Started off the proceedings with an altercation at the barrier at Epsom station between a small lady civilian and a small herd of youths. She was giving them a serious dressing down for their behaviour towards the small lady ticket collector - who appeared to be on duty without any other staff within earshot. At least between them, they seemed to be winning on this occasion.
By the time we got off the train we had been joined what I took to be a small party of burly Russians, casually dressed. One of whom had a fearful looking scar, maybe four inches long running down the back of his head. I wondered what on earth could have inflicted such a wound, my first thought being a hatchet, but second thought being that a hatchet blow of that sort would probably be fatal.
Once again no seats or tables free for our picnic, so we camped out on a seat we found beside the entrance to the Skylon restaurant, closed for a private function, among various bits of restaurant furniture covered with white drapes. If it had been closed for my function, I would not have been two impressed by all the clutter.
We also got to see a Chinese VIP couple, possibly something to do with the Chinese booze company described as the principal international partner. See reference 1. As far as we could see from the stalls, they did not get given the royal box.
The conductor went in for a great deal of hand flapping during the Bach, which did not appear to be in time with the music, but presumably he and his orchestra - mainly strings - knew what he was doing. We also noticed that the little wooden platform that he stood on was dedicated to someone, perhaps to a long serving member of the hall crew on his retirement.
The pianist payed a lot of attention to the conductor, slightly awkward given where the conductor was standing and that the lid of the piano was open, rather than absent in the previous concert noticed at reference 2.
Hall more or less full. Middle of row H just about spot on. University of the third age outing from Liphook to our right. Not sure that I am quite old enough yet, but see reference 3. Long main bar oddly quiet at the interval, something we have noticed before, so perhaps classical music people are not, on the whole, boozers.
All very good, despite our lack of experience with symphonies - for which we got maybe a dozen non-string players. With the trumpets looking a bit odd to me, a bit big, although the programme does not say anything about them.
Trains slightly disturbed on the way home, but the train we eventually caught was intelligent enough to know how crowded each of the carriages was. Have they put sensors under every seat? Or do they rely on the guard to do an eyeball job?
Met a retiring soldier at Raynes Park who had just had his send off after 14 years service. He gave the impression that he was entering a whole new world, a world where he had a front door, curtains to buy and porridge to cook: he seemed quite young, so he had presumably spent his whole adult life so far in the army - so big changes ahead. But he did say that there had been plenty of courses about how to manage the change and that there was plenty of support available. We wish him well.
PS: the snap was taken in late afternoon light and Cortana seemed to struggle with the white letters on black ground. Something I have noticed before. Perhaps she has been tuned up on the more regular black letters on white ground. These particular fonts seem to be a problem too: perhaps I ought to alert the publicity department of the RFH to these nuances, to the needs of bloggers.
Reference 1: https://www.wuliangye.com.cn/zh/main/index.html.
Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/02/mainly-mozart.html.
Reference 3: https://www.u3a.org.uk/.
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