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On Saturday we went back to Highgate, primarily to visit the Cemetery. We’d been before with Jenny, Amanda and Daniel but had not entered due to the woman at the gate. There are regulations about what you can wear into the cemetery and on the previous day, in the middle of summer, some of us didn’t have the requisite body parts covered. The resultant discussion with June had us leave rather than put up with her demands. I still wanted to visit, however, so we returned and this time we were dressed more appropriately. As it turned out June was in a better mood today (and we were probably more respectful) and after a short wait we were admitted and sat down to wait for the tour at 1pm.

Our guide arrived, a little late, and off we went. There were only four of us and the guide, the others being a Swiss couple. We were shortly joined by a German lady after we had proceeded a few minutes up the path. Our guide stopped as various monuments along the path and gave us the history of the interred. We learnt about cemetery imagery such as urns, shrouds, upturned trumpets and angels. Most of the larger monuments had a story and as such our 50 minute tour proceeded at pace, leaving little time for photographs. This has never stopped me before.

An Angel of Highgate Cemetery, opposite the Egyptian Avenue

Highgate Cemetery was built, ah… created in 1839 and is part of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries that ring London. It went through a period of time after the second world war when the upkeep of the grounds wasn’t all it could have been. In recent times the Fiends of Highgate Cemetery have restored the cemetery somewhat but it has still been left in it’s overgrown state, giving it a very gothic look. Grand monuments rise from the ivy and scrub in all directions.

The gateway of the Egyptian Avenue and up the Street of the Dead

Some of the architecture is extremely grand, such as the Egyptian Avenue. The avenue rises out of the ground like the entrance to some long lost temple somewhere out of a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle novel. The path leads through the tunnel up to the Lebanon Circle, another amazing piece of architecture. A circle of stone catacombs have been sunk into the ground below a large Cedar tree, the tree about 150 years older than the cemetery and itself part of what was a large garden that was previously on the site.

Part of the outer Lebanon Circle

The Cedar tree over the Lebanon Circle

The booklet we bought about the cemetery mentions a woodpecker that lives in the Cedar. I’m fairly sure I saw the woodpecker, or at least it’s ancestor, entering a hole in the trunk.

The grave of Thomas Sayers, looked over by his dog Lion

Thomas Sayers was a boxer from the middle 1800′s and his story is quite entertaining. You can read some of it here.

The Angel again

The nature of the Cemetery

So we proceeded though the cemetery and were introduced to a number of interesting tombs. As time was short we didn’t really get time to linger on any tomb so some of the talks were clipped off rather quickly. We only got to see a small section of the cemetery, we’d probably have needed a number of hours to have a proper tour. At the end we were asked for a donation and I gave some coins. We then got to have a look in the chamber adjacent to the entrance and looked over various pamphlets, pictures and items for sale. We talked to the guide and he suggested visiting both Kensal Green Cemetery, another of the Magnificent Seven, and Le Cimetière du Père-Lachaise in Paris. Something for a weekend in the future perhaps.

The park opposite the Cemetery had a number of young animals, this Coot chick an example

After leaving we made our way through the adjacent park back towards Highgate town and back down to Archway Station. Along the way we stopped to watch some birds and their chicks/signets in a pond. The following chap was making a lot of noise, having paddled away from his mum. He seemed to find solace in climbing onto a leaf and then pecking at foliage above. Good for him.

Yesterday afternoon we set off into London in the direction of the Royal College of Music. We were off to see a talk by Howard Shore specifically dealing with his work on the Lord of Rings movie soundtrack. There was also to be a signing afterwards, so we had a few goodies lined up to be scrawled upon.

The Royal College Of Music hall where Howard was interviewed

We arrived to find a short queue so took our place and waited in the sun for the word to proceed into the building. A request to enter duly arrived and we made our way into the building and through into a concert hall. Sitting near the front we sat and waited for Howard to arrive. The compere came on the stage shortly after 6pm to tell us that Howard was running a little late. before he could finish however, Howard arrived and he was greeted by an enthusiastic round of applause which he took very graciously.

Up onto the stage and into an interview which went on for maybe a bit to long, as interesting as it was. The interviewer was a little to prone to giving counterpoint views based on his own experiences rather than just letting Howard talk. I can’t remember the interviewers name, he was from ‘Music From The Movies’ magazine who had organised the evening. I’m probably being overly critical but I was here to hear Howard speak, not someone else.

Mr Howard Shore on the right with an overly enthusiastic interviewer on the left

The floor was then opened to questions from the audience and Howard answered in a very detailed and thoughtful manner. Many people congratulated him on his (and the movies) recent success at the Academy Awards. We found out that Howard and Peter Jackson have put a proposal forward to Warner Music for a deluxe box set that contains all the music from all three movies. The set would be 8 CD’s plus 1 DVD and contain the complete musical score from the extended DVD editions of the movies. The DVD would contain documentaries and footage taken at a performance of the score done previously in Vancouver. Something to save up for perhaps.

A man who likes to use his hands for communicating, hardly a strange habit for a conductor I suppose

Listening to the next question

More questions were had and answers provided, Howard talking about his working with Peter Jackson and the three month recording period for The Return of the King. Howard also talked about the coming performances being put on of the score and how he enjoys working with the London Philharmonic Orchestra on such performances as they have been playing the music for three years and know how every instrument should sound, whereas other orchestras play well but don’t have the benefit of experience with the music to make everything sound perfectly as it was originally intended.

