***
In reverse order, then: yesterday the Cambridge Concert Orchestra played at the Histon Feast, a kind of village Grand Day Out (appropriate, then, that our programme included the Wallace & Gromit theme tune). Most of our programme is quite big on the oompah-oompah, so it's ironic that the skies opened during one of our quietest numbers (a selection from Gigi); but we soldiered on regardless as the audience filled out with people in search of shelter. Not a bad concert, all told. Also, we had a chance to look round the fête's other attractions in the interval; I spent the time profitably by getting photographed with a four-metre long python around my neck.
***
30 metres per hour is my rough calculation for the speed of the queue for Folk Festival tickets (using
I feel dreadful for having told people (particularly
***
The reason for the visit to the former abode of the Swiss Consul is that my grandparents have bought it (for various complicated reasons, none of which involve either of them being the new Swiss Consul), and are now living there instead of in a chalet-style house on the side of Rudyard Lake. I wish I lived like this. :-) I loved the old house, but the new one is even more splendid, and far better situated ("only 5 minutes' drive from John Lewis and M&S"). I would have taken photos, but I was too busy enjoying the novelty of walking around with my arms outstretched just because I could without knocking over piles of CDs and badgers. My grandad's been quite ill recently, but was looking healthier than I'd been led to expect, and was well enough to tell us about the time he met Noel Coward (despite my grandma interrupting him every few words to berate him for offering their guests anecdotes instead of drinks). The weather was good enough to sit outside for a while, but when it got chilly we came in, and had lunch (salmon, asparagus, new potatoes) in a dining-room the size of Wales, and talked about websites and knitting.
I wished I could have stayed longer. I feel like I'm running out of time to hear all the things they have to say, and I hate letting that feeling get in the way of the here and now.