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Now for some words about London

Dear Reader

It has been a very busy time for us what with singing and walking and walking and singing. And occasionally sleeping. Oh, and eating at least three times a day. So I am a little behind where I would like to be in letting you know what has been happening. We are currently in Coventry, but I will backtrack in this post.

Our second venue for London was Temple Church, where Roger Sayers is the Director of Music. Roger ran a workshop and conducted two services for us in Adelaide in August 2018 when we had a Cathedral full of scaffolding. We were joined for our concert by their trebles. They have twenty boys who go to all sorts of schools in London with scholarship support. They do four rehearsals on weekdays after school and sing one service a week. Their lower parts are all taken by paid professions, so as it would have cost £1 000 to have them join us, we only had the trebles. We sang two pieces with them - Bruckner’s Locus iste to begin the program and Poulenc’s Quem vidistis pastores dicite at the end

We sang the Bruerville Locus iste, Dove The Three Kings, Leighton Lully Lullay, thou little tiny child,  and Wilberforce’s My Musick Shine.  As a bit of fun at the end we sang Waltzing Matilda.  They sang two movements from Britten’s Ceremony of Carols  and two other pieces. I will edit these into the post when I find the notes I made.

The concert was well received, even if most of the audience we brought with us. It was a very different building to sing in, and great fun. I attach a couple of photos, which may well be in the long London Photo Post.










Getting back to the hotel was really only possible by taxi, and the booked taxis could not deliver. So it was off to Fleet St to hail cabs. The first cab went off with three people and two cases, one big and one little. The pan was for another two cabs with the remaining five cases, four bigs and one little. Well, along came a wonderful London Cabbie, Daniel, who fit six people and all the remaining cases in his cab for the ride back to Westminster. Yongjian was so excited to take his first black cab ride. Daniel opened the window as we crossed the Waterloo Bridge so I could get the photo down the Thames more clearly.




After all of this excitement the Cromptons, David and I headed off to the Slug and Lettuce for dinner. We then returned the three Crompton Kids (they have adopted Archie for tour) the three Elders retired to All Bar One for a well deserved night cap, taking Bp Geoff along for the ride. 




Well, that about covers that evening...

Cxx

Comments

  1. Thanks for this. Temple Church is a wonderful place, and I remember Rogers Sayers' conducting of the choir at the cathedral. Bishop Geoff! Didn't expect that. Stuart L

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