The organist librarian

Louise rose early and drove us to Heathrow. Very good of her as the family would be at Beanie'zs for the New Year. We had breakfast and the wheelchair service was OK although it was quite a walk to the desk and also no Wheelchair while in shopping area .i was able to get an eyeshade and water. The flight was excellent. Singapore Airlines staff and food excellence. We were in a 2 on top deck. I was able to do my exercises and watched Bioto Mefistofele from Munich brilliant chorus, Pape, Calleja. Lohengrin which I have not seen before from Dresden again great singing and acting Netrebko. Lan Shui conducting Singapore SO. In Berlin Schumann cello concerto with Jan Vogler, Strauss, Ravel, Hindemith. Did not sleep much 12 hours. taxi to Park Royal on Kitchener unimpressed by staff. Arrived 8 am no room until 3! Trailfinders will hear of this. Shower at pool Liz very cross. Taxi to Good Shepherd cathedral for packed mass got a seat Liz outside. Homily rambling, overheads, odd choir lots...

Had a lie-in. Liz went to get her new Boots glasses (2 pairs) and I listened to Walton symphony No. 1 with score from the Prom and the Maxwell Davies Prom which was heavy going! I went to Clapham Junction to get my resized ring and said hello to Isabel Losada in the window ar Waterstone's for the Battersea literature festival. The discussion was about Singapore and I asked a question about our experience of the attentive mixed age audience and made the point that I had waited 10 years for them to play at the Proms. Glinka very fast, the Zhou Long concerto was attractive and Haefliger played a Berio encore which was quite bearable! Rachmaninov 2 very well played and a Walton march for industry as an excellent encore. To Acton. Wednesday Louise was home working and the lovely fireplace was installed. We went to Bekonscot which the boys loved. On the way back we went through Burnham Beeches - very pretty. The interview with Sir Roger Norrington was amusing. He spoke a lot about vi...