The Seven Pomegranate Seeds at Rose Theatre was remarkable

Rose Theatre is my nearest and I try to get to all of the mainstream theatre there. I seem to be doing quite well at that as my phone informed me that this was my sixtieth check-in at the venue.

It is a gentle walk of about an hour along the river to get there and I was early enough to grab a coffee before the show, and resilient enough not to have any cake wit it.

As usual, I had forgotten why I had made the booking but a quick look at one of the posters informed me that it was directed by Melly Still which was reason enough.

The set was enough to confirm that I had made a good decision. The stage was sparse with little more than a wooden door and a small table as standard props and these were complemented by oddities like rocks hanging from cords.

The play, it transpired, was a series of short stories derived from Greek legendary women like Persephone, Phaedra and Medusa. The degree of connection was lost to me due to my poor knowledge of the original material but it did not matter, the stories stood in their own right.

Several factors made this one of the best things I have ever seen at Rose. Full use of the stage was made in a way that I had never seen before, including two structures thrusting over the stage. The script rhymed subtly, enough for you to notice but not to much for it to be a distraction. All the parts were played by Shannon Hayes and Niamh Cusack who were both excellent.

The Seven Pomegranate Seeds was exactly the sort of modern and intelligent play we were promised when Rose Theatre first opened and is exactly what I go to the theatre to see.

30km to Uxbridge

I had walked to Uxbridge before and had also done the local sections of London Loop but I had not walked with the Ramblers before, despite being a member for a few years, and I took the opportunity of the 20th anniversary celebrations of the Loop to do all three.

The Ramblers part of the walk was all of section 10 and most of section 11 which went from Hatton Cross to West Drayton. I supplemented that by walking from home to Hatton Cross, which is sort of section 9 of the Loop, and then continued on to Uxbridge completing section 11.

I made no attempt to follow the Loop to Hatton Cross and my route was determined more by having to get there by 11am and the location of some target Pokemon Go gyms. That meant more main roads that the Loop but it also took me through Hanworth Park and let me get a coffee and another excellent cake from the deservedly packed Lisboa Loja cafe in Feltham.

I arrived at Hatton Cross at 10:58 feeling suitably smug at my timing and pleased to have taken a key target gym in Hampton and two more in Hanworth Park. The day had started well.

The walk to West Drayton went much as expected and was mostly a route I had taken several times before.

There are always options on routes like these and after crossing Bath Road in Cranford I headed confidently to Avenue Park only for everyone else to go to Cranford Park. I conceded defeat and joined them.

We joined the canal soon after and I was expecting us to follow it all the way to West Drayton so the detour via Stockley Park was unexpected though understandable.

It is both a strength and a weakness of London Loop that it often takes a longer route to include parks when the direct route is already pretty. That was the case here in leaving, and then rejoining, the canal and also in section 9 where it goes through Hampstead Heath when the path along River Crane is both shorter and, in my opinion, prettier (though, to be fair, it can be closed due to flooding). The conflicting requirements of walking for pleasure (prettiest route) and for travel (shortest route), and attempts to mix the two, make designing walking routes difficult with no right answers. I think that is the main reason that I prefer to walk alone or with a friend, we get to choose the route at each point rather than somebody else.

The Ramblers abandoned me in West Drayton where the effects of the sun drove me into a pub for a beer. As advised, the pub by the station was pretty dire - the London Pride was off and the substitute bottle of Tribute was (just) out of date. The crisps were ok but basic.

Short beer break over I continued uneventfully along the canal to Uxbridge. I probably should have checked the status of public transport before making these plans as my expected route was unavailable due to no District Line trains running to Richmond but two Piccadilly Line trains to Acton Town then South Ealing and a 65 bus did the trick, eventually.

With a couple of short breaks the 30km walk took something under seven hours. That is what I call a good walk.

A less scenic route to Feltham

This was another simple plan for a walk and, to be honest, it did not really work.

Recent and planned long walks headed from Richmond north, north-east, east and south-east so it seemed fair to give south-west another try. We had been that way a few (three?) times either following the Thames or the Mole. This time I thought that we could head for the two large reservoirs near West Molesey. Feltham was chosen as the end-point simply because it is in Zone 6 so we could get home for free.

The walk started well enough as we went through the centre of Bushy Park. There was more traffic there than we would have liked despite the through route being closed as cars were still allowed to access the two car parks in the centre. Still, it was quiet enough for us to walk along the road.

We followed The Thames west for a while before heading for the reservoirs. The roads there were too busy for the walk to be relaxing and the pavements left a great deal to be desired. That proved to be the case for most of the rest of the walk and ultimately led to the failure of the plan.

There were some good points along the way, such as when we rejoined the river just before Walton-on-Thames. BP's International Centre for Business & Technology in Sunbury had some impressive modern buildings. An unnamed area of heath in Lower Feltham was a flowery delight and we took a slight detour to enjoy it. We took another short detour for Grosvenor Park in Feltham but as that is just a recreation ground this was scant reward for the extra steps.

The final ignominy was having to have my end of walk beer in a Wetherspoons in Feltham.

Far from the greatest walk ever but not the worst either, at least the weather was good, and covering 21 km was a decent result for four hour's effort.

Once more to Feltham

There are several reasons why I keep walking to Feltham.

It strings together several parks and while urban areas and main roads cannot be avoided the wild beauty and peace of places like The Lower Crane Valley, Hanworth Park and Feltham Park more than compensate. These parks follow the River Crane or The Duke of Northumberland's River which brings adds to the natural beauty.

It is also a nice distance for a walk with options to jump in an out of the route, by bus and train, if the time or the weather demands it.

The final excuse, I have to admit, is that I am chasing gold badges in some Pokemon Go gyms along the route and so I have to revisit them regularly.

I had walked every section of this route several times before but this is the first time that I had strung them together like this. My choice or route kept changing on the day depending on my mood as each decision had to be made.

