The organist librarian

Listening to the super Halle prom with Mark Elder Warner, Debussy and the Firebird. Seems the folk prom now on TV was packed and enjoyable. Got no 9 in queue for Liz.  Reading Barbara Boehm's Jerusalem in the fab National Art library Victoria and Albert museum.  Beautiful book. T shirt wringing wet after Vespers and Mass. Glad I wore my shorts. Listening to NYO Prom on phone (lost end of the Benjamin) Liz is at the concert. Shower, cold beer, cone. Ligeti, Debussy La Mer, Ravel left hand piano concerto, Mussorgsky, Benjamin. 

19/9 it poured. To the Cloisters msueum - all mediaeval, chapels and cloisters. Wonderful tapestries, beautiful sculptures and ivories. To Cathedral of St John the Divine for recital by Raymond Neugen - Sowerby, Howells, Bach - excellent and a huge sound. Martin Ball was there! He is charming and liked the Wyton and Moore I played. he did not know the Wyton which was written for that organ an Aeolian Skinner. Big echo. Lunch nearby opposite hospital. To the Metropolitan museum Byzantine, mediaeval and Japanese - musical instruments closed. Pancakes and tea at diner Nectar 82. To the preview of Jerusalem 1000-1400 every people under heaven at the Met - lovely to walk through the empty galleries apart from staff. Superb collection of objects from all over the place. Lovely to see Barbara - it took 6 years to set up, she works at the Cloisters. Alas the book costs 74 dollars! She was delighted to see us. Mixed crowd lots of Jewish, Franciscans. Bought lovely local beer at Whole Foods. So...

Yesterday we went to Jim and Hyacinth's to collect some plants - they have an amazing garden! Woke early and went to the pool only to find it closed until 8.30 a.m. To mosaic and main pattern finished - just the boring white background bits to do. I think I shall take a break from it in the summer. To St Michael Cornhill and gave out Beckenham and St John's fliers in the course of which I met Prof Michael Musgrave who studied with Downes and Darke and is an expert on Brahms. Stephen Farr played beautifully - Preston, Mendelssohn 2, Bartok (!) Judith Bingham, Alain, Thurlow and best of all the Dorian! Always makes me think of Dad doing his FTCL. Home and working on Croydon meetings idea.  Also  a new blog on Jerusalem. http://cmjerusalem.blogspot.co.uk/

Wednesday was a serious day. We went to Yad Vashem which is distressing and makes me angry at the inhumanity of the Holocast. Afterwards we met Yahan a Jew who works against demolition of Palestinian houses. He showed us how Yad Vashem while an excellent museum has an agenda about Israel and is built on the site of demolished villages. We went to see the outskirts of a mental hospital where the village was where Palestinians were massacred in 1948 leading to evacuations. In the evening we had an excllent session with Christian and Mulsim young ladies - the account of the El Al search was disgusting and I will certainly l never fly with them again. I am still puzzling over apartheid parallels but there is hope that the women might change things. Thursday 26.3.15 To the Dome of the Rock at 7 a.m. We were very priviledged to go into both mosques and the Muslims prayed under the actual rock. Wonderful stained glass and mosaics and decoration. The Al Aqsa mosque is huge – 7 aisles and mo...

19.3.15 St Joseph. Woke at 6.45 too late to get to Eucharist in the cathedral. The Muslims got up at 4 a.m. to go to the Al Aqsa mosque – prayers there are multiplied 10,000 times! After a good breakfast we talked about hopes and challenges for the course. Dr Rodney Aist gave us an overview of the history and we talked about the Pact of Omar which appears to be a forgery and the paragraph from Nostra Aetate about Muslims. A lovely lunch and then off to the Mount of Olives for the chapel of the Ascension which is a shared site and Mustafa gave us the history from a Muslim viewpoint. A long walk down the hill to the Church of the Nations, tomb of Mary and Gethsemani. We met up again at the Lions gate and El-Ghazali square and a visit to the Muslim cemetery where 2 of Muhammad’s companions are buried. A walk along the Via Dolorosa and through the covered market to the Wailing Wall where there has been more building. Back to the coach and had a rest. Liz went to evensong in the cathedral...

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.

Monday morning another scrumptious breakfast and  a lovely day. Drove to Bettys Bay and the Harold Porter garden which has an excellent eccotrail covering 4 types of vegetation including wetland, dunes, forest and fynbos. A good break and then a superb drive along the winding coast road. Arrived at airport in good time, One mark on back of car (it happened when reversing at Stan's - if he had not been there I think I would have parked at the top of the drive for the whole time!) We were covered with comprehensive so no problem. Tom tom returned - it had its odddities too like falling off its screen holder and not recognising some roads! 2 hour SAA flight to Joburg then watched victorious soccer team arriving with much dancing and singing. Liz had forgotten sunspray was in bag so that got taken away. Shopping at Out of Africa. Slept a bit on Etihad flight to Abu Dhabi and an hour there before flight to London - same hassle getting through security again. Arrived on time and an hour...

Yesterday's gospel so movingly expounded by Fr Michael Barnes Luke 19:41-44 Dominus flevit church Mount of Olives   As Jesus drew near Jerusalem and came in sight of the city he shed tears over it and said; "If you in your turn had only understood on this day the message of peace! But, alas, it is hidden from your eyes!"