Hanoi Life

A Day in the Country

Coises! Foiled again!!! Usually things go smoothly here in Hanoi.  The restaurants are never booked and all events have plenty of empty seats.  Only once in our entire time here have we ever been turned away from a restaurant.  Yesterday and today we experienced a disappointment as we were unable to secure tickets for the world famous Water Puppet Theatre.  Since that was a large part of our day's agenda, we had to think fast and change our plans.

Lea had a guidebook and a list of places she hoped to visit.  she and Ralph wanted Carol to have the opportunity to join them, especially to go somewhere Carol and I had not yet seen.  We decided that the lacquer village looked particularly interesting so we packed ourselves up, called for a taxi tơ(large size taxi) and set out with a map and high hopes.  We were so happy to find that our driver was Ms Nghia, with whom we have ridden many times before.  She looked at the map and decided that we knew where we were going and off we went.

We were only a little worried that Duyen Truong, which was featured prominently in the guidebook and which did appear on our map, was unknown to everyone in the hotel, from concierges to bellmen.  Ms Nhgia required only a bit of assistance from some mysterious person she called on her mobile to get us on the road out of town and towards this place where we would corner the market in lacquerware.  Ralph and Lea had seen much of this material in a new store in Boulder and they were hoping to find treasures for presents and to keep in their home. 

Before we arrived, our driver seemed very excited by something she saw on the side of the road. "Rát ngon" she kept exclaiming.  Ira knew this meant "very delicious" so we figured that a road food treat was about to be visited upon us.  It turned out to be banh day, a sort of squishy round rice pancake with a powdery filling.  It is only a little greasy and fortunately we opted for only two to share among the five occupants of the taxi.

The lacquer village turned out to be a bit difficult to find.  Nghia asked several times along the way and at one point we made so many U-turns that we thought there must be some sort of secret passage that would magically open up once we found the combination.

Finally, we were told to disembark from the vehicle and to proceed on foot.  While the way did not look promising, we had little choice and walked on the narrow dirt pathway into the village.  We were ushered into the courtyard of a small house where several young people of both genders were washing pots in an oily black liquid.  They greeted us warmly and kept on working as a young pregnant woman beckoned us inside where we mounted the stairway into not exactly a showroom, but more like a storeroom filled with a variety of lacquer objects.

We all found the situation hilarious as it appeared that this house was the sum total of the village and that the guidebook was inaccurate when it advises readers to "stroll through the village from shop to shop, seeing the unfinished pieces and then going into the many shops to purchse finished goods."  Like Rick in the classic film "Casablanca" it appears that we had been "misinformed."

Lea and Carol in particular could not stop laughing as they read and reread the passages about the little village and its charms.  Ira asked our driver and the girl from the shop over and over if we  were really in Duyen Trung.  They assured him that we were indeed.  After a lot of looking, touching and questioning, we finally made our selections.  The price, which should likely have been negotiable, turned out to be rather fixed.  Of course, since lea had already priced similar objects in Colorado and in central Hanoi, we were not overly distressed as the prices were more than reasonable.

When we left the shop, we were met by a young man, who directed us to another house, where two children were washing some lacquerware and where other items were for sale.  After Carol and Lea made a few more purchases, we were led to yet another more elegant house.  We were served very hot, musty tea and then shown into the shop where we found even more treasures.  There were many young workers all of whom were said to be family, some fierce dogs and a tiny kitten that was on a chain that would have held an elephant.  It of course turns out that we were truly in the lacquer village described in the guidebook, although to this day no one has ever heard of it.  Perhaps it is like "Brigadoon" and our purchases will soon evanesce.

Since we still had some time left, we had Nghia take us to Hadong, the silk village, which everybody knows about.  It is less "villagey" than Duyen Truong and more like a strip mall, but the merchandise is good and the prices reasonable.  Lea and Carol bought some items and Ralph looked longingly at some mandarin silk robes, but was unable to find the proper size so left empty-handed.

The evening's activity was dinner at Wild Lotus, arguably the most beautiful room in Hanoi.  This  restaurant is a must for visitors.  The food is not the best in the city and it is a bit pricey, but the decor and service are first rate.

We may be blogging more while Ralph and Lea are here as we will be doing more than we might on our own.  Further tales and adventures will follow soon.

Mr Ralph is Coming to Town!!!

