BBC Proms visit

Finally got tickets for the proms for Friday to hear Stephen Hough play Tchaikovsky's Concert Fantasia. Mother, The Little One, The Kiddo and Kiddo's best friends (AK) were having an early celebration of the Kiddo's 25th! 25..wow...never thought he would grow up.

The concert was fantastic. I have often heard the proms and seen it on iplayer, but from the sheer grandeur of the Royal Albert Hall to the gorgeous 20 foot organ forming the backdrop for the symphony to the riveting phenomenal music it was a memorable experience. Next time its standing for 5 quid for me.

I can barely sing and nor can I really appreciate music but this sort of live concert really allowed me to understand the different instruments being used, the pauses, emphasis and just the sheer tempo and feeling with which the music is being played. When I hear music as a recording, I often can't distinguish the different instruments being used but when I see the different instruments coming in at different times during the symphony I can really appreciate the sound they are making.

The Concerto Fantasia was great and I am slowly becoming a fan of Stephen Hough (who incidentally has a MacArthur Genius award). The cello piece, variations on a Rococo theme played by Steven Isserlis was amazing. I have never seen a cello performance like it before.Amazing..
The final piece played by the orchestra was Tchaikovsky's Francesca da Rimini which is based on Dante's Inferno. This was absolutely unbelievable. The story is about Francesca who is on the cusp of Hell hearing the howling winds about her and the fire down below. You can hear the winds howling when the strings in the orchestra play that bit and if you close your ideas you can imagine yourself standing on some cliff with winds howling about it and thunder all around you screaming at you to jump.

Anyway, it was fantastic and I think we all came out feeling overwhelmed and a little bit awed by the music.

The evening was capped off by dinner at Il Falcioniere which we found through the internet. Its a family run Italian restaurant near the South Kensington tube station. We loved the food. The food was very simple, nothing fancy but, the food was very tasty, flavourful and each dish had a unique taste to it (unlike Italian chain restaurants like Ask which probably make one white and one tomato sauce and add different meats and veggies).

Try the tiramisu if you do visit..fantastic!

My first 10 days in London

Time	Date	Event
7:15 am	Sunday, 21st June	Land at Heathrow
9 am	Sunday, 21st June	Immigration Health check (x-ray taken)
11:30 am	Sunday, 21st June	Reach Kiddo's flat: 13,Thames Circle, London E14
10 am	Monday,22nd June	Property viewing Canary Wharf
10 am	Tuesday,23rd June	Property viewing
3:25 pm	Tuesday, 23rdJune	First meeting with new boss AL
3:26 pm	Tuesday, 23rdJune	Asked to read journal article in 10 minutes (Presumed it was some sort of test or a lab induction routine)
3:40 pm	Tuesday, 23rdJune	Meeting regarding an Expression of Interest call which I am to write (This was getting a bit crazy. I was meant to officially start work 9 days later on the 1st of July)
10 am	Wednesday,24thJune	Property viewing London Bridge area
12:30 pm	Wednesday,24thJune	At work in ICL working on EoI – 69 hours to deadline (The deadline was Friday, 26th June – 1pm)
11:17 am	Friday,26th June	Calls from Barnard Marcus for flat deposit – 1.5 hours to deadline
12:30 pm	Friday,26th June	Back and forth emails with boss about EoI – 30 minutes to deadline
12:58 pm	Friday,26th June	Application submitted – 2 minutes before deadline
1:00 pm	Friday,26th June	Adrenaline surge is settling – Heart rate dropping to normal
1:15 pm	Friday,26th June	Calls to Barnard Marcus about getting guarantor
1:30 pm	Friday,26th June	Multiple emails and forms to fill from credit rating agency for house
2:00 pm	Friday,26th June	Holding deposit made on Sinclair Road flat
9 am	Wednesday,1st July	Official start of job in AL lab
4:00 pm	Wednesday,1st July	Appointment at BM to sign papers for Sinclair Road flat
4:30 pm	Wednesday,1st July	Keys of new London place in hand
5:30 pm	Wednesday,1st July	Meet Landlady at OUR new Flat
6:00 pm	Wednesday,1st July	Sitting on couch in our new Flat. Big Sigh!!!!!

MoTD

MoTD has started! I am happy.

 

For some reason, I love MoTD (for the uninitiated Match of The Day). It shows the premiership matches on Saturday and Sunday at 10pm and I hate missing it. I don't have to watch a full match, they show me highlihgts and then we have analysis. Fantastic..every game..about 15 minutes and we are done. How much more time can you spend on football matches which are played over 9 months every year.

 

I missed Saturday's one and am terribly annoyed at the BBC for not showing it on iplayer!! I suppose I should really be annoyed at Sky for not giving BBC the rights..but whatever!

 

Arsenal are back, although I doubt they will be able to keep up the same form for the rest of the year. Liverpool have started badly, will come back mid-season and fall off towards the end. Man U did just enough and will up the tempo slowly through the entire season, peaking perfectly.

Man City should be fun..if nothing else but to show that money doesn't always win you trophies.

 

....and the final Test on Friday...mouth watering weekend of sport!

Dravid is back and the Ashes

I am a big Rahul Dravid fan and I am glad he has got back into the ODI sqaud. The only reason for this is the dismal performace of our young talent, Rohit Sharma, Raina in holding the middle order together consistently. With Yuvraj no longer a spring chicken, the next wave of youngsters need to step up and start making big scores.

In other cricket news, I shall be listening to Blofield, Agnew and Boycott on Test Match Special starting Thursday. Can't wait. Its been a pretty exciting Ashes mainly because of both teams playing really badly. I only hope they both play their best cricket in the final Test and we get a really exciting match. Might even stand in line for a ticket at the Oval!!

The answer to my questions

This does answer all my questions in life. I especially like the one about "Why water is wet?" and "How much does the sky weigh?"

Updates

Not much to say except that the move to London has been made. A small, expensive, quaint flat has been found and rented near the Kensington Olympia station.

A salary is forthcoming allowing me to contribute to the UK economic recovery.

I am no longer in full-time study, a feeling I have not experienced for 29 years!!

I walk 1.5 hours everyday, through Hyde Park to work.

I tried giving up chocolate...

I didn't succeed.

I have piles of work to finish, but have just heard my grant proposal was unsuccessful and don't really feel like working.

I have moved from working on mosquitoes, rat urine to swines. What next in my career menagerie?