The Story So Far ...

We said farewell to our work friends at the RSPCA and BBC on 14 September, farewell to our families on 3 October, and set off for Africa to save cheetahs, decorate school buildings, and look around a bit. After a trip home for Christmas, we headed for South East Asia on 6 January -- where we were stunned by Qatar and Cambodia, taught novice monks in Laos, and acted as security guards at an Elephant Festival. It was back home for four weeks to look after John's dad, before we tangoed our way through five South American countries in fifteen days. We then snooped our way through New Zealand, dipped our toes into Fiji, drove-thru California and were home from home with family in Vancouver.

Now, we are home itself. Fulfilled, happy, and ready to earn the respect of our friends and family by knuckling down and earning some money once again ...

Saturday, 5 March 2011

Some Observations on Vietnamese Water Puppetry

Scene One of Twelve

It's wonderfully quick, Vietnamese Water Puppetry.  Done and dusted in forty minutes flat.  The perfect pre-dinner entertainment.

Henry and I discovered this the other evening.  Water puppetry is to Vietnam what Opera is to Italy, and although we've always had our doubts about opera, we thought we ought to take a look.  But our hearts sank when we saw the programme.  There would be twelve scenes, all of them involving those shiny marionettes.  Puppets of children playing in the water, puppets of dragons fighting in the fields, puppets of women growing rice, puppets of a turtle and a phoenix dancing like lovers.  Oh boy, we thought.  We've got to sit through all this puppetry before we can head off to our Emperor's Banquet at a restaurant down the road (six courses for £6.20.)

So it was quite a relief that each scene seemed to last about three minutes.  Once we'd grasped the timings, we found ourselves rather enjoying the colourful skill of the puppeteers, manoeuvring their little charges on long poles beneath the water to the sound of the Vietnamese pipes.

If Verdi had taken the same approach,  I'd have taken out Lifetime Membership of Glyndebourne long ago.

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