Christmas Presence, Harrogate 15 Dec 06

[Richard]

Hello everybody!

This concert at Harrogate International Centre has just been confirmed on Hayley's official site:-

www.harrogateinternationalcentre.co.uk/events/hic09e.htm#Christmas

Christmas Presence
Friday 15-Dec-06 at 7.30pm

With Hayley Westenra, The Northern Sinfonia, St. Aidans School Choir, conducted by Andrew Greenwood.
Tickets: £26, £23, £19, £13 concessions students, OAPs, unemployed, children under 16 £1 discount.

Click on the link to book tickets and for more information about the venue.

Richard

[postscript]

Hi Richard and Everyone again, although on this thread I seem to be the first to respond to Richard's initiative.

Dependent upon your sequence of viewing you will know that this is a continuation from the 'Canterbury Cathedral' thread where I left (to stay on topic) with the question, why would I want to go to Harrogate to see Hayley?

Again, I'm not actually coming for Hayley--although on this event I do have a decent seat slap bang in the centre of the circle, which reminds me I must make a note to bring my opera glasses.

Now therein lies a story. They are family heirlooms dating back at least 100 years or so. The 'or so' Richard might actually be able to fill in. How's that Richard? Well, you know so many little tit-bits about London, so when was Whiteley's in existence? I believe it was one of the first really big London emporia, trading before Lord Selfridge built Selfridges and Marks and Spencer built their head office across the street from Selfridge's place in Oxford Street?

Whiteley's, which I think was Notting Hill way (another example of how London centres of interest change according to the different periods of social and commercial development) was once renowned (as is/was Harrods) as the place where you could buy anything, including an elephant as someone I believe once did! And I don't think it was the London Zoo!

Therein lies another story. We here in Berkhamsted once had a kangaroo in the Town Hall but seem to have lost it. It would be understandable to lose a kangaroo if it were alive but it was apparently stuffed. How do you lose a stuffed kangaroo? Why did we have it in the first place? But I digress.

Anyway, I was planning to go north just before Christmas but a bit more to the west, to Grassington. I have had the first three Saturdays of December booked in my diary for probably the last five or six years meaning to visit but never making it. How or why i cannot recall. It was probably reading a pre-Christmas magazine of some sort listing a writer's 50 pre-Christmas celebrations to visit. Probably a whimsy of The Sunday Times colour supplement.

However, for the first three Saturdays of December the whole town dresses in Dickensian garb to present a truly period Victorian Christmas Festival. I have no idea how good it is, but the girl at the box office (I rang for tickets) in Harrogate said it was quite an event. So it has some reputation, then.

There you are, an unusual suggestion for you, Hayley. Grassington is about 25 miles west of Harrogate, on a good day likely to provide a fine scenic trip over the Yorkshire moors, a whole town dressed in Dickensian garb and you can carry on west and south to meet the M6 in place of going down east on the A1. I would guess you will be using a car, although Gateshead to Harrogate probably provides a good train service, so you could manage the business aspect of the trip by train if you preferred. In which case you will not be able to make Grassington

I hasten to add that this particular 'management' (me) cannot accept any responsibility for such a suggestion and gives no guarantee it won't be a dud affair!

By the by, when chatting to the girl at the Harrogate Box Office, I learned she has both your CDs, is a fan and may, on my prompting, visit us here! Let's hope she registers herself.

Peter S.


Edit: Hayley's concert in Canterbury Cathedral is not one of the Christmas Presence series.
Richard

[Richard]

Hello Peter!

I don't think Whiteley's of Bayswater is of sufficient interest to start a separate thread, but you can find out all you want to know via this link:-

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiteleys

To get back on topic, I hope you enjoy the Christmas Presence concert in Harrogate, and I know we can rely on you to give us a comprehensive review. i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

See you at Canterbury Cathedral,

Richard

P.S. I reckon the kangaroo in Berkhamsted Town Hall hopped it!

[postscript]

richnorri said:

Hello Peter!