One important decision was on where to stop for coffee and with not many decent options beyond Hampton I thought that I would give Lisboa Loja in Feltham another go. I had been there only once before and that was when I had got lost following the wrong river (there are three in the area). Lisboa Loja came up trumps with possibly the best cake that I have ever eaten! It was something like a Mango Coconut Bundt Cake but with more fruit. I will have to go back and have it again.

The final decisions were to keep walking and not to take a bus part of the way home. I could do this as I had started early, around 8:30am, and so despite walking for just over five hours I was still home in time for lunch. In those five hours I walked over 25km, a great start to the day!

L’amico Fritz at Opera Holland Park

I know why I go to Glyndebourne (the whole experience) and why I do not go to Royal Opera House (too expensive for what it is) but I am not sure why I have been avoiding Opera Holland Park. 

Some of it is, I think, the lack of original programming. There is a limit to how often I want to see any opera even one as good as, say, Carmen or Madama Butterfly, and my only previous visit to Opera Holland Park was in 2015 to see the exceptional modern opera Flight that I had seen previously at Glyndebourne (twice).

Some of it is also the relatively poor visitor experience and I had bad memories of slow unmanaged queues for drinks. I know it is not trying to be Glyndebourne but I had been disappointed on my first, and only, visit.

All that said, when our eldest son offered to take us to see the unknown to us L’amico Fritz by Pietro Mascagni we quickly agreed.

Pre-opera meant a short walk up from Hammersmith, to keep the daily step count up, and a rather excellent supper at Megan's on the High Street by the entrance to Holland Park. The brief shower of rain did nothing to dampen our spirits.

We got to Opera Holland Park about half an hour before the performance, as planned, and went straight for the bubbly. Our son arrived soon after and the glasses of bubbly were followed by a bottle.

We were still under covid-19 restrictions which helped by reducing the numbers and simplifying some of the procedures, such as queuing for drinks! It was all very pleasant.

The restrictions also meant a big change in the seating, gone were the standard stadium seats and in were dining chairs arranged in small groups with gaps between them. These gaps helped to compensate for the lack of raking and I had a good view of the stage. We learned later that all the chairs has been used as props at theatres and were being given a second life here. 

L’amico Fritz is a light comedy with one of the simplest plots ever staged, a rich young man and a confirmed bachelor falls in love with the local farmer's daughter, and she with him, but it takes them about an hour to realise this, which is long after everyone else has.

The music was simple, to my untrained ear, and jolly. It skipped along evenly without any great highs or lows. Like the plot, it was pleasant and easily appreciated.

The singing was sumptuous, especially by the two leads and what could have been a light meal became a rich feast. I loved it.

That may have done enough to tempt me back to Opera Holland Park sooner rather than later, we will see.

Learning about The Buildings of Ham Common

My favourite community events, by a country mile, are the local architecture walks and talks given by local architect Richard Woolf and organised by local community group Ham United Group so I was delighted to join his tour of The Buildings of Ham Common.

Ham Common, unsurprisingly, is the heart of Ham and it is ringed by an interesting collection of buildings from old cottages to substantial modern lodges. Richard squeezed eighteen of them into a fact-filled, informative and entertaining walk.

Here we see Richard explaining the rise of Neo-Georgian (Neo-Geo) houses and how the few examples on Ham Common sit uneasily with their grander Georgian neighbours.

I know the buildings on Ham Common pretty well and have photographed them all, often many times, for my community blog HamPhotos, but I was still absorbing new insights on their design and construction at a prodigious rate of knots.

This was a fascinating talk and it ended on the best possible note, Richard promised to do another walk and talk next year.

The Game of Love and Chance at Arcola Outside was very jolly

My return to theatregoing is still tentative but Arcola Theatre is one of my favourites and I was keen to get back there. The Game of Love and Chance gave me the chance to do that with the promise of some easy laughs.

But first I had to get there.

The familiar routine of going to the Arcola was partially forgotten and things had changed too. Arcola had opened up a new performance space, Arcola Outside (where Arcola Tent once was) to give performances in a highly ventilated space with distanced seating.

The new bar did not do food but one of the staff recommended the pub across the road, The Speakeasy, and that did the job brilliantly, albeit at the price you would expect of a bar full of young Dalstonians.

The seating looked little more than wooden boxes, providing useful space underneath for bags, but it proved to be surprisingly comfortable.

The other surprising thing was the lack of mask wearing. I had mine on all the time but only a small number of other people did.

The play itself was a simply constructed farce where only two of the players and we, the audience, knew what was really going on. The trick was people swapping roles to great comic effect.

The acting was beautifully exaggerated and special praise must go to Ellie Nunn as the minor royal falling in love with a chauffeur for her expressions and looks to the audience, and to Michael Lyle for his enthusiastic son-of-a-billionaire chasing a maid.

It was all extremely jolly and I laughed a lot. It was just the sort of exuberant pick-me-up I needed after a long period without theatre or anything else very much.

Delighted by Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser at V&A

Once upon a Time the V&A was my favourite place on the planet and I went there so often it felt like a second home. Then I stopped working in Central London and then covid-19 happened and unexpectedly I had not been there for two years. 

I could have been away for even longer but for the chance to use a corporate booking to see all three of the current exhibitions. A previous medical appointment meant that I had no time for Bags: Inside Out and I chose to go to Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser first.

I arrived at South Kensington in good time and with the V&A cafe sadly still closed I had a mid-morning boost, coffee and cake, at Brown & Rosie.

I was not sure what to expect from the exhibition, I rarely do, and I was pleased to discover that it largely focussed on the iconic imagery and little was said about the text, other than putting it in the context of the time it was written.

I had a copy of the classic book as a child, and it is probably still in the library room somewhere, so I have known the original John Tenniel illustrations for over fifty years. It was interesting to read how this writer and this artist worked together, something I am familiar with from comics, and also to see other examples of Tenniel's work.

A large part of the exhibition then showed how these iconic (I know I used the word earlier and I repeat it to make the point) characters and images have been included and adapted in popular culture from then to the present day.

The story has been retold many times and in many forms. Notable film versions include Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (2010) with Johnny Depp and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972) with just about everybody around at that time including Peter Sellers and Dudley Moore.

