The Friars Club of Aylesbury brought many famous bands to the town. It was about to end when I moved to Aylesbury back in 1982. I didn’t know of it, and shortly after I moved here, the club closed. In the early 70’s David Bowie debuted two albums in Aylesbury. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust on the 21st September 1971 and Spiders from Mars on the 29th January 1992.
On the 16th January 2016, David Bowie died. After a special event in Aylesbury, a week after his untimely death a petition was started to create a David Bowie statue. The council agreed, but would give no money. A Kickstarter project was started to raise the money. The money was raised and the statue built. It was installed while I was travelling in New Zealand. It has taken me until the 17th October to actually go into Aylesbury and see the statue which I contributed to. It well worth spending the time to see it, and be there at the top of the hour. A random track from David’s music is played every hour.
A last-minute invite for a weekend away by Bill and Viv. (We are always available at the last minute!) We were to meet them, plus Valerie and Norman at the National Trust’s Upton House and Gardens. There was to be music on the lawn. We arrived ahead of schedule and sat on the lawn in expectation. Eventually a solo singer female singer with backing music track came on. Not particularly inspiring. We then had a wander around the groundsbefore going into the house on our booked ticket. We had been to Upton House back in 2011. The theme of the house had been tragically changed. In 2011 it was very much themed on upstairs and downstairs. This time the theme was on how Lord and Lady Bearstead had upgraded the house. It was not so inspiring, and this time I could not play on the snooker table ☹. There were also an exhibition from the Country Life magazine, with one glaring error, where The Flint House on the “Waddestone estate” was located in “Bedfordshire”! Rosemary appalled. I must hasten to state this was not a National Trust error, but Country Life’s error.
Our friends arrived, and booked their tours, we all had tea and I don’t think anyone saw the solo singer on the lawn other than R and I.
My pictures this time were all from the garden, which we never looked at in 2011. The Garden is on a steep hill with some sharp drops. From the house you don’t see the valley and the ponds, when you walk out over the lawn you come to a six-foot unfenced vertical drop which then continues on down to the ponds. It is all rather fabulous.
After leaving the house we went on to the nearby pub / hotel of The Castle at Edghill where we sat and drank some Hook Norton ales, and looked out over the battlefield. Revived, we set of to Leamington Spar to stay the night at Bill and Viv’s where I was entertained with a Negroni and we all ate an excellent fish stew. Oh, and I was entrusted to choose the music!
Compton Verney and Rowlands Emett’s Marvellous Machines
So on the Sunday we all went to Compton Verney which we had visited with Bill, Viv, Norman and Valerie back in 2016. This time, there was an exhibition of mechanical devices, ranging from a minute, walking Faberge Elephant owned by the Queen to larger room-sized Marvellous Machines constructed by the artist Rowlands Emett. All highly entertaining.
We had an invitation from Ravi and Maggie to see a Shakespeare play being performed in Ely Cathedral. Rosemary was very interested, I was a little dubious having fallen asleep in the last play I saw by the Bard. Well in any case it was a night away, Rosemary wanted to go and who am I to argue, and Ely cathedral is a beautiful grand building. Oh and the sun was shining.
We drove on up and got immediately were caught is some traffic delays around Cambridge, major works building a new interchange for the A14. Be warned this will take several years to complete. Checked in, at the Poets House Hotel and Restaurant, into a huge room, with huge copper bath and separate shower, overlooking St Mary’s Street and The Green. Car parked, and we walked down to the River Great Ouse and sat beside the river in front of The Cutter Inn with a pint in one hand and a very large BLT sandwich in the other. Just as we were settled, out host walked by, Ravi was on his way to Cambridge to give an Economics lecture but would be back for the evening.
We were not the only guests, Andrea and Richard were also on their way and met us at the Inn for lunch. Maggie the other host also materialised, and we sat and nattered.
We did a little shopping in Ely city centre, viewed some frying pans that might have been suitable for Morrison, but ended up not buying. R also rummaged through a few charity shops. I was barred from entering Fat Face. Next, we ended up back at the hotel, changed and made our way to the Cathedral for the play, Much Ado about Nothing. I didn’t realise how small and intimate this performance was going to be. I had incorrectly assumed we would be in the main body fo the cathedra. But no, there were about 40 of us watching, seated on either side of the chancel, with the actors in between us. Oh, we were so close to the actors we could reach out and touch them. Indeed, some lucky/unlucky audience members were picked on and used as props.
