Globe revisited

Back to the Globe yesterday for the first visit since before the deluge (as it were), the last recorded visit in the other place being to 'Much Ado about Nothing' on or about the 15th July 2011. We had been getting a bit tired of the pantomime take on Shakespeare by actors without presence or gravitas, so perhaps a rest was the best thing - but yesterday was not Shakespeare at all, rather a musical show called 'Gabriel' built around the baroque trumpet (or possibly the natural trumpet).

Started off by perusing my new cycle map of central London - available free from the cycling part of the TFL web site. All fine and good but a larger scale than the original and, despite being double sided, a smaller area. And being double sided a bit more awkward to use out in the street. Then took a bullingdon from the stand outside the James Clerk Maxwell Building and after getting into a bit of a muddle about exactly where the Globe was - was it west or east of Southwark Bridge? - dropped the thing off at a stand called Bankside Mix, not a place known to Google but according to the cycle map a new building complex on Southwark Street.

Onto the Globe for the show. Music good, with much voice and trumpet, even to the point of a trio with voice, trumpet and some sort of antique cello. Framed by a new play which, apart from framing the music provided tutorial material about the later Stuarts and tiresomely coarse humour. This last may, I dare say, be in the spirit of the times depicted but it was not in my spirit. But, all in all, a useful postscript to the Walpolery reported on 12th August.

I had forgotten how narrow and hard the seats are in the Globe, with it being hard to avoid poking one's knees into the person in front - in my case a lady in one of the those portable chairs which they hire out to make the seats which are both backless and frontless bearable to the older buttock. As it was, we had seats with backs but I had to fidget a bit to stop my legs going numb (nervous about DVT these days) and I think I must have rather annoyed her - the lady in front - as she and her husband rushed out at the interval, before I could make apologetic noises, never to be seen again. During the longeurs - the show was much too long at three hours including the interval - I tried to estimate the audience size, coming to around 400 sitting and 250 standing. Not bad at all for a weekday matinée; the people at the Globe have clearly got a formula which sells.

Onto Borough Market where I bought some rather interesting emmental cheese from a young lady with very caressing & Latin manners. Not smooth and shiny like your usual emmental, rather pasty and matt. I think I like it. She certainly had a good deal of it; I have not seen so much emmental in one place since before the cheese shop in Jermyn Street became a stop on the tourist trail.

Took another bullingdon to get back to Waterloo and was entertained on the way by a sort of overgrown milk float, driven by pedalo with maybe eight sets of pedals and with the pedaling being done by eight young Muslim girls in full war paint - none of your black body bags for them - perhaps a hen party. Rather slow, despite the number of pedals. Probably more chattering than pedaling going on. Not clear whether there was an auxiliary engine lurking underneath, but there was a (male) driver to keep order.

Home to read all about trumpets in Chambers and Wikipedia, being reminded along the way of the point of an old fashioned encyclopedia with its mainly professional writers and editorial control. I learn all about the trumpet wars which peaked in the 19th century and which resulted in the complete victory of the modern valve trumpet. Well not quite complete, as the antique variety used at the Globe is now resurgent and fighting back, in the van of the early music movement.