There were also posters from plays, album covers, books of foreign adaptations and quite a few other things that I paid too little attention as I rushed round in the little time that I had (about an hour).

Several images struck me hard in a good way, like the Japanese Lolita outfit in black, and the standout image for me was this from the Pirelli 2018 calendar shot by Tim Walker and styled by Edward Enninful.

And that's why I love the V&A, I never expected to be see, let alone be delighted by, a photo from a Pirelli calendar.

Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser was as excellent as I have come to expect a V&A exhibition to be and I might well go again before it finishes at the end of the year.

I had planned to also see Epic Iran and had a ticket for entry between 1;30 and 1:45. I got there at 1:35 to find the exhibition closed. There were a couple of other people there with tickets and after some discussion we were allowed in but told that we had to be out again by 2pm, which then became 1:55. That gave me 20 minutes to try and absorb what I could but this did not work as what I saw was quite wordy, unlike Alice, and there was little of the architecture and decorative tiles that I was hoping to see. It was very disappointing and I saw nothing to tempt me back for a proper look.

Things got better when I went back to Brown & Rosie for some lunch and a beer in the sunshine.

Following the Brent to Perivale

The plan was even rougher than usual and was little more than "follow the Brent".

That was the middle part of the route more or less sorted and the first part, getting to the Brent, needed no planning as it was the very familiar route to Brentford and then the not quite as familiar route along the Grand Union Canal. The final part, heading home was left deliberately vague but was always likely to include Ealing Broadway where the 65 bus could take us both home.

The weather, as it often is, was another unknown part of the plan and we largely chose to ignore the threat of heavy rainstorms. And is often the case, we were proved right.

The walk was simple enough, as we knew it would be, until we hit Hanwell and turned off the Grand Union Canal to start following the Brent. We had been that way once before when following the Capital Ring and my recollections of that included mud and getting lost. This time was much the same though as we were following a river rather than a trail it was usually obvious to choose a path.

In Perivale Park we parted way with Capital Ring and continued to follow the Brent as it turned sharply east into Pitshanger Park.

We had been walking for about three hours by then and another vague part of the plan became firmer, a return to a cafe we had discovered on our first visit to Perivale forced on us by the closure of the footpath along the Grand Union Canal. Sadly we had forgotten it's name and the technology, Google and Foursquare, was quite hopeless in helping us to find it again. The first road that I went for because it appeared to have several cafes in turned out to be a massive industrial estate but on exiting that, eventually, we found ourselves in the right road, Bilton Road, and almost facing The Lunch Box, as we then found it was called. I deserved and thoroughly enjoyed Vegetarian Breakfast 2 which came with tea and toast.

The route down to Ealing Broadway looked easy enough so we set off to walk there rather than take one of the convenient buses passing by. This meant rejoining the Brent for a short while as it passed though Brentham Meadows. We got slightly lost here too but we are used to that.

That took us into the magnificent Brentham Garden Suburb which alone justified the decision to walk, despite the hill.

Approaching from the north, the commercial centre of Ealing appeared suddenly but before we caught the bus home we paid a short visit to The Haven Arms where I had a pint of Proper Job, a fine way to end a fine walk.

The statistics of the walk were 21 km in something over 4 hours, a reasonable pace given our leisurely intent and the regular mud.

Out West at Lyric Hammersmith was a gratifying return to theatre

It is a cautious return to theatre for me and I have deliberately missed several shows that I would probably have gone to in better safer times two years ago. The first show to tempt me back was Out West at Lyric Hammersmith, partially because Lyric is one of my more regular theatres and partially because one of the three plays was written by Simon Stephens. I am enough of a fan of Stephens for him to have his own tag on this blog.

As expected, covid played havoc with my usual Lyric plans, which include eating in the bar there, but the makeshift plan of going to the nearby Hop Poles for a pint an a vegetarian plate. It was also a chance to catch the end of the England v Germany game which had the decency to finish before the theatre started,

It was probably stated on the Lyric website somewhere, which was either unread or forgotten, but this was not a random collection of plays, they all had a connection with Hammersmith (hence, I presume, the Out West title) and they all said something about racism.

The Overseas Student in the first play was Ghandi and it described his time in England studying law, a story I knew nothing about. I liked the way the story was told and it was interesting to learn connections to things I did know, such as the first asian MP Dadabhai Naoroji. I had come across his plaque just off Amwell Street in a road now named after him.

It was also interesting to learn that Naoroji was arguing then that Britain's wealth was at the expense of India's poverty. 

As with all of these plays this was a solo effort and Esh Alladi was excellent as the young man trying to get on in a strange land. The play, by Tanika Gupta, was a simple chronological narrative and that was fine, there was plenty enough interest in the story to not need theatrics.

Blue Water and Cold and Fresh was obviously written by Simon Stephens because of the swearing, though it came nowhere near the record for this that he set in Christmas. It was also obviously written by somebody interesting in the construction of plays and seeing some of the scaffolding added to the fun, as did spotting the recurring themes like sunlight and cups of tea. 

At first most of the interest came from discovering the structure of the story and the geography of Hammersmith then the narrative grew as we learned more about the protagonist and his family's past and then racism entered the story with a jolt.

Tom Mothersdale was measured and convincing as the man trying to understand his father by revisiting his past homes and reliving some memories of those times.

Go, Girl written by Roy Williams and played by Ayesha Antoine also switched between times and in this case it was a mother with a problematic daughter who thought back to when she was her daughter's age and had had the honour of singing to Michelle Obama who made a visit to her school.

Their story was one of both issues and possibilities and, in the end, Go, Girl proved to be good advice.

Three relatively short single-handed plays on a simple set was never going to be an epic but as a cautious return to the theatre this was an excellent and very enjoyable evening.

The Father at Curzon Richmond was superb

I like watching films but am not much of a cinema fan (for reasons that probably make no sense) and am usually happy to wait for them to hit the small screen so it takes something special to drag me out. The Father was certainly special enough to do that.

My primary interest was in the story and the story teller. I had seen the play at Richmond Theatre in 2016 and that had led me to see other Florian Zeller plays subsequently. If any further temptation was needed then the promise of an Oscar winning performance from Anthony Hopkins was more than enough.