I don't think Whiteley's of Bayswater is of sufficient interest to start a separate thread, but you can find out all you want to know via this link:-

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiteleys

To get back on topic, I hope you enjoy the Christmas Presence concert in Harrogate, and I know we can rely on you to give us a comprehensive review. i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

See you at Canterbury Cathedral,

Richard

P.S. I reckon the kangaroo in Berkhamsted Town Hall hopped it!

I knew I cuild rely on you Richard for both some real wealth of information and a good laugh to boot--or should that be hoof or paw?

Peter S

[postscript]

Following on, post haste in great excitement I have just booked my stay at Harrogate for the night before Hayley--give me a chance to get up there and recoup--Hayley's performance and then the next day a tour around especially Grassington before returning on the Sunday to avoid the Monday morning traffic hassle.

Is there anyone else I should look out for? I mean, other than Hayley, of course!

Peter S.

[grant]

Have a great time in Harrogate Peter

Best wishes

Grant

[postscript]

grant said:

Have a great time in Harrogate Peter

Best wishes

Grant

Thank you Grant. Beginning to get excited now. My little camera won't be any good under that lighting and in the circle (but front row!) and my hand isn't steady enough but at least the words will flow! Whether I shall see her, who can tell? 2 days later and she's in NZ so she'll be in a rush with so much packing and preparing to do, unless she gets held back with another protocol function.

Must remember my opera glasses!

Peter S.

[thomas]

Hi Peter!

I wish you a great time in Harrogate. The Christmas Presence is a great concert tour that you'll enjoy for sure. And don't forget to sing loud and clear when it's up for the audience to fulfill its part!

If you want to try to meet Hayley at the stage door prior to the concert be there in the morning. Before 12p.m.! I guess she'll arrive there early as she did in Sheffield and Cardiff.

Have fun!

Thomas

[Richard]

Hello Peter!

I hope you enjoy Hayley's concert in Harrogate on Friday, and I'm looking forward to your report! i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

Best Wishes,

Richard

[grant]

Hello Peter!

Guess it's going to be quiet on the Forum for a while!

Enjoy yourself in Harrogate - hope you get to see Hayley. These concerts seem to be a bit varied - guess we were lucky in Sheffield!

You now have -

Fortyeight hours and 40 minutes before curtain up

Have a great time!

Grant

P.S I have set Saturday and Sunday aside to read your review! (only joking!)

[Martin]

Hi Peter
Would also like to wish you a great time on Friday and if you get the opportunity please wish Hayley a very merry Christmas from me and indeed all the other absent HWI members.

I look forward to any photos and of course the report. I'm off work over the Christmas holiday so I'll have plenty of time to read it !! i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

Best Wishes
Martin (Junior member by title but not in age!)

[postscript]

martin said:

Hi Peter
Would also like to wish you a great time on Friday and if you get the opportunity please wish Hayley a very merry Christmas from me and indeed all the other absent HWI members.

I look forward to any photos and of course the report. I'm off work over the Christmas holiday so I'll have plenty of time to read it !! i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

Best Wishes
Martin (Junior member by title but not in age!)

Hi Martin and all.
This is simply to say that I am back home!

First, Martin, I see you joined August 2006. Are you quite sure that is a long enough period to fully appreciate what you are asking when you say "I look forward to any photos and of course the report."? But as you indicate you have taken off most of 2007 to celebrate Christmas 2006, perhaps you will indeed have time to read it!

Seriously ! ! Well, half-seriously, on my journey around the dales on Saturday I was thinking of scrapping everything I had written. Then Mark Goodyear (Classic fm's chart master) said, after playing a Hayley Odyssey extract' that she had just completed her UK tour in Harrogate last night and is leaving the country to go home, so she would not be heard again in concert by UK fans until April 2006.

Well, we know (but a week on I could be out of date!) that April is somewhat contentious. In any case several things struck home simultaneously.

• The contrast and unique moment of having heard Hayley the night before and spoken to her, then hearing her voice on the radio and the DJ now referring to the event I had attended;
  
• The kicking-in of the realisation, which our Kiwi (and other non-UK friends) have to live with daily, that Hayley would shortly no longer be in the country and would not be significantly in the country for at least three months, oh deep depression!
  
