Christmas Concert - Methodist Church

Another of Mr. Bobb's efforts, with four young boys - the four Js - the stars of the evening.

Goodwine Choir sings at St. Botolph without Bishopsgate

St. Botolph's without Bishopsgate is just a few minutes from Liverpool Street Station, and although there are no services there on Sunday, it is open all day during the week, with lunchtime services for the local workers.

The church was beautifully lit and decorated for the concert, and had just the right atmosphere for a Christmassy event.   I got there quite early, in case it was crowded - the friends I was meeting had the same thought, and were already there when I arrived.

Carol concert - Indian Cultural Centre

The Indian Cultural Centre in Castleton Road has a Christmas event every year.   When I went before, it was very good, and it was equally good this year.

We all arrived just before it started at 1.00 p.m., and were lucky to get such good seats, with an excellent view of the stage.

The programme began with a children's choir, all in very colourful costumes, singing variations on well-known Christmas carols.   Unlike some children's choirs, they all sang beautifully and were obviously well-rehearsed.

That was followed by two very different items of Indian dancing, again with all the participants in beautiful costumes.

And as usual the programme ended with food in the hall - delicious Indian vegetarian food with a glass of mango juice.

Carol Service - St. John the Baptist Holland Road

Instead of their  usual Saturday evening Mass, there was a well-attended carol service, held in conjunction with St. George's, Camden Square - and it was obvious that the majority of the congregation came from St. George's.

The programme featured all the usual carols and readings, with the choir processing round the church before returning to the front.   Unfortunately, after all the candles had been blown out, I found it very difficult to see the words of the carols - I kept mine going as long as I could, but eventually it accidentally went out and I was left straining my eyes to try and see.   However I then discovered that if I moved a couple of places along the pew, I could get enough light to see the word.  Very dim lighting may look lovely, but it does make things difficult for  people to see - and not everyone has a mobile phone with a light.

Puccini's Tabarra

Performed at St. Matthew's Church, Sinclair Road, this featured the music from Puccini's opera, though without most of the acting and costumes.   However, the programme notes explained the story, leaving the audience free just to lsiten to the music.

Graphic Chemistry

A fascinating talk at the Chemistry Society, about the use of comics for spreading scientific information.   The speaker was an expert on the subject, and led us through the was comics of various types have been used to educate people and dissimulate information.   One normally thinks of comics and fiction for children; however they have been used extensively to get information to adults, and in places like Japan, are a very popular way of reaching the general public.

Corpus Christi Plays

The Players of St. Peter have now moved to St. George in the East, which is further to go, but is still quite easy to get to, as it is quite near Shadwell Station.

I went to the 6.30 p.m. performance, as I had nothing else on that evening - they always have two performances, one at 6.30 p.m. and the other at 8.30 p.m. throughout a whole week at the beginning of December.

Their previous home, in St. Clement Eastcheap, where they had been for several years, was very small and far from ideal - there were no toilets or catering facilities, and seating was limited and not terribly comfortable.   Also there was nowhere to wait indoors if you arrived early for the second performance - if it were raining, as it sometimes was, you just had to wait outside in the rain.   St. George's, on the other hand, is a large church with every facility, including a much bigger stage.

The production was, as usual, excellent - and this time there were refreshments at the interval, including, of course, mince pies.

The Players of St. Peter were formed in 1946 in St. Peter-upon-Cornhill, which was where I first saw them perform.   St. Peter's had atmosphere, but again wasn't really ideal, though they were there for forty years, before moving to Holy Trinity Sloane Square for a ten year stint, from which they later moved to St. Clement Eastcheap in the City.

The plays themselves are as faithful as possible to the originals of six hundred years ago, thought with some modern innovations such as electric lighting and an organ.   The language used is as far as possible the same, with a few adaptations to make it comprehensible to modern audiences - thought it is remarkable just how little the language had changed in all that time.

A Tale of Two Queens

The two queens in question were Mary 1 of Scotland and Elizabeth I of England, and the concert was at the Crown Church of Scotland in Covent Garden - they have quite a lot of musical events there on Sunday afternoons.

The music was played by a group of four recorder players, though they recorders were not the usual small instruments that school children learn to play.

The programme was quite short, but very varied, with a variety of styles of music from that period.

Germany in 600 Objects

One of the current special exhibitions at the British Museum, and an excellent way to spend a couple of hours.

German history is fascinating, and of course the history of the German people goes back hundreds of years before the formation of the German nation.

One thing I found interesting was how the German language evolved - I had never realised that it was Luther's desire to produce a Bible that all Germans could read that lead him to create a German language which was capable to expressing all the ideas in the Bible, as many of the local dialects were not.   His German language was a hybrid of the dialects, supplemented by new words to express new ideas, and formed the basis of the German language that we know today.

Hindle Wakes

Another fine performance from the Ladbroke Players at St. Peter's Kensington Park Road.