Speaking of super nostalgia, blasts from the past and memory-jogging events, we were so happy to hear that Ira's oldest(certainly in terms of length of friendship) and dearest friend, Ralph Basch, and his wife, Lea were planning to visit us.

Ira and Ralph met at day camp some 53 years ago and hit it off right away even though Ira rooted for the Brooklyn Dodgers and Ralph for the New York Giants.  If you think we are making these teams up, feel free to google those baseball team names.

Ira remembers that while at his family's first home in Levittown he rode his bicycle over to Ralph's home on Crimson King Lane.  Ira's family moved soon after and he and Ralph lost touch.  A few months later while swimming in the public pool, Ira literally bumped into Ralph and the two were rarely seen apart thereafter.

They played together and went to school together, from Samuel Everitt Elementary to Neshaminy Junior High, the brand new Carl Sandburg Junior High, Neshaminy High School and Lehigh University.  They were occasionally a bit too enthusiastic in class causing a few teachers to revoke the class' seating privileges and enforcing an alphabetical seating chart.  Let's see, Barrows...Basch...How well did that work?

Ira and Ralph have never been out of touch though there have been times when they have not seen each other for periods of time.  Ralph lived in Philadelphia for a time and Ira and Carol remember a Halloween party where Ralph, unable to choose between two costumes, appeared as "The Devil Dressed as a Clown!"

Ralph and Lea currently live in Boulder, Colorado where Ralph owns the bookstore at Naropa University and Lea is a dietician at a hospital.  Their 24 year old son, Justin, works as a tour manager for rock bands.

Ralph and Lea arrived late Thursday night and on Friday Ira took them on a bit of an orientation walk through our local neighborhood.  It takes a while for newcomers to realize that the stream of traffic, including darting motorbikes, taxis with horns tooting, and huge SUV's, never lets up and that one must cross the street slowly and steadily to avoid getting clipped.

In addition to visiting us, our friends plan to have a few day trips and two longer ones, to Sapa and Halong Bay.  We visited Sapa last year, right after we moved to Hanoi.  It is in the hill country and there are members of ethnic minority tribes who are known for their handicrafts.  Halong Bay is a World Heritage Site which most visitors to Vietnam have on their "to do" lists.  Strangely, we have chưa  (not yet) been there, despite having visited Vietnam on four previous occasions, plus living here for over a year.  Ralph and Lea do their homework so they knew what they wanted to include in their tours and what price they thought they should pay.  This was helpful in booking because there is a maze of tour companies, large and small in HàNội through which the tourist must navigate.  Exotissimo is a big company with a desk in Sofitel Plaza, but they tend to have high prices for the same tours that the small companies can discount due to their low overhead.  We wound up at one of the many Sinh Cafes, take careful note of the "h" as its omission would denote a rather different type of establishment.  The proprietor, who calls himself David, and his wife Hoa helped them book the trips and customized them to their wishes.

Ira, Ralph and Lea had lunch at Tara, where they saw Mr. Hai, the owner, whom Ira and Carol have known for many years, dating back to his years as F & B Director at the Metropole.

The first night's dinner was at Cha Ca La Vong, perhaps the oldest restaurant in Hanoi.  It's good for people who have traveled as the portions are not huge and it is anything but formal.  They only serve one thing, pieces of fried fish in a skillet atop a very hot charcoal brazier to which you add dill and other condiments.  You then put it into your bowl with noodles, peanuts, sauce and chilis and that's the meal.

After dinner, we strolled around the Old Quarter and window shopped, breezed through a night market and taxied back to Sofitel Plaza.

Saturday we showed Ralph and Lea, who are Buddhist, one of the most notable Buddhist pagodas and the oldest in Hanoi.  Chùa Trung Quốc which means Chinese Pagoda is a very short walk from Sofitel and its location, jutting out into West Lake, makes it a peaceful weekend retreat for many Hanoian families

After an unbelievable dim sum lunch where we must have tried twenty different items, we went down to the Old Quarter where we walked, shopped(Carol bought a great organza thingie that she has long been thinking about.  We don't know what to call it but it goes over a gown at the opera or other festive occasion.)

We then spent a bit of time in the pool.  Lea actually went to the gym for a bit.  If standing in chest deep water is good exercise, we did very well! 

In the evening we walked over to Seasons of Hanoi for a light dinner.  It is fun to walk past Hồ Trúc Bạch at night.  Many small cafes and restaurants put out temporary chairs and tables so that their patrons can look out over the lake and watch the Swan Boats pedal by. 

