Well, completely hypocritical I know, but the rain came yesterday afternoon, and I couldn't help feeling happy about it. Mind you, it was a bit of a shock at first...it was so hot yesterday afternoon, too hot inside even with the fan on and outside it was baking, but about 4pm I noticed that the trees were moving a little so I took myself out into the shade and relaxed on my rocking garden chair. I recon I was laid there with a slight breeze for all about thirty seconds before I had fallen sound asleep. Just over an hour later the clouds must have thickened and apparently there was a distant rumble of thunder...all this was unbeknown to me, happily snoring away until the ear splitting crack of thunder over my head and the first massive drops of rain splashed on my face causing me to leap out of the chair like my backside had been burnt. Ralph was already shaking and cowering at the back of his crate and my two delightful daughters found it hilarious and amazing that at my age I can move that fast! Bloody cheek!
The sky continued to rumble, flash and rain for the rest of the night until about 8am when the sun came out so Ralph and I went for a walk, the air smelt lovely and fresh, all you people who Camp will know that smell, there's nothing quite like the smells you experience when you are camping.
Anyway, that's not what I was going to say to you, I was going to tell you about my second Proms night. On Tuesday Mum and I went to see Sibelius, Schubert and Zimmermann, we were sitting in the front two seats of the box so we had a amazing view of the stage. This was a completely different atmosphere to the first concert we saw, everyone was very excited and happy there was a real buzz in the air.
This building is so bloody beautiful, it doesn't matter how many times I come here I am always struck by its glamour.
More Prommers! During the interval they all do this speech together, called the arena to audience shout announcing that they will be outside at the end of the concert collecting donations for Charities, I am sure they said the public had already donated over £14.000.
And this is where my favourite group of people sit in the orchestra. See those two pianos? Just one guy was playing them...one guy! He kept leaping from one to the other mid song and just managing to park his bum on the seat before he had to start playing.
My real hero is the guy who sits at the back playing percussion, So there he sits with his arms folded and his head lowered looking a lot like he is bored to death and has fallen asleep The rest of the orchestra are producing this incredible music, when all of a sudden the guy is up and at his instrument, the man is so fast you almost don't see the transition from looking like he is in a comatose state to being fully alert and ready to add his very valuable contribution to the piece. To me, this is a man who really knows his shit. I don't think its a natural thing for a man to look like he isn't listening when actually he is, and believe me, this guy had to be listening because there was this even bigger guy standing at the front waving his special stick about and my god, the man didn't look the type who would be happy if you cocked up on his watch.
Classical music isn't really my thing, I am more of a ZZ Top/Guns and Roses/Bon Jovi with a large splash of Sex Pistols and a sprinkling of Pink Floyd type of gal BUT there is something so amazing about following a musical story, even when you don't understand what the hell is going on, you are still struck by so much emotion that not many types of music can produce. For example...Elizabeth Watts...Soprano...holy crap, I have never heard a voice quite like it. I found myself wondering what it would be like living next door to her, that woman has one incredibly loud and enchanting voice.
Of course at all times I try to behave like a sophisticated lady, so when we got to our box at the beginning of the evening while there was no-one else in the box I fumbled around in my handbag a found a little bottle of perfume, Mum watched me in horror as I removed my shoes and my sweaty socks, rubbed my feet on the thick carpet (that's more a sensory thing..honest) and then put my bare feet up on the side of the box while I sprayed perfume on them to mask the nasty smell that was coming from them My little black dress had ridden up but I was so happy to be cool, cool as in not hot that is. Then I get this sharp elbow in my ribs and through gritted teeth Mum says...GET YOUR BLOODY FEET DOWN AND STOP SHOWING YOU NICKERS...YOU DO REALISE WE ARE LIVE ON BBC2?
To be honest there has been much worse shown on BBC2 but I was at the Proms in the Royal Albert Hall and I expect Queen Vicky would have been right hacked off to see my feet all over her carpet so I adjusted myself and made out I was a lady for the rest of the evening..although I kept my shoes off until the end of the second half.
I am so very glad I have experienced BBC Proms, its an entirely carefree different world, people come from all walks of life and they are all welcomed it really has restored my faith in human nature, of course the tube is a different matter there is absolutely nothing human about travelling on the tube at all and when this Chinese fella thought he could push me and my cane out of the way so he could get on before me he was very wrong and I hope his ankles still hurt!
Any way I think you can check out my Proms review and all the others on their RNIB Connect webpage if not google me (Lynda Daddario) and apparently it shows all the reviews on there too.
Sleep Well x
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