Ruth Elleson

Ad for a new branch of The Gym Group, on a bus shelter immediately opposite a branch of PureGym

Intriguing placement of an ad by PureGym’s closest market competitor. On investigation, it turns out the new Gym Group branch is a full 15min walk away, and therefore almost certainly of limited interest to customers of this PureGym Local which is tiny but right by my flat.

I can’t get over how Barbie succeeded because it offered tangible ways for women and girls to celebrate each other (and dress up and go to the movies together) but studios thought it worked because it’s about toys so now they’re making like Bananagrams the movie

Other branches can be found off Trafalgar Square behind the Coliseum (the original), in Soho, and in Borough Yards near London Bridge.

My only regret is that I didn’t know it was there in time for it to be on my way to Holland Park over the summer (it opened in May)…

Burrata and squash starter at Bancone Kensington

Bancone’s signature pasta dish: silk handkerchieves with walnut butter and confit egg yolk

When looking for somewhere for a pre-concert meal near High Street Kensington station yesterday, I was so happy to find the delectable Bancone has found its way to that part of town (its fourth location). Not pictured, my companion’s fior di latte gelato with olive oil 😍

Christmas-light angels on Lower Regent Street, from the top deck of a bus.

With an hour to kill in town as night falls, I’m on a number 9 bus all the way from Aldwych to Kensington High Street. In the prime sightseeing spot on the top deck, admiring the Christmas lights, while wondering who in their right mind is willingly participating in the throng of humanity below.

Brummies say “mom”.

🤣 When I was in my late teens my dad bought a classic raincoat and I told him it made him look like a flasher. He told me that he’d do his best thereafter to lurk suspiciously in it when picking me up from university 🙄

Though my friends Jamie and David - identical cadence either way - are NEVER David and Jamie 🤣

You’ve always been K&S to me, even though I knew him first!

I hope to catch it in February.

If I was REALLY greedy I’d wish for two goes at Britten’s Hymn to the Virgin for the same purpose (but that’s only scheduled for the service in which I’m on 2nd!)

I’ve received the music lists for my next 2 Sunday afternoons of Nine Lessons and Carols services, and it pleases me greatly that both (with different choirs) contain the Pearsall In dulci jubilo - in which I am the Choir 1 alto solo in the first, and the Choir 2 alto solo in the second 😊

I know many couples are referred to by practically everyone who knows them with the names in a specific order (whether that’s him first, her first, or in the case of a non-hetero couple, some order that’s somehow come about by unspoken agreement) but coming from a parent it feels very odd!

Christmas newsletter from aunt and uncle was mercifully short and sweet - just one page! - but one thing struck me as very old-fashioned: when referring to their married daughter and her husband, they talk about “[his name] and [her name]” putting their own offspring secondary to her husband 🤔

What I really need: a free weekend and plenty of sleep.

What I’m getting between Friday evening and Sunday evening:

- Opera Rara’s La rondine (can’t wait)
- Dress rehearsal of Ariodante (RBO)
- Opera Holland Park Christmas Concert
- Two carol services

Hate having to do this away from my carefully-organised home workstation. HATE it. But I am in the office by necessity…

19 years I’ve lived locally, and this is the fullest understanding I’ve ever had of what this is about! I knew it was for the Anthony Nolan Trust.

All I want for Christmas is for the worst people in the world to experience some consequences

Agreed. You have to make sure you are directing your justifiable anger toward the perpetrators.

Being angry at the Womens Institute or Girl Guides is like being mad at someone for being taken hostage and complying with the guy with the gun.

I get that having a high income is not the same thing as having wealth…

…but still, explicitly, no.

Still runs from Christmas Eve to Epiphany for me! However, I’ve been singing at corporate (etc) carol gigs since 17th November!

I feel like it’s mostly about early opera seria though, and bel canto (if you tweak the bit about the countertenor). The lesser ones are like parodies of the good ones.

Other genuine BF/CM bargain: a week-long freebie at a gym I tried earlier this year, which at worst will lose me £0, and at best will give me about £150 worth of resources which I would otherwise have paid for elsewhere (being on a PT/health kick at the moment).

Genuine Black Friday/Cyber Monday bargain just now!

- item I need and was going to buy anyway
- had researched the specific model a few weeks ago and planned to spend £55 on it
- went to look at it again today and found it with 30% off, hence £38.50

Sold!

The real question is not "Why is Bluesky so left-coded," the real question is "Why can't the right exist in a social media environment without algorithmic assistance, where people can ignore them"

Saint Mundita is the patron saint of spinsters!

How I Met Puccini Series: Turandot Non Esiste - Blackheath Halls

This looks interesting! Sadly (if predictably) I am singing in a carol service and can’t go…

Great culture can save lives. Literally.

Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard

In related news, I have one particular acquaintance who - not for the first time - has posted on Facebook about what a terrible cold he has, on the same day as having coincided with me at a crowded event full of singers.