Travel, Theatre, Music, Cricket, Tennis, Writing, Life
I don’t remember much about this forum. I wasn’t even 100% sure I was there, even though the date is in my diary.
But Barmy Kev’s MTWD report confirms that I was there – click here.
That report contains everything you need to know…
…and far more besides.
I remembered that we had done the Lord’s T20 thing with John and family a couple of times, but it wasn’t until I found diary/e-mail references to this Sunday afternoon gig that I realised that there were several years between visits.
I had written up the 2007 visit under assumed names for MTWD – see this Ogblog piece for the text of that masterpiece.
I recall that, in many ways, the 2010 outing was more successful. None of the Friday afternoon/evening stress – this was a Sunday afternoon outing in good weather.
I think the girls had genuinely enjoyed the Lord’s visit in 2007 so had been really looking forward to this afternoon visit and they weren’t disappointed.
John was possibly a little disappointed by the result – another “close but no cigar” match for Essex. Here is a link to the scorecard.
I seem to recall the weather smiling on us that first half of June, which made the unseasonable cold snap the following weekend all the more surprising…but that’s another Ogblog story all together – click here for that.
I’d had the bath surgeon re-enamelling my bath at the flat the previous day – without drama and very successfully – perhaps he uses ingredient X?
Anyway, this Royal Court play/production had a superb cast. including Lesley Sharpe and Indira Varma.
Very pacey play – almost to the point of being all over the place. Some very funny lines. Despite its flaws, I think we rather enjoyed it, although I seem to recall enjoying the first half more than the second half of the play. The bants started to grate after a while.
Here is the Royal Court Information on the play.
It is about addictions of all kinds, from drink & drugs to television.
Here’s a link to the reviews and stuff – it wasn’t very well received, this one.
Janie and I don’t much do weddings, but we’re very fond of Mat and wanted to be there on his big day. After all, he’d turn up and keep wicket for Z/Yen and/or The Children’s Society whenever we asked. Good batsman too.
I knew Mat from Lambton Place (now known as BodyWorksWest), where he worked; I had known him for a good few years before the wedding. Mostly cricket was the thing we had in common, but we’d chat about all sorts. He was a talented musician and wrote poetry too.
The young woman he was marrying, Catherine, seemed absolutely delightful, as did her Canadian family. She was an expert in 18th century fine art (professionally) and seemed steeped in the 18th century generally.
So I suppose no surprise, as they had settled in Battersea, that they married in the beautiful Georgian church of St Mary’s. Here’s a charming vid about the church:
The weather smiled on us that day, as it had smiled on the cricket I attended on both preceding days.
Janie and I fondly remember sitting chatting outside the church after the wedding with several people; mostly friends and staff from Lambtons; Laurence, Tina and John especially come to mind.
We’re not 100% sure which Battersea hostelry was blessed with our company for the wedding breakfast and dance. I think perhaps The Woodman.
Anyway it was a very enjoyable evening, with a chance to meet the bride’s family properly and indeed Mat’s, plus some more time with other friends.
We very much enjoyed the day.
Dance is not really my thing. Watching dance isn’t really Janie’s thing.
But Anthea and Mitchell were keen to go to this and were raving about it being original and different.
I’m sure it was.
I liked the music in the second half; all Bowie, Eno, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed, The Bruce Gilbert and Wire music in the first half left me a bit cold.
The dancing is of course incredibly skillful, it just doesn’t do anything for me.
I could see why Anthea and Mitchell, as fashion show photographers, would relate to the piece; it felt (to me) like watching one long fashion show parade.
We ran into my former colleague Angela Greenfield at the Barbican, sitting directly behind us – how weird is that? We’d sometimes bump into her at the theatre and it seems that she, like me and Janie, was there with friends who had dragged her to something she wouldn’t normally see. I think she enjoyed it as we did.
This search term – click here – should find you all you want to know about the piece.
Here’s a snippet of what it looked like:
We went on to the Hix Oyster and Chop House in Farringdon for a late but much needed meal, which was very good and gave us all a chance to chat and catch up properly.
Here is Jay Rayner’s review of the restaurant – we found both the food and the service very good when we went.
The diary suggests that I originally planned to go with Michael to Lord’s on 4 June day for a “stumpfmerde” (bullshit session at cricket), but as we had a mini works outing the night before to see a T20 match between Middlesex and Sussex, I have a feeling that Michael and I moved the “stumpf” until later in the season.
