geronimo trail guest ranch

we miss you so much! hope to be in the saddle again soon!

just wonderful!

so happy to finally see pics of the cutest arrivel for 2015, my friend and former student annie's lovely little girl inez, who has chosen her parents very carefully and with great skill, because i'm sure that both mum and dad will do everything to keep this gorgeous smile on baby's face, because, after all, if she frowns you're doomed! CONGRATULATIONS!!!! 

just stealing a few hours...

funny enough the closer I work to all the fantastic restaurants in covent garden (my office is now literally on the strand across from roka, cucina asellina, radio bar, the delaunay, etc.) the less time i seem to have to go out at all. but a few stolen hours last night with deac in town meant we tried what will easily become my new favourite place to eat, barrafina in drury lane. no bookings, of course, but worth the queuing for sure, and then so much garlic that my whole office will suffer for a week!

gone but not forgotten

a lovely memory of our juggler, who has moved on to another home...

liberté, égalité, fraternité, solidarité!

very proud of london, rike said tonight as we drove along the river. agreed!

two cuties on a lovely autumn day

beautiful first november and also last day of rike's holidays, where the two cuties here thundered through joydens wood (note the missing saddle!) while i took a more relaxed walk. still with a broken ellbow i only dared to ride around the school a bit, but  - hey - better than nothing!

crisis - what crisis

well, tuesday evening and we are browsing the papers, and what do we find? all hell breaking loose and catastrophes abound all over germany, but most so in halle/saale, where the mitteldeutsche zeitung declares the end of the world, or something very close to.

thank god then that not all is lost as we have krisenstabsobermanager andy in place, who will battle it out for halle and all. you can tell from the very serious look on his face that this man is determined not to be overrun by gales and hurricanes, terrorists or tsunamis. 'we'll see how they fared' the newspaper concluded, but i can tell you that already: still standing!!

 

around london in half a day

london is so great, our dear friend rowena said today in the car, because at some point everybody comes through. i never have to go anywhere, i can see all my friends here at some point. a very philosophical idea as we drove three quarters around town to get from brockley to hertfordshire, which took only two hours in relatively light traffic. on a bad day it could easily be six. stunning views of canary wharf from three sides, but of course not quite as splendid as this awesome bbc pic, from their website. click here for the full story.

fantastical journeys

lsso barbican london 23 september 2015 7.30 SOLD OUT

a concert of romantic orchestral pieces evoking a journey across europe and beyond.

london's premier youth ensemble journeys through many landscapes in this concert, from chabrier's evocation of spain to schumann's homage to the forests of germany. the journey concludes with a symphony inspired by the fevered fantasies of a romantic composer’s lovesick imagination; berlioz’s symphonie fantastique, written in 1830.

programme and performers

chabrier - españa       

schumann - konzertstück for four horns and orchestra

berlioz - symphonie fantastique

peter ash conductor

horns

richard watkins

nigel black

michael thompson

katy woolley

what a journey!!! standing ovations! click here for a review.

ciao yogi

husband sadly announced that yogi berra died a few days ago, this is what he says: boyhood idol, baseball player for the ny yankees. something like 15 consecutive years on the major league all-star team, 10 championships as a player, 3 more as a manager, etc. etc. a man everyone liked. never pretentious, always gentle, but a fierce competitor: one of the great clutch hitters of all time. maybe also a legend and an icon for his very well-known sayings. some of these are useful:

It's like deja-vu all over again.

It ain't the heat; it's the humility.

Baseball is 90% mental - the other half is physical.

I never said most of the things I said... Take it with a grin of salt.

If you don't know where you're going, you might end up some place else.

He hits from both sides of the plate. He's amphibious.

You can observe a lot by watching.

The future ain't what it used to be.

Never answer an anonymous letter.

When you come to a fork in the road, take it.

I always thought that record would stand until it was broken.

If the world was perfect, it wouldn't be.

Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't go to yours.

and the winner is

... rike and her cym piano sextet who just won the national award in the music for youth 2015 competition in birmingham sponsord by the birmingham conservatoire. and the price? coaching for more music and a masterclass session. look at the classic fm website for more pics. congrats girls, well done!!!

life at the new school

last wednesday the child was despatched to her new school and now all kinds of funny things creep up into the vocabulary, for example that she now is a boarder with a house mistress and that there are house rules and lights out times. couldn't help to feel straight out of 'the twins at st clare's' (or hanni und nanni, as the german version goes), but first reports have been good and there is undeniably a lovely atmosphere at the school. rike's only worry so far is that she will have to work fairly hard, but with only five or six pupils in the class there is no hiding, as she figured out already. smart girl!

watch this video on the boarders if you want to see more...

mark bolan school of music

rike has supported the mark-bolan-school of music several times over the last two years and was again involved with a charity concert earlier this spring. the school, founded by mark bolan's widow gloria jones, works with disavantaged youngsters in sierra leone. rike speaks very highly of gloria, who seems to be patient and committed to the young musicians she works with. credit also to rike's friend otis who organized the concert.

summer!!!

rike was the lucky recipient of several invitations to whitstable, where her friend's parents have a summer place, but one day we just ignored protocol and invited ourselves, too. so after seeing grayson perry's 'provincial punk' in the turner contemporary in margate, we spent a gloriuos afternoon on the beach in this most quaint english invention, the beach hut. delightful!

 

across the southbank

just back from a wonderful moment on the southbank where rike has now worked for two days with david byrne in his meltdown festival. twice this afternoon over sixty five horn players performed john luther adam's 'across the distance', indoors first and in the pretty jubilee gardens the second time. a great experience as the musicians wander around and the horns talk to each other over various distances. that and a last glimpse of a long hot august day made for a great moment, before it is about to be all rain and work from next week, and the prediction is that summer is finished.

sam the seagull stealing doritos

oh there it goes ... summer in britain ... you spend a couple of days on the coast and what do you see but crime and misdemeanour...

unfair!!!

not only that this handsome and wonderful couple commands large parts of the gila wilderness but now they also party in kauai (just look at the website!), as they tell us via facebook, while we slave over our computers in the dusty city ... unfair!!!

what a day!

you know that this is a VIP wedding when the gleaming white limo turns up


knew it! look whose here! sparkling in black and white the groom and the bride look simply stunning, but who would have expected anything less... 




the crowds gather around the entrance to the standesamt hannover 

happy, my darling? happy!!!!

the registrar pulled a few tricks out of his hat - a minute later the desk was full of white plastic cups...

the rings are anything but plastic - show me closer!!!!

lunch in the beautiful and well chosen 'alte muehle', on a gorgeously sunny day! what you don't see from the pic is that everybody with heels is 5 inches into the muddy lawn by now 

contemplating over the menu but with a closer look at the bride's bouquet

and over to the evening gathering in hannover's suedstadt - here you see the wedding cake supplied by one hell of a wedding cake baker :)

... and just a few snapshots from what turned out to be a long but happy night, with the bride and groom dancing into the wee hours ...

good luck to you both, you are one special couple! or shall i say 'ehepaar'!