I just sat here in this heat for a bloody hour trying to finish off a blog that I started to write last week and had forgotten to finish and publish, I get up to go for a wee, come back, press publish and the whole bloody lot deletes itself, I'm not in the best of moods shall we say!
I found myself staring at the blank page wondering if I should throw the computer on the floor and stamp on it, or walk away calmly and take a few deep breathes...it was a close call and I am still breathing deeply!
I cant really remember what was in the blog except that I was telling you about my first ever trip to the Proms with the Nana's.
I really am a Proms virgin and had no idea what to expect, well obviously classical music but I wasn't ready for what I got!
So, last Monday I had tickets to go and see the Leningrad Symphony in the evening and as it was my day off I thought it might be nice to take the Nanas into London earlier in the day and have a mooch around Harrods. This would have been lovely if it hadn't have been for the fact that one of the Nana's couldn't get her head around getting off at a different tube station as it was too hot to walk from the usual station that we get off at and the other tube station was nearer to Harrods. There was no way I was going to risk having a Nana pass out in the heat so I suggested we just go to the Natural History instead thus relieving the stress of the whole getting off at a different tube station and I hoped it would be cooler in there...I was wrong, So very wrong.
For some reason the minute I stepped out of the tube station, I had no idea where I was. I couldn't get my bearings at all! Everywhere looked different and I just couldn't remember the familiar route we take. It was just like my brain has deleted the memory of the route and I could have been anywhere! Mum took my arm and the other Nana went off to look at the map, even though she was confident that we were on the right route, I just couldn't remember it and I wasn't happy letting someone else take the lead. Even as we got to the entrance of the Natural History I found my mouth saying..'ohhh yes, I know where we are now'....but my brain was saying...' How the bloody hell did we get here and more importantly how the hell am I going to find my way to get pasta later' The the museum wasn't too busy but it was stifling hot, and while we were walking around the enormous plastic mammals it all became too much and the dreaded panic feeling rose up from the pit of my stomach into my chest and I just couldn't breath. Mum took one look at me and marched me straight out of the area to the café, where we found the most yummy lemon cake. It took me about 15 minutes to fully calm myself down, but the three of us sat there not saying a word, just people watching. We wondered around the museum for about another hour and then my sense of direction was magically restored as I didn't have any trouble finding the way to the pasta restaurant.
The Nanas ordered wine with their food, they shared half a glass with me, but it tasted a lot like vinegar so I left it to them! The half glass of wine came back to haunt me a couple of hours later when we were sat in the box at the Royal Albert Hall waiting for the concert to start, and well, I fell asleep! Only for a few minutes but it was enough for me to wonder if I would stay awake through the whole of the evening. I need not have worried though as there was no chance of sleeping because the fella sitting beside me was doing enough snoring for both of us, couldn't help feeling sorry for him and once the musicians came on the stage, Mr snorey head beside me was the last thing on my mind.
I think maybe for a Proms virgin, Leningrad, although bloody amazing was a bit heavy and sombre. The atmosphere when we got there was totally different to the other events we have been to. We sat on the steps outside the hall waiting for 6.30 to come along. Outside there was a long queue of people who I assumed were also waiting for the 6.30 doors opening, but the more experienced Nanas explained that these were 'Prommers'...so, these are folks who buy tickets on the morning of the concert for £7.50, their tickets allow them to go into the arena and some spaces right at the top of the building, all these tickets are standing only. Now I recon there was some story about if they attend so many standing concerts, they get tickets for the last night of the Proms. Anyway, this group of people were so friendly with each other that they could have been a massive family, actually, it would never surprise me if they aren't the same group of people that attend through promming each year and all probably know each other.
And so from my comfy seat in the box I was subjected to seventy-eight minutes of musical emotion produced by some of the finest musicians in the world. More than 600.000 people died during Hitler's attack on Russia which inspired a then 35 year old Shostakovich to produce such a moving piece of music just a few weeks after the attack. The Orchestra, on Monday were amazing, a very finely tuned machine, perfect in every single way. At the end of the night I felt like I had been let in on a well kept secret, the story of Leningrad and the magical musical BBC Proms.
Of course. our night, as you might expect. didn't go as smoothly as we would have liked...the concert was being recorded for radio 2...and so if you were listening to live Proms radio on BBC 2 last Monday night and you hear a woman coughing so much you think she might pee herself...well, that'll be my Mum! Sitting behind me I hear a little delicate cough, which slowly turns into a ...oh crap I need a glass of water now cough, so she takes herself off out of the box, once the door was shut I knew the staff would look after her, but as the seconds ticked by into minutes, she didn't come back, I was just starting to get worried, when the other Nana taps my on my shoulder and whispers that she is going to check on my Mum. off she goes and also doesn't come back. There I am listening to this dramatic music and my mind is wondering to whatever is happening to the Nanas behind the box door...then this vivid image of me dragging to dead Nanas behind me back on the train comically pops into my head, the comical image turned quickly into panic and I cant stand it any longer, fumbling around on the floor for my cane with the intention of going Nana searching, the interval arrives just in time and in bursts two Nanas joking about how they weren't allowed back in while the concert was being recorded, no dead Nanas, all was good!