Although the play dates back to the early 1900s, it depicts a world where not everyone accepted the general view of how men and women should behave, and some of the views expressed had a very modern feel to them - for instance, that women should have the same sexual freedom as men, which resulted in a rather surprising ending.

Tredici

They have some wonderful Sunday afternoon concerts at St. George's Bloomsbury, and this was no exception.

Tredici are a large mixed choir who sing unaccompanied; this afternoon's programme included works by composers from Orlando Gibbons (16th/17th century) right through to Alfred Schnittke, who died in 1998 and Mack Wilberg, who was born in 1955.

The styles of music were quite varied,; particularly haunting was Mack Wilberg's The Dying Soldier.

There was a good audience, despite the awful weather; rain had been falling since early morning, and the streets were awash.  

As usual for these concerts, there was no entry charge, but a retiring collection for the church - the conductor joked that it we didn't give generously, they mightn't be invited back again!

Towards Advent

I wasn't able to get there at the start (the Fair opened at 10.00 a.m.), as I had the monthly reading group meeting was in the morning, which should have finished by noon, but overran a little.   So it was nearly twelve thirty before I set off for Victoria.   As I wasn't certain what food they would have there, I popped into the Cathedral cafe for a snack (scrambled eggs on toast) before going to the hall.

There were all the usual stands, with many of the usual individuals manning them - I saw quite a few people I knew, which is always nice.  

I had hoped there would be a supply of chutneys and pickles etc, but either there weren't any this year, or they had all gone by the time I got there.  What I did manage to get was two large jars of apple jelly jam from the Ladies of the Ordinariate stand, probably made, I was told, by the well-known Joanna Bogle, whose chutneys I bought last year.

I had hoped to get some Christmas cards, but there weren't any I really liked; Aid to the Church in Need had some I thought of buying, but they had all gone when I went back for them.

One interesting part of the afternoon was a workshop on Gregorian Chant, I now have details of a number of websites from which chants for all sorts of festivals can be downloaded.

For the Chop

Another brilliant production from the Beaufort Players -"For the Chop", written and directed by Thomas Cobb, and performed, as usual, in the church hall of the Church of the Ascension, Hanger Lane.

The three super chefs and their assistants have more on their minds than just winning the coveted prize on the "For the Chop" TV show - they have their own prejudices which are brought out under the pressure of the competition, and  it emerges that two of the contestants have a great deal more in common that an interest in cooking - they are in fact brother and sister-in-law, with a wealth of scores to settle.

The ending is a surprise, preceded by endless twists and turns as the three chefs not only battle it out to secure the prize as top chef, but also to settle their personal differences.

The audience were invited, by holding up cards, to vote for the contestants, to determine who would get the chop; I suspect the result was fixed, or the play would never have worked, but it was all good fun, with all the laughter that you would expect from a good comedy.

A lot of thought had obviously gone into not only writing the play, but also designing the scenery, which added so much to the overall effect.

An added bonus was details of the chosen recipes from the three chefs, which were set out in the programme - though I don't think I'll get round to trying them at home.

Although it was the first night of the run, the hall wasn't packed; I was able to get an excellent seat, despite not having booked.   Sometimes when I've been to the Beaufort Players productions I have ended up at the back on a seat near the wall.

Nunhead Cemetery

There was supposed to be special tours of the cemetery at 2.00 p.m. and 3.00 p.m.; however, when I got there for the 3 o'clock tour, no-one seemed to know anything about them, although there was special opening of the ruined chapel and crypt, with guides to show everyone around.   This included a visit to the top of the tower; I had the required hard hat on when I discovered that the stairs were extremely narrow (the larger guide couldn't go up because he was too large) and there were no handrails.   So the hard hat quickly came off, and was passed to someone else - no way was I going up a tiny, dark staircase, even if the view from the top was superb.

So I went on the tour of the crypt instead, stepping over puddles and muddy ground to get there.   The crypt was supposed to be used from burials, but was incredibly expensive, so few took up the option.

The cemetery itself opened in the 1840s, and is one of the seven Victorian cemeteries in London.   At first it was very profitable, but as space for new burials ran out, profits declined until it was no longer economic for the company to maintain it.   After years of neglect, it is today owned by Southwark Council, and is being restored as a leisure resource for the borough.   There are paths everywhere, with trees, shrubs, undergrowth, wildlife and interesting monuments, including one I had never heard of before, a memorial to the Scottish martyrs of 1793.

I popped into the little office on my way out, and discovered that the tours had been cancelled because of the muddiness and slipperiness of the paths - having walked along several of them, which were often on a slope, I could understand their concerns.

Poppies

As the committee meeting I was attending finished by 4.00 p.m., I decided to go and have a look at the poppies at the Tower of London before they were all taken away.   Everyone has been saying how marvellous the display was, and how moving, with each poppy representing someone from the UK and Empire who died in the First World War.   And after spending so much time selling poppies I just couldn't miss going to see the display.

