and the lowest level divided into three rooms which change function throughout the piece. As we open, the middle room has the dead body of Amenhotap’s dad lying on a slab and being attended to by assorted folks dressed in white lab coats with what looked like tweed suits underneath. They are removing organs from the dead Pharaoh prior to his being mummified and entombed. Also prior to the first piece of theatrical magic when his heart is weighed against a feather on a massive balance scales in line with the Book of the Dead (I think). It’s something to do with the heart having to be lighter than a feather otherwise the departed cannot be whisked off to the realm of the gods.


Some 20 minutes into the opera the heir to the throne (only heir because his elder brother died a few years ago) makes an appearance. And what an appearance. He’s stripped of all trappings of earthly existence and is then clothed in the garbs more fitting a pharaoh/god. He doesn't sing for a further 20 minutes!



He takes his place on the throne and there’s more singing and some exquisite “dancing”. I say it’s dancing because basically it’s the most precise and deliberate muscle control I think I’ve ever seen on any stage anywhere. Various cast members contort themselves into almost yoga positions or move slowly, very slowly, across the stage. Nobody at any point moves at a pace which could be described as being remotely natural. Apart from the jugglers that is as they’ve got balls/clubs/candles etc to throw and catch and with remarkable effectiveness they provide the visual pulse of what’s going on. A little like a heart monitor, when the characters on stage are excited or fraught the jugglers throw higher, when they die they allow the balls to fall almost like a flatline.

Anyway I digress so back the story. Amenhotep’s dad led a multi-god worshipping society with Amen as the big God of them all. Amenhotep doesn’t want to do that so changes his name and places Aten at the pinnacle of the gods.

There’s some debate as to whether or not Amenhotep, who also changes his name to Akhnaten (which possibly translates as Aten will be Served) forbids worship of the other gods or if he’s just switched out the big one at the top but for the purposes of the opera it’s suggested that he’s banned the others being worshipped.


He also marries Nefertiti at some stage but as academics can’t determine if they married before or after his ascension to the throne it’s just enough to know that they did marry. He also married quite a few other women, some of whom were his daughters so he was father to his own grandchildren. It’s also assumed that Nefertiti was the mother of his eventual successor Tutenkhaten but again there’s confusion of the truth of his parentage but here, understandably, that’s what’s presented as fact.


Anyway, as Akhnaten grows into his role as Pharaoh he moves the capital of his kingdom to a new city, Amarna, which also serves as a temple to Aten. He, and his court, become increasingly isolated from the vassals and also from his generals who are not happy as he’s neglecting the issue of border skirmishes. They blame his worship of Aten for all of this so they revolt, storm the palace, kill the him and place Tutenkhaten on the throne.


You may be more familiar with Tutenkhaten’s reginal name of Tutankhamen - which also signifies that he overturns the worship of Aten and restores Amen to the position of chief deity and brings calm to the kingdom by doing so.


The opera ends with Akhnaten on the slab his father was on at the opening and we see a class of archaeology students attending a lecture on his reign and on the recently discovered Tel-Amarna.


I’ve not really been able to comment on the singing as it’s almost beyond description. Akhnaten is beautifully voiced in counter tenor, his mum is a brilliant soprano, Nefertiti sings lower than he does and has another stunningly rich vocal tone. Various viziers and priests (one of who later becomes Pharaoh himself) are generally bass.


Music is stunning. There are what I would call ‘marches’ which set up recurring themes throughout the score and the songs themselves are either in Hebrew, Babylonian Akkadian or Egyptian with only one song, the Song to Aten, sung in English.


The Egyptian piece is from the Book of the Dead and is a poem written by Akhnaten himself.


There are a lot of musical influences going on here with nods to Indian music as well as to jazz in tone and rhythm. It’s just dawned on me that Akhnaten has an accompanying trumpet which is played only for his entrances. That marks him out as being different and revolutionary I expect.


All in all it’s a remarkable piece of theatre with a huge element of the spectacular as well as the slightly odd. What’s not in doubt is how impactful the music and the staging are together. The scenes of the storming of the palace and the murder of Akhaten are some of the most moving things I think I’ve ever seen and I’m not at all embarrassed to admit that I had a tear run down my cheek as he expired in the arms of a priest.


The audience clearly loved it and there was a long standing ovation when the curtain fell. I loved it and would gladly see it again. I’m now keen to see the other operas in the trio.


Rather than fill this up with photos etc I'd like to point you all in the direction of the Discover Opera page on the ENO website for Akhnaten as it's detailed and fascinating.
 