The Thursday mini works outing comprised me, Jez, Monique, Steph, Rich and Grant. That season, Jez and I were organising several mini-outings to the T20 matches, rather than the slightly larger whole team outings that became the norm in later years. The weather was especially good that June – as Monique wrote the next day:
Thanks for last night. It was so nice to be able to sit in the sun! And now to take the mickey out of Jez…
Still, I took the Friday off and went to Lord’s to see Day One of the Northants match, probably taking a wad of reading with me, as was my wont.
I can see that I had an exchange of messages with Peter Sheldrake, aka Comebackgatt, with a view to meeting up at Lord’s which, on this occasion, didn’t happen.
What do I mean, “on this occasion”? It never happened. Despite several attempts.
Still, at least Comebackgatt wrote up the day for MTWD – click here.
Here is a link to the scorecard – Middlesex fans of a nervous disposition shouldn’t look.
I don’t think I stayed much past tea as Janie and I were meeting Anthea and Mitchell later:
Come, Been and Gone, aka I Like My Job, Michael Clark Company, Barbican, 4 June 2010
Following the phenomenal success of my MTWD T20 Glossary in 2008, which almost without question ensured, single handed, that Middlesex won the competition…
…it seemed sensible to update the glossary a couple of years later.
Here is a link to that 2008 glossary.
If anything were to go awry with the MTWD website, here is a scrape of that piece.
I don’t think this update was as successful as the original. For sure Middlesex were nowhere near as successful in 2010.
For some reason, the page on the MTWD site seems to have picked up some corruption, but the scrape of the page to Ogblog is legible, so I am linking on to that – here.
This was a successful choice, by all recollections and accounts.
It was my turn to choose and I plugged for Yauatcha.
Janie and I had tried a light tea-time/early evening meal, I think on this occasion…
Wedding Day At The Cro-Magnons by Wajdi Mouawad, Soho Theatre, 14 April 2008
…but John and I went for the full tilt dinner.
The place did not disappoint.
I’d suggest that the dining at cousin restaurant Hakkasan is slightly finer, but the relaxed atmosphere of Yauatcha was ideal for a catch up and chat with John.
John’s e-mail later that week:
I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed our dinner on Tuesday evening. Thanks. The challenge is now on to find something for out next get together…
That e-mail also signalled our impending family get together at Lord’s, which was only just over a week later.
It also flagged the idea of going to the Thaxted Festival, which we didn’t implement that year or indeed any year since. One to think about for a future year, I’d suggest.
Advanced question for students of this page…
…well, for John, really…
…do you recall what we ate at Yauatcha? I must admit I don’t; I simply recall a very good meal and enjoyable catch up.
Ken, World Economic Forum from Cologny, Switzerland, CC BY-SA 2.0.
This was a really good party.
Not quite as good as the Kim and Janie one in 2016 – click here – but still really good. Same holiday weekend; just six years earlier.
Could it really have been 20 years? Yes of course it could, but still it sounds ridiculous when I say it.
Anyway, all of the usual suspects were there – DJ’s friends, Kim & Micky’s friends…which of course meant lots of our (Janie’s and my) friends.
There was a special guest appearance by neighbour Ken Livingstone, with whom I chatted idly for a while. Also the local mayor was there.
Never ones to miss out on a promotional opportunity., I discover that Theme Traders made a promotional video of that party, in which, if you look carefully, you can spot both me and Janie, more than once…
…which provided evidence that we were really there…
…and for a while aided our memories of the event, which was one of those hard to forget (because it was so spectacular) yet hard to remember (because we were enjoying ourselves so much) evenings…
…but the video has gone now.
The Bikini Beach Band were the headline act and jolly good they were too, as always.
A day at Lord’s with Charles “Charley The Gent Malloy” Bartlett, Mark “Uncail Marcas” Yeandle and a final hurrah with Paul Deacon before he abandoned us all for the Great White North.
Photos lifted from Facebook with implicit permission from Paul Deacon. Paul took lots of photos that day, which Facebookers can see by clicking here.
Looks as though I am polishing off one of my smoked salmon bagels when that photo was taken, presumably by an amiable neighbour.
Mark Yeandle, despite hiding between me and Paul in the photo, made a momentous contribution to the day (and to the picture, if you look closely at Chas’s right hand) in the form of a monster ration of his local, outstandingly good Frittenden strawberries, picked specially for the occasion. By my reckoning, that particular day was “peak strawberry” day – the very best ones ever…or I should say to date (writing in late 2017).
Very much a batting day, was Day 2, although we got to see some (mainly tail-end) wickets too.
We had superb weather for a May test match and I recall a very pleasant day in every respect. We were lucky – the next day the weather was less than special and there was very little cricket.
Here is a link to the scorecard for the match. England prevailed in the end; but the end wasn’t until the Monday.