It was towards the end of the run at Curzon Richmond before I got organised enough to book and so I found myself going at 8:30pm on a Friday evening.

A pleasant upside of that timing was the opportunity to make a first return visit to Wagamama for a year where a vegan Tofu Firecracker was exceptional. I also had time for a pint in The Olde Ship which was useful after the Firecracker.

This was only my second visit to Curzon Richmond and I had forgotten that I could get a real coffee  to take in, which was a much better option than another beer.

The Father did what I knew it would from having seen the play but it did it in a different way taking advantage of the things that films can do, like change locations quickly.

The simple, poignant, heart-wrenching story was the neurological decline of The Father. It was told from his perspective, though not in the first person, and that meant that characters changed their appearances, changed where they were living and changed what they had said. There were multiple actors playing the same role and also different roles, e.g. two played the daughter and one of those also played a nurse. We were always a little confused as to what was really going on and that gave us just a clue as to how The Father saw things.

Anthony Hopkins was brilliant as The Father as I knew he would be because he had played a similar role with great aplomb in Red 2. He is also a bloody good actor in everything else that I have seen him in.

The rest of the production, including the fabulously furnished flats and the gentle cinematography enriched the experience without ever detracting from the centrepiece of the drama, The Father.

Given the subject matter, neurodisability, it was never going to be an easy film to watch, and nor would it be to everyone's taste, but it held my full attention for an hour and a half and was very rewarding if not, in the usual sense of the word, entertaining. 

Exploring linear parks in South London

In our previous weekly long walk my walk buddy and I did a loop north of the Thames from Embankment to Waterloo vis, amongst other places, Hyde Park, Paddington, Regent's Canal, Clerkenwell, City and South Bank. Buoyed by the success of that walk I proposed that we try something similar south of the river and so we joined the 8:57 Barriers Club and caught the tube to Westminster intending to visit a few of the green spaces shown on the map.

The first part of the journey was an uneventful trek along roads apart from the discovery of Arment Pie, Mash & Eel House somewhere around Walworth, possibly.

Soon after we were in Burgess Park and the walk really began. I had been there before, I quickly realised, but previously I had been going east to west and things always look different in an interesting way when you walk in a different direction. We also wandered off the main path a little to take in a wildflower garden so it was like walking in the park for the first time.

The yomp through Peckham had to be done and at least there was the mix of cultures to study along the way.

From there it was a succession of parks with a couple of steep hills to spice things up.

Here is a checklist of the places we visited, where I remembered to check in on Swarm, in reverse order because that is how the app works:

• Russia Dock Woodland
• Lower Pepys Park
• Upper Pepys Park
• The Dog & Bell (beer break)
• Broadway Fields
• Brookmill Park
• Ladywell Fields
• Ravensbourne Park Gardens
• Blythe Hill Fields
• One Tree Hill
• The Peckham Round (coffee and cake)
• Peckham Rye Park
• Peckham Rye Common
• Burgess Park

This was a slight change from our vaguely planned route which would have taken us into Greenwich Park as on entering Ladywell Fields in Catford we saw signs for Waterlink Way that explained that we were about half way along the 12 km route and we decided to follow the rest of it towards the Thames because it looked pretty and we like to explore new places.

The Thames from Deptford to Rotherhithe is one of my favourite sections because it reeks of maritime history and has managed to resist much of modern London so we took the scenic route up to Canada Water where we had an easy route home.

The statistics of the walk were 22 km in a respectable 4.5 hours.

It was not planned as such but this proved to be a day of long linear parks created either where water used to be, in disused canals or docks, or alongside still running water. That would have been a great plan if only I had thought of it beforehand.

The Honeyslides (abridged) at The Half Moon (20 Jun 21)

It is a slow start moving somewhere back towards "normal" and The Honeyslides at The Half Moon was my first foray back into gigs. The Honeyslides have been a must-see band for me for a while 

Covid restrictions meant the venue was all seating and I was quick to book a table for four and to confirm that I wanted the one just to the left of the centre of the stage where I usually manage to sit thanks to careful planing and long queueing.

The timing of the concert meant that it made sense to eat at the pub beforehand which I had not done before. The vegetarian mock-chicken burger with katsu curry sauce did the job nicely as did the pint of Young's Ordinary (apparently it is called Original now but everybody who knows beer ignores that).

Covid had an impact on Honeyslides too and the previous four piece band plus backing singer was abridged to just Tom Billington, who plays Neil Young, and Luke (surname not found on Google), who plays everyone else.

Covid had also given time for Luke to hone his piano playing and the keyboard was a new feature for Honeyslides. 

With the reduced line-up it was no surprise that the set focussed on Neil Young's acoustic songs, of which there are a great many. Many, like Needle and the Damage Done and Sugar Mountain, were already established in the Honeyslides set and these were joined by songs like Thrasher (from Rust Never Sleeps) which I was particularly pleased to hear.

They also managed to play all of After The Gold Rush along the way, complete with a short break to allow the record to be turned over.

Being acoustic did not mean that they could not rock and we had powerful versions of Like a Hurricane, Powderfinger, Cowgirl in the Sand and Rocking in the Free World.

The Honeyslides are all about the quality of the songs and the quality of their delivery; the quantity was an impressive bonus with the set running for well over two hours.

Covid restrictions brought many changes to the venue, band and setlist but this was still a Honeyslides gig and an excellent one at that.

Il turco in Italia at Glyndebourne (2021)

I will come on to the opera but after a year and a half of covid this was the story of returning to Glyndebourne.

Covid restrictions meant far few tickets available and instead of getting four tickets for six operas, as we usually do, we got two tickets for three operas. That was fine with us bit not so good for our regular guests.

There being just the two of us and we having made the brave, and sensible, decision to get rid of our car almost two years ago meant that we had to go by train, which we had done before. The only slight difference was that we had to pre-book the coach from Lewes Station to/from Glyndebourne.

