Busy week in London town!

So much to tell you about this week that I’m going have to keep 2 things til next week or this’ll go on for far too long. So next week you’ll get a day out in Cambridge and a London walk as bonus items!

 

This week started with a visit to the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank to see a friend sing in the Bach choir in a wonderfully powerful performance of Verdi’s Requiem. We had Prince Edward in attendance as he is a patron of the music school who were also on stage. Here are 2 photos – one of the outside and one of the musicians’ final bow to a madly clapping audience and you can see just how many people were taking part in this magnificent piece.

 

 

Wednesday saw the lowest tide in the Thames for 5 years so I joined over 60 other volunteers at Hammersmith Bridge to collect rubbish for a couple of hours. It was a great thing to do as I hate to see the Thames with litter in it but was surprised to find how much cloth rubbish there was, I guess the plastic floats off to sea but I dug out 4 bin bags full of the stuff! It was fine but very cold and I needed a huge hot coffee to get myself warm afterward. Hopefully the Thames is just a little cleaner now. Here’s a photo of the gang hard at work…

 

 

The following day I was outdoors again (with more cold weather clothing on!) on a photography course at the London Wetlands Centre to try to improve my wildlife snapping skills. The centre is an amazing place as it’s within sight of London but is a great place for a whole range of birds to live or pass through these former reservoir waters. I took some good and some dreadful shots so here’s just a few of the better ones – I just couldn’t cut it down to less than 7 – sorry! Our teacher was Iain Green who is well known for his books of tiger photos from India, so our targets on this course were somewhat easier to find!

A big treat on Sunday evening was the chance to see Ngugi wa Thiong’o who is an internationally renowned Kenyan author. He was reading from his new book Dreams in a time of War, and being interviewed. He shared stories of his life and childhood and his fascinating views about the importance of indigenous languages over colonial languages. And here he is….

 

 

Phew – I’m off to enjoy this week which includes a trip out to Durham and some good London stuff too.
Bye for now,
Sue

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