I was reminded by my friend Jackie that it was not only Christine who read our blog posts. I must get back into the habit of posting again.
So Jackie and I met at St Pancras station and spent a pleasant time chatting, eating and strolling around.
I was moved by this memorial at St Pancras which I hadn’t noticed before.
Today I have been making table decorations for the Pastime Christmas party. Four separate ones, which could also be one large one:
I also made a festive quiche for the feast!
Having received the last of the money from Daddy and Joan’s estate, it seemed like a fitting tribute to them to spend it on theatre tickets. I began with Noel Coward’s Private Lives, starring Patricia Hodge and Nigel Havers. Very witty, and well performed, but the treatment of domestic violence is rather uncomfortable for a 21st century audience.
It was good to wander around my old theatre-land haunts, and the lights in St Martin’s Lane were pretty.
After a hearty breakfast, several of us joined a guided tour of central Hereford. We started at the cathedral.
And continued around the immediate vicinity, including the last remains of the castle moat.
I left the tour to head to the station, passing the site of yesterday’s festivities, the Town Hall.
Caught a train to Newport, then Paddington. Hammersmith and City line to Farringdon, where I discovered Thameslink was closed for engineering work. So a bus journey past St Paul’s, and finally a fast train from London Bridge to Orpington. Phew!
A wonderful day of dancing and music. Being in the moment, I didn’t take any photos of the dancing – they never do it justice anyway. But the contributions were extraordinarily varied, the dinner was good and the masquerade ball in the evening was fun, with an excellent band.
We did pay our respects to Elgar during a short walk round the block:
In spite of major disruption on the railways today, my train to Hereford left Paddington on time and was a mere ten minutes late arriving. I was able to walk to my hotel, while less fortunate passengers had to wait for transport to wherever they hadn’t been able to get to.
I had barely settled in my very elegant room when our friend Phil arrived and we went for a coffee and a good chat. We forgot to take a photo, though…
The evening’s activity was a lecture about masquerade balls in the 18th century, with some fascinating slides. A short walk back to the hotel and drop exhausted into bed!
This morning the weather was beautiful. Lucy stayed in and spent time in the garden while Gemma and I went for a walk. There was a vague plan, but it changed as the mood took us. We paused for a swift half at The Navigation…
No pork scratchings, so we had to make do with crisps.
Then a stroll along the canal, and return via King’s Norton – on foot since the buses didn’t want to play!
We had another quiet morning and early afternoon. A game of Carcassonne and some more art…
After a late lunch/ early supper in the Chinese quarter, we went to the Crescent Theatre to see an excellent production of “Pride and Prejudice”. Back home for a nice cup of Horlicks…
Today there was a yellow weather warning, so we stayed indoors and did Art…
I had my first go at lino printing since secondary school:
Today we got the train to New Street. There was a very scary bull! It moved at 12:15…
We then went to a talk about the stained glass at the Cathedral, which included a visit to see the windows, which are being refurbished, close up. Brilliant! I forgot to take any photos, so here’s a link:
https://birminghamcathedral.com/windows/
After that we went to China Town for a late lunch. There was a lovely fountain.
Another busy day! A quiet day tomorrow, methinks.