We allowed reasonable contingency for getting to Clapham Junction, where we joined the Lewes train, and being ready early with nothing else to do led us to set of earlier than our cautious plan suggested. The upshot was we managed to catch the train an hour before the one we were meant to catch. That worked in our favour and we were able to have a leisurely drink sitting in the shade on a hot sunny day.

Arriving at Glyndebourne we managed to get our target bench at the end of the long border. Bench claimed we headed off to find a cup of tea and to explore the gardens. The covid changes were many and obvious, the most obvious being the reduced number of people which meant that the popular lawns looked almost deserted. The Long Bar was no longer selling alcohol but we wanted tea so that was all right.

The gardens were on their usual magnificent form and there was plenty of art, old and new, to enjoy.

Being cautious again we rechecked the weather forecast and the rain expected at 9pm had come forward to 6pm so we judiciously moved to a bench under the cover of the opera house. In the end there was only a little rain but it was enough for umbrellas and enough to have disrupted our sumptuous rolls if we had stayed outside.

Inside we were in Upper Circle Rear seats F25/26. Familiar territory.

I did not know the opera at all and, unlike me, I red the synopsis beforehand. It sounded very confusing, and perhaps it was, though it was so well told that I was able to follow the love pentangle which was the story that the narrator of the opera was struggling to write.

The production was fabulous with all sorts of gimmicks that managed to be clever without being gimmicky. For example, when the author was working on his story we saw what he was writing, and rewriting, on a back projection. I particularly loved the one aria from the fifth man in the pentangle which was done in the style of Freddie Mercury complete with white vest and swirling jacket.

The opera was a farce and the music was more flimsy than dramatic but two things make this an excellent opera, firstly the production which I mentioned earlier and secondly was the singing. The singing was sublime throughout, as it usually is at Glyndebourne.

Despite covid, Glyndebourne was very much the Glyndebourne I knew and loved and it was fantastic to be back there.

Public sector outsourcing has three intractable problems

I have worked on both sides of public outsourcing over several years and have spoken about it many times but I have never written about it before. It is an issue that never goes away so I am finally going to put my thought on record.

Public sector outsourcing has three intractable problems:

1. The motivation of the two parties are different
2. It leaks money out of the process
3. The balance is always in favour of the supplier.

I'll start with a familiar story. President John F. Kennedy was visiting NASA headquarters for the first time in 1961. While touring the facility, he introduced himself to a janitor who was mopping the floor and asked him what he did at NASA. “I’m helping put a man on the moon!”

In Management Consultant speak that demonstrates a Shared Vision or a Golden Thread running from the top to bottom of the organisation, and it was probably called One NASA at some point.

Now let us look at how outsourcing changes that story.

Motivation

When the janitor works for an outsourcing company his motivation changes. His priority, and what he gets paid for, is making money for his new employer, the outsourcing company.

This means doing as little work as possible while still meeting the contract. It means cleaning less thoroughly, using cheaper materials, using cheaper and less skilled labour, and even falsifying records to claim for work not done.

Leaks

The outsourcing company makes a profit from the contract which it uses to pay shareholders etc. This money which leaks from the process is no longer being used to clean NASA premises, or to do anything else for NASA, it has gone.

Balance

Somebody like NASA outsources a service like cleaning infrequently, say once every three years. In contrast, the outsource provider may negotiate hundreds of similar contracts a year.

That imbalance in experience always favours the outsource provider and leads to contracts that can come back to bite, like the famous examples of charging a small fortune to do a simple job ike change a light bulb.

Planning walking routes around constraints

This was one of those walks that I more or less made up as I went along stringing together bits of walks that I had done many times before but not in this way.

Surprisingly often, one of the key things I have to consider in planning walks is constraints. Elsewhere it may be major roads or railways and here it was gates to Richmond Park and bridges over the Thames.

Using these constraints this route can be summarised as Ham Gate, Bog Gate, Barnes Bridge, Richmond Lock Bridge, Richmond Gate and finally Ham Gate again.

Between those constraints were large spells spent in Richmond Park and in following the river. It was all very pleasant.

Despite all the greenery and flowing water, the highlight of the walk was my visit to Boutique cafe in East Sheen, a regular haunt, where I treated myself to a slice of carrot cake that was not only delicious but was also by far the largest slice I have ever seen. It was meant to be my elevenses but it did for lunch too.

London parks and hills

We had done a few walks like this before and with public transport an option again we were keen to do it again.

The plan was simple, first fast train out of Richmond after 9am (free travel!) then walk through Whitehall Gardens, St James Park, Green Park, Hyde Park, Regent's Park, Primrose Hill and, finally, Parliament Hill in Hampstead Heath.

Being a simple and imprecise plan meant that little could go wrong and only a little did.

Whitehall Gardens were blooming, St Jame's Park was showing off its pelicans and Green Park had some trees. Hyde Park always provides options and while we had not chosen a specific route though, looking at the map afterwards I was surprised to see how little of the park we used. Avoiding the main road though the park was the reason. I hate roads in parks.

Regent's Park gave us a welcome coffee and a short rest. It also gave us bit of a detour with the long bridge closed for major works. Primrose Hill was an easy climb after the cake.

After that we had to put up with the roads and house of Camden Town and Gospel Oak for a while, luckily we found some quiet roads.

We entered Hampstead Heath in the south-east corner so that we could climb Parliament Hill and then head for Hampstead Heath station in the south-west corner. We felt good and the clock was with us so we went further into Hampstead Heath and did some random exploring. That explains the unusual route but not the doubling-back at one point, that was the one mistake of the day.

The main part of the walk ended in The Garden Gate pub where we were lucky to get a table and I had a welcome pub.

There was an epilogue to the walk as a long wait for the Richmond train meant that we had time to walk to the next station, Finchley and Frognal, and that rewarded us with some grand buildings and some final hills.

The statistics for the main part of the walk were distance 17km and time 3:20. I blame the relatively slow pace on the time waiting for pedestrian lights, particularly either side of Hyde Park. Far too often I felt like a second class citizen, and a very distant second too.

