The organist librarian

A long day! Train from Selhurst cancelled so drove to Norwod Junction and got train there. Liz later moved the car back to Selhurst. I played Thiman on Slane and Karg-Elert Nun danket. No time to play Pilgrims chorus from Tannhauser. Fr Tim Goode is a musician and enjoyed the music! To Mary King's workshop on Semiramide choruses which was enjoyable. Dudamel conducted the first prom with great panache - Villa Lobos and Ravel and one encore. Mark Elder conducted the Rossini which had some fine singing and choruses but it does go on a bit. Finished at 11 and home after midnight! Liz stayed for an hour then went to visit Dennis and AnnMarie - they came down last night and Dennis did the Catenian form.

Swam and to Scratchley hall - blood pressure and pulse low and in ideal position 23 re weight and height! Met Liz Ellis in Peter Jones and saw Fred Irvine. Lovely Cadogan hall prom with 12 cellos. Great soprano but high C not in score and where were the glissandi? Had a good view but sketching cellists not easy! To Georgia O'Keefe at Tate modern - too many people but did get to flr 10 and 8 this time despite the inadequate lifts!  A fascinating pre-Prom discussion on male grooming and beards! Sparkling Prom from Glyndebourne The Barber of Seville - great singing and very funny!

Swam 20. Spent the day on Catenian business and emails about the interfaith group. Laurence Jones is no longer a Catenian - he joined in 1977 - sad really. I managed to get onto the portal and discovered Head office had a very old email address for me - no wonder I have not been receiving circulars! The visit to Hyderi mosque to discuss Sunday's meeting was cancelled. Liz went to servers council but there were too few to meet. I sent an email to the Catholic Herald about an attack on Paul Inwood in the paper and on Face Book -outrageous! Peter Sanders rang about his visit to St Michael's on Thursday. He said John Mander had pushed Alan into the Kellner tuning and Nigel Groome had said he would not play that organ as it just sounds out of tune! To Vaughn House for the launch of Monks and Mystics 3. Lots of people there I knew and delighted to see Shakyh Hamzy. The speakers were good Fr Jonathan from Ampleforth, Archbishop Kevin and Dr Shomali. I said I found mosques full of wa...

Swam 20 and Nick came to sort out laptop and take old one away. 3 and a half hours! To Greenwich picture house to see Comedy of Errors from the Globe. Laughed and laughed and the text was brilliantly interpreted with lots of clever nuances and visual gags. To Acton and Liz went home to get railcard then to servers council and back to get phone from car! Picked up Sean from Shameena's no problem and finally got them to sleep at 9 15! Listened to part of William Tell from ROH and dropped off.

Packed cases and cleared up ready to leave. To Gate picturehouse to see Met production of La Donna del lago by Rossini. Good audience. Joyce di Donato was stunning and so was Florez. Standing ovation. To Vic and A cast room and drew 2 lions one by Donatello! To oil painitng and the first part is done and shellac is on (3 coats). Fish and chips when Louise and Tom came home and Sean popped out of bed! We got up at 5 a,m, and drove to terminal 5 where the valet parking took the car and we had breakfast at Giraffe. The flight BA was smooth and as we were in a group with Bishop Richard we sailed through passport control with diplomatic support! We then waited for the Luton flight to come in and all got on the coach.to Jerusalem. Views of the walls and the divisions are very clear. Very warm welcome at St Georg'e college and a very pleasant room. Excellent meal and orientation session.

On Bank Holiday Monday we went to the Odeon Beckenham to see the ROH production of La Donna del lago live from Covent Garden. Adrian, Terence and Graham were there and it was full. The singing was stunning especially Joyce Didonato, Juan Diego Florez and Colin Lee. The production was wierd with Walter Scott and Rossini (sung by a woman) staging the opera for a Caledonian society. I kept dropping off in the first act but the second act was much better. The wierd juxtaposition of warriors bathing themselves in blood and haggis and then umbrellas appearing.... at one point the heroine was on stage while everyone was bemoaning her absence - she was a foot away! Still we enjoyed it especially the finale with stunning runs. 

