Ian Beale stars as Evangelist in the Monteverdi Choir Prom

Imagine my surprise when I tuned into the live BBC Four broadcast of Bach's Johannes Passion to find that the role of the Evangelist was being sung by Eastenders star Adam Woodyate who plays the downtroaden Walford entrepreneur Ian Beale. Now I know that Jigi is known for falling out with distinguished singers (Sadly Anne Sophie von Otter does not appear on his soloist list any more) and the Monteverdi Apprenticeship Scheme has been launched to give aspiring singers opportunities but this is perhaps the most bizarre episode that I must say that I have seen recently. Is Jigi attempting to jump on the same band wagon? Now that Sir Roger Norrington has joined the ranks of the "prostitution of music" by becoming a panalist in that latest "awful" celebrity show Maestro is this another type of Early Music Revival? Having missed the opening titles and pre-concert puke

given by those lovies that the BBC keep on manfuacturing I may have missed the explanation on why the eminent English Tenor Mark Padmore was indisposed? Beale did a great job as his dep although he did look out of place in tails. But it did make me wonder why he didn't drop it into the conversation earlier in the week when he invited Lucy's boyfriend and mother to the house knowing that they were posh! Lol. Anyway back to Padmore. I remebre his taking over as Ledger's leading Tenor in King's after the brilliant Charles Daniels left in about 1982/3. On visits to King's during the summer of 1982 I heard him sing a delightful verse in a broadcast service of the Weelkes Evening Service for Trebles which included an improvisation on the Tenor verse passage "he hath showed stenghth with his arm etc." which was not in the original mss. English cadence Society look out for this one. Back to Beal. Has anyone heard what other plans that Jigi has for him? and is he to feature on any of the forthcoming SDG releases. Please let me know.

French Health and safety

Beside a railway line and about half way up the road from Perpignan to Andorra I saw this sign beside a delightful fantastic station with a Ricard Fils advertisment written on it I saw this priceless sign.
Now most politically correct signs today will look for a get out clause in case of counter suit. But the French ... non .... I can hear the station master saying "take your chances punk... touch the line and you might die.... do you feel lucky punk.... put your foot on the line it may be alive, it may be dead? Do you feel lucky punk?" But this one is hidden behind a load of leaves. Do you feel lucky Punk?

The trip to the Pyrenees Part Un

My lovely wife (pictured here with her toothbrush on the roof garden at the hotel) has always wanted to return to Andorra. She spent an Easter vacation with a family outside Pau when she was younger and they took her skiing there. The journey up from Perpignan passed up through the mountains and then across a plateau until you enter Andorra via the Pas de la Casa. Now when you've been brought up in the Rhondda, surrounded by mountains, escaping out over the Bwlch to Bridgend and Porthcawl or over the Rhigos to Brecon, you get used to driving round hairpin bends. So driving up and down7% gradients comes as second nature. But unfortunately I was driving a Black Corsa 1.2 - bit of a minger really. The scenery was stunning. The other fascinating sight was that all along the route was a railway line occasionally traversing the gorge. Along it ran the Petit Train Jeune de Pyrenness. There's one thing about the French, they do love their little novelties. And this is one of them. They say mountain people are strange..... well if you have to travel on a cattle wagon along a long slither of track up to a plateau then so be it. But hey, why should we feel sorry for these people.. their choice. This little train takes even longer than the car and those open carriages.... you could sh*t yourself going over those viaducts and comfort? where's the buffet car? Part Deux will follow soon.

