22 June - Saturday was pretty much a day of relaxation. We pottered around for most of the day, only venturing out to go down the road to see the Moot Hall. Moot Hall is a timber framed building built around 1550 and served as the Town Hall, with shops and a gaol downstairs. It is still used as the Town Hall and is also a museum. Moot Hall was sited in the middle of town but over two hundred years later, the sea overwhelmed many homes, erosion had eaten into the coastline and the Town Hall is now on the edge of the sea.
Rob has also been watching the Royal Ascot racing carnival over the last few days. Royal Ascot is like a very upper class Melbourne Cup carnival. The Queen and various royals and other important people arrive in style, in open air horse drawn carriages. There is a defined dress code, with men having to wear top hat and tails and ladies having to abide by rules of dress length, thickness of shoulder strap etc. On the main race day of the carnival, the Queen's horse won an important race. It was the first time in 200 years that a Sovereign's horse won the race. She looked delighted. She normally makes all the presentations to the winners but there had to be a sudden change of plans, so her son Prince Andrew did the presentation to the Queen and the trainer, jockey etc.
Earlier in our time here, we noticed a sign outside the Aldeburgh Parish Church, advertising a concert sung by the Durham Cathedral Choir today. It wasn't part of the Aldeburgh Music Festival but we decided to go. We heard the choir sing in Durham Cathedral in 2004, and thought they were wonderful. Obviously not a lot of people knew about the concert as the audience was less than for the other concerts we have been to, but there were still quite a reasonable number there.
Since we heard the choir in 2004, the choir has now recruited girls to sing. They effectively have two choirs, consisting of the girls and the men who were touring Suffolk to perform, plus the boys and more men who were back in Durham, singing for their normal services and other engagements. For big events, the two groups combine and perform together. The girls sang very well. It is very good to see that the male domination in church choirs in the UK is starting to expand to include girls. After all, the girls are as good as the boys! All of them learn the piano plus a second and third instrument, so they are budding good musicians.
Today's weather was so cold (and don't forget it is summer here!) so we ended up wearing long johns and scarves and coats to the Durham Cathedral Choir concert!
23 June - This afternoon we are off to the final concert of the festival. The program starts with part 6 of Britten's Prince of the Pagodas, Our Hunting Fathers (a rarely performed oiece of Britten's), a world premiere of a piece by Wolfgang Rihm (a composer we don't know, born in 1952) and finishing with Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (his most played work!)
Tomorrow we say farewell to our home of the last 17 days. We have never stayed anywhere so long before, even in Australia! We have settled in here so well, so it will be a wrench to leave. We are setting off to Norwich for 5 nights.
