Thursday, January 18 – Harrow on the Hill

A rare occurrence this morning (at least to me) – both the Piccadilly and Metropolitan lines are under severe delays. I guess my trip into the city will just be a little later. It’s not like I’m in a rush. Fortunately I can monitor the status of all the lines from the Transport for London website, or their app that I downloaded upon my arrival. And it’s probably best I didn’t get an early start, as I plan on attending a lecture in the capital this evening (more about that later).

Tony lent me a book on walking tours of London and today I chose a walk that covers Soho to Trafalgar Square. It’s bright and sunny today. Perfect for roaming. Below are a few pictures…

It wasn’t a coincidence that the walk I chose concluded on Trafalgar Square. There’s a guided tour at The National Gallery this afternoon that I plan on attending. The tours last an hour and the guide typically selects four pieces of art in the museum’s collection to discuss (history, technique, background, etc.). There’s generally some type of connection between the pieces chosen, but not always. If it sounds like I’m familiar with these tours, it’s because I took them often when I lived here.

Mary told me about a free lecture series provided throughout the year by Gresham College. There’s one tonight that I attended entitled The Art and Science of Tuning (musical instruments), taking place at LSO St. Luke’s in the city.

It turned out to be very interesting, and the lecturer, Milton Mermikides, was very good. Gresham College recorded the lecture. Here’s a link to it if you’re interested in watching.

Friday, January 19 – Harrow on the Hill

I have a day of music planned.

I’m heading into the city this morning, Covent Garden specifically, to attend a free Live at Lunch performance at the Royal Opera House (ROH). These events are only held on Fridays, generally two per month. The performance begins at 1pm, but I wasn’t really sure of the logistics, so I ended up stopping by the ROH around 11:50am to check things out. It turns out that there was already a small group queuing up, so I joined them! The doors to the ROH opened at noon. That allowed us to move the line inside, where it became more organized, and warmer!

After the performance I walked around Covent Garden a bit. Here are a few pictures…

I mentioned at the beginning that I had a day of music planned. Well, this evening I’m attending another performance at the Harrow School. Tonight’s event is entitled Woodwind Evening. It consisted of ten individual student performances, mainly flute and clarinet, but also one bassoon solo! There were also two pieces played by a clarinet quintet. All included piano accompaniment as well.

The performance lasted about 75 minutes. Very enjoyable. The students are amazing. Sparsely attended though. Besides me, the audience included two parents, three school staff, and the other student performers. That’s it. In fact, it’s funny that afterwards one of the parents said hello to me and asked which of the soloists was my son!

Saturday, January 20 – Harrow on the Hill

Just stuck around the Hill today. Did some work on the journal, a little travel planning, went for a walk, and made a grocery run. Exciting stuff!

This evening though Tony and Mary invited my to join them for a concert in nearby Pinner (where they used to live). It was held in the Pinner Parish Church and consisted of works by Vivaldi, Mendelssohn, Brahms, and others performed by a chamber choir and small orchestral group. A fun event!