“The end is nigh!” Sunday morning was a grey rainy start to the final week, plus one day of my London stay. It was also the day of the final 11:30 AM concert at Wigmore Hall. I have shown several views of the
Wigmore Hall, this one gives an idea of the main seating. There is a balcony above the back. Most of the audience sits in the area shown. I was able to get there early enough to grab a coffee in the restaurant downstairs this time, a fete that only the early bird can be sure of accomplishing. Believe me, those classical music fans are strategic and get their tables early and do not give them up until it’s time to get upstairs to the concert.
This week, we were lucky to be entertained by Amsterdam’s Dudok Quartet. They performed Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet No. 1 in D. Opus 11 and Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 5 in B Flat Opus 92. The Tchaikovsky piece sent me off on ponderous thoughts of the state of things and of how to fix the
things that cannot be fixed. Shostakovich, on the other hand, was more of a powerful and uplifting piece that brought a positive energy to the room. I think it also fully showed the enormous talent of these four young musicians who received three curtain calls and played a lovely brief encore piece before sending the crowd off for the traditional glass of sherry or cup of coffee.
The United Kingdom granted the historian and political geeky side of me one more gift in this unusual year, when the Tories, the ruling Conservative Party, chose Rishi Sunak to replace Liz Truss as their party leader. Liz has now formally submitted her resignation to King Charles at Buckingham Palace and Rishihas followed her there and the King has asked him to form a new government. He becomes the first Prime Minister of Asian descent to hold the office and the first non-Christian. He will also be the youngest since William Pitt the Younger. Many in the UK felt that, while the rules did not require it, the
better solution for choosing a new Prime Minister would have been to hold a general election. However, conventional wisdom was that the Tories would probably have lost the parliamentary majority. They chose to continue to govern until the next required election in a little less than two years.
Some fun along the way to a visit down memory lane. My friend Sally mentioned that her daughter, who we jokingly call “young Dr. Krahn,” as both she and her father are annoyingly brilliant PhDs (as is her husband), would be in town the week I return from London. I realized this would be a chance for me to possibly see her and her two kids. Young Dr. K and her brother are among a group I call my “nearly nieces and nephews” because I feel as close to them as I do my own beloved niece and (in the case of these two), I’ve watched them grow up.
This led me back to Camden Market in search of some special tee shirts for the little ones. I had just about given up on finding what I was looking for when I stumbled across “Darkwear,” a delightfully offbeat shop at the far end of the Market. It sells a wide range of gothic clothing and band tee shirts, including kids’ sizes. This place was like heaven for a tee shirt junkie like me. I found tees for the kids and threw in a few for myself too. If the beaches ever open in Naples this winter, I’ll be the one in one of the unlikely band tee shirts. The customer service at the shop was outstanding. I recommend stopping there if you visit Camden Market. The staff are a nice bunch.
I think I may have mentioned my talented SUNY Oneonta classmate Madeline Morrow, an artist whose work is shown in many venues around London. When I visited the Chelsea Art Show, a few weeks back, her works had already sold out. Madeline graciously invited me to the opening of The Fulham Art Society Show at the Fulham Library’s Exhibition Room. What a talented group of artists provided works for this show! It was worth the delays on the Tube and the nearly one mile walk that Google Maps gifted me by suggesting I get off at the wrong stop. But eventually, I arrived and was able to catch up with my dear friend whose works are as inspiring as she is. Here we are looking at two of her works.
It is always something special to share a London moment with a friend I have known since those golden days in Oneonta back in the 1970s.
There is so much at this time of year to remind me of the past, the second anniversary of the passing of a dear Oneonta pal Bob, “Duffy” Dyer, just a few days ago, my visit with Barbara and Kuhrt in Denmark where we always enjoy memories of the early days of our friendship in DC, and special days. Two dear friends, Louis Spadanuta, who passed away in December, would have turned 69 on October 24th, Lou was my childhood best pal from the age of about 3 through our Junior High years. Bob Messina, who picked up the bestie role in High School also celebrates the same week. I commemorate my dad’s 44th birthday in heaven this week, as well as the 47th anniversary of the wedding of two people who I met at SUNY Oneonta, Alan Shapiro, my college best pal and Gail Adams. Al asked me to be his best man. Gail’s best friend since childhood, another Oneontan, Jean Fried (now Green) was Matron of Honor. Oh, what a night it was at Temple Electchester! Sadly, Al left this world in 1996. Gail raised their daughters and now is married to a great fellow. But later October fills me with the joy of the memories of good times and family and good friends and that touch of sadness that comes when I recall that some are gone. But the good times remain with us and that is what counts. As my friend Muriel reminds us, all the time when our coffee chats get heavy here in London, ‘you decide to be happy, and you decide to get up and get on with life.’ This has served her well for over 80 years.
Mark In London 