Complete Reversal
18 June

A week ago, I was complaining about how cold it was and so I decided to put the central heating on.

By Tuesday, I was complaining about the incessant rain.

By Thursday, I was complaining about the oppressively low cloud.

Today, I am complaining about the heat and the humidity.

It does seem as though the weather cannot do anything to satisfy me.

After sweltering all day, Ross and I made our way up to Southport and had a rather nice meal at Pizza Express before attending a concert by Southport Bach Choir at Holy Trinity Church. It was an all Bach concert including the Magnificat, the Ascension Oratorio (Cantata No 11), the Motet Komm, Jesu, Komm and the Orchestral Suite No 3.

All in all, it wasn't as inspiring or as memorable as last year's Monteverdi concert. For a start, the soloists from the Royal Northern College of Music weren't really all that good, apart from the replacement mezzo who was a cut above the others. Then the choir were fine when they were singing out a big tune in unison but they sounded very thin and unsteady when they were singing all the contrapuntal and fugal lines.

I suspect that the Cantata and Motet suffered from a little under-rehearsing. The purely orchestral suite went well and the Magnificat was rather good with all parties redeeming themselves. this was probably the piece that they'd all spent the most energy on. So, it was good but not more than that.

I need to backtrack a bit now because I realise that there's a couple of things that I've omitted to mention in previous Journal entries. For a start, back in May, I had the great pleasure of watching eleven fit, young men come from behind as Liverpool won the European Cup.

Well done, lads.

Ross and I also caught up with The Woodsman. This is a really good film about a difficult subject. Kevin Bacon turns in a lifetime performance as a paedophile who has served a jail sentence and is going through rehabilitation. Any film that covers the subject without sensationalism deserves great credit. To actually make you feel sympathy for the main character is a real achievement. If I can't be more enthusiastic in my rating, it's because I think that the narrative was at times simplistically loaded and that there was a tendency towards preaching rather than telling. But it was a very worthy film.

It doesn't seem 13 weeks since Dr Who popped back onto our screens but it really has been the best TV by quite some distance. It's been exciting, slightly camp, funny, challenging, thought-provoking and very entertaining.

We've liked the introduction of the John Barrowman character (I saw him on stage in London in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard in the early 90s and he looked just as tweetsy then). Quite excellent.

I have completely managed to avoid all television of Big Brother 6. And, interestingly enough, it is not a topic of conversation at work this year. The bubble has well and truly burst. However, the bulletin boards keep me up to date with the fact that this year's top totty is named Anthony. And frankly, they give me all I need without wasting time in front of the cathode ray tube.