Suites

A fortnight ago to the Wigmore for some cello suites from Gary Hoffman, a cellist whom we have not heard before. We considered going for the second shift in the evening, but decided against because a Holiday Inn  room in Welbeck Street which would have made that a runner was far too expensive.

Three o'clock start meant a leisurely morning, a light lunch and set off at 13:00. A bit of damp in the air, but nothing too serious. Six policemen on motorcycles waiting at the junction by All Bar One in Regent Street, waiting for some small but noisy demonstration to kick off from outside the church at the top of the street.

Thinking that something with cinnamon might be the thing, we passed on All Bar One for once, in any case a little crowded, and headed for Olle & Steen, taking in the fancy shop window snapped above on the way. No idea what the white furry thing might have been made of, but BH thought that it was unlikely to be a furry animal: people selling that kind of thing these days do it behind closed doors. In the event we decided that Olle & Steen were a bit crowded and we were not very hungry and settled, for the first time for some time, for something in the basement bar at the Wigmore Hall. But the buns at Olle & Steen do look good, and I am sure we will get there eventually.

Mask wearing in the hall is weakening. On the up side, no phones and only one cough. On the down side, the young man right in front of us, probably a teenager out with gran or something of that sort, was clearly very bored and kept moving about.

He failed to damage the recital though, which was very good. And the encore of the sarabande from Suite No.5 was well chosen. A little to my surprise, given that the suites are made up of dances and that BH is into dance, she did not recognise the music as being dance music. While I am no dancer, so me neither. Perhaps if one saw people dancing to it, one would get the idea? Something to ask about on some suitable social medium?

Afterwards, off to Ponti's, which became fairly crowded with mainly young people by the time that we left. Perhaps there for a spot of something restorative after a busy day's shopping? We got there by a slightly longer route than was strictly necessary, but that did mean we spotted the red building with white trim snapped above. Presumably one of the older buildings in the row.

Bread and olives to start; pizza for him and (the usual) chicken salad for her. All very satisfactory.

The wine, from the Piedmont, was fine, although I failed to find it on the Internet, with neither Bing nor Google obliging. Plenty of Roero Arneis but nothing according to Casadoni. The nearest I got was a Gavi from Google. I will have another try tomorrow.

I scored a plane at Clapham Junction, two two's (the first for quite some time) and a cheerful drunk at Earlsfield. I had forgotten how aeroplanes heading for Heathrow, but viewed from Earlsfield, often make a sharp right turn to the west somewhere over south east London. Confusing for the spotter who is just starting out. Moon visible at both places, obscured by cloud. Two washers, only one of which made it to the collecting jar at home. 

Various bits and peices from the Raynes Park Platform Library. Three near twenty year old numbers of 'The London Column', a newsletter for London Freemasons. Quite a lot of fancy regalia to be seen. Quite a lot of charity. Plus the odd royal highness and the odd lady. A catalogue for a Peroni sponsored exhibition of fashion pictures at Somerset House. Quite a lot of female leg and the odd breast. I failed to find when this exhibition was on, but I might stop and ask if I am passing the place. An opportunity to revisit the door through which I entered upon life in an office. On the left as you face the main entrance in the Strand. A flyer for an auction of very expensive fancy goods at Christies. Nothing like the sort of thing to be had from the furniture and fittings department at T.K.Maxx and well out of my pocket's comfort zone. Last but not least, two quite recent numbers of the BMJ. A far cry from the solemn and serious journal I knew when I was small. Soft pink cover as I recall. While now there are still quite a lot of job advertisements, so at least some professions still do it in print.

Home to study the closing pages of a previous find, 'The Handbook of British Flora', printed in 1954. The Cyperaceae or sedge family (LXXXVIII) and the Gramineae or grass family (LXXXIX), between them occupying near seventy pages. And where I was pleased to find a mention of that important plant, Carex Pendula more or less at the junction between the two families. One of perhaps 100 species of Carex. All this followed by a section headed Cryptograms, but I have yet to bottom out exactly what these are, apart from their not having flowers, despite the word Flora being included in the title of the book. Something else for later.

PS 1: checking, I find we have heard Hoffman before, about ten years ago, as noticed at reference 2. The only other two Hoffmans I could find in the archive were of the Dustin variety.

PS 2: at some point during the day, or perhaps that night in a dream, I had an important conversation about the mysteries of multiple cause of death from the statistical point of view, an important matter when it comes to counting up deaths attributed to COVID. But no idea now whether it was a real conversation on the train or a fake conversation in a dream.

References

Reference 1: http://www.gary-hoffman.com/biography/.

Reference 2: http://psmv2.blogspot.com/2012/11/schubert.html.

Reference 3: https://www.thehouseofperoni.com/en-gb/.