Author: Ian Louis Harris

Middlesex v Sussex T20, Lord’s, 3 June 2010, Then Middlesex v Northamptonshire Day One, Lord’s, 4 June 2010

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…

The sun failed to shine on Middlesex that night in a cricketing sense – click here for the scorecard.

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

 

 

MTWD Glossary 2.0, 2 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.

Dinner At Yauatcha With John White, 1 June 2010

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.

Kim & DJ, Theme Traders 20th Anniversary Party, The Stadium, 29 May 2010

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.

England v Bangladesh Day 2, Lord’s, 28 May 2010

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.

You’ll have to take my word for it that Mark Yeandle is there between me and Paul.

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).

England were doing rather well

Very much a batting day, was Day 2, although we got to see some (mainly tail-end) wickets too.

By the end of the day England were working hard in the field to little avail.

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.

Paul’s next visit to Lord’s, I think, was more than seven years later with family in tow – click here.

Pergolesi And Vivaldi, Florilegium, Wigmore Hall, 23 May 2010

A simply delightful concert at the Wigmore Hall. Mostly Pergolesi with a bit of Vivaldi thrown in for good measure.

Janie is especially partial to the Pergolesi Stabat Mater. His less well-known Salve Regina and the instrumental pieces were beautiful. In fact the whole concert was utter tonic for our ears.

Florilegium always look as though they enjoy playing together…for all we know they might be masters of deception on stage and like a nest of vipers in the green room…but we suspect that they are as they seem – a serene, coherent unit.

They were promoting their Pergolesi CD at that time and nearly coaxed me into buying yet another disc, but I do already have a couple of complete Pergolesi Stabat Mater recordings.

Here is a very interesting promotional sample from YouTube, with some of the performers explaining the music:

Oh what the heck, that Pergolesi album of theirs is only £8 as an MP3 download and those other Pergolesi pieces were stunningly beautiful. As I write in November 2017, down it all comes like magic through the ether to my computer!

Basquiat Strings & Olivia Chaney, Purcell Room, Southbank Centre, 22 May 2010

We really liked this concert.

We didn’t know either of the acts before we booked; it just sounded interesting and was.

The Basquiat Strings is a string jazz ensemble, basically. Olivia Chaney is a very talented folk singer, who went very well with the strings.

Here is a link to the only write up of the gig I could find.

I have scraped that review to Ogblog just in case – here.

We were really impressed with Olivia Chaney, who confessed to being relatively inexperienced as a concert performer in 2010. I’m glad, writing in 2017, that it seems to be going well for her at this stage – click here.

Canary by Jonathan Harvey, Hampstead Theatre, 21 May 2010

Well, by this time the Ed Hall era had started at Hampstead Theatre, but this one didn’t really work for us.

It felt to us like an “everything including the kitchen sink” gay saga. Angels in America without the sparkling wit, The Normal Heart without the heart-wrenching pathos. It spanned the decades from 1962 (a fine year IMHO) to the present day.

We really wanted to like it. We didn’t really dislike it. It just didn’t grip and/or move us.

Good troupe from the Liverpool Everyman – it was a shame really.

Here is a search term – click here – that finds you all the reviews and resources available back then.

There’s a YouTube trailer/interview with the playwright for this one:

We no doubt went to Harry Morgans for some comfort food before the show.

Spring Storm by Tennessee Williams, Cottesloe Theatre, 15 May 2010

We’d been on a relatively poor run at the theatre for six months. This was more like it!

This production of an early Tennessee Williams was twinned with a production of an early Eugene O’Neil, Beyond The Horizon, which we went to see a few weeks later – click here.

Janie and I are partial to a bit of Tennessee Williams. While this early play is not one of his great plays, it shows all the signs of an emerging great playwright and was a thoroughly enjoyable evening at the theatre.

A very strong cast and production from a regional source; the Royal & Derngate Northampton.

The critics loved it; this search term – click here – will find you the reviews and stuff; mostly for both but some for this play specifically.

We probably got some food from Shanghai Knightsbridge, “May’s”, afterwards. Either that or shawarmas.

A Business Trip To Manchester Including A King Cricket Report On The ICC World T20 Semi-Final and Dinner At Obsidian Restaurant With Ashley, 13 May 2010

Sometimes my King Cricket reports can work like super diary notes. This one, from May 2010, is a good example, as I write in August 2017.

It seems that I was on business in Manchester and had arranged to meet Ashley at a posh new restaurant, Obsidian, now defunct. Jay Rayner stuck the boot into the place a few weeks after our visit – here.

I recall cunningly arranging a slightly later than usual meet time with Ashley so I could see the denouement of the World T20 Semi-Final between Sri Lanka and England.

I wrote it all up on King Cricket – here.

If anything ever happens to King Cricket, the piece is scraped to here.

Everything you might want to geek about the cricket match can be found on Cricinfo – here.

I recall a very convivial evening with Ashley after the match. The restaurant seemed quite good, but I seem to remember that Ashley had a fist full of vouchers, which enabled us to try the place at modest prices. We concluded that the meal had been good value for us, but that the place would not pass the Manchester “value/how much?” test once at menu prices.

Ashley might recall more about that evening; if he does, no doubt he’ll chime in Ogblog-like.