I survived Henley Festival

I couldn't miss the fun summer outing of Henley Festival last night, even though I was sure I had the swine flu earlier in the day. (I've already told you that I'm a hypochondriac.)

Here we are -- that's Di, Madeleine, me and Paul -- getting ready to go.

Has this ever happened to you before? In the car on the way over, Mad was telling me about her vacation plans to go to Austria. I said I'd never been to Austria and began asking her questions about the country. She explained how beautiful it was, etc., and soon we were at our friend Di's house where we would go on to Henley.

When we entered the house, a group was there already in conversation. They were having the exact same conversation we'd been having in the car. "I've never been to Vienna," a man was saying then others in the group proceeded to tell him how beautiful Austria was.

I wonder how many simultaneous conversations are going on in the world at any given time?

Anyway, we went to the festival that is on the Thames at Henley. The first thing we saw was a delightful singing group that roamed the grounds entertaining groups in an ad-hoc way:


And check these weird ballerinas out:


The main event was a concert of Puccini on the floating stage:



But, as usual in England in the summer, it was freezing cold last night. Here is our group sitting in lawn chairs to listen to the concert while trying to keep warm:

We had a lot of fun but I wish it had been warmer. Why does it have to be this way in England? Such a nice country in every way, but these cold summers are just too much.