The organist librarian

Mass and got hearing aid batteries. Great having the boys to stay and Henry loved the water play. To Glyndebourne Prom so had Pimms. Pelleas and Melisande. The talk was good and explained the weird production which does not help. Great singing and orchestral playing. Best not to look at the stage!

Went to recording of Just a minute x 2 at radio theatre Broadcasting House. Huge demo outside against Trump. Just a minute was great laughed and laughed. They go out September. A splendid In tune with superb string quartet, 3 cellos, quitar and quintet, Brindley Sherratt and ondes martenot. Did not care for James Collier. Catch it on I player. First night off to a good start with Oliver Knussen, Vaughan Williams and Holst. The very loud new piece by Anna Meredith was not helped by being in the same programme as The Planets. A attractive quiet choral section but what was the text? 5 telegrams? Have to watch the TV recording to see if the visual effects really worked. 6 bays of the gallery taken by equipment and seats moved. Home at mdnight.

Swam 22 and put down black stuff in front garden then stones came and Bruce spread them out. To mosaic and tai chi - Tony was late and I left at 1 to get to Heythrop. Got vouchers for restaurant for filling in student surveys. Spoke to Eddie Howells and Bob Thomas about Eckhart. The seminar was on love and knowledge in Christian spirituality in relation to Augustine, Bonaventure and the Cloud of Unknowing. Stefan had some great cartoons! Paul was good on Bonaventure. Had dinner and then to Covent Garden for a most enjoyable Zauberflote on student ticket £8! Christopher Maltman was excellent as was Brindley Sherratt. Home to watch final of University challenge.

Now to catch up using a very full diary! Aug 2 spirituality day with Fr Robin Burgess - having not seen him for so long I had forgotten how good he is! The chorus was much occupied with carols and Liz only sang in one of the concerts. Louise, Tom and Ciarán came over on 11th to consult Clare about breast feeding and once that had happened he regained his birth weight and all was well. He had been back at the hospital on the 9th. 7th to tai chi group Christmas lunch at excellent Italian opposite the library. 8th Liz at servers council. I missed Catenians on the 7th for obvious reasons! 9th Unison committee meeting. 10th to ENO for "Messiah" for some reason both of us thought it started at 7.30 instead of 7 p.m. so we stood at back of gallery for first part - the singing was superb. Some of the staging was odd but we did enjoy it. I think this work is so popular that it must be hard to be original. Some of it was rather twee! Lots of shaking hands and the chorus should have mov...