Fourwentways Car Park

I decided to pay homage to my compatriot and fellow facebooker Mr. Mark D Carrington in the car park of the Travelodge in Fourwentways just outside Cambridge. This Jag was parked close to the Tiguan and the German driver looked at me rather strangly when I asked Gaynor to take this shot.
It will make an ideal profile picture. We were on the way to Perpignan on our summer holiday and drove up to break the journey to London Stansted. We had dinner in a fantastic pub The Red Lion in the village of Hinxton about 20 minutes away from Cambridge. We didn't manage to see much of Cambridge, having not left home till about 2 p.m. but we did manage to have abit of a drive around searching for something to take back to the room - drink wise. I haven't ever driven in Cambridge and just like the other university city - it hates cars as Clarkson would say. Also a bit disappointing was that I had thought the the backs would have been illiminated so we could see King's floodlit. I suppose that they didn't have enough money in the meter. But it was nice to see some of the sights again. I think that I can pesuade GC to come an stay there again and put the car in the Park and Ride and walk around. Perhaps a long weekend in November or February. We'll see. The Red Lion say that they have rooms available at the end of the year. Interesting.

My latest trip to France

The latest trip to France was a bit disappointing. Perpignan was disappointing - hotel restaurant was shut and the place seems to have closed down - no petrol stations open during the afternoon etc. I put this down perhaps to the Spanish influence - dare I say lazyness. Now staying in a city is probably not the best thing to do either as everybody is too preoccupied with things and the people are only doing a job after all. But when you travel to the South of France you should be able to safely assume that during their holidays you can go to a hotel and get a meal. The worrying things is that with three flights a day coming in from Stansted alone there are lots of tourists in town. So why do the cooks have a week off. Go anywhere in Wales in the summer and you find hotel restaurant staff working away. If I were running a hotel I'd need my head tested if I had to tell customers "Sorry, the chef and his staff have gone on their annual jolly, but they'll be back next week after you've all gone home" The weather was rather bizzare as well - here's one of me being blown (excuse the expression) on a Languadoc beach. 22 degrees and a howling gale from the Pyrenees. Not many people on the beach and if they were "Chapel hat pegs" would have been in evidence - know what I mean. Anyway it was a break, a bit more of France ticked off but I can't see a return. More of the exploits soon.

Old photos on facebook

I've posted some old photos of me an gaynor on facebook. You can follow the link here but if you are not a friend you won't be able to see them. So click on the friends request button to see them. There are some from a three week holiday to Naxos, my one nad only skiing trip to Austria and some from our various trips to France. Nostalgia eh.

I know more than Chris Boardman about cycling because ........

............. he said that Carlos Sastre wouldn't be in yellow after the time trial and I did. So Olympic Gold medallist or what he knows naff all about cycling in my book. I can't believe that in modern day sport you can give anyone a minute start and not find that the other guy just trails around after you keeping his advantage. If it was me I'd know that I'd just ride my legs off and forget about the ride to Paris and going off last I'd have a watch on all my rivals all along the route to protect my lead. You really mean to say that if I'd ridden for 20 days, with just two days off, around one of the biggest countries in the world, climbing mountains the size of the Col du Tourmalet, Col Agnel, Col de la Lombarde, Cime de la Bonette-Restefond and on the same day the Col du Galibier, Col de la Croix de Fer before going up Alpe-D'huez with it’s 7.9% gradient, that I’d let some Auzzie guy ride faster than me?
So Sastre it was after all. I got the 1 – 2 right but as Menchov again didn’t find the form that most pundits predicted he slipped down to fourth with Kohl beat him to the podium.
I really enjoyed this year’s Tour as I think that the doping police are managing to make sure that the cheats are not able to get passed the tests a bit like in athletics and football (who remembers Diego Maradona’s eyes after scoring a goal in USA 94). The highlights for me obviously the ride of Sastre in Stage 17, Mark Cavendish sprinter supreme taking four stages in the last few hundred meters, all the so called pundits getting the time trial result wrong and of course Cadel Evans being the biggest over hyped cert since the first time the All Blacks were supposed to walk away with the RWC. So I can’t wait for next year. It’ll be ridden the other way round the Alps before the Pyrenees; I think I prefer the Alpine stages last as they climbs are spectacular. Can Sastre repeat? I’ll have to keep on looking at Eurosport and the Tours of Spain and Italy and other races in and around France.