Being Mrs C

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain

Mr C's parents invited us to join them on Thursday evening to see the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain (apologies if that link doesn't work as their website appeared to be down as I wrote this). I've heard of these guys before, but I had absolutely no idea just how funny they are! I've certainly now seen the ukulele in a completely different light and I wish Mr C could play his at this level.

They do some brilliant takes on classics songs that we all know and also some more modern stuff. My absolute favourite has to be their rendition of Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights. Ever since the show I've had it on almost permanent repeat on my ipod.

A version does appear to have been put on YouTube here but I think this is a bootleg from their DVD (available from their website), which I imagine is excellent. There is also a slightly scary video version in which a courting couple seem to be being stalked by a group of ukulele players - completely bizarre!

So impressed I was with what I saw that I queued up to buy a copy of the CDs that they were selling at the end of their performance. I managed to get a copy of their (hopefully named) Live in London # 1, mainly because it included the fantastic Wuthering Heights. That CD doesn't appear to be available from Amazon, but I'm pretty sure that it will be on their website. One of their albums is available on amazon though: The Secret of Life.  

Although quite a lot of their material is available on YouTube for free, if you do like their music (hard not to in my opinion), then please do look to buy some of it officially. The orchestra sell quite a bit via their own website or the tracks that make up The Secret of Life are also available as MP3 downloads from amazon. 

Enjoy!

Visit to River Cottage - part 3

A few final bits from our day at River Cottage HQ.  

Part of the grounds at RCHQ were used for some rural craft demonstrations and one stall that particularly interested me was that from wilderness survival skills who run courses that teach people, as their names suggests, wilderness survival skills.

Having heard all about the various courses they run I'd be really interesting in going on one and might have to work on Mr C to see if he'd be interested in coming with me. Their ten day intensive bushcraft course sounds fantastic, but I'm just not sure I'm ready for something quite that intensive yet!

Live music was also provided throughout the Festival and we enjoyed a band called the Martin Harley Band on Sunday afternoon whilst enjoying a nice glass of Stinger.

Some children seemed to be particularly enjoying the music and were dancing along in front of the band. One young lad was getting quite enthusiastic with some of his dance moves and after a few high kicking style moves managed to accidentally lose one of this wellies and it went flying into the crowd! One of those classic moments that just made everyone laugh.

There was one particular man that many had come along in hope of seeing - Hugh himself!

Mr C and I bought a copy of The River Cottage Family Cookbook and Hugh signed it for us with a personal dedication. I've been after a copy of this book for a while and coincidentally SouleMama reviewed the book on Wednesday as well. I've only managed to read a small bit so far (all about bread making) but what I have seen is really good. I can see what Amanda means about her kids loving the pictures - so do I!

The final thing that I'll leave you with is this fantastic banner that directed people to where they could purchase food. 

I just completely love the home made crafty appearance. Perfect!

Weekend with friends

Mr C and I have come back from spending a fantastic weekend with our friends C and P who live in Hampshire. It was great being able to spend time with friends (H and D also joining us down there for the weekend) and reminded me of just how important these friends are. 

On Saturday we were treated by fantastic weather and spent the afternoon outdoors. As we don't have garden ourselves eating lunch outside is quite a novelty. Time was also spent collecting apples from the many fruit trees in their garden. C's plans for apple chutney should certainly be met - although if she uses all the apples then she'll be making tonnes of the stuff!

After a fantastic evening last night Sunday morning was a much more leisurely affair. Plenty of tea and some more homemade tomato bread (so fantastic and luckily C gave me the recipe) filled the morning before we headed off to a local village for a brief walk along the river before pub lunch.

We had great fun watching the trout in the river and D also spotted something jumping along the path. Turns out it was a toad and Mr C was able to capture if briefly so that we could get a closer look. I've not been able to identify it as yet (and am hoping that when we do so it's not one that we're not supposed to touch!) but can happily report that he was returned to the leaves and undergrowth at the side of the path and happily hopped away.

After lunch we luckily made it back to St Albans before the rain hit - and boy has it rained here this afternoon! There are puddles all over the place and at one point a river was running down the pavement outside our flat. August seems to have ended in the way that much of the month went - feeling more like November than the summer. It felt nice being all sung in our flat though hearing the rain against the windows whilst watching Lang Lang perform in Prom 60 at the Royal Albert Hall. He's an absolutely breathtaking musician and the passion that he puts into his piano playing is like nothing I've ever seen before. There wasn't as much Rachmaninov as we would have liked, but that didn't matter too much. Back in April Mr C and I were lucky enough to get tickets for Classic FM at the Movies where we got to see Lang Lang play Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto Number 4. Pure brilliance!

Dead Victorians

On Tuesday night Mr C and I headed down to the White Lion pub in St Albans where there is regular Tuesday night music.

Last night we were delighted to see Dead Victorians, a fantastic comedy group playing a variety of songs, some old and some new. The comedy lyrics are a key part of their act, along with an amazing variety of instruments that the band play. If you like the music of Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band or The Temperance Seven then you're in for a treat!

If you go to their MySpace page there are samples of some of their music. Some of the lyrics are a tad risque, but had everyone in the pub laughing out loud. Their website mentions a "phonographic recording" being in production - I'm certainly looking forward to that.

I'll leave you with one picture to puzzle over - below is a man playing a sheep. Yes, you did read that correctly! These guys have to be seen to be believed!