UK journey report: Lessons in life, travel, music, hifi, downloads and history

UK journey report: Lessons in life, travel, music, hifi, downloads and history

or

Keep calm and carry on luggage

or

It was the best of journeys, it was the worst of journeys…


Warren, are you mad?

No, I'm visiting friends and family. I simply choose the dates for such a trip to coincide with my favourite violinist's weekend festival. Thus I also get to hear Rachel Podger play 3 times.

This is probably very dedicated behaviour, however as I discovered several years ago, I have a personality type that is very loyal to a few people, or as it was explained to me very viscerally by the expert psychologist and West Point graduate, "you only have a few friends, but you'd crawl across broken glass for your friends." However, I've also come to realise this behaviour applies to other things in life as well as being a friend, including being "a friend" in the classical music sense of the word, or in the language of contemporary music, a fan.

This post (as requested by PeteA and Paulsurround, and as promised) is a write up of this trip to the UK. Lots of it written as I was travelling.

As I came to realise on this trip, my trips aren't motivated by just one thing, they are motivated by several things, usually, naturally some more than others. Even when there is one key reason to visit the UK (Sian), I have always made the most of the trip.

The initial plan of this trip was simple, drive from London to South Wales and back, i.e. from London Heathrow airport, drive along the M4 motorway to see 2 cousins in Bristol, visit nearby Krescendo HiFi, see my favourite singer Sian Winstanley in an opera (in the Welsh seaside coastal town pronounced Abba-wrist-with and spelt Aberystwyth), spend all of the next day in Aberystwyth (doing something called relaxing, whatever that is), then to also in South Wales attend Rachel and Tim's Baroque festival, then back along the M4 to see parents near London, catchup with a schoolfriend and another cousin. Simples.




However, before flying, the initial plan got evolved. Linn's MD Gilad Tiefenbrun visited Melbourne's Linn dealer and got me into Emily Barker & The Red Clay Halo's new album Dear River. Now, due to me repeatedly listening to its tracks on the train (there's a joke in there somewhere) on the journey to and from work I decided I had to see them live. But the only concert date I could make was the night I'd arranged to visit my cousins in Bristol, so I rescheduled this visit to the evening of my spare relaxing day in Aberystwyth (I wonder why I don't get to relax very often). Thus, the amount of travel got expanded as I'd need to drive from Wales to Bristol and back to Wales again. (So this is all Gilad's fault.) Also, as it turned out, I saw on ebay some Linn surround speakers I'd not heard of before, Unik. These were available for collection only, from Newbury, which is close to the M4 near Oxford, so I could pick those up on the way to the concert.

One aspect of this trip extension that seemed easy would be the drive from Oxford to Aberystwyth then Aberystwyth to Bristol, I thought that for both trips I should just sit on the M4 as usual, as it runs due west from London to south Wales. However, for the Oxford to Aberystwyth trip google maps suggested a direct cross-country route using other motorways. And for the Bristol trip, drive due east to the M6 near Birmingham, then south on the M5 to Bristol. Where on earth is Aberystwyth?, I wondered. From zooming out on google maps, it turns out Aberystwyth isn't South Wales, it is Mid Wales. Well, if that's the case, I might as well take a minor detour to north west Wales, and visit a place I've always wanted to go to since I was about 11 years old, a village, and its infamous railway station, in north west Wales. Infamous as it has the longest name for a railway station in the world, at 58 letters long! Which is often abbreviated to Llanfair PG (pronounced Lan Via Pee Gee). So a childhood dream finally comes true. Thanks Sian. Thus my intended driving trip now looked liked this.




Day 1 — Mon 21 Oct 2013

Trip started by relaxing at Melbourne Tullamarine airport, soaking in the view of the surrounding hills, and most importantly (while Qant-ass spend an entire hour rebooting the whole A380 because 2 door phones weren't working) visualising British Airways flying from Melbourne to Singapore.

Eventually, I realised I'd actually get to the UK on Monday, not Tuesday, a consequence of the single-time-zone-focussed iPhone trying to deal with long-range international flight date/times. This actually turned out to be good, as I'd get to see parents more and also sort out some banking issues first.