The play is quite complex, but luckily, we had read a Wikipedia entry as we were driving up to Ely, so we had some idea of what was happening. The actual play is set in Messina, but this performance was set in France after the WWII with a mix of French locals and English squaddies and commanders. It started off with a short farce all spoken in French, I became extremely worried, thinking I was going to have to concentrate hard to understand a complex play in a foreign language which I had failed four times at O-level. Luckily, it all became clear, the farce ended, and the play started with a mixture of English and French and a bit of Allo Allo! The company abbreviated the play a little removing a few characters, but the essence was there. It was fun and funny with no chance of me falling asleep.
The company performing the play [Antic Disposition specialise in showing plays in Cathedrals in intimate settings. They also perform the plays in the UK and France and have both French and English actors.
After an interesting evening we headed down to Ravi and Maggie’s home for a late-night repast before heading back to the hotel for the night. The next day we had breakfast with Ravi, bade Maggie goodbye and headed home for an even longer delay on the road around Cambridge.
Instead of visiting Waddesdon for a Christmas spectacle, we decided to visit Mottisfont. There was a special Kaffe Fassett display on, so Rosemary was interested in going. We would also get to see the house dressed for Christmas.
We arrived and headed straight to the house to see the exhibition and house dressing. Not quite to the scale of Waddesdon Manor, but still very good to look at. The Kaffe Fassett show covered four rooms and had a lovely embroidered chair, pullovers and lots of patchwork quilts. Incredible work, though you could see the work was done at speed and not always finished neatly.
We stopped for lunch in the stables, and then we went on a guided wetlands nature walk. It takes you through wetland woods areas where you are not allowed on your own . We learned that peat was dug here, and that lakes and navigation were also built to get the stone close to the construction site of the original Mottisfont abbey.
There was not much to be seen in the gloom of a cloudy dismal winter day, excepting that two kingfishers were spotted flying along the dykes.
We also learnt that the river fishing rights were owned by the National Trust, and that this is one of the most expensive trout fishing river in the UK, the River Test. The art of the dry fly tying was realised here. We saw some trout who became very active when some food was fed to them.
We had tickets and a campervan pitch for the Glastonbury Abbey Extravaganza. There were three acts on the Saturday night, The Black Dyke Band, Corinne Bailey Rae and headliner Brian Wilson.
We drove down on the Friday, stopping off on the way at CJ Van Designs for some advice on wear on the popup roof. He recommended placing some strips of carpet over the lights in the roof before closing down the lid. We arrived at the site and parked the van, but we did not erect the awning as we were only there for a couple of nights. We sat out in the sun and drank our bottle of fizz before eating our supper which was Coronation Chicken, finished off with raspberries & cream.
The site was much as it was as the previous year, except that there seemed to be more campervans (of all ages) this time, and where we had camped last year there were now vans there. The loos were not the composting type this time, but the traditional Glastonbury long drop, a large tank with cubicles on top, open to the weather at their roofs. Even after only a day it was getting pretty stinky. There was also a van this time selling bacon butties (not that I was allowed to buy one).
Next day it was raining, but it was predicted to get better with no rain for the show. We hung around at the campsite waiting for the rain to stop, and headed into town on foot and made it to the pub called The Who’d A Thought It. Alas, as it was lunch time we were unable to sit outside, so had to drink our pints in the bar. Outside I had spotted the long queue to the Glastonbury Festival Office where tickets to the Pilton Party were on sale. When we left the pub the queue was short. Rosemary gave me permission to buy a ticket for the 1st September, so I joined the queue where I soon heard it was cash only sales. I had gone cashless, luckily Rosemary had not yet left the area and was beckoned over to supply the cash.
A couple more hours to spare was spent looking around the weird and wonderful shops in Glastonbury. After a while, we joined the queue and were soon walking into the Abbey where we sat down on our chairs on a small rise. I think next year I shall sit more over to the left of the site, this seems to be the area where Michael Eavis appears for pictures.
First on were The Black Dyke Band, a Leeds colliery band. I thought they were good, Rosemary considers last year’s school band was better.
Next up was Corinne Bailey Rae, sorry did not enjoy the performance, nothing I could sing along too. We used the time to purchase some wraps with Halloumi, salad and Hummus.