A simple route and an excellent walk

This route was thrown together at the last moment after my walking companion clarified his requirements from start at 12pm to finish by 12pm. A quick play suggested that if we started at Radnor Gardens Twickenham, half way between us, we could do the Duke of Northumberland's River, Brentford and Kew Gardens.

We had done all of these sections before but never strung together like this before.

The route was flexible enough to enable us to vary it, either longer or shorter, according to the time we had left.

To put some more certainty into the schedule I booked tickets for Kew Gardens with entry between 11 and 11:45am.

Knowing the route meant we could avoid referring to maps and could walk at some pace while talking about football, politics and Chelsea.

We did have to pause for a few minutes while crossing the A316 when I met someone I knew walking the other way. She is involved in opera and it is always good to bump into people like that.

The healthy timing meant that we could take the scenic route through Brentford, winding along the industrial canal. The wiggles on the map show the intricacies of the route and you need your imagination to add the houseboats, locks, shipyard, wrecked boats, and modern housing. You also need some imagination at times to reassure yourself that this is indeed a formal path and you are not trespassing.

We are both members of Kew Gardens and this was the sort of time that being a member was useful. We could have walked along the main road but as it cost us nothing (extra) to go through the gardens we did that. We were only in the gardens for something like twenty minutes, including queuing up for a coffee.

And we got to Richmond Station a couple of minutes ahead of the 12pm deadline. Unfortunately my companion's partner was not aware of that deadline so was not there to meet him, but that's another story!

This was an excellent walk. It was simple to put together and delivered mightily on providing a wide range of interesting vistas.

Bedfont and back, almost according to plan

I think I am getting the hang of this route though there are still a couple of loose ends that I want to fix before posting it formally on the Ramblers website.

The basic route is fine; River Crane to North Feltham, Duke of Northumberland's River to Bedfont and back along Longford River via Feltham.

The first part I am not happy about is trying to follow River Crane as it runs alongside, but not in, Hounslow Heath. The maps on the information boards suggest that there is a path that follows the river closely but I have not been able to find it and I was further away than I would have liked at times, though never that far. It does not help that the river runs underground for a while.

The second part is on the way back and it is where to go once Longford River hits A316 where it then disappears behind houses more or less all the way to Bushy Park. This time I trekked along A316 to revisit River Crane but I don't want to advertise that as the best route.

That is also the section where a White Van Man inexplicably chose to swerve and drive at me when I walking on the other side of the road.

The statistics of the walk, slightly underestimated by me forgetting to start tracking, are good for one of my long walks, 25 km and 5 hours, and the final polished route will have multiple join and escape point so that people can pick the amount of walking that they want to do.

An unexpected high-point was soon after I entered the problematic section, somewhere between Hounslow Heath and Pevensey Road Nature Reserve, where I saw a wild deer. Judging by its small size it was a muntjac, there was no parent nearby to suggest that it was a fawn but I am not even a novice let alone an expect.

That was also the quietest section of the walk, it always is, despite providing wonderful scenes like this.

It also helped that it had not rained much at all in recent weeks and so a lot of the mud had gone. There was enough left to remind me just how wet it can be.

Two of my favourite sections of this multi-part walk are not on any of the maps that I use, including Ordnance Survey. One is a clearly new path that follows the Duke of Northumberland's River west from A312, which runs north from Feltham, to Bedfont.

The best thing about the various walks taking in River Crane, Duke of Northumberland's River and Longford River is the range of possibilities offered by these rivers and the many parks along the way so that no two walks need be the same. The worst thing is that the rivers have a habit of hiding from time to time forcing you to walk along main roads and through urban areas.

Overall though, there are far more good bits than bad bits and, in my opinion, these routes are the best walking routes in West London.

Revisiting The Defenders after forty plus years

I have fond memories of reading Defenders in the mid 1970s so when several collected volumes turned up in a Comixology sale I bought a few of them, i.e. Marvel Masterworks The Defenders volumes 4, 5 and 6 which reprinted The Defenders issues 22 to 57 plus a few other related comics.

It was the later issues, all in volume 6, that I most wanted but my memories were fond enough to get the earlier two volumes two, especially as Steve Gerber was the main writer then.

Those first two volumes were bit of a struggle but not so much that I gave up on them.

The stories were pretty weird and shallow, brains being kept alive in jars and other such matters, and The Defenders were a pretty poor team with Dr Strange doing almost all of the heavy lifting using his standard fare like the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak, not really Sorcerer Supreme stuff (not that he was then, to be fair).

Nighthawk amused me the most as his only power was he got a little bit stronger when it got dark. Not particularly useful especially when you already have The Hulk in your team (for some reason).

It was off its time and quite readable, which is more than can be said for Deathlok which I also revisited.

Then, in volume 6, the creative team changed and we had (mostly) David Anthony Kraft on words with Keith Giffen on art with strong support from Michael Golden. These were the issues that I most enjoyed the first time round and I enjoyed them again this time.

And this art like this a comic always has a good chance.

Kraft was stuck with the poor team and I think that the only physical fight the The Defenders actually won unambiguously was against Scorpio's Zodiac warriors in issue 48 (June 1977). Still, I do not read comics for the fight scenes and I find the idea of super-humans throwing punches at each other somewhat idiotic, I read them for the stories and the art and these issues of The Defenders delivered on both.

Looking for Longford, finding Feltham

Having got somewhat lost on Tuesday I was determined to do better on Friday and set my target for only a little lost.

My plan was to try and follow Longford River as much as I could to Feltham then come back the way I went on Tuesday alone Crane River but following the river more closely. I think it worked.

I picked up Longford River as it left Bushy Park, having followed it through the Park many times previously, and to start with a coffee and cake from a usual refuelling spot, Paws for Coffee.  That part of the plan failed miserably as a medium-sized queue put me off Paws and I decided to get a coffee at the next cafe that I came across, which turned out to be in Feltham a couple of hours later.

Longford River proved to be as elusive as my coffee, certainly in the first section of the walk from Bushy Park to the multi-lane horror of A316.