Hanoi by day is a beautiful and interesting place and it is far from a dirty city, but at night it is magical.  Any blemishes are concealed by the darkness and the combination of sights, smells and sounds is unbelievable.  On the way home, we actually saw......STARS!!! Not Brad and Angelina but Orion the Hunter, just as we left him back in Pennsylvania.

APEC and Birthdays-New Things and More of the Same Old

The APEC(Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) CEO Summit has brought many world leaders and their(considerable) entourages to Hanoi.  Hu Jintao, John Howard, Bush the Younger and many others have come to do whatever it is they do at these conferences.  The newspapers are full of photos of various Vietnamese politicos shaking hands with the visiting dignitaries. 

Security is high, and we must wear a badge in order to get into the hotel.  There are metal detectors and x-ray screeners at all of the big hotels and there is a large contingent of police, some heavily armed and some with nightsticks.  However, the mood is upbeat and the officers readily chat with Ira in Vietnamese and greet him warmly on his many trips in and out of the hotel.

Carol spotted the Bush cavalcade from the window and made one of her rare mobile phone calls to Ira, who was returning from a luncheon.  Hô Trúc Bach is actually the site of John McCain's dive in an attempt to evade capture bach in the 1960's.  Of course the city was different then and it was not a heavily pouplated and developed area.

The local police are doing an unbelievable job of keeping traffic moving, stopping it only for the brief passage of motorcades.  The US authorities might learn something, as they tend to close roads for hours, needlessly backing up traffic.

Ira attended a luncheon on politics and trade where Tom Donahue, the CEO of the US Chamber of Commerce gave a spirited speech about the bright economic future of Vietnam and the failure of the US House of Representatives to pass the bill giving Vietnam PNTR or permanenent normal trade relations.

As happens every year at this time, Ira celebrated a birthday.  As it happense there were many events going on.  First, he was at a reception for APEC delegates and AmCham members.  This was quite an affair as many members of the business community were there.  He used the opportunity to learn and also to network as he is once again in the job market.  One of the people Ira met was Terry Anderson, known for being a hostage for seven years in Lebanon.  He loves the country nonetheless and rated Lebanon, PA, where Carol grew up, as no less frightening than the nation in the Middle East. 

After the reception, Ira walked over to the Press Club where Carol joined in a launch party for the Beaujolais Nouveau.  We sipped wine and conversed with many people, including some old friends, like Mr. Hai, owner of Tara Restaurant, whom we have known for about ten years, dating back to his tenure as F & B Director at the Metropole.

Then we walked across to Le Beaulieu, the French restaurant of record in Hanoi, where Chef Boris had created a wonderful set menu, including foie gras 5 ways!!  We then moved on to veal tenderloin, a cheese assortment and a rich chocolate cake.  To accompany it, we brought the last remaining bottle from Ira's once loaded wine cellar-1982 Chateau Mouton Rothschild.  It was every bit as good as its reputation, despite its being older than several of our servers.

Modernform is a good company and Ira would highly recommend them to fit out a building, but unfortunately the situation was not ideal for a number of reasons so the short association came to a mutually agreed upon end.

Ira does much of his shopping in the local area.  Phô Yên Phu is just outside the hotel, and the street includes fruitsellers and other vendors, most of whom know him by sight and speak to him in rapid Vietnamese.  The man who sells Cha Xiên, grilled skewers of succulent pork at only 2000vnd or about 13 cents each.

Walking is fun, although the high humidty and pollution make it less healthy than it might otherwise be.  The Fivimart is close by and offers a decent selection of whatever they carry, which is not everything.  Those of you used to Genuardi's, Acme and the like would not be too happy.

Our hotel is very striking with the recessed facade rising from the shores of Truc Bach Lake, and the neighborhood is quite photogenic.  Unfortunately, the lake, while pretty to look at or to pedal on in a swan boat, is quite polluted and, unless you find yourself in a situation like that of Senator McCain, we would not advise taking a dip.

While we have not been an integral part of the APEC Summit, we have enjoyed the flurry of activity and the influx of people.  We are also quite pleased and surprised at the way it has not caused nearly the traffic and other problems that we anticipated.  One bonus is that, since the hotel is not permitting outside people to come in, the Fitness Centre is our private club.  That will end in a day or so and it will be back to "normal."

The Ralph Countdown is on and he will arrive in about 5 days, 10 hours and 15 minutes more or less. 

