The Lion in Winter

A day in London, first to see Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement at the Royal Academy followed by dinner and the theatre. The Degas exhibition is very interesting, involving contemporary photography showing, for the first time, the mechanics of movement. This fascinated Degas and helped him when he was portraying his dancers moving. It was quite crowded in the gallery, but nevertheless, we saw everything and really enjoyed the exhibition.

Borrowed from the Royal Academy website

Following this we walked down to the Haymarket and went in for dinner to Assagetti. This is an Italian tapas bar! Well, the concept is to order lots of little dishes which come 'as they are ready'. The significance of this is that some of the hot dishes arrive before the cold ones, and you feel obliged to eat them while they are hot, even though the ham and pate are conventionally starters. We felt that maybe, we should have ordered two or three starters and when they were done, order one, two or even three warm dishes to follow. We'd certainly return to test this theory as the food was very good and the atmosphere quite vibrant. Wine by the glass is available as are desserts, coffee and tea.

Courgette chips and warm pate with toast

Prosciutto, mushroom risotto, duck ragu

and 

p

rawn ravioli

Cheesecake with berries, sorbets

  






























Now it was time to cross the road to the Theatre Royal Haymarket to take our seats for the evening's performance of The Lion in Winter. I remember this as an intense interaction between Henry II (Peter O'Toole) and Eleanor of Aquitaine (Katheryn Hepburn) in a film from the late 60s; lots of intrigue and irony. In fact, the film won three Oscars, 2 Baftas as well as nine other awards. It had premiered as a stage play (written by James Goldman) on Broadway. 
 How different this production is; but none the less for that. Trevor Nunn is playing this one for laughs, and the audience certainly was with him all the way. Robert Lindsay and Joanna Lumley are very clever in their parts, sparking off each other. going for outright laughs, which is fine, but I missed the irony. It's just how the director sees the play, and this way also works. I think that as the whole episode is a figment of the author's imagination - no Christmas at Chinon apparently took place - it can be taken with large pinches of salt and so why not bring out the humour. We certainly enjoyed ourselves as did the rest of the more or less full house.

 




The Royal Academy
Degas
Assaggetti
Theatre Royal Haymarket
The Lion in Winter
Robert Lindsay
Joanna Lumley

Brubecks play Brubeck

Wonderful concert given by the sons of jazz legend Dave Brubeck and sax player Dave O'Higgins at G Live, Guildford. Lots of wonderful classics composed by father Brubeck as well as pieces composed by Dan, Chris and Darius. They came out to the foyer afterwards to sign CDs and programmes. Fantastic stuff!

Brubeck Music
G Live

Chinthurst Hill

A beautiful sunny day, so boots on and off for a tramp. We headed up the hill to Pewley Down and from there turned towards St Martha's, but took Halfpenny Lane before the big climb up to the church. This footpath plunges downhill towards Chilworth.

The Tiilingbourne and the Gunpowder Mill pond

We crossed the little bridge over the weir for the gunpowder mill ponds on Blacksmith Lane and soon turned right onto the footpath again. Chilworth, a small village on the Tillingbourne River, dates back to the Doomsday book, but has the reputation of being the gunpowder village as gunpowder was made here for 300 years until the 1920s. When the Wey Navigation was completed the gunpowder was taken to the wharves at Shalford and then onwards by water to its destinations. There are remains of the gunpowder works and some of the old buildings have been made into houses, but we didn't stop to look at the remains.
The path now took us around the back of the village, across the railway and eventually across some sports fields. The next obstacle was to cross the A248 and follow the path around Lower Chinthurst Farm. We turned towards the hill and eventually found the path up to the top and Lord Inchcape's Folly. He built this tower in 1930 and it has become a listed building. The sun shone and the sky was deep blue and the pine trees looked very picturesque.

Chinthurst Tower, the pines and the birches

Looking across to St Martha's Church.

So, we began our descent and took the footpath towards the Wey and Arun Canal. Our route took us along the right hand side and we were soon at the old gunpowder store on its raised legs.

Along the Wey and Arun Canal to the Gunpowder Store

Time for a sandwich at the Parrot - much better service this time, before we took a familiar route passing Shalford Mill to The Chantries and back up to Pewley Down and home. The sun was setting as we arrived back.

Shalford Mill pond

Evening smoke

Sunset at Pewley Down

Henry V, Propeller at YAT

It was amazing to walk into Yvonne Arnaud Theatre last evening to find it packed with people. Such is the draw of Propeller Theatre who are performing Henry V this week at YAT and will continue on with their tour well into 2012. Propeller is an all-male Shakespeare company that presents a very modern approach to the plays, mixing in modern music, imaginative sets and a very physical presence. Their artistic director, Edward Hall, denies any dumbing down, rather he makes the plays relevant to today with all their complexity, challenging the audience with each performance.

The stage is set

As we made our way to our seats, we noticed a couple of 'squaddies' at the edge of the theatre crowd dressed in camo trousers and vests - not the usual attire for YAT audiences. We squeezed into our seats and looked at the programme, noticing that there were 29 parts to be played, including three parts for women, by a cast of 14 men. The stage was set with various pieces of scaffolding, some wooden crates and a flagpole flying the English flag. The auditorium was packed and the doors were closed, but no lights went down. Suddenly the doors were flung open and a troop of soldiers marched in down the stairs to the stage singing as they marched. It certainly grabbed everyone's attention and we remained spellbound to the interval. - with just a dig in the ribs when Henry appeals to his troops to dive

'Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.  -  -  -
-  -  -  The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'

Spoken from atop the scaffold and very rousing.

A capacity audience listen to the cast singing

 We went out into the foyer at the interval and discussed the action so far over an ice-cream, when suddenly the actors marched through from the auditorium, singing. They sang several songs, then explained they were raising money for charity, so please give generously while they sang some more, then marched back into the auditorium as the bell went for us to return to our seats for part 2. The charity they are supporting this year is Lifeworks; it is concerned with children with learning difficulties, giving them new opportunities as well as giving families support with respite care.

Part 2 was just as good as the first half and we were treated to ferocious battle scenes, a princess in the bath,  as well as the emotional speech of Henry on the eve of the Battle of Agincourt, 25 October 1415 (St Crispin's Day):

The 'soldiers' march back to the auditorium

 ' - - -  And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
- - -'
At last the final couplet was uttered, the lights went down and a great cheer and applause broke out all over the theatre. What a wonderful response to this stirring production.


Propeller
Yvonne Arnaud Theatre
Lifeworks
About the feast of Crispin Crispian

Fireworks in Guildford

A Gothic Mansion and the Opera.

Yesterday we trained up to London and took the tube to Temple Tube station. It was just a short walk to 2 Temple Place. This striking building on the embankment has a crenelated roof and gargoyles, tall chimneys and wrought iron, and is topped off with a shining bronze weather vane in the shape of Columbus's Caravel. It is built from Portland stone that has been beautifully carved with intricate designs.No photography is allowed inside, but there are a couple of websites with some photographs showing the attention of detail the creators of the building demanded.
The house was commissioned by William Astor, later the first viscount, in 1895 as his office and London residence. We overheard some visitors gossiping, suggesting that Lord Astor put his mistresses up here. Whatever, the house has been built to the highest standards with lots of oak panelling, stonework, stained glass windows and magnificent ceilings. The house has been beautifully restored, having suffered severe damage during a bombing raid in WWII. That came through the roof, causing lots of damage to the library, with the loss of several books. Now the house is owned by the Bulldog Trust and they have opened it to the public, offering gallery space to specifically showcase publicly-owned art from UK regional collections.

Taken from a postcard bought from The Bulldog Trust

A hurried view of 2 Temple Place before we were inundated by a walking tour

The front door with details below

A little wrought iron

This first exhibition is called William Morris: Story, Memory, Myth and runs from 28th October 2011 until 29th January 2012. It looks at how William Morris told stories using his poetry and design patterns. Most important to him were the works of Geoffrey Chaucer, Norse saga, Arthurian legend and Greek myth. One of the main features we saw were the five panels Morris designed retelling the French Medieval tale, Romance of the Rose, which Chaucer had translated. There were also books on display that William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones illustrated, and were printed by Morris' private press.Stained glass and wallpaper designs were also on display, all in partnership with the William Morris Gallery that should be opening in William Morris's house in Walthamstow in July 2012. It was a beautifully presented exhibition which we enjoyed enormously.

Then we were off to dinner with friends at the National Portrait Gallery. They do beautiful meals pre- theatre from 17.30, and we were very prompt as the opera began at 19.00. With lots to catch up on, we chattered over our excellent two courses and made it round the corner to ENO at the Coliseum in time for the first bell!

A view from Portrait Restaurant

Inside the lovely Coliseum

It was The Marriage of Figaro, directed by Fiona Shaw and designed by Peter Mckintosh with Paul Daniel conducting and playing pianoforte. Iain Paterson took the lead with Devon Guthrie as Susanna supported by a stellar cast. This production was full of humour and the audience were immediately bound up in the bizarre and complicated tale. At the end of the four hours, there was huge and prolonged applause for all the cast and orchestra in recognition of this superb performance. Peter McKintosh's set was very clever and based on a series of mazes according to the programme interview of Fiona Shaw. It seemed to be built from white corrugated plastic sheets, with corridors glimpsed through doorways and staircases coming into and out of view as the stage revolved and the characters moved through the set. We loved it.

A glimpse of the amazing set

Two Temple Place and the Wiki entry

William Morris: Story, Memory, Myth

The Bulldog Trust 

National Portrait Gallery Portrait Restaurant

ENO at the Coliseum

Halloween and Chrissie

Today Guildford wasn't sure what time of year it is - on the one hand wonderful Halloween cupcakes and on the other all dressed up for Christmas. You would think House of Fraser could have waited a day or so!!

Autumn festival at RHS Garden Wisley

 This week it is A Taste of Autumn at RHS Garden Wisley. It is a very popular annual event that attracts crowds of people to sample all sorts of apple and autumn related produce from the great Wisley gardeners as well as the wonderful stall holders that have a presence there.

It all began from the apple tastings that were held every October on the terrace at the front of the Garden. Here lots of people would come and taste slices of apple from the many varieties that are grown in the Wisley orchards. Hopefully the tasters would then buy apple trees for their own gardens, based on the tastings. Over the years this has grown, firstly with a few apple related producers in a marquee on the Seven Acres lawn to the country market style event it is in 2011.

 
All along the path from the Conservatory Cafe, round the Grass Borders and along the Seven Acres path to the Glasshouse there are tents containing stalls. These are full of local producers from cider and beer makers to jams and spicy sauce makers. In between are the bread people, the sausage producers who have giggly pigs, the nut roaster, the herb and spice nursery, the cheese makers, olive oil and garlic sellers, not to mention the veg growing societies and seed producers.

You can even order a Christmas turkey from the family farmer who is fattening some of his Kelly Bronze turkeys up on the meadows of RHS Garden Hyde Hall. Apparently Delia and other star chefs recommend these.A Taste of Autumn has its own star chef in the person of Peter Osborne who held demonstrations of autumn style food throughout the day and the aromas wafting out of the cookery demonstration marquee were mouthwatering. They have put the recipes up on the Wisley website.

 

Beyond the producers stalls and the cookery tent is the RHS area where there is a fabulous wagon displaying autumn veg including a lot of colourful pumpkins. Here is where the apple tasting takes place and is always crowded with visitors. After tasting you can move to the tractor and trailer where they are selling bags of apples - hopefully being able to buy your favourite. This year people could vote for their favourite flavour. With the fabulous autumn sunshine, this festival of food is looking to break all sorts of records. We certainly had a wonderful time there.

 Here are just some of the stallholders:

'Big Chef' Peter Osborne

Anila's Authentic Sauces

Casa de l'Oli

Cookoo Box Chillies Nursery

The Giggly Pigs Company

Gilly's 

Gran Stead's

Hogs Back Brewery

KellyBronze Turkeys

Kentish Cobnuts

Lime Tree Pantry

Linden Lady Chocolates

McCarthy's Country Store

Mr Whitehead's Cider

Munchy Seeds

Nut Knowle Farm

Nutty Bavarian

Revolution Tea

The Victorian Kitchen

St. Valentine's Liquorice Co
Bookham Fine Foods

3 Days in May

The three days of the title are in May 1940 when Mr Churchill, the new prime minister of UK, is balancing on a knife edge with some of the war cabinet wanting to negotiate a surrender  via Mussolini  and others claiming it would be better to fight to the death rather than succumb to the horrors of becoming a vassal state to Fascist Germany. With France on the brink of capitulating, what is left of the allied armies are holed up at Dunkirk, with Belgium on the brink of being overrun; and a garrison of British led soldiers is fighting off the Germans at Calais. It seems a hopeless situation, but  Churchill will never surrender, and persuades the ailing Chamberlain to vote against the proposal to surrender thus triggering the Dunkirk evacuation that saved thousands of fighting men to face another day. A pivotal point of WWII, we see how the wily Churchill wins the day that leads to the allies winning the war.
Warren Clarke makes a wonderful Winston Churchill and is well supported by Jeremy Clyde as Lord Halifax, Robert Demeger as Neville Chamberlain and with James Alper as Jock Colville, Churchill's Private Secretary and our narrator. Other members of the cast are Timothy Knightley as Paul Reynaud, the French premier, Michael Sheldon as Clement Attlee, Dicken Ashworth as Arthur Greenwood and Paul Ridley as General Dill.

Ben Brown's 3 Days on May moves to the Trafalgar Studios for a run in the West End from Monday 31st October – Saturday 3rd March 2012. Directed by Alan Strachan, it is a Bill Kenwright Production.

This was the scene at 4.30pm this afternoon at Pyrford Lock. A pair of swans started crossing the road  from right to left - all traffic was halted, but that's OK. As they had just about reached the other side, the car from the right decided to cross the bridge, and one of the swans changed its mind and crossed back again, giving this driver a bit of a turn! As we crossed the bridge, it was still pondering the road and I bet it made another crossing quite soon after.

National Chocolate Week

I made deliciously chocolaty cupcakes to share with friends and neighbours for National Chocolate week!

Dinner at Cau

On Saturday evening we had dinner at Cau in Guildford, which serves delicious steaks. We had several different varieties again, including some thinly sliced tapa de cuadril. This is described as "Cut from the top of the rump, with a belt of delicious crackling running through it, this steak is served the Brazilian way – thinly sliced and flash grilled so it melts in your mouth" in their menu and A declared first class! We also tried one of their clericots, a wine based fruity drink with lots of ice and fruit. Ours was called Patagonia and was Merlot with plums, limes and berries. We all had blackberries in the glass, lots of ice and ruby red liquid. Very refreshing and light.
As you can see we still had room for desserts in which dulce de leche figured prominently. There were four of us, but we duplicated some of the dishes!



Cau Restaurant

The Playboy of the Western World

This evening was spent at the Old Vic after a delicious tea at Le Pain de Quotidian. The play was The Playboy of the Western World, a very Irish play from J M Synge. The actors were all magnificent, once we had 'tuned in' to some of the stronger Irish accents, and the set was amazing as one expects from the Old Vic. An Irish pub that rotated and moved forwards and backwards on the stage as the scene changed. Altogether a wonderful evening out and about in London.

Madrid

After being so tired last night, we took it rather easily this morning and pottered off to breakfast about 9.00. We had the usual, which was very pleasant, then returned upstairs to finish the packing. We checked out leaving the bags with the concierge and set off for the Royal Palace on a beautiful sunny morning. On the way down we picked up another PC at the Thyssen, and walked down Carreras de San Jeronimo where we came across a little shop selling every kind of violet sweetmeat, La Violeta. We decided that we would call in on our way back to the hotel. When we arrived at the Royal Palce there was a bit of a queue, but soon we were inside, and again, no photos of the interior, but I could take in the plaza de armas, with its arched west side with views across the countryside outside the city. We had taken audio guides here, and proceeded into the palace on the north side of the plaza. We mounted the grand staircase up to the official apartments, and followed the natural route through the sumptuous rooms with the guide as a running commentary. Everything is quite magnificent, and although several groups whisked through with or without a guide, we never felt completely overtaken. Only in the last room, where there is a display of ceremonial china, did one guide appear almost shouting her head off, but one among so many wasn't so bad!

The route now took us to the royal pharmacy where we walked through several rooms of ancient flasks and bottles  made from glass and pot with gilded labels. In the far recesses there were travelling trunks for medicines, distillation retorts, balance scales and other apparatus on display. Some of the bottles had strange labels such as asparagus extract and hoof of the beast, but there was also quinine bark from Peru. Apparently, Spain had the monopoly on quinine bark - a good little earner for the royals. Leaving the pharmacy we crossed the plaza de armas to look at the view out to the west through the archways, and then entered the armoury. To start with it was very interesting, but as we descended to the lower floor, the standard of commentary also descended. Instead of having extra numbers to press if one wanted to hear more about certain objects, the whole story just went on and on, and we just gave up in the end. It was definitely time for a little lunch, and we found our way to the palace cafe for a small roll with salami and cheese and a cup of coffee.

It was now about 2pm, so we planned a slow route back to the hotel via the oldest part of the city along and to the south of Calle Major. The oldest buildings are around Plaza de la Villa, and just down one of the side streets we came across a beautiful little shop selling produce from convents and monasteries across Spain, El Jardín del Convento. We had to go in and have a look, and we were not disappointed, finding jams, biscuits and cakes on sale but also, incongruously, Yankee candles! We bought some jams and biscuits as gifts before continuing. Our next spot was 'stronginthearm' street (for TP fans), up which we found the bikeSpain shop, closed.

The next plaza along Calle Major was Plaza de San Miguel and just behind it is the Mercado de San Miguel and we had to go and have a look. It is full of delis selling all sorts of delicacies that people were buying and eating standing at the counters. There were also wine places and juice counters. after a stroll around, we stopped for some juice, it would have been a great place for our snack, if only we had known! So on we went, crossing Puerto del Sol and going back up Carreras de San J, looking for the violet shop, which sadly was shut until four thirty, too late for us.

We decided to head for the Retiro park and maybe tea or an ice cream. when we got there, after some photo taking of buildings, we voted for ice creams and sat at a shady table enjoying them. Back at the hotel we collected the bags and put our treasures inside, then walked up the street to the metro, which would take us to the airport. We arrived in good time and sat in the lounge for a while. Then we discovered the flight was delayed for half an hour, so we sat a little longer, then took our time walking to the gate. The passengers from London were just disembarking so we thought we would soon be boarding, only to discover that they would delay our flight (8.50), to 10.20 with no announcement, apology or explanation. Thanks very much BA and Iberia.

Eventually back at Heathrow, A called the valet parking and the man said the car would be waiting for us when we got through customs. He handed over the keys and we drove home down a fairly busy motorway. What a great break Madrid has been!

Palacio Real

Mercado San Miguel

El Jardín del Convento

La Violeta

Madrid

Lovely breakfast again, with violet preserve in the bottom of the yoghurt and also on toast, black coffee to waken me up. Then A found an FT so had a quiet read while I perused the Design Hotelsl book in which I found all the beautiful Hospes hotels as well as some stunning places elsewhere. The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum would be open at ten, so we soon were out on the move down Paseo del Prado. I get in free, but A had to pay six euros! We did get their audio guides as well, which are excellent, apart from one description of Marc Chagall's The Grey House that mentioned the synagogue in the background, which is in fact the Russian orthodox monastery. There are so many wonderful works of art in the collections that it is difficult to choose a favourite, whether you like Holbein, Henry VIII; El Greco or Velazquez; Rembrandt, Rubens or Raphael; Impressionists, cubists, Russians, French, Dutch, British or Americans; whatever - it's all here!

At last we needed to stop, and with a last look around, we made our way out to the Terrace Cafe and a small roll filled with cheese and roast veggies with a great cup of coffee. We wanted to buy some more PCs, and were told off by an attendant for looking in a drawer for the Degas, Swaying Dancers, as it had run out on the shelves! So now it was time to walk down the road to Centro de Arte Reina Sofia our next stop.

This turned out to be less exciting in some respects as it seemed a bit chaotic with several parts being closed, certain items not where they had been when the guide book was written, and having to wade through loads of stuff to get to the real treasures. Nevertheless, we did see Guernica, Picasso's masterpiece. Obviously it is a very important piece, especially for the Spanish nation, but there was so much about the war, it was a bit overwhelming. We did find Joan Miro, other Picasso's, Gris, Solana, several other famous Spanish artists and to our surprise some Salvador Dali early works, which you would never guess were his. A lovely painting of a girl looking out through a window at a harbour wall really caught our eye, such a natural flowing style. We needed a cup of tea, so found our way to the new wing where there is a cafe. Crossing the plaza, we saw Brushstroke, a Roy Lichtenstein sculpture on display, and then sat at the bar for tea and cake. 
We decided it was time to get out into the fresh air, so we left the museum and walked to Plaza de Espagna where Madrid's first skyscraper was built. It looks a bit like Stalin's 'wedding cakes' in Moscow with its broad base and central tower. In front of it is the plaza with its ornamental lake and memorial to Cervantes with Don Quixote and Sancho Panza at its base. This is a popular place to get one's photo taken as the two are easily reachable and there was a constant stream of people climbing up to stand by Rocinante, with DQ towering over them.
We now walked back in the direction of Plaza de la Independencia, taking a quick look at the Royal Palace and finding some of the tiled shop fronts we saw in the dark on our tapas tour. We needed some energy to get all the way back, and we found the Chocolateria San Gines where everyone goes to finish off a night out to eat churros dipped in thick warm chocolate. It is amazing stuff, and reminded us of our trip to Andalucia where we had eaten the same on the banks of the river in Seville, just before we went off to catch the plane home. Today's were absolutely delicious and we used the time to get a few PCs written.
We were so tired when we got back to the hotel, we just managed a couple of tapas plates with some summer wine and beer. The summer wine, that we also tried on the tapas tour is called Tinto de Verano and is a refreshing mix of red wine, some slices of citrus fruit and ice topped up with lemonade. Only in the hotel they add some vermouth. It is very refreshing and very popular. In fact it is better to order this than Sangria, which no Spanish person drinks in a bar! Sangria is a party drink and in Spain they make it a day or too in advance so the fruit absorbs the wine and wine dissolves the fruit! We didn't even manage dessert before it was time to retire to bed.

Hospes Hotels

The Design Hotel Book

Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza

Centro de Arte Reina Sofia 

Madrid

Alarm at eight and breakfast at nine. They have the classic Hospes service with cereals in little jars, wonderful fruit, an amazing selection of pastries including macaroons and their preserves that include violet preserve. My yoghurt had a garnish of passion fruit, but surprised me by having a little violet preserve right at the bottom. So delicious!

Then it was time to walk down to the Prado, to collect our tickets, audio guides and museum plans. We had the most fantastic time discovering all sorts of treasures from a special exhibition of Picasso's Acrobat on a Ball on loan from the Pushkin Museum, Moscow, to Albrecht Deurer; Dutch masters to Italians; British artists and Flemish painters. It is just full of major works of art as one would expect. We had to have a couple of breaks during our five hours, and although we reached pretty much every corner, we had to skim passed some of the many, just taking in major pieces suggested by several paper guides and the audio guides we had hired. A great discovery were some of the Spanish painters of the late nineteenth/ early twentieth century. They are not widely known outside Spain, on the whole, for example Fortuny and Rico.

When we had finished our visit, we made our way to the exit and crossed the street to the Real Jardin Botanico, where we strolled in the shade of the trees, breathing in the scented air and looking at the lovely flowers and plants on display. The rose garden and dahlias were in full bloom; the veggie/herb garden was getting to the end; but we did find the tribute to Carl Linneaus as he overlooked the tranquil lake.

We took the high walk through the steamy glasshouse, which proved to be much cooler at ground level, and found an area dedicated to carnivorous plants, where snails seem to be the regular food. At the end we did find the 'pantaloon' tree, an elm that has a divided trunk resembling a pair of inverted trousers!

We came back to our room for a short rest before taking our postcards to the restaurant/ cafe where we started with tapas, and progressed to main courses of steak and hake before calling it a day and collapsing into bed at nearly midnight. Another big day tomorrow with, hopefully the Thyssen and the Reina Sofa Museums to see.

Museo del Prado

Real Jardin Botanico