Saturday Richard rang and said do nothing about Tablet otherwise it will stoke the fire of tittle tattle. BBC chorus only have 2 rehearsals for Beethoven 9 one of them for people who have not done it before! To O2 which I had not seen - it was pouring but I saw some of the building. The prayer space is a temporary structure near the tube station and completely neutral. A warm welcome and saw several interfaith folk. No RC Mass there as the diocese said people could be expected to find Mass at North Greenwich! They set off on the Greenwich interfaith walk and I came home very easily on tube and overground trains via Canada Water - much better than going to London Bridge. Drove to Southborough and arrived at Speldhurst 2.30 so time to play the organ (Andriessen) then got lost on way to Fordcombe but in time to hear the organist play Vivaldi/Bach and a guide spoke about the church - not that interesting. At last I played and then dashed off coming to Selhurst via Westerham and Warlingham....

Liz painting doors. To Harvest flower festival and played from 2.45 p.m. All went reasonably well - one or two weak leads but the kids did well and so did John. It was appreciated. Lots of people in the hall and I bought a cake and some coconut bread and tamarind. There was even a Viking harvest feast and a toy train layout on the stage. To 10 pin bowling and Mollie and Ella and their Mums formed a team with me. 12 teams in all and much enjoyed. Royal Russell team 1 won with an amazing 701 points which must be the best yet - one lad had 4 strikes! Holy Trinity Redhill 2nd and St John Redhill 3rd. Gave out certificates and trophy. Hugh Sutton very chatty from Royal Russell. Terrence Hancock fussing over money as usual! To Purley for Mass. Fr Gregory's homily was indecipherable and then he started singing "Seek ye first". One girl server in white alb too short for her with white trainers, another with silver slippers and sort of mincing along! To West Norwood to meet Liz wh...

34 lengths as it was busy although I did get on the left hand side against the rope which was nice. Work experience Alex useless and refusing to do things again! He finished Friday - 4 days was quite enough. When asked if I would do a report I replied "Only if I have to!" "Will you miss me?" "Oh, yes!". 2 possible volunteers came in but neither of them very available at the moment although they are off school! Some of the younger generation just don't try! Alexander McCall Smith's "Corduroy Mansions" had me in fits of laughter! Home to watch on BBC4 the prom - BBC Philharmonic conducted by Gianandrea Noseda. Mendelssohn Italian symphony (with my score which is an interesting Norton with 4 pages of miniature score to a page and themes highlighted) Maxwell Davies Roma amor (I fell asleep in this but caught up with it later) magnificent Respighi Pines of Rome and Rossini arias sung by Alaskan soprano Vivica Genaux. She has a fine mezzo color...

We really enjoyed the opera live from Covent Garden at Canary Wharf. BP provided plastic groundsheets, rain capes and inflatable cushions and we needed them as it poured at the start but then cleared up well. We christened our St John's College bag for carrying drinks and 2 cushions. All the cast were great especially Juan Florez the tenor and the soprano in a wheelchair. Home at midnight and Liz went to Bow as water man coming tomorrow. Met Nina soprano from St John's as I got off at Norwood Junction and her husband met her. She went early to get a seat in Trafalgar Square and got wet too.

Tuesday's swim was shorter as I was late getting up and took the car down as I needed it in the evening. To Catenian council meeting at Jim's new home in Sanderstead. A useful meeting. Wednesday had a lie-in and to Coulsdon to see Vickie. Hymns now chosen up to the end of August. To St Michael's for Riccardo Bonci's recital and Liz joined me there. he played transcriptions of Grieg, Dvorak, Vivaldi by Bach, Rossini. It was a fun programme apart from Liszt's Arcadelt Ave Maria which I thought was far too slow. The extraordinary piece from 19th century Italy based on Aida must have wowed them at Mass! We had a toasted sandwich and cappuccino at Marks and Liz got some lovely jewellery for her wedding outfit. To Allders and luggage shop looking at rucksacks and to Debenhams for china. We ended up at Ikea where we got 2 good rucksacks for £15 each, photo frames and artificial apple blossom for the library. Watched Julie Walters in "Filth; the Mary Whitehouse story...