I got the train to Tower Hill, despite being advised by TfL that it was better go go to one of the other nearby stations and walk down.   As it happened, Tower Hill station was packed, but mostly with people going home, and when I got out was no problem reaching the Tower.

Unfortunately, though, instead of a sea of red, there were just patches, and dozens of people working hard  taking them up and stacking them in boxes.   But one could imagine what it must have looked look when all the 800,000 plus poppies were there.   I tried to take some photos, but I think the natural light wasn't good enough and the floodlighting didn't really add much.

But I'm glad I went - to see a reminder of all the mostly young men who died in that war.

Music of the Eastern Church

A wonderful concert of Eastern Church music at St. Sophia's Cathedral in Bayswater - a breathtaking Greek Orthodox Church with magnificent paintings and architecture.   The church itself is worth a visit just to see the interior.

The concert featured Canticum conducted by Mark Forkgen, with music by a wide variety of composers that are not always the first ones that come to mind when one thinks of Orthodox Church music, as they are so modern.    Alexander Grechaninov, Sergei Rachmaninov, Henryk Gorecki, Sergei Prokofiev, and of course, John Taverner, whom everyone thinks of in connection with the Orthodox Church.

The church was fairly full when I arrived, but I was lucky enough to get a seat in the front row, so had the best possible view of the choir without having to worry about large heads or hats in front of me.

The choir, a mixed one of equal numbers of men and women, were very smart in black trousers and shirts - no long skirts anywhere to be seen, but perhaps that is the latest fashion for choirs, with "black trousers" replacing the former "black bottoms".

The music was beautiful, with some being quite folksy and other items very definitely liturgical.   In the interval, everyone poured round the corner to the church hall, where drinks were available - I stuck to orange juice as I had not had a chance to have anything to eat before going.

Lord Mayor's Show

Another year, and another Lord Mayor's Show, but this time the rain kept off - at least until late afternoon - so the whole procession was able to take place without getting even slightly damp.

I was there with a group of friends and we were able to get an excellent view of all the floats and bands, as the crowds were only a couple deep - I was right next to the road, with no-one in front. so was able to see everything.  

Once again, it was there were hundreds of people taking part, from all over the world, including as far afield as Malaysia and Kenya.  

This year, I managed to get a photo - or several - of the Lord's Mayor's carriage - last year, when I particularly wanted to, as it was only the second woman Lord Mayor in history - her carriage was disappearing into the distance by the time I got my camera out of my bag where it was safely hidden from the rain.

Colour

A fascinating lecture on colour at the Chemistry Society.    The lecturer, as always, was an expert, and talked about the way colours were produced from pre-historic times right up to the present.   An interesting point he made was that in all languages the first names for colour were those that could be produced from the earth, e.g. browns, yellows, reds, and that it is only recently that it has been possible to produce the huge range, mostly produced in laboratories, that painters can use today.   Things have moved a long way from the days when painters had to produce their own colours using natural materials.

But although such a huge range of colours is available, technology is not capable of reproducing the majority of them accurately either on the printed page or on the internet.   What can be blue on a painting may well turn out to appear mauve on screen or in a book.

A fascinating lecture - I wanted to listen to it again on the internet, but unfortunately for some reason it was not available.

Egypt - the Elusive Arab Spring

This evening I went straight from work to a lecture at Pimlico Library on Egypt and the Arab Spring.

It was given by Dr. Wafik Moustafa, who is a real doctor and has been extensively engaged in Egyptian politics and Anglo-Egyptian relations all his life.   He knows everyone and everything in connection with Egyptian politics and has just brought out a book on Egypt and the Arab Spring.

The talk was fascinating, as were the comments of many of the people there, who were also involved with Anglo-Egyptian politics - they all seemed to know each other.

His contention was that democracy is not necessarily the right political solution for Egypt, which, like all the Middle East and North Africa, has no history of democracy, but is used to absolute rule either by the army or a dictator.   He also made the point that the Egyptian Army does not see the Muslim Brotherhood as the real enemy - with their super intelligence services, they know everything there is to know about the leadership and members of the Muslim Brotherhood and are well able to control them.   But they are not so keen on Western style liberal democracy, which was what the Arab Spring was more about.

Altogether a very interesting talk, and I felt when I left I knew more about Egyptian history and politics than when I arrived.

London Mandolin Orchestra

A concert at the Westminster Music Library in Buckingham Palace Road which I went to straight form work, as it started at 6.00 p.m.

The concert was held in a little space upstairs, which was so small it was packed, with the orchestra occupying half the area available.

The musicians played not just mandolins, but also other stringed instruments such as guitars, and and performed wide variety of music, some specially set for them.

A most enjoyable hour - it was quite a short concert - and I'd like to go and hear them again if they do another concert.