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.