…the evening that Nicole Kidman and I had our magic moment ‘n’ all…
…I came across the above headlined diary entry the day before.
Delving into Janie’s diary for more clues, I discover that Janie “collected wild boar” on the Thursday when in town (that would have been from Harvey Nicholls in those days) after collecting red cabbage and marinade from Waitrose first thing.
Strangely, just the other day (25 years after the above wild boar evening), Janie and I were discussing our inability to get wild boar any more . [Insert here your own joke about me having progressed from wild boar to wild bore in the space of 25 years.]
Less strangely, we’re still very much in touch with John and Mandy 25 years later…
I think this wild boar dinner visit might have been the first time that Janie and I met Lydia.
In the coincidence department, the Cambridge Theatre (where Lydia now resides) is within spitting distance of The Donmar Warehouse in Earlham Street, where 25 years earlier, Nicole and I…
Another Sunday evening concert at the Wigmore Hall, this time to explore the church music of Haydn and his contemporaries with Peter Holman, Psalmody and The Parley of Instruments.
We heard:
Joseph Haydn – Three Psalms from Improved Psalmody (Ps 31, Ps 41, Ps 69)
Charles Burney – The Dialogue Hymn: Tell Us, O Women
John Stafford Smith – Horrible is the End of th’Unrighteous Generation
Joseph Haydn – The Emperor’s Hymn: Poco Adagio from the String Quartet in C Major, Op 76/3
Joseph Haydn -Give to God Our Thankful Songs
William Gardiner of Leicester – Give to God Our Thankful Songs
John Foster of High Green, Yorkshire – The God of Gods the Lord Hath Call’d
Johan Arnold Dahmen – Three Songs from Eleven Sacred Songs
Johan Arnold Dahmen – Two Psalms from Improved Psalmody
Samuel Webbe Senior – Where, Lord, Shall My Refuge See
William Shield – My God, My King with Joyful View
Thomas Greatorex – This is the Day the Lord Hath Made
Samuel Webbe Junior – Variations in A Major on “”Adeste Fideles”
Joseph Haydn – Three Psalms from Improved Psalmody (Ps 61, Ps 26, Ps 50)
Jolly good it was too, in the hands of these experts.
Janie and I thought this piece and performance was simply superb. In fact, I wrote:
Superb!!
…in my log and I am not normally the double-exclamation-mark type.
This was David Hare’s brave dive into performing a one-man-show on one of the thorniest topics he might possibly choose – the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Talk about high risk, but we thought Hare pulled off a blinder with this piece/performance.
Janie and I thought that Dumfries and Galloway was a very long way to go for just a couple of nights for Annalisa’s wedding, so we decided to extend our trip a little, ambling back via Sharrow Bay, a place Janie had long since wanted to try, taking an additional day off work.
Looking at both of our diaries now, 25 years later, that made the rest of the week ludicrously stuffed with work for both of us, but it was worth it, as we thoroughly enjoyed the whole trip and took lots of pictures.
12 & 13 September 1998: Annalisa’s Wedding, Annan & Clarencefield
Looks like we were among the first arrivals that weekend
We stayed at the Warmanbie Hotel, which I learn closed in 2005. It was just outside Annan, quite near to the wedding venue and set in beautiful countryside – Janie and I got there early enough on the Saturday to enjoy some walks and relax around the area before the wedding.
I even took a camera with a close-up lens, primarily expecting to use it at Sharrow Bay but actually the gardens at Warmanbie were photogenic too.
Me, Bobbie & Janie standing, ? seated left, Charlotte de Mercur seated right
Annalisa reminds me that the formal wedding took place a couple of days earlier – the above picture taken just before the “traditional” ceremonial wedding outside the castle – see pictures below.
