My dear family & friends
A really funny thing happened last Tuesday. In the morning I walked the dogs to the Pastelaria Portuguesa in Warwick but stopped off at the newsagent first to buy The Times. As usual, I commanded the dogs to “DOWN” and to “STAY” just outside the door of the shop. Returning a minute later with the newspaper under my arm, I saw that Edgar had broken the down-stay command; he was standing, wagging his tail in delight as he spied me coming out of the shop. I was a bit annoyed at him, and commanded him to “WAIT” in my deepest, most authoritative voice. Just at that moment a young lady, who was about to step into the shop, stopped dead, her eyes wide with fright. I couldn’t suppress a sort of half-laugh and told her – as airily as I could – that I was actually talking to my dog, but I’m not sure that she particularly believed me; she wouldn’t step into the shop until I had left.
The big adventure last week was our first trip to the Symphony Hall in Birmingham for a concert by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra on Thursday evening. The programme for the evening included Saint-Saëns Symphony No.3 (The Organ Symphony), which is one of my favourites. Lucia had strict instructions to be home in enough time to allow us to leave by 6pm. Still, I was surprised that it took us over an hour to drive the 25-or-so miles to the centre of Birmingham, and we arrived with just enough time to pick up our tickets at the box office and make a pit stop at the toilets before taking out seats.
The concert was quite fantastic. First, the purpose-built Symphony Hall has near perfect acoustics which allows the audience to hear every nuance of the orchestra. Second, the Hall was filled to its capacity of 2200 people. (Remember, I’m used to the relatively poorly attended concerts of Philharmonia at the City Hall in Cape Town.) Third the performance was electric. The programme started with the Mother Goose Suite by Ravel, followed by Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto before the interval, and finished with the Organ Symphony. I’ve always enjoyed the organ, probably because the sound is just so big. I love the feeling of the big 32ft or 64ft tubes which you only find on the biggest organs; you can’t actually hear them, just feel them. The whole building vibrates. It was such a thrilling evening.
At the interval, we discovered that the tradition is clearly to buy ice cream. While Lucia and I headed to the bar for a glass of wine (we’re from South Africa after all), most of the audience queued at the many ice cream fridges. I reckon that at least half the audience bought and ice cream at £2 each. To put that into perspective for the South African’s, that’s about R33 000 worth of ice cream sold in five minutes – when the outdoor temperature is about 5C. Lucia and I agreed that we would definitely share an ice cream next time. I like ice cream, but in small doses.
Other important markers of the week included entertaining Polly, Richard and Anne’s daughter, on Tuesday evening while Richard and Anne went to a parent’s evening at Polly’s school in Leamington. (Anne is a former colleague of Lucia’s.) Polly recently started what we would call high school in South Africa. She is a bright, intelligent and independent young girl whom I would like to say to say reminds me of me, but I suspect that she is a lot brighter than I ever was. On Friday evening, one of Lucia’s colleagues, Rebecca, and her partner, David, came around for drinks after work. The plan had initially called for Lucia and a few of her staff members to repair to The White Lion on the Radford road for drinks after work, but last minute work demands put paid to that idea.
Then we had a busy weekend again. We went to Worcester on Saturday morning to get a better feel for the city without having to rush home for an important sporting event like a Formula One Grand Prix. I was really intrigued and fascinated by the city. Worcester wasn’t a big target for German bombers during WWII – and it managed to wrong-step city planners of the 50’s and 60’s – so a lot more of the medieval city survives. I find it beyond understanding that city planners after the war simply wanted to condemn buildings that had been around for 600 or 700 years. I can only surmise that their bloody-mindedness represented the same anger and class bitterness that brought us the French and Russian Revolutions. Luckily there were enough individuals with sufficient reverence for history and architecture (and money) who managed to preserve little corners of England for all posterity. Most fascinating was The Greyfriars (http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-thegreyfriars), a merchant’s home built in around 1480, which is still standing and is open to visitors.
We also went back to the Cathedral to complete the tour we started last week. I was delighted that the tower was also open and paid my £3 to climb the 258 stairs to the top while Lucia meditated in the church below. Lucia doesn’t really like enclosed places which includes medieval stairways. On this occasion she probably got the better end of the deal though – I could feel the tower swaying in the breeze when I got to the top, which is not really quite the ideal sensation in a 1000-year-old edifice. I wanted to take some pictures of the stunning views, but I was too chicken to let go of the iron railing. I’ll go back and get those pictures sometime when the wind ain’t blowing. We went to the Portugues cafe we discovered last week for lunch, and then drove home via Tewkesbury and Evesham.
Sunday was given over to shopping and cooking. I had suggested to Lucia that she invite some of her staff members around for dinner. I wasn’t expecting everyone. So while Lucia baked some deserts, I cooked three different dishes which will be easy to reheat for the event on Tuesday evening. Please hold thumbs for us that all goes smoothly.
Love, light & peace
Llewellyn
Picture book: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/llewellynijones
