Monsoon Weather
21 July

Well, it certainly has rained since St Swithin's Day.

And then, on Tuesday, we had what can only be described as monsoon weather.

The cloudburst caught everyone by surprise. Trains were cancelled because the tracks were flooded. Drains could not cope. Roads disappeared under water. In Litherland, little old ladies had to be helped out of their homes in inflatable dinghies.

All of this is a far cry from the scenes in January when the snow came down. There was still snow on the hills in March when Ross and I went up to the Lake District to stay at Glenthorne.

You may remember that, a little while back, there were floods in Cockermouth.

So, we have flooding and then snow. Apparently, we then have the driest second quarter of the year since records began. The upshot is that, whilst there is all this rain, we also have a hosepipe ban in place.

It seems absurd. I have to ask why anyone would want to use a hosepipe whilst the rain is an consistent as it is. However, it has to be a measure of how dry the ground is and how low the water table is for all of this rain to make very little difference to the level of the reservoirs.

On Sunday, Ross and I went to one of the regular matineé concerts at the Liverpool Phil. It's perhaps a measure of how cautious we are being with expenditure that we didn't eat out beforehand.

The works on offer included Schumann's Manfred Overture (which was OK) and Chopin's Piano Concerto No 1. Sa Chen was the very able soloist here and made as good a case as any for the work. However, having heard Chopin's Piano Concerto No 2 back in October of last year, I can't say that I would rush to hear either work again.

The final work was Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony and this was very good. Vasily Petrenko has made his name with this work - there was a recent recording which has achieved a number of awards. It's big, it's sprawling, it's loud and, under maestro Petrenko, it makes a formidable impact. For this performance alone, I'll happily offer the concert a three-and-a-half star rating.