Retired - Not Out

Tuesday, 28 April 2026

Amanda's Birthday - Cambridge

A day in Cambridge to celebrate Amanda's latest orbit of the sun. A straightforward but busy drive down, arriving just before 10.00. For convenience (and because Amanda's Achilles tendons are playing up) we opted to take out a second mortgage and park in the car park above the Grand Arcade.

First - refreshments at Costa:

followed by a mooch around some of the shops in the Arcade (Amanda has yet to decide exactly what she wants from me for her birthday).

Out, and a stroll round to Cellini on Rose Crescent, where I once again took her picture outside the jewellers from which we purchased her engagement ring and our wedding rings 35+ years ago:

More walking, arriving at Seasalt, from where her present(s) and other items were purchased:

To Heffers bookshop. Its once glorious stock of academic books has dwindled over the years, to be replaced by ever-growing selections of greetings cards, games and touristy knick-knacks. Ho hum.

More walking - arriving back at the Grand Arcade, where we took the opportunity to store our shopping in the car, before heading back out to The Ivy for lunch:

Absolutely no prizes for guessing what I ordered:

Amanda's "minute steak":

which she seemed pleased with:

Obligatory selfie:

Chocolate ice cream for yours truly:

and Amanda enjoyed her "Black bee honey and white chocolate cheesecake with mango sorbet, honeycomb and edible flower":

The birthday girl was presented with a celebratory (and complimentary) chocolate profiterole:

More mooching around the shops and then home to collapse and, still sated from lunch, to decide to postpone the eating of further celebratory pre-purchased cheesecake, panna cotta and birthday cake until tomorrow...

A good day.

Thursday, 23 April 2026

Nik Bärtsch's Ronin - Kings Place, London

To London to see Nik Bärtsch's Ronin at Kings Place. Bärtsch is a Swiss pianist, composer, and bandleader with a very distinctive musical style variously described as "zen-funk" or "ritual groove music", which sits somewhere between jazz and minimalism (think Steve Reich). Tunes (referred to by Bärtsch as "modules") are built from repeating rhythmic and melodic components and evolve slowly through small shifts which require almost mechanical discipline from the members of the band. If you think that sounds boring or monotonous, you'd be wrong - there’s a strong groove - funky, but very disciplined. The trick is not to listen for melodies or solos, but for how patterns lock together and shift over time. According to my records, the first time I bought a Ronin CD was in 2007, and the first time we saw the band live was also at Kings Place - in 2013.

An "interesting" trip down on the 16.12. The train before ours was cancelled, resulting in a large number of people transferring to the Aurora train (sounds of me spitting) that formed our service, and the normally quiet environment of the first-class carriage was suddenly transformed by it filling to capacity, with people standing. This seemed strange (I don't ever recall people having to stand in first before) but all was explained when the Train Manager came to check out tickets and it transpired that just before we got on, "our" first-class carriage had been 'declassified' so that any passengers displaced from the cancelled train could use it. The Manager explained that she could not bring us our complimentary snacks and drinks if we remained where we were, but invited us to follow her (like royalty) to the other first class carriage, which had not been declassified, where we could receive free hospitality...

An otherwise uneventful trip, and we arrived on time and headed out to... ...Nenno Pizza on Caledonian Road. We'd been a couple of times before and this has now become our "go to" eatery when we're in that area (though I did note for future reference that there was a branch of Honest Burgers nearby...).

Excellent pizzas:

and ice cream and panna cotta:

and (after we'd paid!) a complimentary Limoncello for one of us:

A gentle post prandial stroll to Kings Place and eventually into Hall One where we had a great view from our third row seats:

until the tallest woman in the world, complete with Zaphod Beeblebrox hair, took her seat:

No matter, it wasn't that bad, but it did persuade us that for future visits we should choose the front row (something that we often avoid because in some venues it can lead to a crick in the neck).

Nik introduces the band:

The band in full flight:

and then, after a one-hour set and a 20-minute encore, it was all over:

I waited briefly at the concessions stand, where Nik kindly signed (and illustrated) my copy of his latest CD:

A brisk walk back to St Pancras and then onto the 23.35 home, this time on one of the original (and being replaced) Meridian trains, with comfortable padded leather reclining seats and lighting that was NOT better suited to an operating theatre...

To our delight, on this occasion the last train of the day did not take the timetabled circuitous route home, meaning that we arrived shortly after 01.00 - great news for us, less great for those passengers travelling further north who were then kept waiting for 25 minutes to ensure that the service adhered to the timetable...

Home, and in bed by 01.30. A great night out.

Thursday, 19 March 2026

Soft Machine - Ronnie Scott's London

Off down to London on the 15.13. We're heading back to Ronnie Scott's for the first time in almost a year - Soft Machine recently released their 13th studio album (called, imaginatively, Thirteen) and tonight is the official launch of the album and of the tour to support it. We've seen Soft Machine twice in the last seven months - it would have been three times but an incident involving a misplaced wallet, tickets and railcard prevented us from seeing them supporting Colosseum at Cadogan Hall last November (no names, no pack drill...). Tonight's gig is sold out and I was slightly slow off the mark when booking, so we were unable to get a table in the "premium seating" section as we usually do, and were wondering what the view would be like tonight.

