Month: May 2024

Nadine Shah and Hamilton

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Perhaps the top birthday highlight amid a thoroughly pleasurable weekend of mild (no longer wild) celebration was a concert by Nadine Shah at the Cheltenham Festival.  Because it was my birthday, Jane generously came along with me even though I had told her it wouldn’t be her choice of music.  It was an opportunity to take in a bit of the atmosphere of the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, see an art exhibition featuring one of our village acquaintances, and have dinner out together for a change.

I have seen Nadine Shah nine times now and have loved every one of those performances.  I still remember first seeing her in 2013 in The Lexington in London.  Then, the hairs stood out on the back of my head as she sang ‘All I Want’ virtually unaccompanied and I became a big fan.  I recall I chatting with her Dad afterwards and then meeting her.  She’s a charming Geordie and a huge, interesting talent.

Up Close With Nadine Shah Almost A Decade Ago In The Sebright Arms, London With Middle Son

Up to this month, the venues I have seen her perform in have been small and intimate.  Cheltenham Town Hall wasn’t that.  The sound was muggy, the distance to the stage – we were half way back – was huge in comparison to previous Nadine Shah concerts I’d been to, and we were sitting down so only foot-tapping was really allowed.  For all that it was alien to previous experiences, I loved the music and her energy; Jane, not so much!

Nadine Shah In Full Flow At Cheltenham Town Hall

Nadine Shah’s latest album (Filthy Underneath) traces her fall from grace as she left Ramsgate and London for her native South Tyneside to look after her terminally ill mother during the Covid pandemic.  The pandemic prevented her from touring and performing her music, she separated from her husband and, in her relative isolation, became addicted to her Mum’s drugs.  Several of the songs on the new album relate to this dark period of illness, suicidal thoughts, rehabilitation and recovery.  

Nadine Shah

Despite their dark themes, I love their dramatic, relentless, pulsating beats and the compelling lyrics.  They were in my head seemingly incessantly for well over a week after the concert.

Helping with that was a birthday present from Middle Son and his fiancée: Wireless Bone Conduction Headphones by Shokz.  I hadn’t seen these until MS showed me his a few weeks ago.  He had bought some because he doesn’t like wearing in-ear headphones and knows that I have a problem with them too.  These new ones sit outside the ear and use vibration to exercise the cheek and ear bone structure to reproduce perfect headphone sound without blocking out birdsong or traffic noise for example.  The technology verges on the unbelievable to me.  The headphones are perfect for my two-hour walks into Stroud on Food Bank days and, on the first of those after I saw Nadine Shah, I naturally gravitated to playing her music.

Shokz Wireless Bone Conduction Headphones

Since my birthday, and a flurry of family related activity, life has returned to normality; lots of walking in spring sunshine, local volunteering, visits to our local pub and, now the weather has finally improved, gardening.  Gradually, one patch and raised bed at a time, I am getting the vegetable garden under control.  I also need to invest time in the garden at our rental property and the small allotment I tend very fitfully; next week, maybe….

Wild Garlic Gone Wild Along The Path To The Food Bank In Stroud

Jane and I did manage to spend an afternoon helping in MS and his fiancée’s garden.  Their own gardening desires are frustrated currently by a necessary focus on their new baby and work.  It was nice to be able to step in to tidy and plant a few things in their garden and, of course, to see Second Grandchild. 

Plus, they gave us a couple of tickets for Hamilton on its UK and Ireland Tour which they had bought before the timing of a new baby was fully realised.  It was my first visit to the Bristol Hippodrome and, as far as I can remember, my first live musical (rather than opera).  I was enormously impressed with both.  Management of the audience in and out of the Hippodrome was extremely efficient, the stage sets were impressive and our view was elevated, central and splendid.  

The Hamilton Cast (Photography Was Banned – Good! – So I Pinched This Off The Bristol Hippodrome Website)

Hamilton itself started with a bang and the energy didn’t let up throughout.  The hip-hop and r&b songs were catchy.  They were sung beautifully but in a way that enunciated every lyric so that the story, for those with only a passing familiarity with it, could understand the multiple layers of the storyline. 

A huge amount was packed in and I was left a little overwhelmed by the end of the performance.  I really enjoyed the variety of the music and the way elements of it cropped up repeatedly throughout to remind us of the key themes.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable, brilliant, invigorating introduction to modern musical theatre.