Ready for APEC

This week the APEC(Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) Summit will be here in Hanoi.  the infrastructure might not yet be quite ready to support thousands of guests.  The roads will be subject to intermittent closures to accommodate motorcades to and from the new Convention Center and many schools will be closed, though UNIS is soldiering on, despite the fact that the main route to the school is one of the big problem roads.

We have special tags to facilitate our getting into the Sofitel, which we understand will have security gates, metal detectors and other toys.

Last week was rather quiet although Carol's report cards are due soon and she has to follow a protocol with individualized comments that have to be put into a computer program and then erased.  No actually, they are supposed to be saved and hopefully will be, but the touch of an incorrect key can send them off into space.  "Young Mary is able to participate in/is able to do/does/does well, etc" Basically the comments are meant to be vague as all children are created equal, regardless of musical ability or demeanor.

Ira's birthday is coming up and the plan is to have a special dinner at Le Beaulieu in the Hotel Metropole subject to Chef Boris' ability to get it done, given his responsibilities during APEC, like dinners for 800 guests, lunches for 1000 and probably having to provide pork rinds and the like for a certain Texan who is known not to favor French cuisine.  That same night, Ira is invited to a reception for APEC delegates and other dignitaries at Bobby Chinn Restaurant and there is also a launch for Beaujolais Nouveau which we may be able to hit briefly before dinner.  Why are all events on the same night? 

The other night we ate in the hotel restaurant and some staff informed us that Chef Sebastian, who just came here in June, was gone.  Of course, there is always the danger of misunderstanding when the conversations are in Vietnamese.  Later checking showed this to be the fact.  He is now in Mauritius serving roast dodo or some such delicacies.  The truth will probably never be known, but Ron, the head of F & B, has his hands full this week without a head chef!

We often stop before dinner at the Met Pub, the less fancy venue in the Metropole.  They know us there and we see the same people all the time, like Douglas, the Scottish economist, who seems to have his own personal bar stool and Cu'o'ng, a thirty something fellow we met at the gym.  He owns his own car, belongs to the gym, drinks at a five star hotel and vacations in Spain.  You do the math!  He speaks excellent English so Carol was able to have a nice chat with him, while Ira was telling some Aussie tourists where they could get a light meal nearby.

We both get our hair cut at the salon in the hotel.  It is quite expensive by Hanoi standards, but still less than you pay in the great metropolis of Newtown, PA.  Lan is a very good stylist and makes us look pretty good. 

Carol got the full treatment at her last visit-simultaneous manicure, pedicure and color.  One thing that is exactly the same as in the US is that, you can give the stylist all the direction and instruction you want, and he does exactly what he wants!!

We love the apartment staff, who are all very helpful.  Ms Hoai left for four months to have a baby. First reports were that the young boy was 4.5kg, but when Ira mentioned this to someone, he was told Khong(NO)3kg was correct.  Here's Ms Hien, one of the staff so you can put a face with a name next time.

Last night we had dinner at Green Tangerine, an upscale French restaurant located in a renovated villa in the Old Quarter.  The food is innovative and quite tasty, though pricey and with smallish portions.  It's less by far than you'd pay in the West, but we still don't exactly frequent it.  Afterwards we went to "shoe street" where Carol played Cinderella, actually stepsister, as she tried to squeeze her foot into a variety of tiny shoes.  There was a night market which we browsed as well and where we met Ms Thu, a waitress at Tara, who recognized us and came running over.  She looks very different in street clothes.

For now, we will attend a concert Saturday night at the Opera House then relax on Sunday.  Happy Birthday to Carol's brother, Tom(red shirt) on the 12th.  He will be over 30, actually well over.

After APEC, we will go about our business and figure out where to eat a turkey on Thanksgiving and also prepare for the arrival of Ralph and Lea Basch.  Ralph has been Ira's closest friend since they met fifty some years ago at day camp.  They went through elementary school, junior high, high school and college together and have remained close though separated by many miles.  In school, when they were acting up, the teacher would force the class to sit in alphabetical order, never realizing that Bar and Bas were sort of close.  We look forward to a great visit and will of course blog with many pictures.  That's all we have so chao for now.

Not Gloating, Just Sayin'

So the election is over, or at least the voting is.  If the results hold, President Bush(see how I give him the respectful title) will no longer be able to appoint any Scalias or Thomases, doubting or otherwise to the high court.  Since John Paul Stevens is well into his eighties, This is even better news than just plain good.

