Warmer Than The Sea
13 October

Well, currently, the land is still warmer than the sea.

How do I know this? Well, we have not yet had any of the damp and misty mornings that usually come with late September and early October. In fact, we almost seem to be having the summer which we didn't have in July and August. The days are mild and so are the nights. Yes, there's rain and some greyness but, as with the summer, there are also hot and sunny days as well.

It's good.

Well, we eased into October after Ross's birthday with a shared meal with brother Sam on the Thursday night at which he presented us with a specially made cake which was scrummy. Then I was off to Manchester the following morning to deliver a training course to some people working for the genetics department of the old Manchester Royal Infirmary but which now has a more modern and fancy name.

Saturday took Ross and I over to Clwyd Theatr for The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. It's been a long while since we were last in this theatre for Troilus and Cressida. We really ought to think about making the journey over more often if we are going to be seeing theatre of this quality. It's an old-fashioned well-made play but, praise be, sometimes, when they are as well designed, performed and directed as this, they can offer a very good night out.

The cast of four was nicely balanced. Teresa Banham's mother figure was all thwarted Southern belle elegance (although her accent moved around the hemispheres quite a bit). However, she didn't imbalance the play by overly domineering the proceedings. Hywel John made the Tennessee Williams character, Tom, as sympathetic as he has a right to be whilst still allowing us the space to dislike this ultimately self-centred and detestable individual. Best of the lot was Lisa Diveney as the broken elder sister Laura. Her scene with Sam Massey's Jim in the second act was exceptionally touching as hope was proffered and then snatched away.

Kate Wasserberg directed with a great feeling for atmosphere and ensemble. Mark Bailey's designs summoned up a period and a locale. All in all, it was very good and better than I has expected it to be.

At work, I had a week of preparing for another commercial training course and preparing for my work as an internal verifier for the BCS's ITQ qualification to be externally scrutinised. The latter went very well and we received high praise. The former will happen after I get back from holiday.

The whole was leavened by attending another RLPO concert.

It's fair to record that concerts which I've attended by the RLPO which have been conducted by other than Vassily Petrenko have not always matched up to the standard set by the Chief Conductor - viz Paul Daniels, Andrew Davies, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Robin Ticciati and Carlo Rizzi. This concert broke that particular mould.

Hannu Lintu was an excellent conductor whose work I would certainly seek out in future. I loved Rautavaara's Before the Icons which conjured up a succession of deeply felt images. Brahms's Symphony No4 was quite sensational - a tour de force which took us on a tough journey that achieved a real sense of elation by the final bars.

In between we heard Angela Hewitt in Schumann's Piano Concerto. This work can often sound tired, galumphing and hackneyed - not here. Each bar came across fresh minted with an exquisite Romantic touch and play of light and shade. The whole evening was one to set alongside the best of what I've heard so far this year.

Two days later Ross and I were at the Everyman Theatre on Hope Street. As with Clwyd Theatr, it is a while since we were last at this venue. In fact, it was for The Mayor of Zalamea by Pedro Calderòn back in 2004. This time we were attending a more modern masterpiece with Harold Pinter's The Caretaker.

It would be daft to deny that we were there to witness Jonathan Pryce as Davies and he was very good indeed. However, Christopher Morahan's direction ensured that all three characters were given due weight as the power politics between the two brothers and the invited intruder were played out.

Aston is a difficult role. I remember the shock when I first saw this play at the age of sixteen in a touring show from the Gateway Theatre in Chester, when the truth of Aston's breakdown and the electro-convulsive therapy he has experienced are made clear in the second half of the play. Peter McDonald seized this moment and held the stage for a good ten minutes.

Tom Brooke's Mick was equally as good - he brought an explosive nervous tension to the part as well as looking damned sexy in his blue jeans. In fact, that blue set against the constant drab brown of the rest of the set was one of the great design features of the evening. It was a very good evening of theatre in my home town.

After Quaker meeting on the Sunday morning, Ross and I drove over to the East Coast to spend some time with his parents. There was a big family meal on the Sunday evening with Ross's grandad, whose 80th birthday was celebrated last year, Ross's sister Megan, whose wedding we went to in 2005, her partner Andy and their daughter, Emily, who is nearing two years of age.

On Ross's mother's suggestion, we went to Hull Truck Theatre on the Monday night to see John Godber's classic play Up 'n' Under. The story is a sporting fantasy of the underdogs taking on the mighty. The play is twenty-five years old. It has been updated but I suspect that the circumstances can't be updated. In that time, rugby has been prefessionalised out of all recognition and, so, the plot seemed even more improbable than would have done in the mid-1980s. Still, it was still enjoyable.

Most of the hettie boys in the audience will have been agog at the sight of Abi Titmuss in a leotard astride an exercise bike. I'm afraid that such delights were wasted on me.

Nevertheless, I was very happy to have James Crossley in the cast. Apparently, he is an ex-TV Gladiator. Well, he's certainly got a developed physique and, in this play, took quite a large part.

Even more tweetsie was Lewis Linford who stripped to his trunks on a couple of occasions.

Apparently, he has been in TV's Emmerdale. Apparently, he has spent the last year clearing his name of a charge of sexual assault. Given this, it was a bold choice to play the part of this young, sexually immature bloke with his laddish, sexist humour. Still nice pecs and ass.

On our way back on the Tuesday morning, we took a detour south of Manchester and re-visited Dunham Massey. Re-visiting places after a long while seems to be a recurring theme of this post. It was in 2003 that we were last here for an open air performance of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing given by Chapterhouse Theatre Company.

We said at the time that we should like to come back. Well, it's take six years. I think we'll consider going back again some time. It's a most pleasant house with a charming garden. Like Erddig, it's of a scale that feels human and lived in. A good trip out.

Wednesday was a quieter day. I visited the dentist in the morning and then Ross and I went to the Phil in the evening.

If the previous concert had been made by the conductor, Hannu Lintu, this one was pretty much scuppered by Krzysztof Urbanski. The band played well enough for him and he certainly seemed to know how to conduct the music but his podium manner was a disaster running off after each piece and basically not giving the audience its cues for applause.

Musically, the programme was a very mixed bag also. I can't say that I would ever really want to hear Glazunov's Chopiniana ever again pleasant enough though it was. Kilar's Orawa was the sensational discovery of the evening - a fabulous piece of music. We ended with Lutosławski's Concerto for Orchestra, which for me was a real treat.

The concerto on offer was Chopin's Piano Concerto No2 and Peter Jablonski was the soloist. I can't imagine that other performers would have given a better account of the piece. It's just that I really didn't like the music at all. So, it was a very hit and miss evening for me and I'd be hard pressed to say that the whole event was anything more than reasonable.

And then we spent Thursday preparing for the arrival of the shed.