When I woke up at 9 this morning, it was snowing! It was short-lived as the snow fell for 30 minutes only! (Today is April 6, 2008)

As the saying goes, “If you haven’t seen Don Giovanni, you haven’t been to Prague!”  It would be a shame to miss this operatic masterpiece composed by Mozart. 

Don Giovanni is so special to Prague as this opera was premiered in Prague in 1787  and was conducted by Mozart himself at the Prague Estates Theatre. As I’m intrigued by the Czech marionettes, I decided to see a special verion of Don Giovanni  at the National Marionette Theatre (Žatecká 1, Prague 1) presented in the original Italian librettot. 

In this unique version, you will first see a weird marionette Mozart appear on the stage and conduct an imaginery orchestra.  After the overture, some classical marionettes dressed in authentic period costumes will appear and move haltingly to act out the classic scenes. The marionette Mozart will appear again in between acts. It is hilarious to see the marionette Mozart get drunk, fall asleep and even knock his stupid head on the edge of the orchestra pit.

I thought puppeteers only manipulate the marionettes indirectly by the use of strings and rods behind the backdrop, but after the show I realize that they are deeply ‘attached’ with their marionettes. I am completely dazzled by the magic of marionettes. Awesome!

I have got one more important tip for those who are going to see this marionette show. Sitting in the first row isn’t a good idea unless you want to get wet!

Theatre Entrance

Marionette Mozart

 Marionette Performance at National Marionette Theatre

Interior of Prague State Opera

Seating Plan of Prague State Opera

Opera is a popular performing arts in Prague which produced some distinguished composers like Dvorak and Smetana and also hosted the premiere of Mozart’s Don Giovanni.

Having a chance to visit this enchanting historical place, I decided to spend an evening to witness one of its spectecular opera productions, Mozart’s Così fan tutte, in a stunning opera house called Prague State Opera on April 1, 2008. Although the entire opera was perrformed in Italian with Czech captions, the music and performers conveyed the story amicably. The most amusing thing is that I sat inside one of the parterre boxes. The circled area (Box 14) is the place where I sat to see the opera.

You don’t have to worry that you can’t understand a single word sung in the opera.  The storyline is not of any utmost importance. We are there to enjoy the wonderful music.

The Czech Republie is the world capital of puppetry.  In Prague, you can see souvenir shops selling a wide variety of fabulous Czech marionettes which come in all sizes and styles.  

What is a marionette? It’s in fact a type of puppet with strings controlled by a puppeteer from above. For the Czech marionettes, they have a central rod and strings for the arms and legs. They are traditionally handcarved from lime wood or made from plaster.

To buy or not to buy? I picked up a good bargain from the Easter Market at the Old Town Square for just 300CZK! The cheapest marionette in Czech costumes that I could find from a marionette shop costs at least 350CZK.

Today is Easter Sunday. I am competely tired out after attending the Easter Vigil until 11:30pm yesterday. To greet me early in the morning was a blanket of SNOW! It is amazing to see snow in Cambridge at Easter!

View outside my window

King’s College

GOING TO A THEATRE is my favourite pastime in England. Sometimes I go on my own; sometimes I go with my friends. Perhaps I have spent over a HUNDRED pounds buying theatre tickets. 

Plays that I viewed:  

1. The History Boys (Cambridge Arts Theatre, October 31, 2007)
2. Enjoy (York Theatre, November 10, 2007)
3. The Selfish Giant (Cambridge ADC Theatre, December 8, 2007)
4. Julius Caesar (Cambridge ADC Theatre, January 19, 2008)
5. Hobson’s Choice (Cambridge Arts Theatre, February 2, 2008)
6. The Vagina Monologues (Queens’ College, Feburary 14, 2008)
7. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) (Cambridge ADC Theatre, February 22, 2008)

Musicals that I viewed:

1. The Sound of Music (November 1, 2007)
2. Chicago (December, 2007)
3. Wicked (December, 2007)
4. Buddy (February 27, 2008)
5. Kiss Me Kate (Great St. Mary’s Church, March 6, 2008)
6. Avenue Q (March 18, 2008)

I set off in quest of Indian cuisine last Sunday. 

On Sunday 2nd March 2008, I went to the India House on Newhnam Road with some Queens’ members after our trip to Oxford. After we were seated, the Indian waiter asked if  we would like to have something called poppadom. I did not have a clue what that was. I simply trusted my friends and had a go at having one poppadom as my starter.

Life is full of surprises. After a while, the waiter brought me my poppadom. It is a thin, crispy Indian lentil wafer. It just resembles a giant potato chip that you have to break it into pieces!  The poppadums are served with 4 different kinds of dips– chopped onions, green minty chutney, mango chutney and one spicy ‘unidentified’. For my first try, I spooned little bits of mango chutney onto my poppadom pieces. It’s mouth-watering! Of course, I tried all the dips except the spicy one!

When I settled down to the menu, I found myself completely clueless about Indian food. I decided to count on my friends to choose the right type of curry. As I prefer a very mild curry, they suggested having Kurma. Kurma is a style of Indian curry made with yogurt or coconut milk, often accompanied by chicken or lamb. I finally ordered Kurma chicken with boiled rice!

I continued my quest on Tuesday night.  I went to another Indian restaurant called Maharajah Indian Tandoori Restaurant on Castle Street after class with my MPhil classmates.

A guessing game began once I entered the restaurant. Approaching our table, the waiter asked, “may I get you something to drink?”