May has been a full and very enjoyable month and we still are barely more than halfway through!

Family Stuff

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The month leading up to my birthday last weekend was dominated by family events.  We visited Eldest Son (ES) and his family in Edinburgh, we have had several visits to, and by, Middle Son (MS) with his fiancée and new baby, and we have had a visit from Youngest Son (YS) and his fiancée.  Also, my Dad and my sister were able to visit us and to meet up with the new (great) grandchild; it was amazing to have four generations together.

4 Generations Together

Our trip to Edinburgh was focused on our most extended period of baby-sitting yet.  While ES and his wife spent a few days in Spain attending a wedding in a hotel overlooking incredible coastal cliffs in Ibiza, we did our best to entertain First Grandchild (FG).  

The first two days of that were delightful.  FG had been fully prepared by his parents for their absence.  There was only one time in those first two days when we got a sense that, under his effervescent demeanor, he was having to be brave in doing without them.  That was when Jane showed FG a picture on her phone of his Mum enjoying the Spanish sun.  I saw his lower lip quiver briefly with regret before he recovered his equilibrium with the familiar request to “lets play”. 

As usual, FG loved visiting the Royal Botanic Garden (above), the National Museum of Scotland, the private garden that local residents share access to, cafes selling juice and cake, and pizza at Franca Manca.  He slept like a log in between.

Another highlight was taking FG to a birthday party for a little boy of one of his Mum’s friends.  This was a pirate themed party and FG had been kitted out with what turned out to be the best costume at the party (courtesy of a £5 purchase on Ebay I believe).  FG was easily the youngest at the party and he found it a little overwhelming after a while, but we all had a good time on a lovely sunny day.

First Grandchild As A Jolly Pirate (Without His Splendid Pirate Hat!)

Unfortunately, the last day of our baby minding was dominated by FG falling ill.  In between his physical sickness he was subdued but seemed to recover.  But poor Jane was holding him each of the four times he was sick.  She quickly became very acquainted with the washing machine and tumble dryer and we had some extended viewings of the film ‘Madagascar’ while having quiet time with FG on the sofa. 

Circus Lane, Edinburgh. It’s A Lovely City We Can Still Envisage Us Living In At Some Point

It was only after we had returned home, and heard that his now returned Mum had caught the same bug and was quite ill, that we realised how lucky we had been fortunate enough to ‘dodge that bullet’.  Having done so, we look back on the Edinburgh visit with a lot of pleasure and also pride in FG’s resilience in the face of his parents’ absence and then his sickness.  Of course, we are his grandparents so we are bound to say it: he is wonderful!

Also wonderful is Second Grandchild (SG).  It’s a treat to have the opportunity to have him relatively close by and so see him relatively frequently.  Its great too to see how his parents are doting on him despite the challenges of new parenthood (primarily sleep deprivation!)  They are coping with those well.  Certainly, SG’s smiles suggest he is very happy and we love seeing and holding him.

Son And Dad, Eye Contact and Smiles

Youngest Son (YS) popped over to England for a photo shoot and his fiancée joined us for a lovely, long weekend during which they were able to meet SG for the first time.  One of YS’s Australian friends, now based in London, was able to join us.  He, YS and I spent several hours watching football on the Saturday – first in the pub, then live at Forest Green Rovers (their last game in another miserable season which has seen us relegated for the second time in succession), and then on the telly back at home.  Meanwhile, Jane and YS’s fiancée cooked and baked to replenish MS and his partners’ freezer with ready meals and cakes to enable their focus on their new baby.  Everyone happy!

Looking Across Buttercups Towards Forest Green Rovers’ The New Lawn Stadium (On The Horizon, On The Right)

YS and partner are very busy with work in Belfast but they are also finding time to visit Edinburgh in a month or so.  It is so heart-warming to see the brothers together, with their partners, and, now, with nephews to hold and play with.  We are lucky that they all get on with each other despite, or perhaps because of, their different characteristics. 

We are lucky too that so much of our time can be taken up with looking at videos on WhatsApp that the different branches of the family send us showing their young lives, and with planning of more visits to Bristol, Belfast and Edinburgh to experience all this family stuff first hand.  Edinburgh is already planned in for June and we haven’t given up on getting to Belfast again before YS’s September wedding there…….