Night at the ballet...or what happened to the new GPS?

Sometimes Garry should listen to me, but he thinks he knows more... and is less worried than me, more trusting, the kind of person who never fills the gas tank until the light is on, the needle is below E..... really he is not just a glass half full kind of guy, but a what do you mean, that glass is full! when I say it's half empty. Normally this is fine and all works out but, we'll get to that later...

We decided to go to the ballet with Maria, Garry's translator for the trade school/Russian teacher, and got tickets for Romeo and Juliet, well, really Tanya bought them for us (and refused to let Garry pay her for them) Saturday Mas... Maria (we keep forgetting to call her by her preferred name after calling her Masha for years) came to the village on the one o'clock marshutka bus (it is at least 1:20 when it arrives, though, the morning one she takes on Thursdays is faster and always here for 9 am) and worked with Max B on his lessons until 3, when he and Garry hurried to feed the cows because Garry had decided to take Max along to the ballet. I asked if he'd be able to get him a ticket, and where would it be because our seats were in row six. Garry was sure it would all work out.

We all got dressed, and left about 4:30, the ballet would start at 6 pm, and Garry needed to stand in line to buy a ticket for Max. He parked on the side street (4 lanes and tram track, it's a big one) near the Opera/Ballet Theatre and locked the doors before hurrying away. I asked if he wanted to move the new GPS off the front window and put it away in the glove box, but he said no, a few days before he had complained when I had taken it off because it was hard to clip back in the holder and would get broken.

Maria and her lovely vintage purse

Anyway, it was a pretty nice night for November, but Garry said Maria and I should go inside with our tickets, while he went through the other door to the box office to buy Max a ticket while he waited outside. We checked Maria's coat, and stood around waiting for Garry and Max (he had the camera, so I couldn't even take a photo of her in her dress with the black velvet embroidered purse her grandmother (who is 92) had taken to the Bolshoi ballet- either in Moscow or St. Petersburg, Masha can't remember which. It was Masha's first time at the ballet. She went to a concert at the one in Zaporosia and says the building there is more beautiful inside. This production was by the Dneproetroesk Ballet.

Garry and Max came in about 10 minutes before the start and we found our seats. Garry had told the lady selling tickets he wanted the best seats, but she still pointed out several choices, before selling him ones that turned out to be in the middle of row 7 for 200 grivna (ours said 70 on them for slightly to the right side of row 6 ) Apparently you want to buy them early for the ballet! Why did I say tickets, when he was buying one for Max? He has been talking about random acts of kindness in his book discussion classes, and while he was standing the ticket line, a rumor went through the crowd that the cheapest tickets to be had were 100 grivna  ( it's about 8 grivna to a US or Canadian dollar if you are wondering) and he had noticed the lady with a little girl behind him counting the bills in her purse, so he bought 3 and ripped off two and handed them to her. She refused to take them, so he handed them to the little girl and walked away to find us. I think the lady was surprised to find that they were sitting with Max, he seemed to be chatting with the  ladies on both sides of him before it started.

Maria, Max B me and Garry dressed for the Ballet

see how fast he is? 

We enjoyed the ballet, and got someone to take our photo at intermission. My favorite dancer was playing the bad guy like every other time we go... I guess Romeo has to be blonde, maybe. Maria really enjoyed it, I snapped a couple of sneaky no flash shots during the second act.

Everyone was taking pictures now, so flash on!

Afterwards, Garry helped Masha retrieve her coat, it helps to be big to get to the front of the line, and we went out to the car.











Where we discovered the new GPS was gone, along with the passenger window.... well it was more in tiny shards on my seat, really. Garry cleaned it up a little, before we went to dinner.
The good news? The old GPS was lying on the dash still, and the charging cord to plug into the cigarette lighter was on the floor, so we don't have to buy a new one. If he does, he'll make sure it can be removed easily to be put out of sight when parking in the city.

Oh, no!

We ended up eating a few blocks away, Garry had parked to go to the Turkish buffet restaurant but the buffet dishes were looking empty or sad (the poached quail eggs on rice dish especially), so we ended up a couple blocks away at a nice Italian restaurant instead.We did not bother locking the car.


Max was a little impatient waiting for our order to come, he says he prefers Mc Donalds and would never want to go to a fancy restaurant again, even when I told him girls on dates would like restaurants like this. He really does like the Royal Cheeseburger (it's a quarter pounder) and hates sitting and not doing something.


Luckily it was a warm night, Garry ran the heat on the way home as the wind flew in and around the inside of the van. Sunday morning he taped it over with big cellophane tape for the drive to church, Maria had stayed overnight and we went to church in Zaporosia with her and then to the basketball game with her and her friend Marina. Garry picked up the new window on Wednesday, now we just need to get it installed before driving to Kiev and Tuesday.

Sometime the ref gets in the way ( we buy seats under the basket for $4)

I think the cheerleaders do rhythmic gymnastics 

Maria and Marina

and Ferro (the Zap team) won the game too.