Now I can write about the Ring. When I had cancer, I promised myself that if I survived, there were two experiences I particularly wanted - one was to visit Dollywood, the other was a Ring Cycle and over the past four nights we've done it in Cardiff at the Millennium Centre. The auditorium is lovely with good accoustics, giving a very crisp sound. Prince Charles was in the audience on the final night,but without his new wife, perhaps it's not her thing. There are several reviews floating around in the press - I would summarise the experience as wonderful orchestra, singing good in parts but the staging was a complete nightmare with the set being so totally incomprehensible that I simply don't know where to start in trying to describe it. The production was done by the Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg and it was interesting to see the stylistic differences. In particular, the singers all adopted that declamatory style that has fallen out of fashion in the UK. If you've ever seen Blackadder Third, the episode with the actors, then you'll be able to perfectly picture the manly stance, legs apart, chest expanded, head high and arms in that peculiar theatrical hold that nobody in real life ever actually uses.

What can I say about the music though? If you closed your eyes it was sublime, quite literally giving me goosepimples at times, making me nearly cry at others, exciting and intense. My head is full of it, ringing with the sound of it still. There was an elderly gentleman sitting next to us, who explained at one point that he had even seen the Ring at Bayreuth, and his mother had also, but in the process she had become a "Wagner nut" as he affectionately put it. The trouble is this music and the characters are so powerful how do you go back to anything ordinary after that? It is addictive and I am already wondering how I can get my next fix. I sympathise entirely with his mother - becoming obsessive is a very real danger. If I did, my daily life might be difficult though - thinking about routines would be difficult with a head full of dwarves and dragons and love and betrayal and warriors and swords and armour and horses and all the other wonderful things that happen.

On a more prosaic note, the surtitles were gloriously fouled up with frequent error messages, little link to the story (they kept jumping ahead) and the most inappropriate slangy,casual language used - very much textspeak. Textspeak has its place - I use it myself enthusiastically when texting, but it isn't right for characters in complex moral dilemmas, or life and death choices. And although my knowledge of German is nearly as extensive as my knowledge of football, I know Wagner didn't write sentences as flat and prosaic as - Wotan, pay ur debts now - Rheingold or It's all over and I don't care - Gotterdamerung.