A BBC concert with Christiane

I met Christiane as arranged at the bus stop at 11.30 in the morning. We sat upstairs on the bus and went to Watford. We walked up the High Street, and I photographed this statue, and then my camera batteries ran out!




















The weather was very cold, but we had time to look in one of the charity shops before deciding that we had better see exactly where the Watford Colosseum is. Having found it, we went into MacDonald's and had a small sandwich and coffee each, and Christian had bought some very nice French cake with her too.

Feeling better we walked to the Colosseum where there was now a long line of people waiting to go in for the concert by the BBC Concert Orchestra, a programme for radio 3. While we hesitated, a man asked us if we would like to know a short cut to the entrance, and following him we went through the council offices, and out again, and came out near the end of the queue. I noticed how smart he looked, and as if he had just left the barbers, as his hair looked immaculate.

We were soon seated in the Colosseum with an excellent view of the orchestra. We listened to music by Balakirev, Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, Benjamin Britten (Four sea interludes from Peter Grimes), Copeland and Ravel. We had a short interval, but did not leave our seats. We noticed that the man who had shown us the shortcut was playing a cello in the orchestra. The conductor was Keith Lockhart.

It was a very good concert which we both enjoyed. When we left, Christiane bought a butterfly dish as she was going to make a grandchild a butterfly birthday cake, or more accurately, a two butterfly cake. We took the bus back, me getting off in Edgware, and Christiane travelling further. It had been a really nice day.

Walking and exercising

Mas and I walked to Stanmore for exercise, and we had lunch at The Man in the Moon, and bussed back afterwards. The pub had been completely full which is odd for a Monday, and everyone seemed very cheerful; it seems people are trying to enjoy the present and forget all the recession problems.

Later Mas went off to the dentist to have his crown fitted, and I went for another walk. In the evening I spoke to Toby which was nice.

This morning Mas was doing more gardening and later went down to Edgware Hospital to have physiotherapy, but when he arrived found it had been cancelled, but he had not been told.

I did the usual chores and played with the cat, and did a long session on the exercycle which was monitored by Salty, luckily not sitting on my shoulders, while I listened to a programme about Maurice Ravel's mental health and how it may possibly be seen in his music which was interesting.

In the evening we watched the old film Inn of the Sixth Happiness, which we both enjoyed