Lost: One Silver Wedding Band

I was going over the Edit Posts of my Blogger Account and came across this little item I had forgotten to post back in early November. So much was happening around that time it got lost in the shuffle but I decided to update it and post it now, if for nothing else the name of the Saint being commemorated on that day. Sort of a New Year's clean up project.

Back in 1990 when Laurent was living in Cairo we made one of our many trips down to the Khan Kalili Market. There was one shop we went to often - owned by the sister of my sister-in-law's boyfriend - sometimes just to chat and drink tea and occasionally to buy. She had beautiful objects and jewelery. At that point we had been together for 12 years and decided that it was time we wore some type of sign of that commitment.

Laurent choose a simple six strand gold puzzle ring and because I have a problem wearing gold I choose a three strand silver one. We left them to be sized and polished. A week later we went back with our friends Jean Paul and Diane to pick them up. Afterwards we went out to lunch at the Mena House Oberoi near Giza and I remember Diane asking why mine wasn't gold.

Funny how I remember that but on Saturday I couldn't remember where I had put my ring. It has been missing now for over five days. I only take the ring off when I do dishes or when I go to bed at night. I have a nightly ritual - first the watch, then the ring, then the glasses and they all go on the bedside table. Saturday morning my glasses were on the bedside table, the watch was on the dresser but the ring was nowhere in sight. After a full week at work I was exhausted and had obviously broken my routine. It can't have slipped off as I noticed just the other day that it only came off with difficulty. A search of the house, the office, even a check at the restaurant we went to on Friday night has turned up nothing.

Rather than buy new rings when we were married back in 2007 we decided just to have our old ones cleaned up. We had wore them all that time and they meant more than anything new would have.

I'm heart-sick about it - I've worn that ring for 18 years and without it my finger feels empty. Laurent has been very understanding but I know he's as upset as I am. He suggested the other day that maybe it was time for a new ring but like a baby I pouted that I'd didn't want a ring I wanted my ring.

12 novembre - San Giosafat Kuncewycz

I'm happy to say I found the ring a day or two later. It was amongst some t-shirts that had been on the dresser and that I, in an uncharacteristic moment of tidiness, had put in their drawer. There was much rejoicing on Via dei Villini that morning and I've now learned not to put clothes away.

And the gentleman in the picture would be Laurent and I with our best friends Rick and John at Philae the Horus temple on Edfu on our Nile cruise that year.

04 gennaio - Sant'Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton

A Dancing Master - Maurice Béjart - 1927-2007

This is a revised posting of the item I put up late last night on first hearing of the death of Maurice Béjart. I was able to do a bit of research for clarification.
It was May 1990 and we were living in Cairo. Maurice Béjart had recently converted to Islam and to honour his new faith had created a ballet Pyramide - el Nour with Béjart himself dancing and including a segment using the music of Umm (Ohm) Khulthum the great Egyptian chanteuse. The premiere took place in the new Cairo Opera House on Zamalach Island, a stones throw from where we lived. The new work was totally overshadowed by the performance of what had been the Ballet de XXieme Siecle's signature piece Ravel's Bolero and was now in the repetory of his Béjart Ballet Lausanne. It was advertised as the last performance that Béjart's company would give of this 20th century masterpiece of dance* and in deference to Egyptian sensibilities was the male version.

All I remember of Pyramide was a dancer in green - the colour of the Prophet - but to this day I still recall the incredible building of tension as Béjart's dancers moved to Ravel's supreme exercise in orchestration. I couldn't find one clip of the entire 15 minute opus so there is a break in what should be a steady, pounding beat of dance but it remains a great piece of choreography.

Bolero - Music: Maurice Ravel Choreography: Maurice Béjart Dancers: Elizabeth Ros and Ottavio Stanley

Part I

Part II


*I wonder now how true that was, if it was the case it appears that Béjart choreography for Bolero continued to be performed by other dance companies.

Revised posting: 23 novembre - San Clemente Papa
Originally posted: 22 novembre - Santa Cecilia