Mixed week

A fair bit of admin: the annual boiler service, a chat with our finance man, a bit of routine shopping, cooking and gardening.  Limited gardening: it has been a bit too showery and windy, but the grass is cut, I’ve sowed some nasturtium seeds and started preparing sweet pea seeds on the kitchen window ledge.  I’ve never grown them before, so will be interested to see if they come to anything.

On Wednesday we had a funeral to attend in Eltham: a former colleague and friend Mary, with whose (third) husband Michael I worked later.  An exuberant character and expert hostess, so the stories told had the chapel in hoots of laughter.  It was a beautiful day, and it being half term, the driving wasn’t too awful.

Today we’ve been to a good concert at the local assembly hall: Gershwin’s An American in Paris, and Ravel’s piano concerto (for both hands), with Jeneba Kanneh-Mason as the soloist.  Superb: it was the first time we’d heard the latter, and reckon it needs more exposure.  Perhaps it’s such a rarity because of the enormous demands it makes on pianist and orchestra alike.  It was well-placed right after the Gershwin piece, since it draws on a lot of jazz and blues influences.  Jeneba gave a virtuoso solo encore, but to my shame, I didn’t recognise the piece.  I shall enquire…  The local orchestra has improved greatly in the time we’ve been here - perhaps thanks to the recently retired conductor, who happens to be a distant cousin of Martyn and Sandra.  The tickets were a treat from Sandra, who was unfortunately unwell on the day.  Martyn wasn’t much better, so we stayed only for the first half, but didn’t mind missing Mussorgsky’s Pictures and Ravel’s Bolero.

Back to the usual routines next week. Covid-19 booster tomorrow, then a visit from a painter to quote for a couple of jobs we’re too lazy to do ourselves.  Tuesday: German conversation, then a visit to our generous bank’s one-day-a-week pop-up presence.  If they can’t deal with the transaction I need, I may blow a gasket.  They have shut down the local branch, and have proved bloody awkward to deal with, the nearest branch being a good half hour’s drive away.  I’ve not been too lucky with banks in recent years.  Snarl.