Anyway, that just about all I remember writing so I'll publish and write about this weeks trip to the BBC Proms tomorrow x
For some reason the minute I stepped out of the tube station, I had no idea where I was. I couldn't get my bearings at all! Everywhere looked different and I just couldn't remember the familiar route we take. It was just like my brain has deleted the memory of the route and I could have been anywhere! Mum took my arm and the other Nana went off to look at the map, even though she was confident that we were on the right route, I just couldn't remember it and I wasn't happy letting someone else take the lead. Even as we got to the entrance of the Natural History I found my mouth saying..'ohhh yes, I know where we are now'....but my brain was saying...' How the bloody hell did we get here and more importantly how the hell am I going to find my way to get pasta later' The the museum wasn't too busy but it was stifling hot, and while we were walking around the enormous plastic mammals it all became too much and the dreaded panic feeling rose up from the pit of my stomach into my chest and I just couldn't breath. Mum took one look at me and marched me straight out of the area to the café, where we found the most yummy lemon cake. It took me about 15 minutes to fully calm myself down, but the three of us sat there not saying a word, just people watching. We wondered around the museum for about another hour and then my sense of direction was magically restored as I didn't have any trouble finding the way to the pasta restaurant.
The Nanas ordered wine with their food, they shared half a glass with me, but it tasted a lot like vinegar so I left it to them! The half glass of wine came back to haunt me a couple of hours later when we were sat in the box at the Royal Albert Hall waiting for the concert to start, and well, I fell asleep! Only for a few minutes but it was enough for me to wonder if I would stay awake through the whole of the evening. I need not have worried though as there was no chance of sleeping because the fella sitting beside me was doing enough snoring for both of us, couldn't help feeling sorry for him and once the musicians came on the stage, Mr snorey head beside me was the last thing on my mind.
I think maybe for a Proms virgin, Leningrad, although bloody amazing was a bit heavy and sombre. The atmosphere when we got there was totally different to the other events we have been to. We sat on the steps outside the hall waiting for 6.30 to come along. Outside there was a long queue of people who I assumed were also waiting for the 6.30 doors opening, but the more experienced Nanas explained that these were 'Prommers'...so, these are folks who buy tickets on the morning of the concert for £7.50, their tickets allow them to go into the arena and some spaces right at the top of the building, all these tickets are standing only. Now I recon there was some story about if they attend so many standing concerts, they get tickets for the last night of the Proms. Anyway, this group of people were so friendly with each other that they could have been a massive family, actually, it would never surprise me if they aren't the same group of people that attend through promming each year and all probably know each other.
And so from my comfy seat in the box I was subjected to seventy-eight minutes of musical emotion produced by some of the finest musicians in the world. More than 600.000 people died during Hitler's attack on Russia which inspired a then 35 year old Shostakovich to produce such a moving piece of music just a few weeks after the attack. The Orchestra, on Monday were amazing, a very finely tuned machine, perfect in every single way. At the end of the night I felt like I had been let in on a well kept secret, the story of Leningrad and the magical musical BBC Proms.
Of course. our night, as you might expect. didn't go as smoothly as we would have liked...the concert was being recorded for radio 2...and so if you were listening to live Proms radio on BBC 2 last Monday night and you hear a woman coughing so much you think she might pee herself...well, that'll be my Mum! Sitting behind me I hear a little delicate cough, which slowly turns into a ...oh crap I need a glass of water now cough, so she takes herself off out of the box, once the door was shut I knew the staff would look after her, but as the seconds ticked by into minutes, she didn't come back, I was just starting to get worried, when the other Nana taps my on my shoulder and whispers that she is going to check on my Mum. off she goes and also doesn't come back. There I am listening to this dramatic music and my mind is wondering to whatever is happening to the Nanas behind the box door...then this vivid image of me dragging to dead Nanas behind me back on the train comically pops into my head, the comical image turned quickly into panic and I cant stand it any longer, fumbling around on the floor for my cane with the intention of going Nana searching, the interval arrives just in time and in bursts two Nanas joking about how they weren't allowed back in while the concert was being recorded, no dead Nanas, all was good!
Anyway, that just about all I remember writing so I'll publish and write about this weeks trip to the BBC Proms tomorrow x
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