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Published: June 19th 2018
Thursday 14 June 2018
Greetings to All from London. This is the opening message from our UK trip. We have settled into our flat in Acton after a reasonable flight out. We flew on Thai air via Bangkok with a reasonable 9 hour stretch from Melbourne then the arduous 12 hour stretch to Heathrow. Leaving Bangkok was held up as the engines stopped just as we were about to be pushed back from the terminal. The plane heated up very quickly and the cabin crew looked decidedly worried as it took quite a lot of cranking over to get them going again. Once started, the pilot was able to keep them going all the way to Heathrow, which was a good thing.
Acton is a rapidly gentrifying area of new residential developments about half an hour by tube from central London. We are on the tube line from Heathrow so on Monday we were able to catch the tube from the airport, drop off our bags at the flat and head straight onto the City for a lunchtime concert recital at St Clemmens Danes (think oranges and lemons said the bells of St C). It was a German Lieder recital by Thomas Atkins, a young NZ tenor. Being next to the London School of Economics we stumbled into the LSE cafeteria for a very tasty, substantial and cheap lunch. That was enough for our first day as I was feeling quite jet lagged.
Tuesday
We did a walking tour around the City area today. These are “free” in the sense that you pay by tips. Not bad but not really aimed at our demographic. It certainly gave us a better sense of the financial quarter. After lunch we caught the overground up to Hackney and walked along Richmond road. Alison has a forbear that lived in Richmond road and we had an address where he died but most of the house look like 1950’s flats rather than the 1850’s town house we were looking for. Still it was interesting seeing the area. Mostly public housing and not at all gentrified.
Wednesday.
Alison was in the National Archive all day today. She has spent time at the Public Records Office in Melbourne so she has some idea of the system but this was an order of magnitude up. She found some information so she was thrilled with her visit and will be back tomorrow.
I had a free lunchtime concert at St Andrews Piccadilly. I was 2 pieces, a Debussy and a Greig cello sonata again by a NZ couple. The really interesting thing was that I was able to book a discussion with a conductor, Riccardo Araujo prior to the concert. Riccardo gave me some really interesting insights into both pieces which made the whole experience much more than just an enjoyable concert.
A few years ago we saw the world premiere of a work by Elena Kats Chernin, "The Three Dancers" This piece was based on a tragic story in the life of Pablo Picasso which he painted as the Three Dancers. I particularly wanted to see this painting whilst in London so today was the day. The Tate Modern had a special exhibition of Picasso in 1932 which meant I had to pay but it was a real thrill.
Thursday was a more normal sightseeing day as I took the Docklands Light rail out to Greenwich. These trains are driverless so I got some extra kicks by sitting at the very front in what would normally be the driver’s seat. Greenwich was interesting too as I tagged onto a free tour and got some extra historical insights into the buildings.
Friday was a glorious walking day so we took the overground out to Epping forest and walked. There is a Tudor hunting lodge (Elizabeth I) which was well restored with some tasteful displays. The forest itself is a real gem on the outskirts of the city and not too crowded on the week day. We walked for a couple of hours and were glad to rest our feet at the end of the day.
Saturday. A garden theme today, Kew Gardens during the day and Covent Garden in the evening. Kew Gardens is only a few stops on the overground from our flat at Acton Town. We were there at opening time and spent a good part of the day there. Being summer there is a lot out. Beautiful gardens, immaculately kept BUT rather spoiled for me by constant low jets landing at Heathrow. About every 30 seconds another massive plane feels as if it is landing on top of you. I suppose one gets use to it but I found it quite nerve wracking.
We had tickets for La Boheme at Covent Garden in the evening. Alison bought these tickets as a birthday present some time ago. We were in row c in the orchestra stalls so we had a wonderful view of the stage. One needs a special occasion excuse to buy tickets here in the summer as they are much more expensive than we would normally consider. We think of ourselves as opera tragics and this was an opera tragic's dream. The theatre opulent, the orchestra sparkling, the singers world class, the staging and direction interesting and entirely sympathetic to the music and the libretto. I had a tear in my eye at the end and we both were beaming all the way home. We are of course so familiar with the piece that I hardly glanced up at the surtitles. I could just concentrate on the staging, the voices and Puccini’s wonderful theatricality washing over me.
Sunday was our last full day of our week in London. Alison is saying she is happy to move on but I am feeling another month or two would be good. Today we had tickets for a Sunday morning “coffee concert” at Wigmore Hall. It was a string quartet playing Bach and Schubert. Wigmore Hall is a relatively small venue with very bright acoustics, I gather originally designed as a piano showroom. It is perfect for chamber music and solo recitals so musicians are encouraged to play with really soft piano sections and it makes the crescendi very impressive. It does also seem to amplify every cough and throat clearance from the audience.
In the afternoon, after a pleasant lunch at a very hip wine bar near Kings Cross, we wandered around to St Pancras Old Church to track down more of Alison’s forbears christened and married here.
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Kate
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Opera Tragics
Oh how wonderful to read your blog Gerald ! I can hear your voice in my head, your quirky sense of humour, as well as gobbling up your adventures. hugs to you both.