When I was a girl, I had an illustrated book of ballet stories. It was one of those oversized books that was challenging to read in bed because it was heavy and awkward and hard to keep open, but I did it—numerous times. I remember the beautiful paintings that illustrated each of the classics: Coppelia, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Giselle, Sleeping Beauty.

So when Tod got us tickets to see the Shanghai Ballet performing Swan Lake, I was delighted. But I should have suggested that Tod read the story ahead of time.

During the intermission I asked if he understood what was going on and he wove a fantastical tale of a king who couldn’t dance and a madman with a crossbow chasing after a bunch of ballerinas in white skirts. Extremely entertaining, but not quite right…he didn’t even realise that the dancers in white were the swans.

He also believes that Tchaikovsky wrote the theme music for the Death Star in Star Wars.

I think we need to incorporate more cultural events into our schedule.