With work spilling over from Thursday into yesterday Friday was one of those impossibly busy days. It started with an extended meeting at one of the ministries. For lunch speed took precedence over taste or even welfare so I just went with a colleague to McDonald's for a McFresh and a coffee at McCafé.
In the afternoon there were a thousand and one things I had to finish in order to make a clean break with some things that needed to be passed off to our staff this week. In fact I was still orienting two of my colleagues at 5 past when I should already have been picking up my muirnín at Park Kultury.
After sending off my cleaner for the day and freshening up a bit at the flat, Inessa and I hurried off to Novaya Opera at the Hermitage Gardens for the gala opening of the Thai Cultural Festival in Moscow. Arriving 15 minutes late we thought we'd have to wait for the next interval to be able to take our seats. In fact an usherette told us as much when I got in at the door. When we entered the main doors of the hall, however, we saw that things had yet to settle down. Dima of the third form Filipino group at Moscow State University said hello to us first, followed by Sasha of Yukos and the whole Indonesian Embassy. On the other side I also said hello to Katya, Yulia and Zhenya of the Singaporean Embassy, the only other ones who responded to my SOS SMS the other day. On the same row and the back row there were a couple of people from the Foreign Ministry seated as well. My ducky saw a few people she knew from the press conference earlier the day.
The program started with a full court instrumental ensemble playing the overture to a masked khon performance by the National Theatre of Thailand, in which episodes from the ancient Sanskrit epic Ramayana are enacted to music in highly stylished form. Called Ramakian, this Thai version tells of the war between Rama, the rightful King of Ayutthaya, and Totsakan, the evil king of Lanka island who has spirited Rama's wife, Sita, to Lanka. Rama is aided by his royal brother, Laksmana, and several monkey chieftains with their simian armies. Totsakan is supported by various demons, who are also his relatives. Then there was a demonstration of Thai martial arts, followed by the distinctive dances of four different regions in Thailand. All in all it was a very impressive show. Thais certainly know how to put things together.
Following the program Waraporn and Piyapan invited us to go to the reception being held at the new Blue Elephant restaurant.
In the afternoon there were a thousand and one things I had to finish in order to make a clean break with some things that needed to be passed off to our staff this week. In fact I was still orienting two of my colleagues at 5 past when I should already have been picking up my muirnín at Park Kultury.
After sending off my cleaner for the day and freshening up a bit at the flat, Inessa and I hurried off to Novaya Opera at the Hermitage Gardens for the gala opening of the Thai Cultural Festival in Moscow. Arriving 15 minutes late we thought we'd have to wait for the next interval to be able to take our seats. In fact an usherette told us as much when I got in at the door. When we entered the main doors of the hall, however, we saw that things had yet to settle down. Dima of the third form Filipino group at Moscow State University said hello to us first, followed by Sasha of Yukos and the whole Indonesian Embassy. On the other side I also said hello to Katya, Yulia and Zhenya of the Singaporean Embassy, the only other ones who responded to my SOS SMS the other day. On the same row and the back row there were a couple of people from the Foreign Ministry seated as well. My ducky saw a few people she knew from the press conference earlier the day.
The program started with a full court instrumental ensemble playing the overture to a masked khon performance by the National Theatre of Thailand, in which episodes from the ancient Sanskrit epic Ramayana are enacted to music in highly stylished form. Called Ramakian, this Thai version tells of the war between Rama, the rightful King of Ayutthaya, and Totsakan, the evil king of Lanka island who has spirited Rama's wife, Sita, to Lanka. Rama is aided by his royal brother, Laksmana, and several monkey chieftains with their simian armies. Totsakan is supported by various demons, who are also his relatives. Then there was a demonstration of Thai martial arts, followed by the distinctive dances of four different regions in Thailand. All in all it was a very impressive show. Thais certainly know how to put things together.
Following the program Waraporn and Piyapan invited us to go to the reception being held at the new Blue Elephant restaurant.