• That Hayley is very 'to the point', businesslike and efficient [stop waffling Postscript, scrap eveything and start again] she would be that thorough!
  
• But then, she loves a bit of fun and it's a long time before we start having live news of her...
  

So I decided to keep the original but lay it out so it can be read in two different ways.

For those, like Martin, who have time on their hands to be diverted by what I hope is perceived by many as light, humorous banter, read on through in sequence. For those, like Dave, who feels Postscript waxes over lyrically by half (or perhaps by double, I should say?) ['Thanks, mine's a single malt!'] These members may safely skip to Part 2 and even Part 3.

Whether there is a Part 3 depends on my first catching up on other people's posts. I do not see any point in replicating what has already been said, since 'Christmas Presence' has been variously reported from around the country. If my version is sufficiently different, then that will be part 2. In which case Part 3 will be all those aspects that are undoubtedly unique to the Harrogate version.

That there are unique matters to report from Harrogate I know is a fact without reading other posts. So, tease I may be in Part 1, for a little bit of fun, Parts 2 and maybe 3 will be unique, with some comments, some not so good, but Hayley sails through triumphantly and others that will be... well, Hayley, surprising us yet again. In that, however, is a certain Postscript ingterpretation. Yes, Postscrpt will indeed be jumping in with all six feet flailing!

So, if Part 1 is going to be the Hors d'ouvre, this had better be considered the Apéritif!.

For now folks, I turn to sorting myself out and catching up on myself. Oh, so as not to tease and then seriously disappoint, there will not be any photos. I can say, however, that in Part 1 she wore the black diamanté dress and for Part 2 she wore the yellow dress. So, you are hardly missing out on anything visually!

Peter S.

[postscript]

Hi Grant. I don't disagree with you that you might want to set the weekend aside for the new rival to the Sunday papers, it is just your enthusiasm that I'll get it done by then!

Peter S.

[Martin]

[quote author=postscript board=Concert thread=1158826551 post=1166377224Hi Martin and all.
This is simply to say that I am back home!

[/list]
So I decided to keep the original but lay it out so it can be read in two different ways.

For those, like Martin, who have time on their hands to be diverted by what I hope is perceived by many as light, humorous banter, read on through in sequence. For those, like Dave, who feels Postscript waxes over lyrically by half (or perhaps by double, I should say?) ['Thanks, mine's a single malt!'] These members may safely skip to Part 2 and even Part 3.

Peter S.[/quote]

Hello Peter
Thank you for taking the time to offer me such good fatherly advice! l am rarely tempted these days by three sumptuous courses (the appetite gets smaller with age!) but in this instance I will make an exception and look forward to all three parts. But promise to provide an instruction manual!!


Merry Christmas
Martin

[postscript]

Hi Martin and All!

Your clear preference for succinctness is noted! Consequently, a severely restricted table d'hôte menu starting with a fixed (severely edited) hors 'doeuvre.

However, do not feel you have restricted my flow. Andrew's magnificent report's simple epitome of excellence brings into play all the discipline required to hone one's own skills to try and hold the excellent standard he has set us all.

Hi Everyone.

HAYLEY AT HARROGATE

Part 1—Hors d’oeuvre
Written Friday 15th December. Well, to ape Richard’s countdown initiative, in 2 hours time I shall see Hayley on stage at the Harrogate International Centre. First, I’ll copy Thomas’s style by telling you how I managed to get up—the day before! That was Thursday 14th December when Hayley would that night be at Gateshead.

There was a time when I would drive to Harrogate, attend an exhibition and drive back again the same day. I should say that these events took place in late spring or early summer! However, these days I need to pace myself but in fact made very good headway, the traffic allowing me to average 60 miles an hour for the entire journey, the journey time being just over three hours door to door—allowing a one hour stop off for lunch.

This was not the self-indulgent meal that such news might imply, but a light meal for a car-driving journey, the rest of the time being an allowance for a rest break. This meant I arrived at Harrogate, despite departing two hours later than intended, with half-an-hour of daylight in which to find my hotel. This was as well since the hotel did not seem to be in the same place as the map indicated, even when held upside down!

I have been contemplating these map routing devices but have so far held back on four grounds.

