Thursday

I slept in late after a very long day trip to London and back yesterday. The local coach firm organised the day trip to see the John Rutter Christmas Celebration concert at the Royal Albert Hall so I'd signed up for this back in June and had been looking forward to it ever since.

In the end the concert wasn't at all what I was expecting, but brilliant nonetheless. It was advertised as 'a chance to see John Rutter conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in a concert of his Christmas music' but that wasn't really an accurate description of the event. The concert only featured three of his carols, Star carol, Angels' carol, and his new one (sorry, I can't remember what it is called). For the rest of the concert we were treated to an assortment of music associated with Christmas. 

The St Albans' Bach Choir sang extracts from Bach's Christmas Oratorio and the choristers from the Temple Church treated  us to three Christmas songs I'd never heard before, and which were absolutely beautiful. Gareth Brynmor John, the soloist, sang O Holy Night and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra played selections from Ravel's Mother Goose Suite, Leroy Anderson's Sleigh Ride, and Koenig's Post Horn Gallop. There were also a couple of fabulous fanfares featuring the amazing Grand Organ. There were other pieces, choral, solo and instrumental but I can't remember them and, as I didn't splash out on a programme, I can't enlighten you! Mixed in with all of this glorious music was audience participation joining in with the sing-along traditional Christmas carols, and with John Rutter's Christmas Quiz.

Even though it wasn't quite what I was expecting the whole event was enjoyable in so many ways. I love live music events and the growing anticipation as the orchestra tune up, the choirs take their places and then the applause as the leader of the orchestra comes on stage, and finally the buzz and cheers as John Rutter, the conductor, took his place. I love his sense of humour, bad jokes and love of the season ... anyone who wasn't full of the joys of Christmas at the start, definitely left with an abundance of the beauty of the festive season.

And then it took a bit of a downhill slide. It took over on hour to get out of the centre of London and traffic was slow on the motorway.  In the end we were two hours late arriving back which meant the company had to change drivers when we arrived back at Warminster, so another unavoidable delay. Our original driver was scheduled to drive back to London the next day so had to have the legal nine hours rest period and the delay in London meant a replacement driver had to take over the remainder of the journey.

When I finally got off the coach and walked the short distance to my car I was tired and hungry and just wanted to get home. But ... my car was completely iced over. I couldn't get the doors open to reach the de-icer and had no idea what to do. I could have cried! After a struggle I eventually managed to open the tailgate and climbed in that way, found the de-icer (which fortunately I'd put in the car at the weekend) and started the chore of de-icing the car. It took ages, and by the time I got home, an hour after getting off the coach, I was completely frozen.  So, central heating turned up, I had a hot shower and then a bowl of tomato soup and slowly thawed out! 

Despite the rotten end to the day, I had a fantastic time at the concert. Apparently it is an annual event so I will definitely go again if I can.