The Real Thing

 I went to a matinee performance of the Tom Stoppart play The Real Thing. There was a group of teenage girls there who probably must’ve been doing the play for school studies because they were wearing school uniforms. There is a lot of risky dialogue in this play about two couples who are to put it mildly polyamorous. Anyhow, whenever there was a risky bit that came up there was huge laughs from this group of teenagers. It was at the National Theatre from which we sometimes are able to watch plays at the local at our cinemas.

St Mary le Strand concert

 On the second full day in London I attended a superb solo piano concert titled “ Bach by candlelight” at the Church of St Mary Le Strand - about a 20 minute walk along the Stand from the Reform Club. Christina Lawrie played almost the whole concert off book. It always amazes me how talented musicians can have such complex music in their memories. 

London and Phantom of the opera

 Phillip dropped me off at the local railway station for an hour long train ride to Waterloo Station in London. I then took the Bakerloo tube to Piccadilly Circus and walked to the Reform Club 104 Pall Mall. What to do that evening? 

Five minutes walk away from the Reform club was His Majesty‘s Theatre, on the Haymarket, which was performing the Phantom of the Opera. It was a sold out performance, but I managed to get a last-minute ticket. I also had time to spare and walked to Piccadilly Circus along to Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square (Where the Canadian Embassy is located). One of the joys of staying at these reciprocal clubs on Pall Mall is that you can walk everywhere in the middle of London. 

The Phantom of the Opera has been performed in the West End for 37 years. It was originally developed by the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron McIntosh the theatre manager. The present  performance was revised in 2022 and moved to this theatre, which was renamed His Majesty‘s Theatre, rather than Her Majesty’s Theatre. As many people know the Phantom of the Opera has been made into a film and has travelled to the major cities in the world. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a live  performance. Of course many of the tunes are familiar to many people. 

Southampton

 My nephew Phillip met me at the Southampton docks. He is a very successful TV personality and hosts a show called “location, location, location,”as well as other programs. He and  his wife Fiona live in converted farm buildings house that 20 years ago was made into a large house with originally six bedrooms but now four. I had a very enjoyable two days with them. We went for a short walk to the local pub for lunch and Phillip and I spent the second day visiting the Portsmouth historic dockyard including the Victory and the Mary Rose. The Mary Rose was a stunning exhibit. The ship sunk in 1545 and then half of it was discovered buried in silt in the Solent and was raised a few years ago, with many of the artifacts, which of all being most beautifully displayed in the exhibit. Much enjoyed.

On board QM2

As with the previous trip two years ago on the Queen Mary II I had an intermediate bridge lesson and played duplicate bridge every afternoon for the seven day crossing from Boston to Southampton. The weather was calm. One does meet some interesting people. I met a couple of US citizens who have lived in Ecuador for 15 years. I met at an antique dealer who lived in Alabama previously from New York. There was a lot of anxiety on board because of hurricane Milton, which was affecting Florida. There were many Americans from Florida on board. Several people lived in “The villages” a 150,000 planned community in central Florida. The hurricane petered out fairly quickly and I don’t think there was a lot of damage. There are many things to do on the ship - talks, concerts, several eating places, the food selection is great. The service on Cunard is excellent. I think there were about 2200 passengers but about 1200 staff. I felt sorry for the staff. They spend nine months on the ship. I talked to one young Filipino woman who had been on cruise ships for 14 years. She spends nine months on a ship and three months at home and she had a six year-old daughter who is looked after by her grandparents. From a passenger point of view crossing the Atlantic is like a luxury ferry trip because you arrive with no jet lag and you get all sorts of entertainment and comforts during the crossing. Would I do it again? I think I prefer shorter cruises if any. As an  independent traveler, it’s more fun to be in a city and make things up as you go along. I have enjoyed spending time in European cities several times in the past.

Boston

 When I found that the Queen Mary II was going to be docking in Boston for the day, I made contact with an old friend Heather Palmer, who with whom I had been at Cambridge and the London hospital with between 1958 and 1963. We have kept in contact over the years because Heather went into paediatrics and then taught at the Harvard school of public health. We had met a few times at the American public health association meetings, and we always caught up with Christmas letters. For the first time in my life, I went by Uber to Heather‘s house in Newton a very nice suburb of Boston. We spent a few hours chatting, went to lovely fresh fish restaurant and then I got another Uber back to the Queen Mary II . A great reunion.

Newport

 I met up with David and Jacquie Collins who happened to have been booked on this voyage at the same time as myself. We met to go ashore at Newport. Luckily I was able to get my laundry done beforehand on board. Very modern laundry machines you can use yourself. Endless places to have breakfast and endless choices of food on the ship. Anyhow Newport is a very interesting historic city, but also an amazing centre for sailing. We visited the Trinity Episcopalian church. It was founded in about 1698 by the Newport church community that already included Quakers, Baptist and Jews. The new church was built by the Society for the propagation of the gospel in foreign parts,an Anglican missionary organization. The earliest parish membership included several French Hugonots. The first church was built in 1700 north of the present structure that was built in 1724 to 1726  by an American master builder Richard Monday based on Georgian designs of Christopher Christopher Wren the architect of St Pauls Cathedral in London. 

The second church we visited was a Catholic Church. On April 8 th 1828 Rhode Island‘s first permanent Roman Catholic Parish was established in Newport. The land was purchased on Barney Street. 

I then visited the sailing museum. A very well designed museum that shows a great deal of history of ocean racing particular of course the Newport Bermuda race but also they talked about the trans pacific race and the America’s Cup and also some illustrations of the modern design of sailboats with with all sorts of types of foils. It reminded me of the 9 years I spent Ocean Racing in the 1960’s. On the way back to the ship, there was a lot of dinghy racing going on in the Harbour showing that there’s still people racing in simple, not so expensive types of racing dingys and other cruising boats. It was a wonderful sunny day overlooking Newport Harbour and much enjoyed.  

(I am composing this on my IPhone and do not know how to cut and paste this next bit to the comments about the Catholic church). There is historic interest in this church. Jack Kennedy and was married here. A most famous and poignant wedding took place on September 12, 1953 at Saint Mary’s church when Jocyln Lee Bouvier married the Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy (later the 35th president). The marriage was performed by Archbishop Richard Cushing a Cardinal of  Boston. When president he and Mrs. Kennedy spent weekends in Newport. They attended mass at the church and were always seated in pew number 10.