{"id":8201,"date":"2026-06-14T21:07:31","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T01:07:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/?p=8201"},"modified":"2026-06-14T21:07:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T01:07:31","slug":"a-night-at-the-opera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/?p=8201","title":{"rendered":"A Night at the Opera"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"320\" height=\"148\" src=\"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_6004-1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8207\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_6004-1.jpeg 320w, https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_6004-1-300x139.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><figcaption>Beautiful St George\u2019s Cathdral<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The EU ambassador invited us to a lovely evening at St George\u2019s Cathedral to hear a special guest baritone, Leonardo Lopez Linares and his oboe accompanist, Cecilia Maragano (both from Buenos Aires). It was a really nice concert, and we also enjoyed the local choir and local soloists. The event was sponsored by the EU Commission. The cathedral is Anglican built at the end of the 19th century. I\u2019ve heard it described as the largest wooden church in South America. It\u2019s really pretty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Friday afternoon we went to the home of the Canadian High Commissioner for Canada\u2019s first game of the World Cup. We enjoyed visiting with our Canadian friends, and I really liked seeing the High Commissioner\u2019s beautiful yard and screened in porch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Saturday we had a new officer, Marcella, over for breakfast along with my friend Mellisa who I always enjoy seeing. That night, we met Chris and Mariela for a nice dinner at Nikkei.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>John and I continue to watch \u201cBetter Call Saul.\u201d I can\u2019t believe that it took us this long to watch it &#8211; we have really enjoyed it and are sad there are only a couple of episodes left. Today I read \u201cStrangers: A Memoir of Marriage\u201d by Belle Burden. I really enjoyed it although it is a sad And rather jaw-dropping story. I also had a nice chat with Mary C in Little Rock on Monday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Foreign Service is a small community, and I always love to see my worlds collide. Jessica (below) worked for me in Argentina and is now working with my good friend and former local staff supervisor, Mr. Irshad, in Pakistan. They sent me the photo below to say hello (they are pointing to my photo from 2014). So fun to see!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\" src=\"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_6003-1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8205\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_6003-1.jpeg 320w, https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_6003-1-300x225.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><figcaption>Mr. Irshad and Jessica in Pakistan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The EU ambassador invited us to a lovely evening at St George\u2019s Cathedral to hear a special guest baritone, Leonardo Lopez Linares and his oboe accompanist, Cecilia Maragano (both from Buenos Aires). It was a really nice concert, and we also enjoyed the local choir and local soloists. The event was sponsored by the EU [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8201"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8201"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8208,"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8201\/revisions\/8208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}