felix's tea party (241/365b)

this weekend is so full! i had two church services back to back, playing a pretty terribly written (or more likely terribly edited!) piece by a baroque composer named zelenka. the two people in graz who hate me were there and it was easy to ignore them.

and felix got his tea party at last. his guest were us and nina. he was very happy.

tea and cookies

he didn't really want to go to the concert, we went anyways, and it was awesome! we didn't stay for the whole thing.
first the big chorus kids came on, efficiently but stately, then the middle sized kids, who had to walk a little faster to keep up, and not very formally anymore, and then the little kid, each progressively faster, till the last ones (henry was the very last) came at a sprint. i didn't even see them as they went by, they were just a blur. it was in the basement church (the largest church in graz is basically two gigantic churches built one on top of the other, the lower one is significantly warmer in the winter).

the most magical moment was after we had already left to go home halfway through, when they were singing about candles and lights, and felix and i went to light a candle, and we sat on the cold floor and stared at the flames.

at home, isabella spontaneously came over to keep me company for the evening, and even picked up theodore and henry from lendplatz, so brian could go straight to the gospelmusic concert that centa had free tickets to... (ingrid next door won tickets but couldn't go - first time winning a prize, although she sends answers to the puzzles in paper pretty much every single day)

we made a schultuete and filled it with gin for barbara's birthday tomorrow. i got my feet massaged. we talked about all kinds of things. isabella practiced drawing.

schultuete, massage oil, fancy pens, slippers, wine, books, letters, and a friend

gin for ladies

encounters on the train
there: a lady wanted to give felix some sweets, to celebrate her first day without a headscarf. he said no thank you, and i congratulated her. she shouted (not really at me, more in general) that just because she is not wearing a headscarf anymore, doesn't mean she has to go around in a miniskirt and a bra like the democratic women in austria. she told felix not to be ashamed to want sweets. "take them. take them!" he still didn't want any. then she dropped a package of apricots on his lap, and we had arrived at our stop.

and back again:
a guy saw my viola case, pointed at it, and asked what was in there. a viola? oh, that's not so interesting. i thought it was a ... you know... a sniper (he pronounced it sneeeper) ... then he made a pretend long sniper rifle, and pointed it at very many different people in a very crowded streetcar, and said peew pewpewpew peeew, and then shoved his way through the crowd to get out.