Guitars and oboes; tapas; French cinema

Accompanied Ray and Barbara to Norden Farm Centre for the Arts last Thursday to attend one of the concerts on Maidenhead Music Society’s 2010-11 concert programme. This one was given by Marios Argiros and Dimitris Dekavallas, an oboe/guitar duo who apparently released their debut CD in 2009. The recital included pieces by Schubert and Bartok (of those I had heard of) and Coste, Piazzolla, Machado and Villa-Lobos (of those I hadn’t). Astor Piazzolla was apparently a tango composer so the music included some tango, accompanied by the guitarist slapping the side of his guitar energetically. Piazzolla was apparently a virtuoso bandoneónist – never heard of this but apparently it’s a type of concertina popular in Argentina and Uruguay, and used in tango orchestras. There you go.

Submitted speculative transfer in request forms to the University Pensions Office a few months ago and have received a big wad of paperwork in reply, headed by a memo (a memo? Who still sends memos?) from the University Pensions Officer, a peculiarly abrasive woman whom I prefer not to speak with in person. Having read the bumf, have concluded that I have no idea whether it would be financially beneficial or not to transfer in and that I might do well to consult an IFA. Of course, now I have to do loads of research on choosing an IFA (as opposed to just choosing one, which I might well just do had I an entirely different personality type). Even more work. Sigh.

Met Kate for lunch at a surprisingly empty Fusion café on Friday – evidently students don’t do any of that hanging about campus on Fridays nonsense. Kate had some exciting news to share which did unfortunately mean that she had to avoid pretty much all of Fusion’s mayonnaise-slathered sandwiches, but she had a cup of tea while I ate, before picking up a plain cheese sandwich on the way back to her office.

Met at the Ivory Lounge on Saturday evening for Claire's 45^th birthday celebrations. Started off with cocktails - to get in the spirit of things, I had a margarita, which at least wasn't too sweet. We went on to La Tasca for a lovely dinner, though I am unfortunately wearing my 'photo face' in the group photo (right).

Sat down this evening to take in a bit of world cinema by watching Bertrand Blier’s Trop Belle Pour Toi, starring Gérard Depardieu and Josiane Balasko. Car dealer Bernard feels a strong and reciprocated attraction for his new temporary secretary Colette, who is fairly plain and lives in a poor part of town with a struggling writer with whom she seems to be in a relationship, though that’s all a bit vague. Bernard lives in a stonking great house with his beautiful wife Florence and their two children. The film follows the course of Bernard and Colette’s affair and Florence’s attempts to deal with it, though it’s all a bit confusing, partly because it keeps including sequences which are probably dream sequences but it’s not very clear. In the end, Bernard is left running frantically around a motel car park after both Florence and Colette have left him. Quelle pathos.