On holiday and decided to shave. First time no beard for three years.
Weird.
Category: Family
Friday fun in London
Shaz and I had a couples day out.
Tate Modern to critique the art.
Hilma af Klint & Piet Mondrian. I found her style rather adolescent girl who was still playing with her crayons. I found the whole mystical connections difficult to appreciate. Mondrian was more of interest and his abstract forms more engaging and more recognisable to me and maybe other ordinary souls.
That was followed by a walk and lunch then a trip up the Shard to use the tickets from earlier in the year- booked when Joe was around.
Edinburgh
Friday to Sunday to meet up with EQ- away from her home city of Glasgow. We flew as in recent times train travel is just not reliable. There are the current strikes but before that the unreliability of the service and impossibility of booking anything but close to the day of travel.
EQ produced a good programme. Friday involved the mash restaurant followed by a pub with live music and a selection of whiskies. The tasting turned out to be expensive.
Walks and shops on Saturday and then Scotland v England on the tv in the pub- and a good win for the locals.
A lovely weekend overall that included Saturday evening game of cards-cool.
Brussels 2
The grand place or grosse markt which which is a UNESCO world heritage site. Impressive architecture built about the same time when the previous buildings were destroyed in a battle.
We had an enjoyable weekend away. From London by train through the tunnel to Brussels. Easy to do despite some of the hold ups at St. Pancras with passport control etc. Actually more of an issue coming back- and with my brain not working well too.
The sites and views were good, the history interesting, the B&B good- rated highly and certainly comfortable and good food and service. Ideas for Shaz to incorporate.
The music experience turned out to be less enjoyable than hoped- but things happen.
Brussels 1
A long weekend to a city that I have not previously visited. Shaz had.
We managed to find some street art. Mostly by chance and some with effort but without much of a hit rate.
East London Football
Off to see Brentford play West Ham last night with JQ.
Another sporting event for Joe. We were truly in the gods and so the players looked like ants running around on a large patch of green.
A good win in the end for the Bees but not a great football match. At the of the first half it was 2-0 and reasonably say against the run of play. However, WHU had lots of possession without much threat after the first fifteen minutes. In the 2nd half Brentford played better, more control, and little threat from the oppo.
The crowd of red were very happy- Hammers fans less so. There was a large exodus with 20 minutes to go and by the finish not many more WHU fans thans Brentford supporters.
Then it was a long journey home because of signal problems on the Tube. Home after 2 hours at nearly midnight.
Christmas period
As I have not been contemporaneous here are a few excerpts from our holiday actvities.
Joe arrived from New Zealand and part of the fun was a trip to watch London Irish play Saracens on 23rd.
In the end a good game to watch with a crowd of 10, 500. Initally looked like it would be a disaster with Irish having a man sent off after 20 minutes. However this event forced them to play a more open game, which was successful , and more entertaining. Saracens lost a man for foul play too- so evened up mostly- except when Irish has 2 more in the sin- bin. A thrilling finish and unexpected win for LI.
Plus an addition to the beanie collection for Joe.
There was also the first trip to the panto- at the Questors.
Good fun, silly and corny jokes, action and singing.
The 2nd trip to panto was at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith. The matinee performance on Christmas Eve.A more professional and resourced set up and energised rendition.
Again we managed to fit in a trip to Westminster Cathedral for its celebration: music and readings.
The piece ‘Wachet Auf’ was new to me and good value.
The five were together for the first time in three years: with EQ being confined and JQ in NZ last year.
And finally, the Super Bees played on Boxing Day at home. In the end they held on against Spurs 2-2.
Pantomime 2022
We went to the Questors theatre in Ealing to take in the fun- our second time.
Joe was in place having arrived from NZ on Tuesday.
A good fun evening with classic corny jokes and activities.
Musical weekend
Last weekend was in effect a long time in the planning.
Friday evening was spent in Lille to see Grand Corp Malade, the tickets having been bought one year before and the idea gestating long before that.
We took the Eurostar to Lille which for most of the passengers was the Disney Land express- as only two other people or so got off at Lille. The others on the train were families of different ages and compositions commonly dressed as Mickey or Minnie.
I was surprised by the number of police and soldiers before we went in and by the number of older people in the audience. I was expecting mostly young people- I was wrong.
The crowd loved him and it was a great evening.
On Saturday we moved onto Paris. We saw the ballet at the Opera House-Palais Garnier- Mayerling. This is a relatively modern ballet. It tells the story of the prince who is next in line in the Austro Hungarian empire prior to WW1. He is a nasty piece of work, unfaithful, drug addict and general abuser of people. He dies in a suicide pact. The dancing is more sexual than is typical.
Sunday was electo-jazz- never heard of it before at a cool venue- old railway station.
There were three musician of whom Théo Ceccaldi was the star and lead. A s,all venue, free entry paid for by beer etc and a whip around at the end. Great quality and skill. Great experience.
A bit of more trad jazz on Monday evening- not bad.
But an unexpected experience at the church if St. Eustache on Tuesday morning when we found, by chance, the organist practicing on the second largest organ i France. Wonderful noise!
Changing one’s environment
I read an article of the stories of why people have become British citizens in 2021. I found this paragraph in the introduction pertinent:
The most rewarding part of the citizenship process is not only gaining British nationality. It’s all about the courage to leave your country of origin, the initial struggle, the hard work and resilience. It’s about the cultural exchange and appreciation of a new way of living. It’s all about the journey.