A straightforward journey down, during which I took the opportunity to listen to the new album for the first time - first impressions extremely favourable. A cab to the corner of Denmark Street and Charing Cross Road, a (very) quick stop in Foyles and then a brisk walk through to Soho, where the fans were gathering:

The view from our table - actually most acceptable, and one that we would ask for again if we had difficulty getting our first choice:

I was immediately struck by the fact that drummer Asaf Sirkis's kit was fitted with two large acrylic discs, mounted between the cymbals and the audience. This was a first for me, but given the volume of his drumming, the size of the room and and the proximity of the nearest audients it was probably a good idea.

The room filled quickly, as most punters were aware that, with the doors only opening at 17.30 and the band due on stage at 18.40, the staff would be hard pressed to get everyone fed and watered by show time:

We enjoyed a couple of house burgers, followed by chocolate tart with raspberry coulis (A) and chocolate ice cream (he who would like to be obeyed) and then settled back. Bang on time the band took to the stage and kicked off with five numbers from Thirteen, which sounded even better live than on the album. After the first couple of tunes, John Etheridge commented that he was of an age (50 years in the band) at which he was relieved to be playing the early show - pause - and that most of us looked like we would appreciate an early night. (It's not often that I lower the average age of an audience when I walk into a gig, but this was one such occasion...) An interesting trawl through their back-catalogue, and all too soon (20.00) it was all over - the band were clearly very conscious of the fact that the second house (another band) was scheduled to open its doors at 20.30 and the room had to be cleared and reset in a very tight 30-minute slot.

Out, and a brisk walk down to Shaftsbury Avenue, where we easily caught a cab back to St Pancras. Earlier issues involving the cancellation of a number of trains to and from Corby had clearly not been resolved, and the upper concourse was packed with people forced to travel on those trains that were still running, leading to a much busier than usual return journey. On the other hand, it was good to arrive home at around 23.00, in contrast to our more usual arrival time of 02.00 when we've been down to London.

All in all, a great night - and we can now look forward to seeing them again (supporting Colosseum) at Cadogan Hall next November (lost wallets, etc permitting...)

Set List

Open Road (from Thirteen)
Lemon Poem Song (from Thirteen)
Seven Hours (from Thirteen)
Waltz for Robert (from Thirteen)
Green Books (from Thirteen)
Out-Bloody-Rageous (from Third)
Song of Aeolus (from Softs)
Joy of a Toy (from The Soft Machine; released as the first US single)
14 Hour Dream (from Hidden Details)
Closing medley:

10.30 Returns to the Bedroom (from Volume Two)
Hidden Detail (from Hidden Detail)
Hazard Profile Part 1 (from Bundles)

Encore

Chloe and the Pirates (from Six)

Friday, 25 July 2025

The Constant Wife - Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon

A visit to Stratford to see "The Constant Wife" by Somerset Maugham at the Swan Theatre.

A straightforward journey, and then parking as usual in the Church Street Car Park. A walk through town and then, for a change, we headed across the river over the Grade II listed pedestrian Tramway Bridge.

Looking back at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre:

The Ferris wheel (bigger, apparently, than last year's) seemed fairly empty, but there were excited voices coming from the few cars that were occupied:

Looking across to the Grade I listed, and much older, Clopton Bridge:

Our first (but hopefully not our last) visit to The Boat House, where we were seated on the balcony. The views in all directions were most acceptable:

so your author was a happy bunny:

The view inside:

and back to the Tramway Bridge:

An excellent burger for me, and a rump cap steak for Amanda:

followed by my habitual chocolate ice cream, and sticky toffee pudding for Amanda:

A gentle stroll to the theatre. Looking back to The Boat House just visible on the far side of the Tramway Bridge:

It was stiflingly hot in Stratford, so I was pleased to arrive at the Theatre in plenty of time for a restorative ginger beer in the Swan Bar.

We took our seats in the blessedly cool Swan Theatre. In one of the reviews listed below, the critic reflects on "how they would fit a proscenium arch stage drawing room set on a thrust stage, but they do", and I agreed with his assessment that the deceptively simple set was one of the best seen in recent years:

Portions of the rear of the set were semi-opaque, allowing us to see characters appearing in shadow on staircases before they entered the drawing room. During a flashback scene, sections of wallpaper seemed miraculously to half-peel off the walls, the previously brown-painted door into the room transformed into a semi-sanded blue, and parts of the floor covering, as if by magic, pulled back to reveal an ornate tile floor beneath - all, taken together, indicating a room in a state of being decorated.

Obligatory selfie:

And so to the play. We throughly enjoyed it - I would happily go to see it again before the end of the run, but in the few remaining performances there are only a handful of standing-only tickets still available. Rose Leslie (of "Game of Thrones" and "married to Kit Harrington" fame - neither means much to me) was excellent as Constance Middleton, the titular "Constant Wife", and was supported by a uniformly excellent cast.

Maugham's original text had been tweaked by the writer Laura Wade, and the mark of how well she had done this was the difficulty we had in 'seeing the joins'. That said, one obvious - and deliciously funny - change occurred at the beginning of the second act, with Constance and her long-time admirer Bernard trying to leave the house to go to the theatre to see a play called "The Constant Wife"... With the couple having been considerably delayed in their attempts to leave by events occurring at the end of Act 1, one character helpfully noted that they should have no difficulty in catching up, because so many such plays begin their second act with one of the characters providing a helpful summary of what has happened thus far - at which point Constance's sister (played by Amy Morgan) launched into a frantic tour-de-force summary of what had happened in the first act that we had just seen that was so well delivered the whole house broke into spontaneous applause at the end of it.

More detailed reviews are listed below, and a number give further useful insights.

A straightforward run home, reflecting on a most enjoyable outing.