Wagner to Wagner (or Wagner to Wagg-ner)

Well it looks like spring is here at last albeit probably only temporarily. So welcome to 2011's first alfresco blog. The beautiful weather this week has been very welcome although it is frustrating to be confined to the garden and not be able to take myself up to Hampton Court or down by the river. I knew last year that it would be a problem but that doesn't make it any less depressing. We at least have a lovely big garden which isn't overlooked and Tracy works hard to keep it looking its best.


Last weekend was a busy one. My mum's 80th birthday was on Saturday and we had arranged a surprise outing to the Royal Albert Hall to see the London Philharmonic Orchestra perform their Classical Extravaganza concert. We had decided not to take the boys, a decision I started to doubt during the two opening dramatic pieces (The theme from 2001 A Space Odyssey and Holst's Mars, which the boys would have recognised as the Star Wars theme is remarkably similar ). However, an hour in, and having had a couple of operatic numbers I decided we had made the right choice and that 8000 people's afternoon was probably much more enjoyable as a result; Ravel's Bolero is best enjoyed without the accompaniment of Luke's exploding technique of opening his bag of crisps, and I doubt if anyone would have been interested in Jake's opinion about the music from Carmen being "so gay"! It was an excellent concert which ended with an impressive finale including the 1812 Overture complete with canon fire and pyrotechnics. Mum thoroughly enjoyed it and afterwards we came back to ours for a meal.

The boys got their trip out on Sunday when we took them to The X Factor live show at the O2 arena. Having struggled a bit with the journey on Saturday I was having doubts about going to the O2. Over two and a half hours travelling over London's pot-holed, speed humped roads in a wheelchair with no suspension in a car with terrible suspension is not an appealing prospect. Knowing that the Arena's disabled parking is no closer than normal parking, several hundred yards from the venue was also a concern and aware that our return would be too late for the bedtime carer and Tracy would have to do the unfamiliar routine all added to the doubt about going!

I am glad I went though. It was an excellent show featuring 9 of the finalists. All of the acts sang two or three songs and with the exception possibly of Wagner, they performed as well as most established artists do in their respective genres. Ok, Rebecca was still boring to watch but so are most established acts of her type. The boys enjoyed it and much of it was captured on their ipods but I won't  ruin their lives by saying who I saw recording which acts.


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