A concert of Vivaldi pieces, performed by the Hanover Band, led by Richard Egarr.
A Thursday evening concert – both of us had pretty chock-full diaries in those days, but Janie and I both managed to limit our appointments to avoid late afternoon ones.
We heard:
Concerto in G minor for 2 violins and cello Op 3 No 2
Motet “In Furore Iustissimae Irae” for soprano, 2 violins, viola and bass
Concerto in E minor for violin Op 6 No 5
Concerto in D minor for violin Op 6 No 6
Motet “Per la Solennita di S. Antonio” Vos aurae per montes
Concerto in D major for 4 violins, Op 3 No 1
Here’s at least a sample from each of the pieces we heard that night – sadly none by The Hanover Band who didn’t tend to record this stuff. The “In furore iustissimae irae” is worth the price of admission alone.
This was one of our “oh wow!” visits to the theatre.
Superb,
was all I write in the log, but I knew I wouldn’t need to write much down because the evening was so memorable.
It was a bank holiday Monday and Mum’s birthday. “How did you get away with that?”, I hear you readers cry.
My diary notes that we went to Mum & Dad for bank holiday lunch before going on to the RNT for Blue / Orange. Simple enough.
This is a great play, which was masterfully performed by Chiwetel Ejiofor (our first sighting of him), Andrew Lincoln and Bill Nighy. Roger Michell directed. Theatricalia tells all here.
My friend, Michael Billington, had a downer on the National at that time – it took me a dozen or so more years to acquire a similar view. Still, Michael B approved of this one:
In truth I remember little about this play/production at the Lyric Studio, other than the fact that it was one of those plays with lots of video projection.
Mostly such plays leave us cold, which I think this one did, although sometimes, when done well, the mixture of live performance and video effects can be stunning, such as Bluets, which we saw last year (as I write in 2025):
According to Janie’s diary, the piece was a merciful 80 minutes long and we went on to dine at a place called The Springbok Cafe on Devonshire Road in Chiswick- very appropriate given that Deborah Levy is of South African origin! Strangely, I remember the meal more than the play.
That was my log note for this memorable evening of theatre.
Celebration was a brand new play. The Room a revival of Pinter’s first. Harold himself directing as well as writing – not always a brilliant idea but Harold could pull that trick off.
What a cast! Keith Allen, Andy de la Tour, Lindsay Duncan, Steven Pacey, Indira Varma, Lia Williams, Danny Dyer, Nina Raine, Henry Woolf, George Harris and others. Theatricalia holds chapter and verse on the cast lists etc.:
Where was Michael Billington, who was a regular Orange Tree reviewer back then, that’s what I want to know? And where did Janie and I eat? That second question is easier – for sure we’d have eaten at Don Fernando’s back then.
My log falls silent for this last day of our holiday.
Did we play tennis? I have no idea. I think probably not.
Did we have a splendid and massive breakfast? Almost certainly yes.
Did we go down to the beach to say goodbye to our camel friends, Cadissa and Fred? Just look at the headline photo and be informed.
Here are a few more photos from that day. I wanted to put a roll of film through Janie’s new camera, hence far too many pictures of us doing the square root of nothing much at all.
I do recall that it had become very hot and humid on our last day at the Ritz-Carlton, such that we realised that we had timed our break there rather well/fortuitously, as it was not fun sitting out for any length of time that last day.
We returned to Splendidos for our last meal. Without a log to help me remember what we ate, I’m afraid that vital information is lost in the mists of time. But whatever it was , it looks from the picture as though it pleased us.
You can see all the pictures from that final leg of our journey on the Flickr album linked here and below.
Lounged out on poolside (little/no sun for two hours in the afternoon!).
Taxi to Jumeirah Beach – bought Daisy a camera – then buggy ride to dinner at Marina Seafood (superb food, service, ambience and even value!) Sashimi of tuna beautifully presented as a starter. Tried Omani lobster and Daisy tried hallouyoo [aka kanaad or] (“the sheik’s fish” – a bit like seabass) and we both enjoyed Matthew Lang Traminer Riesling. Then coffee upstairs on terrace.
My most abiding memory of this meal was a conversation with the waiter who was tempting Janie into trying the so-called “Sheikh’s” fish. He sang the praises of this fish and wanted Janie to know that the Sheikh himself was partial to this fish, asking for it whenever he dined at that establishment.
Janie asked the waiter what the Sheikh is like. The waiter repeated his shtick about the excellence of the fish and that the Sheikh is indeed partial to it.