Howard said that during the writing and recording of the movie score he often felt like Frodo making his journey with the score as his ring. During these times Peter would be Howard’s Sam, supporting him when needed. At other times the roles would be reversed and Howard would be there to help Peter in times of need. Howard also talked of his appreciation of New Zealand and the many Kiwis who made the film what it is. He said he still finds it strange working on other films where he doesn’t have the NZ experience of working out of cottages in Seatoun and working with Peter, Fran and Philippa over coffee tables and in kitchens as ideas were bantered around. The memory of writing the score in NZ, in places such as Wellington and around Queenstown in the South Island has strongly affected Howard and he will always remember his time in our country.

Illustrating another point

Brief mention was made of music that Howard was working on at the moment (‘The Aviator‘ score) and his next Peter Jackson score for the ‘King Kong‘ remake. There was also a quick question about the proposed movie based on ‘The Hobbit’. Howard would be ready to do the music for this movie but the ongoing rights issues have to be sorted out first (the movie rights are owned by one company, the distribution rights by another and they have to nut out a deal so that both companies make a lot of money, welcome to Hollywood).

Time quickly ran out and we all got into a line to have our items of choice autographed. Due to time constraints we didn’t really get time to talk to Howard, we only had enough time to ensure our names were spelt right (“Keryn, K-E-R-Y-N” “A?” “No, E, like in egg” “Oh…”) but we got our Return of the King CD and issue 6 of out Lord of the Rings Fanclub magazine signed as well on the title page of Howard’s interview so contained.

One interesting tidbit came up from a question asked by the person before us in the line. Howard has an on screen part in the forthcoming extended edition of the ‘Return of the King’. He is a rider of Rohan drinking with Legolas and Gimli in a scene in Edoras.

Signing the CD

Signing the magazine

That was about it. We made our way out of the building, put everything back into my bag and made our way back to the tube station for the trip home. I’d better stop now anyway, Keryn wants to play games and is getting annoyed. I must learn about priorities…

I don’t think I’m destined to play cricket. Last year I played a game for the LST team and it was fun. I fielded a bit, caught someone out and got a golden duck. This isn’t so bad, I thought. We played the same team on Wednesday evening at the same location but this time I had a different experience.

Paul and I got there early and had a bit of a muck around, throwing the ball and having a half-hearted hit around. The rest of the team arrived and sat down for a pre-match beer, as you do. It was then off to the pitch and the game, 18 overs each with a limit of 25 runs per batsman (this not being any way professional cricket and everyone should get a go this way). All well and good. I believe it was the second over, might have been one or two more. Someone bowled and the ball was dispatched towards the boundary with I being the closest fielder. Off I went, feet barely touching the ground as I reeled the ball in. I ran over the end of the wicket block and, not noticing the change in ground level, for a brief moment over-stretched my right leg and felt something pull rather further than it was meant to go. The guys behind me said I looked like I was ballet dancing towards the ball with my arms out wide and my legs akimbo. I got the ball and returned it wicketwards and then stopped to see what was going on.

So, I’d pulled a muscle, time to stop? Nah. I could no longer run and anything more than a slow shuffle was proving difficult but I could still stop anything that came towards me and wasn’t more than a foot or two to either side. I was placed behind the wicket ready to flap at anything that came my way. And so I flapped through a few more overs until a ball came into that dangerous position of being just close enough that I thought I could grab it on the way past. I lurched to my right, over my injured leg and bent to get the ball coming my way. My leg didn’t like this and all thought of the ball disappeared as I collapsed. Unfortunately all thought of where to put my hand was left to reflex and I came down on the little finger of my right hand, which was fine until I looked at it. ‘This looks funny’ I thought ‘what’s going on here?’. My finger was now pointing in an odd direction at the first joint above the knuckle, a 45 degree angle away from the other more obviously normal digits.

Strangely it didn’t hurt and really was more of an inconvenience I thought. So I got up and approached my team mates looking for someone to pull my finger out and back into line. Most people went to look and then turned away with a not-very-comfortable-with-what-was-being-presented-to-them look on their faces. One attempt was made to straighten it with no success, so off I went to the pavilion to get some ice and some first aid.

The designated first aid person didn’t want to know, she effecting the same look as those on the field. Thankfully the barman was happy to grab a towel, take a grip and pull and henceforth I had a straight finger again. Ice was applied, followed by strapping tape a while later and today that is where things are at. I’ve seen a doctor and he doesn’t think anything is broken or that I need an x-ray so it’s just going to be inconvenient for a week or so.

Away we go

Back to the game we got into bat and ended up loosing by a number of runs but all enjoyed themselves. I also spent a few overs as an umpire so managed to contribute something to the game other than revulsion. I managed to get hit in the knee with a straight drive as well, not being able to move especially fast. It’s only a small bruise. I managed to lurch to the train station afterwards and get home OK and today after seeing the doctor survived a trip to a new office in Norwich and am able to walk just about normally now. Running will be something to try next week (maybe Tuesday when I’m meant to be playing netball). At least I’m doing better than Matthew Leonard, even with the insertion of metal plates he’s still attracting injuries much worse than mine. All I have now is to look forward to my next game of cricket, surely it can’t be worse than this time? We’ll see.

Some of the guys, keeping score and watching our batsmen

Further action in the middle