It’s now 10:04 pm on Thursday London time and I have been awake since 2:30 am Wednesday Hawai’i time and I’m so excited that I have heard (and seen) the a cappella Choral group Voces8 live in Cadogan Hall. The large room was acoustically as dead as a doornail, requiring the group to be perfectly… Read More Effortless perfection
The term “bespoke” is not widely known in the U.S. — in fact the first time I heard the word was last summer when I was with my friend, Joan Ishibashi, former Hawaii resident who now lives in London. This week I had to use the word “bespoke” in a Google search, as in “bespoke… Read More Bespoke
I am so fortunate to be able to see my friends wherever they may be—in the calendar year 2018, I saw my friend Joan Ishibashi, formerly Executive Assistant of the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, on three different occasions and in three locations! She has lived in London since 2013, when she married Kantila Vaghela, Last… Read More Reunion in Camarillo
In addition to the evening major concerts, there are lectures, recitals and other daytime activities at the Three Choirs Festival. Sunday I went to a voice recital by James Gilchrist, who has a gorgeous tenor voice, accompanied by an outstanding pianist, Anna Tilbrook. He started his working career as a medical doctor but changed to… Read More Three Choirs concerts and more
It is SWELTERING in London and is an inferno! Today set a heat record—it got to 35 C (95 F) and some estimated it was 37 C (98 F) in the subway system, the Underground. That is truly HOT, considering that air conditioning is rare in this city, especially in the subway trains. Oh it… Read More In search of cool
Joan Ishibashi and I made the two-hour train trip to the city of Gloucester from London’s Paddington Station. I can’t believe it has been three years since I came to Gloucester for my first Three Choirs Festival! This time, though, we were here because of the residency of the Duke University Choir at Gloucester, where… Read More Joyful reunion and Evensong in Gloucester
Even though we faced another hot, muggy day, Joan Ishibashi and I toured Kew Gardens today, one of the largest botanical gardens in the world. As we had seen in Green Park near Buckingham Palace, the large grassy areas, normally lush green and verdant, were shockingly dry and brown. News of the heat wave and… Read More Kew Gardens
I am back in London, where my flight from Hamburg was uneventful except for having to endure 1-1/2 hours in the queue entering the UK Border. It is very hot and humid here, unlike my previous trips to London. I can’t ever remember it being so hot and uncomfortable like it is now! My BFF… Read More Outside on St. James’s Day
It’s exactly 1:13am in London, UK, and I’m wide awake. “Don’t watch the movies on the plane,” a friend told me recently. “Just try to sleep,” she said, saying that she never gets jetlagged on her trips to Europe from Hawaii and return. Her trick is to buy a lie-flat seat on the airplane, and… Read More Jetlagged in London
Last month when I published the newsletter for my condo association, I listed the following checklist before going on vacation: Filling out a Resident Vacation Form to let the office know how long you’ll be gone. Putting your mail on hold. Putting a vacation stop to the daily newspaper. Unplugging electronics. Getting someone to water… Read More Vacation checklist