The organist librarian

Swam 20. Played and sang some Messiah and Dichterliebe. Elektra from the Met at Gate cinema. Stunning playing and singing esp Nina Stemme but the drama is harrowing. The final page sends shivers down my spine!  Met Freda who used to come to the Proms.  V and A for Paul Strand photographs and films and a ceramics demonstration by Wedgewoods. Amazing ceramics section and enjoyed tea, did 2 sketches and the British section where I watched film on country houses. Then to final oil painting class. Very pleased with portrait of Liz and so was Nelson Ferreira. Liz pronounced it "quite good" Divorce proceedings to follow after all that work! Sean had an off day and joined in a little at Tamar's. He wanted to go to the toilet alone at lunch at Watermans and I refused. Picked up Liz and we both slept. To Meopham and all went well depsite being late. Brendan Fitzgerald was held up and we went to pick up Kevin but he had taken Brendan Foley home thinking we would not get there in t...

To mosaic. Once again I have paid for 4 sessions 2 of which I will miss. Progress on Madonna's face very good.  Liz took Ciaran to Kidscape at Purley which he enjoyed. Very heavy rain. The Cadogan Hall prom was Jeremy Denk playing Scriabin, Bartok and the last Beethoven sonata. His introduction was excellent and his playing brilliant. Got very wet walking from bus stop. Ciaran went to see Molly.Li stened to the Philharmonia's Prom at home - Bartok, lovely Mozart and Shostakovich. Enjoyed Haydn Symphony no.90 (the audience fell into the trap!) and Barber from the Boston Symphony orchestra on Iplayer with scores. V ery impressed by TV broadcast of Nielsen with the Danish National Symphony orchestra conducted by the splendid Fabio Luisi .

Wed 18th a lie-in and to osteopath Imogen who treated my hamstring.I need to do tai chi and exercises before swimming! Then got trains to see Ciarán for an hour. He had a cold and sniffles and not too happy. On overground to Islington for the recording of the Merlin soundtrack. We were able to watch the film and worked well until 10 p.m. Rob Lane had composed some of the music at 3 p.m. that day! He kept the Destiny theme until last so when he said we might not do it we all agreed to do it! It was certainly the best bit! Home by 11 p.m. but tired. Liz had gone to Birmingham having got Dad's book copied and it will be bound there. Thursday Scherezade and Tchaikovsky's 2nd symphony from Proms. Friday staff meeting and started to sort out basement stuff. Philharmonia orchestra prom on BBC4 with Part, Ravel and Scriabin. Finished reading "A thousand splendid suns" a truly great book and started "Wolf Hall".

Tuesday last day at work before holidays so did lots of clearing up and preparations to make Calix's life as easy as possible. Arrived early at Chiswick for the wedding rehearsal. Lyn and Rosemary came too. Nice to meet Mark the best man. Fr Jim very friendly. I acted as the celebrant and took them through the vows and we worked out where everyone will stand. The church is lovely and it was very touching listening to them. They clearly love each other very much! We went to the local pub for a Guinness and I had steak and Guinness pie. Louise has everything organised. We dropped them off and stayed at the Travelodge on the M4. This was fine but on the wrong side of the road so we had to return to the Chiswick roundabout in the morning to get to Heathrow! We rose at 5.45 but in fact Ann's flight was early so she was waiting for us! Lovely to see her again and we drove home via Josie's! Skyped Paul. Listened and recorded Mum's tapes about her life. Watched the Salonen prom...

Another flood at work this morning. I reported last week that there was a small lake on the roof. Nobody came to clear the gullies of leaves and debris so the water must have seeped through and soaked 2 ceiling tiles, one of which fell apart. I got on the roof and as on this day I was wearing shoes and not sandals waded to the gully and cleared it so that the water ran away with a satisfying gurgle! The study room is still unusable. It seems that schools in Wandsworth got priority even though they are closed! To tai chi and there were 11 there! Watched the prom on BBC4 but fell asleep during Esa Pekka Salonen's piano concerto which seemed to just be very fast notes rushing about and going nowhere! The Berlioz Romeo and Juliet was much more enjoyable. Then watched Channel 5's programme on Diana the last days which I thought sensitive and interesting and matched the book I just read. The film "The Queen" brought home the tragedy for all of us of her death 10 years ago. ...