Guess Where?

Yes folks, it's that time of year again! The Proms are upon us properly now and we're back at the Royal Albert Hall for excellent tunes again!

We're not going to as many as last year owing to (a) extreme busyness and (b) lack of funds, but we still enjoy it as much as ever. The only real difficulty is getting up early the next morning to go to work after a late night out!

The early part of today was spent at my desk doing admin and work, and then at the music stand doing viola practise. After lunch (although there was no lunch) I left to collect the Wonderspouse from work and we departed for London.

I felt utterly exhausted, and not especially well. We stopped at Beaconsfield Services and I suddenly realised that I was exceptionally hungry. After steak pie and chips at the service station I felt 100% better and we continued on our way to London.

On arrival we walked round Kensington a bit and stopped to admire the Wildlife Garden at the National History Museum - to country dwellers like us, the notion of creating a special "wild place" in the city is hilarious - most of our surroundings look like their "wild place"! I've put a couple of pictures into the blipfoto extras album so you can see if you like!

Then to the Prom. Dvorak's Cello Concerto (with Bach Sarabande encore) in the first half, followed by the whole of Smetana's Ma Vlast in the second. I love my Cesky music - in fact, I recalled during the concert how, just over 10 years ago, I was planning to save up, then spend a couple of years living in the Czech republic to learn fluent Czech (mine is quite basic, although I taught myself to around GCSE standard, I've forgotten rather a lot now) with the possibility of doing research work in Czech music in the future.

But then I had a nervous breakdown, then met the Wonderspouse, and the rest, as they say, is history!

However, the love of all things Cesky remains (and the frustration at not being able to type diacritical marks) and I adore Ma Vlast particularly - the opening, with 4 harps ringing out across the Albert Hall was especially magical!

Then it was a late drive home through rain before a glass of wine and bedtime!

I love listening to recorded music, but there's still something special about hearing it live!