“Yes, but what is the Sheikh like?”…
…asked Janie again. Again, the waiter did that thing we expect from politicians, waxing lyrical about the fish and the fact that it was royally approved.
I decided to intervene.
“We understand that the fish is excellent and known as the sheikh’s fish. We understand that Sheikh Maktoum likes this fish. What Janie here wants to know is, what is Sheikh Maktoum like? She wants to know about the Sheikh himself.”
The waiter looked left and right to be sure that he was not within earshot of anyone else.
Rose early. Played tennis – breakfast – lounged by pool.
Went first to Jumeirah Beach Hotel for nosey & to book dinner for tomorrow. Then on to our dinner at Arab Tower [Burj Al Arab] “Al Muntaha” on 27th floor. Incredibly kitch interiors and pomped up staff, for very good meal nonetheless.
One of the attractions of booking Al Muntaha for dinner was the opportunity to have a guided tour of the interior of the Burj Al Arab. The hotel was selling tours at quite a sizeable rate – I think about $20 per head, whereas the tour was thrown in for free if you were dining at Al Muntaha.
Arab Tower has now overtaken Gazelle d’Or [near Taroudant, in Morocco] as the most pretentious and snotty place on earth.
Enjoyed the people watching.
I have one very special memory of the people watching.
Janie and I had gone to some lengths to ensure that I had the requisite clothing to meet the requirements of the dress code, which was basically to wear a collared shirt and tie with tailored trousers.
We were sitting quite near the entrance to the restaurant. Soon after we arrived, a couple arrived, the gentleman of the pair wearing a casual polo shirt or t-shirt, with no tie. The maître d informed the gentleman that he was required to wear a collared shirt and tie in order to gain admittance to the restaurant.
The gentleman said, very loudly, in a gruff voice…
“well, I don’t have a shirt and I don’t have a tie, but I do have loadsa money”…
…while extracting and waving a wad of notes in the direction of the maître d.
This way, sir…
…said the maître d, hurriedly ushering the couple to their table. How many of those notes changed hands, if any, is lost to us as neither Janie nor I saw the very end of that transaction. Al Muntaha. Possibly not quite so pretentious and/or hypocritical 25 years later.
You can see all the pictures from that final leg of our journey on the Flickr album linked here and below.
Souk Al Majarra (as was in 2000), now the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization
Wednesday 5 April 2000 – Rose early to play tennis – had brekkie and lounged by pool all day! Took early dinner at hotel (La Bais restaurant) where we both had duck. I had a trio of chocolate thing for pudding. Early night.
Thursday 6 April 2000 – Rose early, played tennis and lounged by pool. Caesar salad lunch!. Gave up on pool a little early to get 4:15 Wafi bus and then taxi from Wafi to Sharjah. Got dropped off at naff Gold Centre rather than gold souk – quickly legged it to gold souk (also known as Blue souk). Bought two pairs of earrings for Daisy.
Then on to Souk Al Majarra which we thought might have old things but was mostly “fashions” in the Middle Eastern context. Then on to cricket pitch where we just walked in and saw/photographed Emirates Airline versus Mashreq Bank in the Bukhatir League!
Farcical search for recommended restaurant with dim taxi driver. We all gave up about 20 yards from the spot (it looked naff anyway as we zoomed past it in another cab) and headed for Automatic in Dubai, where I tried the mixed grill while Daisy stuck with shawarma.
You can see all the pictures from that final leg of our journey on the Flickr album linked here and below.
Rose early, played tennis had breakfast and lounged by pool. Caught 6:15 [pm] Wafi bus – looked around Wafi shopping mall (yuk, but bought some CDs).
“Precisely which CDs did you buy?”, I hear many readers cry.
I’m glad you’ve asked me that question. These two albums, which Janie and I used a lot to help make up playlists for parties in the early 2000s. I have replicated the tracks from both into a YouTube playlist, which you can access through this link or the picture links below.
Took a taxi to “fake souk”, Souk Al Kararia, where we bought a designer shirt for £8, designer tie for £2 – subsequently discovered that it goes with my [Catalan] cardi! And three designer watches at £9 each. Then on to Golden Fork for dinner where the seafood was good and the service defied description. Taxi home.
The purpose of the “designer” shirt and “designer” tie was to enable me to comply with the dress code for dinner at the Burj Al Arab’s Al Muntaha Restaurant, which we had booked for a few days later.
You can see all the pictures from that final leg of our journey on the Flickr album linked here and below.