“Dad-style dancing” is compulsory at weddings, even for those of us who are not dads
14 & 15 September: Sharrow Bay Hotel
Sharrow Bay, PenrithBeautiful gardens at Sharrow Bay Hotel
Sharrow Bay Hotel was lovely, although a little twee for our taste. We wanted to relax and certainly felt able to do so on arrival and looking around for a while, but soon it became clear that the hotel was run on a “strict house timings” basis. For example, our request for a slightly later meal time was met with, “but we serve dinner at…” response. Our request simply to miss out on “pre dinner drinks, which are served at sundown o’clock” was met with, “but everyone comes down for drinks at sundown o’clock, that’s how we like it here.”
“Do I have to get up and go down for pre-dinner drinks?”“I suppose so”Yummy grub – we were happy
Once all the other dinners had retired early, we could relax in our own way.
“Cosy in ‘ere, ain’t it?”“Don’t like rules”
When we got back to London the next day, we had dinner at The Chiswick, an offshoot of The Brackenbury. The former didn’t last as long as the latter, which, 25 years later, is still there. The site of the Chiswick is now a Gourmet Burger place. We remember The Chiswick as being quite good. It was certainly a pleasant way to round off a most memorable long weekend.
All the pictures from that long weekend can be found through the Flickr link below or click here.
We took The Duchess (Janie’s mum) with us to this one – the only Prom we did with The Duchess that year. She was partial to youth orchestras, so this Saturday evening concert was the obvious pick for The Duchess that year.
…again to play with Barnardo’s, but this time also with The Children’s Society.
I know that Ian Theodoreson and Bob Harvey gave us and their Barnardo’s charges every encouragement to make these evenings happen, but I have a feeling that neither of them made it to either evening.
Anyway, it was a very jolly evening and a great chance for people to get to know each other as well as mess around a bit playing cricket.
Not only did Barnardo’s still supply a bunch of dudes who knew what they were doing – see photo above…
…The Children’s Society was also blessed with some half-decent cricketers, including Chief Executive and glove man Ian Sparks:
Ian Sparks on gloves, Harish Gohil at bat; presumably this was warming up pre contestCharles “Charley The Gent Malloy” Bartlett – starting as he meant to go on
I can’t remember in detail the playing conditions we came up with for this particular evening, but sort-of having three teams in an after work round robin in August was never going to work brilliantly as matches. I have a feeling we played sort-of eight a side with additional supply fielders from the sides that weren’t batting.
No slide rule – but the Barnardo’s score book and my own trusty light meterReservoir Dogs but without the ultraviolence? Kevin Parker (striding, front left), Rupert Stubbs (hatted, central), Michael Mainelli (arms folded in disgust, right).Spot the ball (obviously going uppishly to backward square leg, that’s me batting)Mainelli looks relieved to have been dismissed.
I still think the whole idea had started with Kevin Parker and some of the Barnardo’s team he was working with – I wonder if I can extract a confession from him.
We took a Monday off work to enjoy a lunchtime concert at the V&A, then meander around that space and then go to the evening Prom at the Royal Albert hall.
This was the lunchtime concert:
Francesco Gasparini – Quanto sei penosa
Arcangelo Corelli – 12 Trio Sonatas, Op 1 No. 9 in G major
Innocenzo Fede – Bellezze voi siete
Innocenzo Fede – Sei pur dolce
Innocenzo Fede – Violin Sonata in D minor
Alessandro Scarlatti – Correa nel seno amato
London Baroque was the chamber orchestra, with Charles Medlam leading and Catherine Bott beautifully belting the soprano bits.
I wrote surprisingly vaguely about this in my log, as I am sure I wrote it up fairly soon after seeing the play:
unsure of length – recall shortish no interval
Impressionistically, I remember the evening fondly. Paula Wilcox was an actress I had only previously seen doing sitcom, but I remember realising that she really could act…and needed to for this piece.
Fortunately for posterity, despite its small scale, it was written up by proper journalists at the time. So I didn’t need to.
Robin Stringer previewed the piece in the Standard:
