Bullingdon

It being, at last, a fine summer's day, I decided it was time for another go on the Bullingdons. It seemed like a long time and I wondered whether it was the first time this year, although inspection revealed four hops in January and one each in February and March. I almost did not bother, so perhaps the Bullingdon era is coming to an end.

It has taken too long to find out exactly how long it has been, but I have tracked down evidence of use as far back as 2011, at reference 1, around a year after the scheme started in 2010.

So the first hop of 22 minutes 52 seconds took me from the ramp at Waterloo to one of the last two spots at the stand opposite Broadcasting House. On the way taking in a small demonstration at the bottom of the steps and Waterloo and a lot of very stationary traffic at th northern end of Waterloo Bridge. I learned afterwards that this was all to do with some Commonwealth flavoured demonstration, but I never did learn exactly what flavour. Windrush? Modi?

Some civil disobedience on the part of the cycle traffic, both holiday makers and regulars. Motor traffic as well behaved vis-à-vis cyclists as usual, certainly in so far as it affected me.

Strolled past the usual crop of rather miscellaneous people waiting outside the Consulate General of Portugal into the Langham for a spot of their house white, with biscuits. Served in fancy glasses with fancy stems, de rigueur, as I recall, in parts foreign. And where I almost mistook the small napkins they dish out with their drinks for one of my own handkerchiefs, dropped. There was also an interesting line in spherical floral displays, two of them, maybe as much as a yard in diameter, erected on stands flanking the entrance. I did not like to inspect them too closely, but a casual brushing with the fingers revealed the pink roses to be soft, so at the very least, a higher grade of artificial flowers.

The draw at the Wigmore Hall was the Brahms Piano Quartet No.1, first heard in its orchestral version around five years ago, an event noticed at reference 3. With the only recorded visit to the Britten Sinfonia being noticed at reference 2. An outfit which is based in Cambridge and look to perform regularly at the West Road concert hall there, a place I used to visit reasonably regularly in the days when my brother used to do Mozart piano concertos there. With this very concert having been given there the day before this one - not to mention Norwich on the Friday. Another group which likes to get some mileage out of its rehearsal time. Maybe next year a proper tour?

But first we got a new work by Caroline Shaw, called the thousandth orange, rather sparse in texture but none the worse for that. Nor for having passed on the pre-concert talk about it - another A talking to B job, as mentioned at reference 4. In this case Caroline Shaw talking to Kate Kennedy, the Weinrebe Research Fellow in Life-Writing at Wolfson College, Oxford, no less. But the Brahms was a bit patchy, at least for me: not its best day. There were plenty of good bits, but sometimes they seemed to lose it, particularly in the loud bits, when all four instruments were at it.

Out to the Persian restaurant in New Cavendish Street, visited and liked once before, a couple of years ago and noticed at reference 7. Celebrated the fine weather by taking luncheon al-fresco. Some sort of grilled lamb with two-tone rice and salad in my case, very good (after discarding some small green peppers which were far too hot for me). Followed by what amounted to the Dorset Apple Cake with a foreign name. Also very good. For a change, fizzy water with my glass of white.

Second Bullingdon from Westminster University to Waterloo Station 3, just slipping in under the free ride bar at 29 minutes and 58 seconds. Euston Road, Woburn Place, down to the Aldwych and over the bridge. Lots of traffic and probably not the shortage route, but a route which I knew and did not have to think about. Lots of traffic. Probably a good thing that I did not know how close I was running it at the time, or I might have been tempted to try too hard.

PS: I am reasonably industrious & conscientious about responding to requests for feedback, but there is an awful lot of it these days. You only have to buy a bottle of water to get an email asking about your experience. So on this occasion, I declined to complete the questionnaire of four A4 sides from the Sinfonia. And I forgot to mention, that like that other Cambridge based outfit, the Endellions, they opted to do their own programme. From which one deduces that they hired the hall rather than the hall hiring them, both options being available.

Reference 1: http://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=albert+cathedral.

Reference 2: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/winterreises-old-and-new.html.

Reference 3: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/adaptations.html.

Reference 4: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/gravitational-waves.html.

Reference 5: http://drkatekennedy.co.uk/.

Reference 6: http://www.galleriarestaurant.co.uk/.

Reference 7: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/more-tuition.html.

Group search key: bsb.