Thursday, June 04, 2009

Row 1, seat 23 (that's 3rd from the end...)

Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.'
Samuel Johnson
The sleepy green shires have slipped away. We've left silage being cut and sheep being shorn. Our train with its creaky 'out-of-mothballs' carriages lurches through gentile suburbia, through Betjemin's 'metro land' and eventually after a number of jerky false stops, into Marylebone Station.

Mindful of The Gap, our feet meet solid ground again - a grimy platform encrusted with the muck of ages. The air is warm, foetid and fume-y. We are deafened by the din of throbbing diesel engines and the babble of strangers. We are travelers in a strange land.

To step off the train and onto London's streets is to step into a world of infinite possibility. I can forgive this city most things in exchange for the treasures it holds. I feel like a cat mewling at intangible and uncatchable birds from behind the glass of a window.

Today D. and I have a mission and there is no time to dip into galleries and museums and shops...we must go to the Royal Albert Hall where the WI are holding their AGM. We have a cup to collect. We must be on time. 14.22 precisely.
I drew the short straw and will go on stage to receive the cup and am seated on Row 1. D has a seat elsewhere - in the circle - where she, unlike me, is not be under the stern gaze of the Board of Trustees and where, if she doesn't want to clap or stand for a standing ovation - (which, it transpires, are quite popular) she won't have to. On best behaviour then....

We'd missed the morning session - no doubt our Shropshire Federation representative will send a report back about that. The afternoon began with our presentations. The Lady Denman cup was presented to a lovely lady from North Wales who had written a ghost story. She posed with her trophy - a large piece of silverware not dissimilar to the FA Cup. Now that is something to take home and show the gals. Big clap for her and cheers from the Clywd and Denbyshire ladies in the far distance.

My turn next. My cup, The Elizabeth Bell Trophy, is about the size of the average champagne glass. Of all the curious thoughts which go through one's head when really one should be concentrating on not tripping over is the vague recollection that champagne glasses were modeled on Marylin Munroe's breasts. Can anyone confirm this? It's a thought which preoccupies me later. Anyway, I blink in almost-disbelief. We've come all this way, rising at dawn, new frock, new hair, new shoes, blah-blah. For this? Ah well, it must be the thought that counts. A few inane grins for the camera - remembering to breathe in and present slenderest profile. Then down the steps and to my seat. The meeting continued.

The speakers were mostly entertaining. Eve Pollard, who made some particularly pertinent comments which the WI might like to heed; the man from Taylors Tea, Jonathan Wild who hardly mentioned his products at all; and Richard Stilgoe who spoke and then performed with some apprentices from The Orpheus Centre.

More talking and business and I'm losing the will to live - or at least behave myself in my front row seat.... Hoorah! At last it's time for the singing - or mumbling when it came to 'Land of My Fathers'. 'Jerusalem' raised the roof. It was our school song too so the words are familiar. (the ghostly voice of Miss Wallace the music mistress implores us to keep our hands by our sides and 'DON'T BREATHE YET GIRLS. WAIT... NOW!) And then 'The Queen' and we are free to hop and skip and jump out into the sunshine. Free at last. I have remembered to pick up the blessed cup from under the seat.

Oh dear. I don't think I'm a very good member do you? This is supposed to be a tremendous privilege and all I really want to do is Not Be There and be somewhere else instead. I won't bore you with a list but I'm thinking exhibitions, music, cashmere and a shoe shop on Marylebone High Street. Culture's fine and dandy but a girl needs to shop too.

Some 7 hours later we are back in Shropshire. The train trundled out of the city and we watched the ragged suburbs disappear in the gloaming and the sky turn dark through it's windows. A rosy sunset bodes well for tomorrow. It's been a long day - not particularly tiring because a lot of it has been spent sitting down and indoors. Regretfully, we've not seem much of London. How tantalizing it is to know there is so much to see and do left undone by us today.

It is nearly midnight as I drive back up the narrow lane to Trelystan. A few moths flutter in my headlights and a sole badger scuttles into the hedge as the pickup approaches. Half a moon is bright over my shoulder, a few clouds gib across its face. How still it is here. How quiet.

I offer up a short prayer to the god of lost opportunities. Here's to next time.


Footnote:
The cup was awarded for our entry in the 'One Step Further' competition. This was part of an initiative to promote healthy living. Members were asked to devise a walk (walking + healthy!) and produce an A4 leaflet describing it. Marton's 'Stapeley Hill Leg Stretcher' won first prize and its production was very much a team effort. It describes an 11 mile circular walk in Shropshire's Blue Remembered Hills - which I'm ashamed to say I have not yet walked. I am very familiar with it on paper though, where it appears nice and flat and easy. I think the real hills will come as a big surprise.

10 comments:

rachel said...

Well done; you behaved impeccably, and you didn't mention anyone heckling you for your uneven tan. Horribly reminiscent of School Prizegiving though.

Now plan a really nice day out in London as a reward.

Zoƫ said...

I'd have died and wanted the floor to eat me, but hugely well done you two!

Likewise, I would rather have explored the delights of the V and A or similar, maybe snooped around Selfridges and remembered the days when the garb in the designer halls actually fitted me!

Nikki - Notes of Life said...

Well I never... Did you go down on the Wrexham & Shropshire train?! I was down in London Monday - yesterday... and was at the Royal Albert Hall on Monday to see John Barrowman :)

Diary Farmer said...

I did suggest Mrs DF that you both should have gone in your hiking gear, with accessories such as a ruck sack and Kendal Mint Cake, after all it would have been in keeping with what the award was for! No chance to grab the 'mic' to breathlessly say its a jolly long way from Shropshire.

Quilting Cat said...

As you know I was watching from on high, I thought the outgoing president was never going to leave, gush, gush. You did well, think the front row must have been as terrifying as the Gods. I was pleased to see Dorset again and breathe clean air.

Frances said...

Well, I think that you have written this with the voice of an adult. A wise adult, who knows what she might have thought, said and/or done on an earlier trip

She knows what she could have done on this one.

She got home to Shropshire. I so hope that your next London trip will allow you to do exactly what you would really like to do. This acting like an adult is highly over-rated. xo

Pondside said...

Did you really go all that way, sit through all the speeches, be a Good Girl for the whole time and then not to go to the shoe store?
You are amazing.
You described that feeling of 'so close but yet so far' very well. I'd give anything for an afternoon in London, and if I get it the shoe store will be on the list.
Well done!

Cait O'Connor said...

Conmgratulations on the award.
Brilliantly written blog as ever Mountainear, thank you, I did enjoy every word.

Friko said...

I d so envy you the chance to go to London for the day; I've just decided to cancel a planned trip. (The old man's too rickety at the moment). WI not for me, can't abide Jerusalem, although the local WI don't go in for it much.
What an heroic effort though, a hall full of worthy ladies, boring speeches and best behaviour to boot.
Go on, knock yourself out next time.
I'll see you in that shoe shop, or perhaps walking on the embankment by the National Theatre.

Chris Stovell said...

Cor! Well done you! Enjoy the trophy. I'm off to see my daughter do the prize-receiving bit next week so, unlike you, I am not the one in the hot seat!