I knew that the river ran along Windmill but then hid behind Uxbridge Road. I tried going down Ringwood Way but that was a dead-end and I had to go back. The promisingly named Longford Close fared better and led to a footbridge over the river. Crossing that confirmed that there was no path along the river, in either direction or on either bank.

I then tried the housing estate on the west side of the river and while I got to see it a couple of times, e.g. on a spur off Wordsworth Road and Stourton Avenue which also crossed it.

The next step was to cross the hideous A316 using a very elevated pedestrian crossing. Then things looked up. 

From the footbridge I could see the river and it seemed to have a path alongside it for the next section. It was not much of a path but any path is worth following, so I did.

I was a little concerned as the path was not on any of my maps (Apple, Google and OS), the river zig-zagged so I could not see that far ahead and there were no ways through to the nearby streets, but everything worked well and I was soon at the A314 and in  Hanworth Park.

With a park to play in the river chose to run underground and I had to walk above it until the far end of the park where it reappeared in a pond. There was bit of scramble through an industrial estate and then I was back on the river and approaching Feltham.

Crossing the river again gave me this view of the manicured river.

After that it was a plain sailing, the river remained above ground with a path following it all the way to East Bedfont (possibly) where I picked up Northumberland River for the journey home.

The next bit I wanted to improve on was following Rive Crane past Hounslow Heath. Again the maps were not much use here and to stay close to the river I had to use paths on them and a certain amount of trial and error. I am not sure that I followed the best route, i.e. the one closest to the river, at all times but it was a big improvement on last time when I followed the main path which diverged from the river by some distance.

It was still very muddy in places!

The final section, back through Crane Park, was autopilot.

I got home just in time for lunch, about 3:30pm, having covered 28 km in five and a half hours. A good walk.

I was disappointed that large sections of Longford River were hidden and are probably best left out of any formal routes that I map. The middle section from A316 to A314 was a positive and I'll do some updates to Google Maps and Open Street Map so that other people can know about this route.

Renaissance is superlative Science Fantasy

I have been reasonably successful in widening my comics reading by deliberately trying books that are not about superheroes (I subscribe to just two superhero titles now and one of them is about to finish) and not from North America.

In continuing that policy I bought the first volume (60 pages) of Renaissance, prompted by a sale. Words are by Fred Duval and Frédéric Blanchard , and art by Emem, all new names to me.

The premise sounded interesting, "The Complex, a federation of extraterrestrial civilisations decides to launch a vast expedition to save a planet that has exhausted its resources: Earth." A friendly invasion if you like.

Apart from that I did not know what to expect and the cover did not give much of a clue, then a very early splash page (below) told me everything. I had made a good choice.

The main picture when stripped of dialogue would make a great posted to sit alongside those of Chris Foss, Roger Dean or Rodney Matthews. I love the way that the iconic Eiffel Tower is cleanly transmuted into a weird future. Fantasy, I think, is at its best when it is grounded in reality as that make it both fantastical and believable.

The story lives up to the art and we are treated to earnest aliens trying to save us while having to content to things like budget pressures at home and rogue robots here. It read like Science Fantasy should read and I loved it, leading to the immediate purchasing and reading of volumes 2 and 3. I am now hoping for further volumes which could come as, in some ways, the story has barely started.

b.t.w. I am not going to get too hung up about categorisation here, you could just as easily call this Science Fiction, or even Space Opera once the complete story has been told, but I have gone for Science Fantasy because of the fantastical images of the alien worlds.

The story kept me engaged and in suspense throughout (slight spoiler, some of the good people die). I liked that the story was centred around 2 aliens, recently married, with different roles in the rescue of Humanity as this gave the story an additional dimension.

But it was the art that really grabbed me, I've picked just one panel to make my point, chosen as much as anything because it has no dialogue.

 

The setting is so obviously alien yet it looks functional too, you could sit on that chair or climb those stairs. The detail is staggering for just one panel that does not even mage dialogue to slow the reader down. It is gorgeous and makes me want to hunt out more of Emem (Matthieu Ménage)'s work.

The closest comparison I can think of is the original Dan Dare with its long storylines and unique Frank Hampson art. From me, that is high praise indeed.

Exploring the Feltham Loop (badly)

I have walked along River Crane several times, and written about it here, but there is always something new to learn and having been alerted to Feltham Loop by Twitter I had to give it a go.

The basic plan was to swap a right turn to Hounslow Common for a left turn that took me to another section of River Crane Walk,  one that I had not known about. That's the little zig-zag just to the right of "Feltham".

There is no signage in that section, or I missed it, and I got a little lost, and very muddy, before I joined Capital Ring, a section I was familiar with .

On a previous walk I had mistaken Duke of Northumberland's River for River Crane and had ended by climbing over a pile of rubbish and a fence to get on to a main road. This time I was on the other side of the road where a new path had been created alongside the river and I followed that. Partially because it was new to me this was my favourite section of the walk.

After that it was time to find a coffee (Costa, sadly) then head home.

Unfortunately the Feltham Loop map had not made the jump from my Apple Mac to my iPhone (it has now) so I took the wrong route and missed most of the Longford River, though I did pick it up in Feltham. That's another excuse for trying the route again.

In the late 90's I worked at IBM Bedfont Lakes, which meant catching a bus from Teddington Lock to Feltham Station and then the shuttle bus to the business park, so I had some knowledge of bits of this route and it was good to be able to retrace some old steps slowly.

I meant to go through Hanworth Park and that was a good decision. Hampton Common / Buckingham Park was more an accident and a good one. Then it was autopilot through Bushy Park and home.

With a little bit more planning beforehand, and fewer distractions on the day, it would not have taken seven hours and covered 34 km. I shall try to improve on that soon.

To close, a couple of photos taken along the way.

This is when I knew that I was wearing the wrong shoes.

This is when I knew I was on the right route.

This is when I crossed the Duke of Northumberland's Rover turned for home.

I walked to Hounslow

I am trying to keep to the rules of Lockdown 3 and if that means only one exercise walk a day then it has to be a long one, and this was a long one - 33 km in almost seven hours.

There was a plan, of sorts, but the final route and duration was due to a combination of last minute decisions and mistakes.

