Pilgrim Cello

Nick, the Assistant Director of Music, who organises Worcester’s lunchtime concerts, has looked after me very well. Concerts take place in the Quire, in front of King John. There are normally 40-70 people, Nick tells me, which makes a nice crowd in that space. I can’t set up too early because, as a guide tells […]

I make a lot of mistakes. Just navigating daily life demands more mental attention than I normally have available. But when I find myself cycling past Hyde Park Corner – with the helpful additional information that it leads to Park Lane – I know this mistake isn’t mine. Not like yesterday, when someone asked me

This is a very strange feeling. The cello case is on my back, instead of on the bicycle. And I’m on foot. The three cathedrals of Gloucester, Hereford, and Worcester are fairly close to each other – the three corners of a 25 mile triangle. I’m staying in Newent, which is not far off the

67 miles, and 3700ft of climbing, you might think, isn’t an excessive workload for a nice sunny day. The thing is, 55 of those miles, and most of the climbing, have to be done before lunch, to get to Gloucester for a performance. I was late to bed, with a painful wrist from the long

If your allegiance is to Cambridge, then Oxford is The Other Place – and vice versa. Oxford is strange. And its cathedral is unique. Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford – it’s never called Oxford Cathedral, and God forbid you should write Christchurch – is also a College chapel. The Head of the College is also, necessarily,

There wasn’t time for more than a piece of toast and a few strawberries last night before Adrian whisked me off to see a performance of The Taming of the Shrew, in the medieval Bishops’ Tithe Barn. The Bishops must have collected a lot of tithes in those days, but now it’s hard to find

There are the usual slow convolutions to get out of the urban area. After that it’s all on the level. When the GPS tells me today that this 75ft hill is the first of four, I believe it. Yes; these are the Somerset Levels – very nearly as flat as the Fens. I did try

I made a bad decision to start with. I opted for the Cycle Travel app route, when I should have used the non-busy and straight main road. It would have saved me half an hour, and a good bit of climbing. Never mind. Once I’m on the top it’s wonderful. The open Devon roads are

I was thinking of writing a rant today. There’s something I want to get off my chest. Overnight it was going round in my head, the way you rehearse those difficult conversations (which of course never come out the way you planned them). But I’ve got more important things to do today. Be assured when

I’m seriously worried this morning about getting on the train. So I’ve already unscrewed the rack, and made it all look as much as possible like a bicycle, and not like a tandem. Michael has come to assist if necessary. In fact it’s all pretty easy. There’s a bike already half in the “two bikes