Off to a good start with there being a Bullingdon at Waterloo Bridge and clocking just 19 minutes to get to Old Street. Giving plenty of time for a bacon sandwich at the trusty Market Café and a quick browse in the neighbouring charity shop, from which I emerge with one book and two DVDs, of which more in due course.
Onto the concert, where I did not know either piece, but I liked the Britten in patches and liked the Shostakovich a lot. It was explained that this last was the last thing that Shostokovich wrote, written while he was in hospital dying of lung cancer and that he never got to hear it - which associated to the fact that my music loving father, whom I think knew Shostaklovich's work well, died of lung cancer around the same time. The piece was said to be full of musical quotes - from his own work and that of others - and that the third and last movement was, in the main, a tribute to Beethoven with most of the tunes taken from the same Moonlight Sonata which I had heard the other week at the RFH. All very strange, with the piano part seeming to be simply a toned down version of the Beethoven and the viola part a sort of echo, some bars behind. The violinist, who did the explaining, thought that the knowledge that this would be his last piece does come through in the music. This did not get through to me, but I did get to wonder how a production of this sort - be it a piece of music, a piece of cabinet work or a pot - might be affected by the knowledge that it was to be one's last. Would one try just to turn out a good piece, very much in the usual way, or would the production be a more self conscious, valedictory affair? I suppose, as so often, it would all depend.
Second hop on the Bullingdon from Finsbury Leisure Centre to Union Street a bit closer to the line at 27 minutes. With the bonus of coming across the second Jerwood Hall of the day, containing yet another café but also a small gallery, containing inter alia the picture illustrated. Checking today I find that there is a whole Jerwood Foundation (http://www.jerwood.org/), with the founder being one John Jerwood, a John Jerwood who seems to be very private, as a quick search revealed nothing more about him. I must try a bit harder when I am at a loose end.
Third hop from Southwark Station 2 back to Waterloo Roundabout, a piffling 5 minutes. Now slightly confused as I had thought that I had started and finished at the same stand.
Onto Waterloo Station where I bought a second loaf from Carluccio's, not quite as fresh as the first but still quite acceptable, and a couple of bottles of wine from the new to me 'Cabin', seemingly a newish venture from a poshish looking wine merchant with some odd locations called Corney & Barrow (http://www.corneyandbarrow.com/). Quite a swanky choice at what struck me as quite reasonable prices for a railway station so I treated myself to a Rioja and a Gevrey Chambertin, this last pretty much top of the range for me, although no where near the Cabin's top of the range.
Home to refreshment at TB where I learnt the interesting fact that tube drivers who have three jumpers (people who jump in front of their train) get retired, presumably on full pay until they reach retiring age, then full pension. Not quite the same thing, but I wonder if there is anything similar for lorry drivers and cyclists?
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