A good short week!

Day 2 and Day 3 of easy driving conditions on the way to school and easy parking etcetera, etcetera.

The mornings have been taken up with extended meetings about our participation in the mock United Nations to be held in Lisbon.

Although it is a good idea the whole process is being foisted on us and there will not be sufficient time for the process of preparing the students to be completed properly.

I don’t know if it is truly depressing or vaguely funny to find out that the attitude of innovation in education is the same the world over: an idea forced through with inadequate thought about the consequences and the practicalities.

 

We, however, will make the thing work – as usual.  This of course justifies the attitude of management and encourages them to continue in the age-old way of setting unrealistic targets and being unsurprised when they are met.  C’est la vie!

I could get used to a form of teaching that is spread over Tuesday to Thursday, is only half a day at a time and doesn’t involve any students!  Alas, Monday will arrive all too soon and we will be back to the old routine!

As is usual at Easter we have now had the threats of strike action in the airports.  These threats are as traditional as bullfighting and just as odious.  I hope that their action will not adversely affect the flight that I have planned to Gran Canaria.

 

My book on Mozart has finally arrived: “The Compleat (sic.)  Mozart” edited by Neal Zaslaw with William Cowdery.  This does appear to do what it says on the box, and all the works of Mozart are listed with their K numbers.  But the K numbers are not quite as simple as I thought that they were.  My simple idea was to look through the book and read in a sort of desultory fashion and then, when something took my fancy I could find it with commensurate ease by merely putting the K number into i-tunes and then listening to the music.

Fond hope.

To test this system I used the book to find the K number for the irritatingly competent music that Mozart wrote when he was an eight year-old child visiting London and living in Chelsea.  I found the music eventually - and not from the General Index – in the unfashionable end of Solo Keyboard Music section, listed as,  15a-ss 44 Untitled Pieces, “London (Chelsea) Notebook,” ( Anh 109b).  Simple indeed!

 

The version I have is played on piano, which my book describes as “unimpressive on the modern piano, but present an entirely normal texture for mid-eighteenth-century harpsichord music.”  Now that is the sort of casual comment one would like to throw into a conversation!

The book goes on to say that some of the pieces “contain intervals not playable on the keyboard, suggesting that the little boy obviously heard this music in his mind as orchestral music.”  In a previous age, when I used to listen to music on LPs I got to know this music in an augmented version which, as I recall boasted that it was a “first” recording of the fabricated “orchestral” version.  I will have to look out for the transfer to CD or a more recent recording.

I managed to get out of school at a reasonable time today and we went, as we have gone throughout the week, to lunch in Castelldefels.  We tried to go to a small bar where we have had reasonable food in the past, but they only served tapas and no menu del dia.  We decided to branch out and visit a restaurant which has not been into before: Els Torres, Pintor Serrasanta, 15 in Castelldefels.

While Toni was reading the menu outside, I had already gone in and asked for a table.  Where, I asked myself, is the menu del dia which has failed to appeal to me!

When I finally got to look at the menu the only discordant element was the fact that the drinks included in the menu were a glass or beer, a soft drink or a glass (!) of wine.  IN this part of the world only to provide a glass of wine seems stingy.  And indeed, in the event, a newly opened bottle of red wine was placed on the table.  That’s what I call civilization!

I ordered, as is traditional on a Thursday, a paella – this one having ceps (mushrooms) as the key ingredient.  Toni ordered the Spanish version of Russian Salad which comes without beetroot.

As they cooked my paella from fresh there was a delay which was filled with two tapas one of which, patatas aioli was in marked contrast with the anaemic dish of the same name that we were served with in Sitges last weekend.

Toni’s Russian Salad, which came first, was delicious and the best that I have tasted in Spain, it was the sort of dish that sets a mark for the others to reach!

My paella looked and tasted much more like a risotto and was a tad salty for my taste, but it was delicious and the subtle flavours grew in intensity as the meal progressed.  A superb first course.

We had the same for the second course: butifarra de Lleida which was served with chips and pimentos de padron – another excellent course.

My sweet was turron ice cream which was better than the last one that I had and showed quality.

Els Torres, based on the meal we had today, is a restaurant I recommend without qualification.  The only negative point that I could make is that the lighting inside the restaurant is subdued so subdued that we actually thought the place was closed!  The service was friendly and efficient and the cost was €12.50 per person.  Excellent value.

I have now got into the swing of “The Ascent of Money” by Niall Ferguson and am thoroughly enjoying it and the book should be finished during this extended weekend.

Joy!