Luko

To St. Luke's on Thurday to hear Ehnes (violin) and Osborne (piano) give us Beethoven No. 10 and Brahms No. 3, both last efforts in the genre according to the programme. Ehnes, a Canadian from Manitoba, was last heard at the beginning of 2014 (see reference 1) while Osborne is not on record at either place.

Having got to Epsom a little early, found an odd book in the library about nature and projective geometry by one John Blackwood, in which I was able to renew my acquaintance with Desargue's theorem about triangles, after an absence of fifty years. I also learned that some hawks stoop on their prey in an equiangular spiral, thus maintaining a constant angle of vision and keeping the prey in sight without having to move head or eye - seemingly this suits these particular hawks better than going straight for it as they see better sideways than straight ahead. I don't think Blackwood said anything about preferences for clockwise or anti-clockwise. Rather an odd chap on first appearances, apparently believing in the essential unity of mind and matter, a sort of cosmic naturalist, but we shall see how I get on in the days to come.

Onto yet another eight coacher and was taking a light nap when I was tapped awake by a concerned young lady as we pulled into Clapham Junction. But refreshed and awake enough by the time I reached Waterloo to really savour the feeling of freedom as I rolled down the ramp from Waterloo Station 3 on my first Bullingdon for a while. Wonderful feeling as one sets off, when the world seems to be one's oyster. Took in a couple of full stands before I wound up at Finsbury Leisure Centre, from where I walked back to Whitecross Street for the customary bacon sandwich, now on crusty bread, not toasted. The waitress even remembers the order.

From there to the charity shop where I declined the collected Ironside, a series from the sixties of which I have dim memories, and which might have served as a welcome break from a diet of nettles, but at £16 for the eight DVD's I baulked. Maybe I was being mean. The shop lady's best offer was that I come back on a Monday which would be half price day - and at £8 I would have bought, but she was not budging on a Thursday. Some compensation in the form of some more stories from Alan Bennett for BH.

Ehnes and Osborne very good, with nice platform manners. I liked the fact that Ehnes had bothered to put on a lounge suit and a tie, showing a bit of respect for both himself and his audience, St. Lukes, for once, being very nearly full on this occasion. Audience earned an encore with their enthusiasm and we got a movement from Dvorák's sonatina. The first movement of which sounds rather well on YouTube this morning, so I shall have to look out for it - and to which end I shall need to learn how to use Bachtrack again, to fight my way through their site refurbishment. Or as someone on my new toy called Steetlife (a sort of older person's Facebook) said the other day, software types never learn to leave well alone.

Entertainment continued on the Northern Line, with a school party returning to the Oval from a visit to the Museum of London's Canary Wharf site. Very chirpy party, but well behaved, complete with at least two very smartly turned out mums, with the one next to me exhibiting very elaborate nail painting. The young lady teacher looked exhausted but happy after her day out.

While at Tooting Broadway, a hoarding on a bus told me that Hoff was the greatest method actor ever produced by the US of A. Which despite his Baywatch fame, may possibly be true, but he doesn't run to his own web site, being content to ride with Facebook. See reference 3.

Still no aeroplanes at Earlsfield, although on this occasion I did get the odd sound of one. Maybe they will be back sometime soon.

Reference 1: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/bach-not-brahms.html.

Reference 2: https://www.streetlife.com/.

Reference 3: https://www.facebook.com/davidhasselhoff.