Why am I not gloating like so many Republicans did when they won by one vote and called it "macaroni" or "mandate?"  Two reasons, well maybe three.  One, I like to think I'm above gloating.  Two, in truth it was hardly a landslide, merely a peculiar concatenation of circumstances where the Democrats basically won EVERY state that they could and some by small margins.  Three, and perhaps most important, we should not laugh at but should rather thank Republican voters since without their votes, the Democrats would not have won.  Plain and simple, people were fed up with the arrogance, the disregard for human rights and human values and the catering to the super-rich!  Vox populi, vox dei.

On a lighter note, we are preparing for APEC and the arrival of everyone who is anyone including President Bush in Hanoi, though we will not see them as we will be under basic house arrest for the week, including, perhaps Ira's birthday.

More later.  Be well and prosper!

Ira and Carol

A View From Hanoi

Carol and I are watching the upcoming mid-term elections with more than a passing interest.  Here in Vietnam, people rarely talk of things political but they are nearly unanimous in their antipathy for George II who will actually be snarling our traffic here next week.

It will be nice for a change to watch the results unfold at a civilized hour!  with the 12 hour difference "late" results will come in  the mid to late afternoon.

Polls are tricky but they seem to indicate that people are finally fed up with the high handed self-serving regime that has diminished the US for the past six years.  Bob Herbert's column in today's New York Times points up the fact that Bush didn't really win in 2000 and his victory in 2004 was more than a bit suspect.

Of course, my take is that had he not been able to steal in 2000, 2004 could never have happened.

We voted about six weeks ago so for now we can but sit and watch and hope.  Your vote counts!!!   More blogging soon

Progress and Everyday Life

Here in Hanoi, we have noted the changes, both large and small, that have come since our first visit way back in 1994.   Our trips were well spaced: 1998; 2000; 2003 and then the move in August of 2005 so that each time we could experience incremental changes.

On the first visit, the city seemed old and a bit backwards, with only one hotel with Western amenities, few free standing restaurants, ignorant taxi drivers and more bicycles than any other vehicle.

On the ensuing trips, we saw hotels like Daewoo, our own Sofitel Plaza and eventually American hotels like the Hilton and the Sheraton, come to Hanoi, while many restaurants sprang up, offering not only Vietnamese but Western cuisines, including pizza!   

You can still sit on the tiny low plastic stools but little by little those establishments are dying out as our the Mom and Pop stores with their tiny inventories of whatever they happen to have.  Greater employment, especially for women, has made it more difficult to go to the market every day and more and more Vietnamese shop at the supermarkets.

When we were living in the United States, of course there were times when our supermarkets were out of a certain item or brand, but here in Hanoi, that is more the norm than the exception.  It is rare that one stop will yield everything that we need.

Ira often does the shopping before going to work.  He can walk in five minutes to the Cho Yen Phu(Yen Phu Street Market) for produce, or about the same (unfortunately in the opposite direction) to the Fivimart for packaged items, or he can take the bus up to Veggie's, an upscale shop mainly geared to expats, for good but expensive vegetables, meats, fish, cheese and even a decent bagel.

We have something new on our block, something that scarecely existed a few years ago:  a traffic light!  Hanoi traffic is rather haphazard with no marked lanes and with the large variety of vehicles: buses, trucks, cars, motorbikes, together with bicycles and cyclos all vying for the precious bits of pavement at the same time and from every conceivable angle.  At first the traffic lights seemed just to provide decor and a bit of color, but now most people actually stop on red and go on green, after first honking their horns of course!  There are actually a number of roads that are one way, but only for cars, so you may still meet a horde of oncoming motorbikes.  The street on which Ira's office is located is one of these, making the trip 5 minutes(17000VND) coming and about 20(42000VND) going.  As the weather gets cooler, walking is an option as would be riding on or even driving a motorbike.  Of course that has its own set of consequences so it hasn't happened yet.