The first part of the journey did go according to the original plan. I have a standard route that takes me through Bushy Park to Hampton where I got my first coffee and cake of the day from regular haunt Paws for Coffee.

From there I went through Fulwell to join River Crane.

I followed London Loop as far as Hounslow Heath but instead of turning in there I avoided the mud and kept on the main road, that's the straight line on the left.

At that point it was a question over which bridge to aim for, Richmond or Kew, and I ambitiously chose Kew. Almost immediately I went wrong and took the U shaped loop in the middle. I realised my mistake quickly and from the base of the U I followed the Duke of Northumberland's River to the Thames, a route I had taken and enjoyed before.

It felt like I was home then, among familiar streets, though there was still a ling way to go as I continued north-east towards Kew Bridge and a second coffee at the Costa there (Brentford seems to be devoid of bijou coffee shops).

From Kew Bridge it was an almost straight line south home and while my weariness suggested that a 65 bus was a good plan I felt good enough to walk all the way and to complete the circular route.

The walk was a successful mix of pretty known places and interesting new ones, such as this mosque in Hounslow.

The minimal plan worked this time so I will try it again on my next long walk, I just hope that I find some interesting cafes along the way.

Daredevil by Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark is brilliant

I have read comics for most of the last fifty plus years or so but that does not mean all Marvel or DC comics for all of that time and there are some notable gaps, particularly when a young family put other demands on my time and pocket. 

Even so, I thought that I had Daredevil sorted as I was there for the legendary Frank Miller run which started in 1981. By the way, Frank Miller and I were born on the same day.

I was also there for the excellent Mark Waid and Chris Samnee run in 2014. More recently, prompted by reviews and sale offers, I filled in one of my gaps with the first volume of the Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev 2001 run. That was good but not good enough to tempt me to get the other volumes.

Then another sale brought me to Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark's take on Daredevil from 2006, which followed directly on from the Bendis run, and everything changed.

The Brubaker/Lark Daredevil is now my favourite Daredevil and one of my absolute favourite comics of all time. It really is that good.

Daredevil sits on the edge of the Marvel Universe and this is not a superhero comic, despite the presence of several caped heroes and villains. It is a story about Matt Murdoch and how he tries to regain some sort of life after being sent to prison and with several enemies conspiring against him.

It's a story that grips and twists like a good thriller, which is the domain that Brubaker now mostly writes in. There is action, quite a lot of it, but the fighting does not dominate the story, it is there because there and many things that Murdock needs to fight. Don't forget that his father was a boxer.

The story spreads over three collected volumes covering 39 issues (82 to 119 and 500). That's a lot of pages and I loved every one of them. The story swept majestically through some grand story lines and kept the relentless pace up with lots of little things along the way.

I had not come across Michael Lark's work before and it was a revelation! I could have picked almost any panel from any page as they are all as good as this one.

The detail of the background in wonderful and the grace of the movement of Iron Fist and Daredevil is gorgeous. There are a lot of scenes like this in the book and they are a thing of beauty. They also help to make Hells Kitchen one of the main characters in the story, which it should be as that is Daredevil's only natural territory.

The story goes international for a time and the scenes of, for example. a small town in Portugal are achingly good both in architectural accuracy and in the sunny mood of the place.

I cannot overstate how good this book is.

Lockdown 3: Day 1: 37 kilometres

My daily step count dropped dramatically during Lockdown 1, from around 25k to 20k, due to the one period of exercise a day rule and with this rule returning for Lockdown 3 I am going to have to get into the habit of making some long walks to keep my average anywhere near the 30k I have been managing recently. So today I went to Hayes and back.

I had done several sections of this route several times before, including a walk to Hayes and most of the way back before catching a bus last week, so I had a vague idea of how long it would take and so I did not do my usual distance calculation o Google Maps. In the end that was OK but I did end up walking for longer than I expected, almost seven hours when I was hoping for between five and six.

I could blame the considerable mud for my slow pace of around 11 minutes a kilometre instead of just under 10 but the main error was my lack of planning.

The route I chose was pretty simple, join Grand Union Canal at Brentford, follow it to Hayes and return via River Crane.

Both legs included sections of established walks including London Loop, London Capital Ring, Grand Union Canal Walk, Hillingdon Trail and River Crane Walk, so it was well signposted almost all the way and the tricky bits I had walked before so I was confident of the route.

I was also confident that I could get an early coffee and cake at the cafe in Syon Park after about an hour and a quarter but that was closed and I was pretty sure that the next cafe was Costa in Hayes, which it was so I had a very late coffee instead.

Following the canal to Hayes was easy enough, there was a towpath all the way (unlike Regents Canal which goes underground through Islington), if uneventful. Rural canals can be quite barren of features and the only really interesting section of this part of the walk was the series of locks at Hanwell, known collectively as Hanwell Lock Flight. 

One of these is charmingly named Asylum Lock because it is next the former St Bernard's Hospital, also known as Hanwell Insane Asylum and the Hanwell Pauper and Lunatic Asylum. The old hospital wall and buildings add nicely to the industrial feel of that section.

Hayes was the half-way point, mentally if not physically and finally gave me the chance to get a coffee and cake, even if it was from a Costa.

I knew that the return leg would be more tricky as I had only ever walked it the other way round and had several problems in doing so. My fears were unfounded and I found my way home without a hitch.

The first section of the walk, following River Crane from North Hyde to Hounslow Heath was the best part of the walk. It was the wildest and the quietest. What's not to like?

The worst part of the walk was also in this section. River Crane flows easily under Piccadilly Line and Great South-West Road (A30) but pedestrians are meant to walk a few hundred metres one way to a crossing and then all the way back again. That was my plan too until the lack of traffic tempted me to walk across the dual carriage way and to climb across the barrier in the middle. There really ought to be a request pedestrian crossing at that point.

Hounslow Heath was the muddiest part of the walk and my pace dropped to about 12 minutes per kilometre. That is still 5 km/hr which I am very happy with on a walk as long as this one.

It was just after 4pm when I got home and that was the ideal time for a cup of tea and some more cake. I deserved it.