Brian Wilson came on finally with his backing band. Much more pleasant, with recognisable Beach Boy sounds. The crowd really enjoyed the performance. Brian is a bit past it, didn’t play much and only sung a little. The backing band and singers though provided brilliant performances. The event ended with a great firework display.
We left quite quickly and were on the second coach back to the campsite. Very efficient service. I sneaked in a JD in the campervan before going to bed.
The morning was a bit soggy, breakfasted and left. Stopped for lunch at 12.00 at the The Cross Keys Inn. We still had time to kill before meeting up with Sue and Ken, so we visited the National Trust house of Lytes Cary Manor. It would have been better if we had skipped lunch at the The Cross Keys and had just eaten at the NT house.
We arrived at Sue and Ken’s, Sue was in, Ken was supporting the pub which had only recently reopened, but he came back fairly quickly. We inspected Sue’s vegetable plots, chickens & cats. Good to see them.
The drive back on the A303 was a pain, Google recommended a big diversion before we reached Stonehenge. Duly taken.
Rosemary and I ventured into London on Chiltern Railways to go to the Proms. We travelled from Bicester with bargain prepaid tickets. Downside was that we arrived in London a little later than ideal and had to travel back home a little later than needed. The trials of cheap tickets. Rosemary also for the first time used her debit card to enter and exit the tube, while Steve used Android Pay on his mobile phone. Not sure what would have happened if the power had run out between entering and exiting the underground.
We did arrive in time to go to the V&A, bought tickets for the Pink Floyd exhibition, alas there was almost an hour wait before we could enter, leaving us with only 90 minutes to view the exhibition. We could have done with an extra 30 minutes to view comfortably, and I could imagine sitting on the floor in the exit hall for much longer listening to Pink Floyd. If you have not been, then I suggest you hurry up, it closes on the 1st October.
We then walked to the Royal Albert Hall and met with Valerie and Norman in the Vivaldi restaurant for supper before the Prom. Simon had booked the table and hoped to be along for desert, but he had been let out of rehearsals early and was able to order the main course with us. The service was smooth and quick, I suppose it has to be because most people eating there would not want to miss the start of the performance they had booked.
The Prom was very good (much to the surprise of my rock tastes) – Korngold’s “The Sea Hawk Overture” (you could hear Errol buckling his swash throughout), the specially commissioned “Sirens” from Hillborg and finishing with Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherade”. Simon sang in Sirens, which was highly innovative, the choir whispered, whistled, and clicked their fingers as well as sung. A brilliant treat and our thanks to Simon.
We met up with Norman, Valerie, Viv and Bill to see the Degas to Picasso: Creating Modernism in France exhibition at the Ashmolean. Lovely sunny day with lunch at the cafe in the crypt of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin. Fabulous walk around the University Botanic garden where there was a brilliant display of tulips. While we were sitting admiring the pond we met Robot Wars judge Lucy, whom Rosemary knows from her exercise class and daughter knows from Toastmasters.
On Thursday I traveled to London to visit the Proud Gallery on King’s Road to see an exhibition of photographs of David Bowie. The gallery is a small gallery and had a selection of photographs of Bowie priced from a couple of thousand to over sixty thousand pounds. Needless to say I was not buying.
I also visited the V&A gallery to see their small free exhibition of Glastonbury. The exhibition was not about the music, but the performing arts side of Glastonbury. I took a look at other sections of the V&A and have promised myself another visit.
Ate a late breakfast at an Italian restaurant on King’s Road, seemingly used by builders, which serves a good English breakfast. I ate poached eggs on toast, Eggs Benedict no less, and drank a good coffee.
Last year, the Sadgits met up in Bury St Edmunds staying at the Old Cannon Brewery. This pub brews beer on site, the day to visit is Monday when the beer is being processed. We all wandered around Bury St Edmunds, meeting up for a drink at the The Nutshell, the smallest pub in Britain. We all managed to squeeze in with room to spare. After our preprandial drink we hastened back to the Old Cannon Brewery for dinner. The next day we went to visit Ickworth House and Gardens for lunch. The house has a fabulous stump garden.
Waddesdon Manor Christmas Lights 2015. Bruce Munro’s installation of lights at Waddesdon Manor called SOS, This is his final year of three years at Waddesdon Manor. The lights on Waddesdon manor were by Woodroffe Bassett design. We visited with Ian and Julie. Lovely warm evening for December. You must watch the video to hear the sound track associated with the lights in the tent.