“Lassi,” my classmate replied. 

“Lassi, please.” another clasmate said to the waiter.

What is lassi? I could guess that lassi must be a kind of beverage. Lassi is in fact a frothy iced yogurt drink. It is either salty or sweet. One of my classmates even had two glasses of lassi – one before and another one after the meal. I guess I should try the sweet lassi (pineapple or mango lassi) next time!  

To whet our appetite, we had papadums (the term that this restaurant used for ‘poppadoms’). My classmate suggesed me having Korma as it is a mild curry. I ordered Korma chicken and a special type of naan bread (naan bread with almond and coconut) which the waiter claimed that it goes well with Korma.  

After my second ’expedition’,  I realize that ‘Kurma’ and ‘Korma’ are just the same style of curry and ‘Korma’ is sometimes spelt as ’Kurma’. Surprisingly, I had KORMA/KURMA chicken TWO times within THREE days!

Honestly speaking, I think ‘Korma’ chicken tastes better than ‘Kurma’ chicken. Maybe Korma/Kurma chicken will become my touchstone order in every Indian restaurant in Cambridge!! 

  Garlic naan bread from Sainsbury’s

Ever watched live ice hockey? Yes, I have.

Ever watched live ice hockey varsity match? NO, I  HAVEN’T.

Fancy watching the oldest hockey rivalry in the world? DEFINITELY.

The idea of witnessing the fierce ice hockey rivalry between Cambridge and Oxford sounds absolutely gorgeous.  At my friend’s invitation, I decided to attend the 2008 men’s Varsity Ice Hockey Match to support the Cambridge Team against Oxford.

As the varsity match took place at 5pm on Saturday 1 March in Oxford, we assembled at Queens’ College Backs at 1.30pm and then took a coach to go to the Oxford Ice Rink. Travelling on winding roads, I felt dizzy both on my way to and from Oxford.  Don’t ever ask me to travel to Oxford by coach!

We arrived at Oxford around 4:00pm. I had an hour of free time before the match began. I then came up with a wild idea. Perhaps I could give my friend who is currently studying at Oxford University a big surprise by giving him a call and telling him that I was in Oxford. 15 minutes later, I met him at the Westgate Centre. We had a cup of offee and even had a short walk around the picturesque city of Oxford. What an added-bonus of this trip! 

The grudge match was bloody exciting but pretty brutal. Unfortunately, Oxford scored a 8:2 victory. I hope Cambridge will beat Oxford in the next varsity match!

Learning a new word: ‘Face-off @ 5.00pm’ (written on the ticket)

Face-off:  a method of beginning play (as in hockey or lacrosse) in which two opponents face each other and attempt to gain control of a puck or ball dropped or placed between them 

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News about the 2008 Ice Hockey Varsity Match from Varsity:

Varsity Ice-Hockey Sunday evening saw Oxford win a convincing victory over the Cambridge Light Blues, at the 88th Ice Hockey Varsity match. However, it was not until the third period that Oxford’s domination was confirmed: the match in general was extremely entertaining and at times brutal. Cambridge fought well during what was to be an evenly matched first period, which ended 1-0 to Oxford. Later, a crippling series of penalties for both teams proved the depths of Oxford’s larger line up as the short Cambridge bench suffered from a lack of men. Cambridge hung on during the third period, but were finally outmanned after incurring two match penalties, and a concussion inflicted by the Oxford Captain, who was immediately ejected from the game for misconduct. Overall, Cambridge showed integrity in the face of a tough opposition, and played a game which was not reflected in the final score of 11-1 to Oxford. 
(Source: http://www.varsity.co.uk/sport/374/1/)

I heard the term ‘metrosexual’ twice within last week.

It was first mentioned by my MPhil classmates when I talked about some Hong Kong boys spending time finding the right skincare products for themselves. The second time the term appeared was in a dinner conversation with a Cantonese lecturer who is now teaching in London. He remarked that he felt so uneasy when he was served by a metrosexual salesman at an upmarket shop in Hong Kong.

When I looked up the word ‘metrosexual’ in the Web, I found another striking newly-invented term , i.e. fauxmosexual which means a fashion-conscious, heterosexual male.

Metrosexual: ‘a heterosexual male who has a strong aesthetic sense and inordinate interest in appearance and style, similar to that of homosexual males’.

 The Sound of Music

The Sound of Music was the first musical I watched in the year of 2007.  I should thank my ex-schoolmates for inviting me to go to this world’s best-loved musical on Saturday 1 November 2007 at the London Palladium. Surprisingly I found this musical enjoyable even though I had seen the film version for at least 3 times.

I am completely carried away by Connie Fisher because of her gorgeous voice. She was awarded the lead role Maria Von Trapp in the Sound of Music after she won the BBC talent show How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?  She successfully received standing ovations for her enchanting portrayal of Maria. She is absolutely destined for stardom!

Besides, I am also moved by an elegant old British lady sitting beside me.  She went to the musical with two old British ladies and a little boy. I supposed the little boy should be the grandson of one of the old ladies. They are from Newcastle. Most surprisingly, she treated me as her own granddaugther by sharing the Programme with me (a programme costs 3 pounds) and chatting with me during the intermission. After the curtain fell, I told her that it was my first visit to London and I really enjoyed the musical. Finally, I said goodbye to ‘my dear granny’. Hugging me tightly, she said in her gentle soothing voice , ‘goodbye, my love’. How lovely the lady from Newcastle!