Author: nealpp

  • La Clemenza di Tito – Opera North

    La Clemenza di Tito – Opera North

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    nealpp
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    A week of four operas came to a close last night with Mozart’s final opera La Clemenza di Tito. This is a a delve into the Roman world, which gladly had received an update in setting from people wandering around in togas! I had read a number of reviews of this work before we went,…

  • Pixel Pumper – OSX WordPress editor

    Pixel Pumper – OSX WordPress editor

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    nealpp
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    Rather a bizarre name for an app, but this certainly caught my interest. All the web sites I’m involved with use WordPress as their base. On the Mac I normally use MarsEdit which has been around for years. As I have previously blogged, finding a decent blog editor for the Mac was a nightmare after using…

  • Brodsworth Hall

    Brodsworth Hall

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    nealpp
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    Lovely trip to Brodsworth Hall (English Heritage) this morning. With the spring sunshine fighting with the aftermath of a freezing night, the scenery was so peaceful (apart from the birds singing!!) it was a very relaxing wander. The hall is shut at the moment until the end of March, but the gardens are quite large,…

  • Spring at Harewood

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    nealpp
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    A little half term trip up to Harewood House. We had a nice wander around the lake, which was so peaceful and when the sun came out was really spring-like. After a drink and a scone we walked around the refurbished bird garden. The highlights were the Burrowing Owls and Snowy Owls which are new…

  • La Voix Humaine/Dido and Aeneas – Opera North

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    nealpp
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    A Sunday afternoon treat today with a double-bill of operas. Both of these I’d never listened to or seen so they were a bit of a mystery.  La Voix Humaine by Poulenc was first performed in 1959 and is a 40 minute ‘tragedy lyrique’ for a single voice. Lesley Garrett returned to Opera North, a…

  • Verdi: Otello – Opera North

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    nealpp
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    After a pretty long break since the autumn, we had the first of four operas in a week last Wednesday; a new production of Verdi’s Otello. Based on Shakepeare’s play (not unusual for Verdi) it was set in a naval base in the 40s-50s. The set really worked! To summarise the plot, taken from the…

  • New week motivation

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    nealpp
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    Love this! Nice bit of motivation for any turmoil this week!! – Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

  • Elite’s Cobra Mk III

    Elite’s Cobra Mk III

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    nealpp
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    The well documented Kickstarter success of Elite: Dangerous is great news. Even greater this evening was a cracking little video (narrated by a very excited sounding David Braben!) showing the original Cobra Mk III ship which everybody had in the original Elite, but now updated. There will be many ships players can have in Elite:…

  • Ubuntu Wireless Issues

    Ubuntu Wireless Issues

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    nealpp
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    This afternoon I was wanting to reinstall Ubuntu 12.10 onto my little old netbook. I’ve done this loads of times without issue, I always connect to a wired network to ensure all the updates and odd drivers (like the wireless) get installed OK. However on removing the network cable after install wireless wasn’t working. I…

  • Soggy Nostell Walk!!

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    nealpp
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    Like our little trip to Fountain’s the other week, the weather didn’t stop us from having another little trip out. This time we went over to Nostell Priory near us. It wasn’t particularly busy, and the rain was very horizontal as we walked up to the obelisk. We managed to have a nice drink and…