I’M not one for making New Year resolutions, but last week, I almost did.
Last year you see, was the year I kicked myself soundly for having missed some of the things I really wanted to see.
Looming large above all of them was of course, Leonardo.
By the time I’d thought about it, and I have to because no-one could call me impulsive, the tickets had been snapped up and I was left wishing, if only. Like so many others.
A quick check on the internet shows you can still buy tickets – for a price that would make the Mona Lisa cry!
Colleague Linda cheered me up though and put it all into perspective.
Miss this and you miss the exhibition of a lifetime intoned the critics.
Then in breezed Linda and her story of how she’d done just that – and breezed out again, only to discover she’d missed one of the National Gallery’s star attractions, the iconic image of the Lady with an Ermine.
Her 90 minute tour of the must-see exhibition of the year put her swiftly outside on the pavement waiting for friends to speed round behind her and standing under a giant poster of that picture. The one she’d missed.
Linda, known for her energy and her zest for life, took it all in good part and decided someone, somewhere was telling her to slow down.
My problem is I need to speed up. In the decision department.
Last year, it took several months of procrastination to get me to the Miro exhibition in London. I made it just days before it closed.
I also managed to see lots of dance shows, films and exhibitions and get to more than my share of concerts.
That included tapping feet at the movies while watching crazy penguins and loving a pair of dance shows that gave me a new taste for tango music.
I enjoyed the fizz and fun of Lesley Garrett, listened in awe to the musicianship of Huddersfield Choral Society in rehearsal and on the concert platform and watched with admiration a remarkable new piece from Full Body and the Voice written by their pioneering artistic director, Vanessa Brooks.
This year, my to do list includes more theatre, more orchestral concerts but first, The Artist, a film that’s already being hailed as the must-see event of the year.
Now where did I hear that before?