• Only the pricier models seem to be worth having.
  
• The technology is changing so quickly prices will come down.
  
• They seem to guarantee your car WILL be broken into however well you hide evidence of a routing gizmo.
  
• I don’t like to admit I can’t read a map, especially since I was brought up by an army-orientated father who insisted all family meetings took place at a grid reference, never at something so simple as a pub!

However, a friend recently attended a meeting at which he was the only person to arrive on time, it taking another half-an-hour for all to finally make it—only he had a router and had used it! But I digress, of course!

Commonsense should have dictated I stayed at the ‘Holiday Inn’, an integral part of the complex, which is doubtless where Hayley is staying (and Eugene (HWI visitor if not member) and friend I gathered later).

I have once before stayed in the same hotel as Hayley. I did not realise this until the next morning when, in a dark area of corridor on my way to breakfast, I passed a very attractive young lady who smiled at me most charmingly. I was wondering what I ought to do about this when I realised it was Giselle—who has now left the Hayley management team to read law!

However, were I to stay there, it was unlikely I would gain any chance meeting advantage that wouldn’t be offered to me at the stage door, before or afterwards and in any case, in such circumstances, she is in private time and I knew I would resist anything beyond a passing acknowledgement were I to meet her there. I also wasn’t happy about the public car park aspect (I prefer private hotel car parks) and as I was staying over several days, down the road was an overall slightly cheaper deal. In fact I was to have dinner there as their restaurant opened at 6:30pm in time to acquire a quick snack before the show, whereas my hotel restaurant opened an hour too late.

Whilst making these arrangements I heard that their car park wasn’t useable and a newly-arrived chap had to park in the public car park, use a token and ensure he was out of there by 11:00a.m.. He seemed not best pleased. Not the sort of hassle you want if you are there for several days!

Actually, there was another perverse reason for staying elsewhere. ‘The Old Swan’ in Harrogate is the hotel in which Agatha Christie ‘lost herself’ for ten days whilst every police force in the country was looking for her. I don’t think it was ever publicly resolved as to whether she had: acquired amnesia; was close to a nervous break-down; contemplating divorcing her husband but changed her mind; or just wanted a break.

So, into ‘The Old Swan’ I went which, despite a £5 million refit seemed little different from when Agatha Christie was there. Precisely what happened to the £5million I haven’t a clue, though Agatha might have been able to work it out. The heating controls are non-existent, depending upon radiators not too clearly marked as to which way to turn for what effect and if it does have any effect it seems to do so erratically. The windows neither open nor shut properly, so it is not the place to stay in a hot summer, nor in a howling gale. The windows don’t rattle but in conjunction with the gap under the door (which requires the nightly deposit of one’s dressing gown to reduce its impact) there are innumerable drafts. Most alarmingly of all, there are two internet stations requiring the use of the hotel’s PCs and no wireless facility, even outside the building, hence the delay in this transmission, but then I hadn’t thought of asking for wifi as I did not have a business requirement on this trip—one of the reasons I was late leaving home.

However, there is an abundance of staff, all of them most courteous. Almost anything is available twenty-fours seven through room service—I always find a hotel supporting permanent night staff reassuring. The furniture is designed to be fallen into, whereupon it embraces you most enthusiastically and the ceilings are fifteen feet high—that alone makes you feel you are somewhere decent. I do hate the modern proclivity for low ceilings. They somehow make the proportions look all wrong.

Considering it is a 300 room hotel, I suppose it is as easy to lose £5 million in a refit without much effect as it is for Agatha Christie to lose herself completely! But I digress, of course.

So, that was Thursday, concluded by an unhurried saunter through a reasonable dinner and an hour or so of TV viewing, once I realised that the channel numbers declared by the menu didn’t relate to the programmes the buttons actually operated! An experience that was not helped by the fact that apparently there is no such thing as national TV and regions will have their own opinions on mainstream TV, which I find very irritating. Hine e Hine!

[Friday’s concert and details of Grassington (for June 2007 visitors) will follow once I have had a chance to catch up on other postings, so I do not simply repeat other’s comments about a show which will already have been well reviewed but for a change of location.]

Peter S.