Move it Jeremy Irons!

Bing and I rose in good time and packed our magnificent picnic into the KA. How exciting that we were finally returning to the big smoke for a concert – OFF TO THE PROMS! The World Orchestra for Peace were to entertain us, conducted by Serge Gergiev.

We took a leisurely drive and stopped for a picnic at Leicester Forest services. There were lots of starlings flying about – more so when Bing started throwing his crusts to them!

Bing dropped me at the Royal Albert Hall at 5pm and I walked round the back to queue for the gallery tickets. We were pretty close to the front of the queue, surrounded by public school graduates and Southerners. This year they handed out raffle tickets to assure us our places in the queue if we wanted to go stretch our legs or get some food. Nice touch! Aside from a lengthy trek to the toilets, we stayed put. There were bag searches on the way in, then Bing raced two steps a time to the top of the Albert Hall for a balcony view. I don’t know how he did it – I was completely zonked by the time I caught up with him (mind you, Bing was so excited, he only noticed I was carrying all the bags and coats half way up!!!).

Bing got us a perfect spot at the balcony railings to the right of the hall with a full view of the orchestra. We set down our padding, carefully concealing the illegal picnic, and watched everybody fight for their spaces.

The concert was exquisite. Debussy l’Apres midi and Rimsky-Korsakov Sheherazade were so beautifully performed, as was the rest of the programme, that Bing and I could not bring ourselves to read the books we had brought. At the end of the concert I queued at the Stage Door with a load of Russians for Gergiev’s dedication to Hoity, as she has rather a crush on him, but he escaped via another exit - Not fair!

Having been careful not to buy ice-cream treats during the interval, we were well prepared for a late night feast at the Dragon Inn – our old haunt in China Town. Dinner was excellent and we were well fuelled for the long journey home.

No tourist routes today – we had decided to be responsible and go to the concert then go straight home in light of the recent terrorist attacks on the city. Well… we made it there and back without incident and with the memory of a really wonderful Prom!