It’s been a mad few weeks. However, I’ll be arriving in Italy on Wednesday and am endevouring to begin blogging again when I get there. This is going to be an exciting summer and I think, like in Prague, I will probably benefit from the wonderful support of blogging and other bloggers.

In brief - Don Pasquale was a roaring success, I got a first class honours in my degree, and things between M and myself are all gooooood!

Talk to you soon - love Despina xx 

Thank you to everyone who made it so special by being there, particularly S, E, and Auntie P and Uncle P, and anyone else reading this who was there.

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1. It has to be Sam West. I have met this man countless times and have never managed not to say something stupid. I think everything about him is simply breathtaking. Especially his hair. He is also the best Hamlet I’ve ever seen, and his voice is luscious.

2. Now this man’s writing is pure poetry, and he knows just how to deliver a song. Ooh delicious, M Vincent Delerm.

3. Adrian Lester won my heart in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Stratford years ago, and I loved him in Hustle too. His performance as Bobby in Sondheim’s Company is just wonderfully sung.

4. Now I know he’s old enough to be my grandfather, but his work makes him immortal in my eyes. Placido Domingo is one incredible man. I am currently just one handshake away from him.

5. In the Bertie Wooster days with the curly hair and the fantastic suits, Mr Hugh Laurie really really does it for me! And now he remains just lovely…

6. Jude Law as Bosie. Just as Bosie.

7. This man’s sexiness just cannot be understated. The way he understood the female mind and the female body is evident in his writing for the voice. Mozart, ti amo.

8. I don’t think there is nothing wrong with liking a fawn. It was as Mr Tumnus that I first noticed Mr James McAvoy. (He looks distressingly like the concert pianist ex whilst he is dressed as a fawn, to the extent that my friends were phoning me and asking if I had seen the movie!)

9. Maxim Vengerov is an incredibly gifted musician, an enigmatic performer, and an altruistic, hard-working, beautiful person. And gorgeous!

10. Further to comments by John, I’ve decided on number ten. Johnny Depp really does scale the dizzy heights of beauty, even as the Demon Barber!

S, I love you forever and ever until I die for formatting my project for me.

It’s an absolute pile of wank.

But at least it’s finished.

Jubilations all around!  

• 6,000 words due in for Friday

• 2,000 words done

• (54 days left until I go to Italy!)

• 37 hours left until hand-in

• 25 litres of coffee drunk

• (Two fantastic opera rehearsals - ssshh!)

• One exam left

• One tired Despina

• One Thursday spent tied to computer chair

• No blogging or msn-ing.

A friend and I broke into a church today. Or rather, they hadn’t changed the code for the sacristy door since he used to go there. We entered furtively, and slipped unnoticed into a secluded room, where we closed the door, hurriedly moved some furniture, ripped off our coats and proceeded to make a lot of noise… He had just happened to have a copy of Schumann Frauenlieben und Leben in his bag, the church just happened to have a piano, and I just needed to sing. What did you think I meant?

I’ll see you on the other side.

Pray for me!