Friday 2 March 2012

An evening on a boat / a night at the symphony


Last Sunday we had dinner with Ross on his 27-foot sailboat. He was kind enough to invite us over to his little home in the harbour, and we were glad to oblige. In our apartment it had been really hot (maybe especially since I had been baking -- skillingsboller for Ross, in fact), but despite the bright sunshine it was surprisingly cold and windy once we made it outside. It took us some thirty chilly minutes to walk down to the marina.

Thorsten, of course, was instantly enamoured with Ross's boat and his old dream to own a sailboat was re-ignited. Inside the boat it was snug, warm and cosy. Ross made hamburgers for us, barbecuing the patties outside on deck. We stayed there for a few hours, having a few beers and some wine, and as usual the conversation flowed easily.

Of course we tried to convince our host to come to Bergen some time, should he ever have the opportunity to do so. As he is greatly interested in classical music, I tried to lure him with free tickets to concerts at Troldhaugen -- and told him that Festspillene would be perfect for him.

Ross drove us home around 9 pm, and we promised to meet up again some time soon.

The only picture I have of Ross's boat, also featuring Ross and (unflatteringly) me.





In fact, we were to meet again only four days later. We wanted to return the favour and decided to invite Ross over for dinner this week. So, a few days ago I sent him a message asking him if he'd like to come to our place for dinner. He replied that he already had plans for the evening -- he was going to the Benaroyo hall in Seattle for a concert after work. But, he added, we were welcome to join him if we wanted. We promptly accepted, and that's how we ended up attending a performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto No 27 last night. (Meanwhile, the dinner was re-scheduled to Sunday.)

Ross picked us up at our place at 6 pm and drove us to Seattle. The concert hall was grandiose (unfortunately I only took a few pictures) and the performance beautiful. As always, it was refreshing to get our and experience something different -- not to mention to be exposed to a quite different setting with quite different demographics (always good for people-watching). In an attempt to pretend to be cultivated, Thorsten wore a suit, I a dress and moderate heels. Not that it that was really necessary, it turned out -- there were plenty of wool sweaters and sneakers around.


Thorsten and Ross:



The inside of the outside of the concert hall proper. The hall itself to the right.







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