The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain

Two weeks ago, I was wandering around Perthshire in short sleeves. A couple of weeks before that, I could be seen without a jacket, in Glasgow, for the first time in anyone’s living memory. Since I returned from holiday, however, the sun has been very elusive, indeed. The heavy rain and high winds would grace any November, but it’s flaming June, for God’s sake. I’m not a sun worshipper, but even I know that this is summer, and something has gone badly wrong with our weather.

Four weeks from now, I will be spending a couple of days in London for a pathetic attempt at a 50^th birthday treat. On the Saturday night, I will head to the Royal Albert Hall for only my second visit to the Proms, for a concert performance by the John Wilson Orchestra of ‘My Fair Lady’, but unlike that frantic night in August 2006, I will stay over and take it easy. I’ve no idea what I’ll be doing the rest of the time, but it will have to be very cheap, as I’ll be heading off on my proper holiday a week later.

In keeping with the theme of Eliza Doolitle and ‘Enry ‘Iggins, I set out for Byres Road, and Oran Mor’s ‘A Play, A Pie and a Pint’ series, for an hour-long version of George Bernard Shaw’s ‘Pygmalion’, on which the musical ‘My Fair Lady’ was based. It was sold out. Due to roadworks elsewhere, I’m not driving up Byres Road on the way home at night, and it’s always difficult to stop there for any length of time, so I couldn’t go in before today. I could, of course, have purchased a ticket on-line from Ticketweb, but they were adding a £1.56 booking fee to a £12.50 ticket. It probably wasn’t very good, anyway.