Ferrero Roche anyone?

I'm afraid this is only going to add to Pete's delusion that I am actually a famous person in disguise (I think it was Scarlett Johansson- who I just read is 19?!?) but here I go.

As I have mentioned before my friend J is in choir, and they have previously done a concert in the Forbidden City Concert Hall. On Saturday, J informed me that they would be doing a special concert that evening at the British Ambassador's House. She told me that there were a few tickets left but they were Y250 (thats expensive- consider you can eat dinner for Y10). She offered to pay half as she said it was going to be amazing and she really wanted me to come.

So Saturday night I put my glad rags on and headed over to the Ambassador's place. Needless to say, it was a beautiful, large house that seemed very out of placein Beijing. As we walked into the garden, I discovered it was actually a picnic, and people had spread blankets on the ground and were eating glorious food and drinking Champagne. I had arrived sans food and sans blanket....

The choir were hanging out in the house, so I went to have a look around. There was a grande piano in the spacious living room, with a signed picture of Tony on the top.

After a wander around the garden, I plucked up the courage to ask some nice folks if I could perch on the end of their blanket. They were super friendly and even gave me a glass of champagne and some cherries. And then the concert started....

It was a mixture of Madrigals and musical classics (Summertime, The Way You Look Tonight...) J had a solo in one of the French Madrigals which was beautiful. At the beginning the scruffy Ambassador came on and gave a little speech. He explained that the concert was being held in order to raise money for a charity in Chongqing that trains special needs teachers, and funds a small special needs school.

During the concert, and interval I got chatting to a number of people. As one woman arrived at the concert, a huge spark of recognition made me mentally fall about in fits of giggles. She is a television presenter from CCTV9- I was taking the piss out of her only a couple of weeks ago, as she presents this show, where her and the other presenter annoyingly finish each other's sentences. Anyway, she turned out to be a lovely lady. As did the presenter from China Radio International. Oh yes... all the glitterati of Beijing were present... ;-)

Anyways, it was a great night, not least because after, we went to the pub and had beer and grilled cheese sandwiches. Sadly, no Ferrero Roches though.

 

16.6.04 06:45