Monday, February 18, 2008
Southwest trains
Have interesting ideas about how to sequence things late evening at Waterloo. Arrive at station to find the train to Epsom is due to leave in three minutes. Rush down to platform 1 which you find had just been closed to new business because the train is about to leave and the thoughtful train company does not want any accidents involving passengers and trains which are about to move or which are maybe actually moving. Nip back to platform 3 which is still open and nip round the back, back to platform 1. Climb, somewhat breathless and sweaty, onto full carriage at the head of the platform. Nothing happens. After a while a lady guard appears and saunters gently down the platform, stopping to chat a couple of times on the way. Platform 1 reopened for new business and the train gets a little fuller. Some minutes later the train gets underway. And I was just in time for one for the road at the other end.
Halifax up to some odd tricks too. We recently got a computer generated letter from them, the body of the letter containing details generated from our account, but with a label stuck to the top of the letter containing our name and address for viewing through the window in the envelope. Now why would it not be possible for the bit of the computer which printed one lot of details to print the other lot of details, that is to say our name and address? And if it did not, where did the label come from? How was the label associated with the letter? This last would be a bit of a pain if they were doing thousands of them. I don't suppose we will ever know.
The train event preceeded attendance at a Barenboim event. Very good concert from a musical point of view, a little marred by the last-night-of-the-Proms sort of audience. Far too much clapping and cheering for my taste. And it was probably much worse for the last concert yesterday. Why is it that this particular series has turned into a music groupies fest? I would also prefer this sort of thing in a smaller concert hall - say the QEH. Nothing wrong with the sound in the refurbished FH, but it is very big. Somehow not quite right for a solo performer. But then I guess FH is a lot bigger than QEH, perhaps holding 1,000 more happy punters who have happily spent lots more pounds. One aspect of the sound jarred slightly - the occasional big shifts from very loud to very quiet. A little too effective - but it was alleged that this was an old actor's trick to quieten down an audience which was shuffling a bit too much. And one aspect of the music was new to me - the way that a good proportion of the non-terminal movements ended in a rather uncertain way, designed to put one on edge, waiting for the next episode. So a crashing of chords, then a short silence, then a little twiddly bit. The end.
Halifax up to some odd tricks too. We recently got a computer generated letter from them, the body of the letter containing details generated from our account, but with a label stuck to the top of the letter containing our name and address for viewing through the window in the envelope. Now why would it not be possible for the bit of the computer which printed one lot of details to print the other lot of details, that is to say our name and address? And if it did not, where did the label come from? How was the label associated with the letter? This last would be a bit of a pain if they were doing thousands of them. I don't suppose we will ever know.
The train event preceeded attendance at a Barenboim event. Very good concert from a musical point of view, a little marred by the last-night-of-the-Proms sort of audience. Far too much clapping and cheering for my taste. And it was probably much worse for the last concert yesterday. Why is it that this particular series has turned into a music groupies fest? I would also prefer this sort of thing in a smaller concert hall - say the QEH. Nothing wrong with the sound in the refurbished FH, but it is very big. Somehow not quite right for a solo performer. But then I guess FH is a lot bigger than QEH, perhaps holding 1,000 more happy punters who have happily spent lots more pounds. One aspect of the sound jarred slightly - the occasional big shifts from very loud to very quiet. A little too effective - but it was alleged that this was an old actor's trick to quieten down an audience which was shuffling a bit too much. And one aspect of the music was new to me - the way that a good proportion of the non-terminal movements ended in a rather uncertain way, designed to put one on edge, waiting for the next episode. So a crashing of chords, then a short silence, then a little twiddly bit. The end.
# posted by Jim @ 2:03 AM 
