The Messiah

It's been a fairly quiet week, other than doing some Christmas shopping. I moved into a new office on Wednesday (it seems that one of the common features of all universities is a lack of space!). The new office is in a separate building, close to the main CS Department building, but I'm not sharing the office (for the moment anyway!), as I was before.

I spent the weekend in Davis again, mainly because I had booked to attend the performance of Handel's Messiah on Saturday night. That was performed in the university's very smart theatre complex (try to imagine the Grahamstown Monument theatre on steroids!), the Mondavi Center, by the American Bach Soloists. They are a very accomplished group of performers who were joined by some superb soloists (a little unusually, they had a countertenor for the alto solos). It was an outstanding performance, and a most enjoyable Christmas highlight.

The programme notes had the following, interesting observation on the custom of standing for the Hallelujah Chorus: "...Handel's Messiah is certainly the most well-known and universally enjoyed major work in the Baroque oratorio genre—if not among all “classical” music works—and that standing as a group, in the name of tradition, unites the audience with the performers for a few minutes in a most energizing way... you have only to look at the performers when you stand at that wondrous, thrilling moment: you will see their smiles and their spirits lifted even higher, knowing that millions upon millions of people have stood at that very same moment in music, and in virtually every corner of the world". We stood!

Today (Sunday) has been a fairly quiet day in Davis. I enjoyed the service at University Covenant Church this morning, and then stopped off at the little Austrian restaurant for brunch on my way home again (see the blog entry for 16 November). It's been grey and rainy all day, so the afternoon was spent curled up with a good book (the latest P.D. James novel).

Colin has business in the San Fransisco area tomorrow, so will pick me up on his way back to Rocklin in the evening, where I will be spending Christmas. I'm looking forward to the break and spending some time with the Hobsons, although Janet has to work between Christmas and New Year (Colin has the week off, but is forced to take it from his annual leave — labour practices here are somewhat harsher than in SA!).

Interestingly, the day after Christmas is not a holiday here (no one has heard of "Boxing Day"!). Also a little different: the churches all have Christmas Eve services, but no services on Christmas day itself. The Christmas Eve services are a very big deal. Bayside is holding 13 services this year (a few more than last year), starting from a week before Christmas. They've got a dedicated Christmas website, which is worth a look! We are booked in for the 8:30pm service on Christmas eve, which is likely to be one of the most popular, apparently, so we will need to get there really early. They've set up a huge tent in the courtyard area in front of the church to provide shelter for people waiting to get in. I say we are "booked in" because they've been issuing tickets as a way of trying to balance the numbers (9 of the 13 were "full" on Thursday already). It promises to be an eye-opening experience!

I may not get a chance to write an update before Christmas, so let me take this opportunity to wish you a very Happy and Blessed Christmas, and may 2009 be a happy, and joy-filled year for us all.