Carol had UN Day at her school on Friday.  The students who come from 47 different countries dress up in their national costumes and have a parade of flags.  There was a speech by the UN's Representative to Vietnam, followed by an international lunch and then the playing of a variety of games.  This is always a special day. Fortunately they did not sing the hackneyed "It's A Small World, After All"

Ira's job is going pretty well.  His colleagues are all young and enthusiastic. Modernform does design and fitting out of buildings, from offices to restaurants and other commercial sites.  The four designers work with sophisticated computer programs showing every desk and partition in living color.  So far, he has mainly begun the upgrading of English, both verbal and written. He has a rather haphazard schedule, with Office Manager, Ms Giang(pronounced Zang) telling him to meet someone in the conference room in twenty minutes and teach for an hour.  Some are pretty accomplished already while some are beginners.  We shall see in a couple of months how well it goes.

The Vietnamese people, or at least the Hanoians, are quite friendly and hospitable and everywhere Ira has worked, which is quite a few places, the staff have always invited him to lunch and chatted with him at every opportunity.  This week, the whole group went to eat bun dau, an acquired taste to be sure!  Bun cha, much easier on the Western palate, is bun(white soft noodles)with grilled chopped meat, served with a variety of leafy things and some sauce, all of which you mix together in a small bowl.  Chilies and minced garlic are also available.  Bun dau on the other hand has noodles but also chunks of fried tofu, the ever present leaves and a sauce concocted from nuoc mam, the fermented fish sauce that we are used to having and which is reasonably easy to keep down and mam tom or shrimp paste that is a bit gaggy and which almost knocked Ira off of his one foot high plastic stool.  Fortunately fried spring rolls came next as did iced tea.  A few days later Ms Le, with whom Ira shares a desk and computer asked if he wanted to have lunch and if he preferred bun dau or bun cha.  The response did not take too long.  You can enjoy(!) either of these delicacies for something under one US dollar.

Weekends are a mixed bag, depending upon what cultural or other events may be scheduled.  Usually we enjoy some pool time, often a massage and occasionally have a gym workout.  This weekend in honor of someone or other's birthday,  Hint: he would have been 250 years old had he lived this long. the Hanoi Cinematheque was showing "Amadeus" that somewhat inaccurate biopic which was made way back in 1984.  We had forgotten how long ago we had seen it, but we knew that our opera knowledge was not so great at the time so it must have been a long time ago.  After the film, we walked over to Mannekin Pis, a cafe with a replica of the famous statue from Brussels and with a variety of Belgian beer.  In the evening we completed a Mozartean day by attending a chamber concert.  This was the last in a series done by the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra with Japanese Guest Conductor Tetsuna Honna.  The concert venue was L'Espace, a French cultural center that has a small modern hall perfect for small groups.

Baseball used to be a big part of our lives with Ira growing up loving the Brooklyn and later LA Dodgers and listening to games at all hours of the night.  Later we had season tickets to the Philles and often showed up in our Dodger hats.  We also visited many major(and minor) league stadiums on our many driving trips, often planning the route to catch games in different places.  We usually rooted for the home team, unless the Dodgers were visiting.  Ira got a bit interested again this year and "watched" some games on the computer, hooking up to the radio feeds as well.  We did watch many playoff games and then the World Series which came on conveniently at 7 am Hanoi time.  As National League fans, we were happy to see the Cards win, though it was great to see the Tigers in the series only three years after setting a record for losses.

Back in the mid 1950's Ira was watching a basketball game on TV between his mother's old hometown team, the Rochester(NY) Royals adn the Boston Celtics.  To make it interesting, or perhaps because of a stubborn streak, Ira rooted for the other team and became a lifelong Celtics fan through the great years of many championships and now through the much leaner times.  We traveled to many cities to watch them play and caught several games at the historic(that means dirty and rundown) Boston Garden.  When Ira was young Red Auerbach was the coach and later the GM.  Once in Washington, we met him at a game and he laughed at our talisman, a Phillie Phanatic doll who liked to dress in a Larry Bird uniform a friend had knitted for him.  It reminds you that you too are aging when you hear of the death of people you know or people you grew up watching.  When we saw online that Red had passed away, it triggered a raft of memories.

We finished our Mozart weekend by seeing two films of operas:  "The Magic Flute" and "Don Giovanni."  The "Flute" was in Swedish and directed by Ingmar Bergman.  It was kind of way out and included shots of the audience.  Carol was not thrilled by the film, though she did like some of the singing. It was more of a film about an opera than a film of an opera.  The "Don Giovanni" was more conventional though it was shot at locations rather than onstage and there was no audience.  It was a dream cast, including the incomparable Kiri Te Kanawa and quite an enjoyable end to the Mozart birthday celebrations that filled the world this year.  Now when ours come up in 2195 and 96 we would like.......