Saturday, March 21, 2009

Saturday March 21 – Cinderella on Ice

Ray and I went for another 50 minute run again along the charming country lanes and dirt tracks among the farmer’s fields. It’s a good workout as everywhere is up or down hill.

After breakfast and showers, Camille took Ray and I to see the Godrevy Lighthouse near Gwithian in the northern part of Cornwall. This was another spectacular part of the Cornish coast, complete with a number of grey seals resting unperturbed 200 feet
Below the clifftop on the sandy beach below at Mutton Cove.

In the afternoon Camille and I picked up her neighbour Yvonne and we drove into Truro to the “Hall for Cornwall”, one of the few larger theatres to see the Imperial Ice Stars in “Cinderella on Ice”. We sat right in the front row and felt as if we were in the middle of the skaters. You could hear the swish of the skates on the ice, hear the “thud of their landings when they did their jumps, and hear their very subtle comments when something went amiss. Their skating was dramatic due mainly to the speed and breathtaking manoeuvres. The costumes were beautiful colours and well represented the various characters. In short, the whole production was utterly beautiful. The dancers put such energy and passion into their skating. At the end they did an ensemble resembling the ending of Slumdog and the crowd went wild. Cinderella was skated by Olga Sharutenko, the Lord Mayor’s Son was Andrei Penkine. Just fabulous!

Arriving back at Camille and Stephen’s house we met up with the guys who had been out shopping for a mother’s day present for Camille …..and a cream team. There was a message on Camille’s phone from our daughter Alanna who was desperately trying to locate her parents. She had tried emailing (we don’t have e-mail this week); she tried texting; she tried phoning; and she tried e-mailing all our friends. Our cell phone was being charged as I had forgotten to turn the plug on (an anomaly of the British switches) when I plugged it in for charging. Anyway, we called her back immediately and heard the incredibly exciting news that she had received two acceptances for her masters, one at her school of choice at Simon Fraser Uni in Vancouver and the other at the University of Toronto. She received early acceptance out of a very competitive field of applicants and is absolutely over the moon. So are Ray and I. Alanna has been very confident she would be accepted. We knew how committed she is to doing her masters and are absolutely thrilled for her. It truly is so very exciting and we are both so very, very, happy for her. She is very diligent and works hard at what she wants. It is just fantastic to see her being given the opportunity she has earned. In the same evening, Camille received a phone call to say that her 90 year old mother who is living just outside Estapona in Spain has a buyer for her house. This means, if she accepts the offer, she will be moving back to England to live with Camille and Stephen.

All this excitement led to us “cracking open” a bottle or two of wine and celebrating Alanna’s wonderful news and the fact that in the course of an hour and two phone calls, all of our lives would change dramatically.

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