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Belters and bohemians: Opera Locos @Sadlers_wells

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At the start of the Opera Locos performance, the announcement says that they really are singing. You could be forgiven for wondering that, given the amplification turns up the backing track and the voices so loud that you can't always tell what's real. But this is a mostly harmless and slightly eccentric blend of opera classics fused with the occasional pop classic. However, recognising the pop tunes would help if you were over a certain age. The most recent of them dates back twenty years. It's currently playing at the Peacock Theatre .  Five performers play out a variety of archetype opera characters. There's the worn-out tenor (Jesús Álvarez), the macho baritone (Enrique Sánchez-Ramos), the eccentric counter-tenor (Michaël Kone), the dreamy soprano (María Rey-Joly) and the wild mezzo-soprano (Mayca Teba). Since my singing days, I haven't recognised these types of performers. However, once, I recall a conductor saying he wanted no mezzo-sopranos singing with the s
Oh the debate about Wanadoo's incompetence is hotting up on ADSLguide: Re: Beware wanadoo - don't sign up to it

Monday night at Balans

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Monday night at Balans Originally uploaded by Pauly_ . These rowdy people kept taunting A and I - maybe it was our flirting I just don't know...
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Scenes from outside the National Theatre Monday 27 February 22:09. After seeing the play "Once in a Lifetime" had a quick look at this display of photos capturing life after last years Tsunami.  
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Scenes from Clapham High Street - Clapham Common Tube (two weeks ago again). Amongst the clutter and rubbish around this point is the old gents toilet (on the left). It has been closed for some time, but would be a great place for a coffee on the go kiosk I would imagine... If they could get rid of the smell... 
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Scenes from SW4 (two Saturday's ago). Location location... 
Speaking of rubbish service, A and I go to Balans cafe in Soho regularly. I am not sure why as the food is more likely to be awful, the people often in there are freaks (usually exes of A's who are now hustlers) and the service is mixed. The one thing going for it is the location and it is a great space. I think that's why we keep coming back. Wednesday evening was a case in point. Early January they gave me a voucher which was a "buy one meal get one free" deal. The deal came with a whole series of catches however. You could only redeem the offer Mon-Wed between 5-11pm and the moon had to be in the seventh house and Jupiter aligned with Mars. The fine print was so amusing that I asked the waiter what we could get with this deal. Eventually after much haggling he told us that A's all day breakfast and my burger would cover the deal so we made the order. A few minutes later the waiter came back to apologise and say that breakfasts were not part of the meal deal an
Still no change on the Wanadoo situation. Wanadoo can-no-do... I really wish I never signed up to them. To get out of a contract here you have to sacrifice your first born so I just have to suffer in somewhat silence. I have started taking my campaign to the broader community (albeit slowly as I am using dialup!)...

More rubbish from Wanadoo...

Wanadoo is having a little trouble being a decent internet service provider with me. Rather than investigate my complaint properly they have offered to give me a technical call-back which one of their call centre consultants mentioned to me was a pointless exercise as they will just tell me to play with the modem and look at the lights. The problem that I am experiencing is more likely to be at the telephone exchange.   Anyway, it means they reach their target of responding to written letters within five days. After receiving their I decided to email back an acceptance of their offer so I would not be accused later by them of obstruction. This is how it went.   Original Message Follows: ------------------------ Your ref:    I would like to confirm that I would like a technical callback to take place at 8am on 12 March (giving you five days notice to set up the call back as per your request in the letter).    I would also like to point out that if you are unable to