A nice round 5 for me this morning. 🙂
Looks like it's going to be wet, wet, wet today.

Dez
 
Good morning 4.9. No idea how that happened as I went to bed late and had a lousy night. Rather expected it to be higher as feeling sorry for myself yesterday evening I substituted 2 lagers and a handful of nuts for dinner and sat up watching Jesus Christ Superstar. I will probably be stuck with musical mind worms for the whole day!

Weather miserable and grey tho' not raining just now - met office says "just wait it will be".

Happy Friday everyone.
 
Forgot to post the view from my seat at the opera yesterday.
It was a good seat!
IMG_0201.jpeg
 
9.4 with an upward sloping arrow for me this morning and my Libre high alarm going off instead of my wake up alarm but near enough time to get up. That said, I jabbed 6 units Fiasp and then added another one just for luck before I pulled the needle out and stuck 22 in my buttocks and went back to sleep for half an hour and woke to a bit better 7.9. Didn't have to hang around too long to eat my breakfast as a result of the insulin having that half hour start whilst I slept and looks like that extra unit was a good call.
It's damp here but not raining and the forecast suggests we might be lucky here and miss the downpours that the rest of the country are getting hammered with, so not going to complain about it being a bit overcast and miserable, as it clearly could be a lot worse.
Need to head down to the surgery today to pick up insulin and Libre sensors, so will be swinging my legs in that direction as well as up the hill to the GGs and hopefully tomorrow's waking reading will be better as a result. It is the last couple of days of this sensor and really finding the Libre 2 even better than Libre 1, much as I was apprehensive. Don't mind admitting when I am wrong.

@ColinUK I was absolutely enthralled by your account of Akhenaten in CCC this morning and would really love to see it
as it sounds spectacular and fascinating.... and very different to the other operas you have attended and described so far!
 
Morning all - still being lashed by Storm Mathis. Apparently trees down and electricity cuts in the area, but we seem to have escaped unscathed.

17.6 this morning. At bedtime it was 15.3 and rising, so I bolused a correction. This went on all during the night as the level rose to 20. In total I bolussed 10+ units. Couldn't work out what was causing it or why it wouldn't come down.... and spent ages thinking, insulin gone off, pod not correctly applied, illness lurking. Until I told Julian who said "I think you must have fried it cuddling that hot water bottle over the pod all last night after dinner!" DOH!

@rebrascora so sorry I spoiled your anticipation of "Allelujia". Apparently it divides people. The friend I went with said half her friends had loved it. Also some ladies were discussing it in the loo afterwards and they seemed to think it was really good.

@Lily123 good luck with your exams.

@ColinUK thank you for another great CCC.

Been invited to some friends for lunch today. Would walk over (they live right opposite St Michael's Mount), but given the weather I think we will catch the bus. Better get a shift on...
 
And it was a 5.8 for me at 8.15 on this wet morning.

Now, where's my porridge.......
 
3.9 this morning after yesterday bumping up and down into hypoland and spending most of last night hovering around 4.

Yesterday’s hypos were thanks to having the day off and sorting out the pond : new UV bulb in the filter and replaced the heron net. This involved some shifting of heavy slate rocks to hold the net in place. However, the fish seem to really appreciate it now they can get to the surface (although the net is only over two thirds of the pond so they could always get to the surface at the top end of the pond) as the old net had sagged and was on the water surface. No sign of the 4 frogs (they must be hiding, so I left that end of the pond alone so as not to disturb them) and the frogspawn is still not hatched.

Working today, shoulder is holding up and not hurting so that’s good news!

@ColinUK - another great CCC, I‘ve been getting emails about this opera, so it was interesting to read your review.

@Lily123 - good luck with your exams!

Have a great day everyone, whatever you are doing.
 

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Colin’s Cultural Corner


Akhnaten - ENO - London Coliseum
I hardly ever comment on your CCCs, but they do set off trains of thought and memories, so much so today that I remembered that Akhnaten was on the radio once when I was driving back from my parents. (I’d just got a car with a radio, so this would be the 1980s) and I remember reaching Guildford before we had a key or rhythm change, and deciding that the music probably didn’t stand up without the spectacle. So I listened to the opening of it again yesterday on youtube, and found that if you concentrate on the music, as opposed to the traffic, there are subtle changes of harmony or orchestration the whole time, and it’s really compelling. (I've now had an ear worm of Glass's violin concerto all morning, because one thing leads to another in my brain).
 
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