I had a good flight. Which I needed. The hire car was hard to get to, as no courtesy bus, I had to walk from Terminal 3 to Heathrow's central bus terminal and get 1 of 3 busses. The first bus driver hadn't heard of the rental company. I didn't have their phone number. Used presumably expensive international mobile phone data rates to tracked their number down online. Turns out the company is in a local hotel, and I need to ask the bus driver for the hotel next door and then walk. I ended up paying double for insurance I didn't need, due to only having a foreign Visa Debit card and not a credit card. This will teach me not to book the very cheapest rental car on a webpage that's sorted by price — you get what you pay for.

Picked up new UK bank ATM card ("we don't post these things internationally"). Old pin didn't work, so ordered a new pin that I'd have to pick up next week. If only the Royal Bank of Scotland had the same level of customer service as our Royal HiFi-Company of Scotland. Rest of day was relaxing with parents. Unfortunately the UK mobile SIM card I'd bought in Oz doesn't work, strange as my mum is also with O2 and her SIM worked in my phone fine. Ah, the joys of technology.

Day 2 — Tue 22

Today is 332, but tomorrow is 333.

Drove to Newbury to pick up Unik speakers (they have AV5110 on the back). Unfortunately the ebay photo didn't show the big scratches on top of the speakers, but a bargain, fun to play with, and the marks can be easy to hid with surrounds speakers.

I drive on to Oxford, check into my Bed and Breakfast (cheap hotel) in central Oxford and then explore the city centre. Mostly for the first time.










Interestingly Oxford's busses have free WiFi onboard, its amazing and fascinating how society's free services are evolving into the future.

Went to a local church to attend Emily Barker and Red Clay Halo concert. Got there early so heard some of soundcheck, applauded after Everywhen, don't know if they heard. Attempted to capture my post-concert euphoria.

Day 3 — Wed 23

Very important is I had a great sleep, despite B&B room overlooking main road. Although that is important, it's not the most important thing about the day, it only relates to what is.

Up and out early. Errands: went to Marks & Spencers and bought a suit. Post both a postcard to parents and RipNAS to factory in Austria for repair, as cheaper to post it from UK than Oz.

I was on the road by 10:30. Two days before I drove on 1 motorway, yesterday I drove on 2, this is not enough. So today I drove on FIVE: the M40 for 45 miles; before it turned into the M42 for 10 miles, until it ends at the M5; after 15 miles of which; right at the fork onto M6 for 8 miles; left onto M54 for 22 miles; before this turns into the A5.




Several A roads later is 36 miles of the A44, and mile after mile of some of the most spectacular landscape I've ever seen which completely puts the now familiar Brecon Beacons to shame. So 4.5 hours and 201 miles later I arrive in the Welsh seaside town Aberystwyth.

Recently I'd been thinking about a comment by someone here that I should explore violinists as well as Rachel. At some point on this drive, the Radio 3 announcer says, "And next, Bach." Some announcements play. Followed by some of the most dynamic and engaging music I've ever heard. Who is this? And what piece of Bach is this? I commit to pay close attention to both what piece of music it is, and more importantly, who is playing, so I explore their recordings. The music finishes and the announcer mentions both. I laugh out loud. It was the first part of J S Bach's only triple violin concerto, played by Rachel Podger and her ensemble Brecon Baroque.

I arrive in Aberystwyth feeling completely unlike I've ever felt before, simultaneously both divinely inspired and humbled. Why? Because I'm about to do the most important thing today. Because the day before was 332, and this day is 333. And 0, as in the evening I'd hear my favourite singer Sian Winstanley sing live, and over a year (473 days) since the only time I've heard her in an opera. Sian also performed at last year's Brecon Baroque Festival and agreed to perform at this year's. However, her name wasn't on the final lineup. When I discovered this I figured she must be doing something else. And after a little web searching I both found out what it was and realised that I could attend this performance, and see a part of Wales I'd never been to. This seemed like a good idea as my last trip to hear Sian ended up with being a highly enjoyable trip that involved exploring by car unknown parts of Wales and England.

Having checked into an excellent seafront B&B (Richmond Hotel) I explore this seaside town for the first time. The beach is made of brown sand. I've seen sandy beaches lots of times, but I've never seen brown sand before.







Aberystwyth's scenery is amazing. A neat pretty coloured row of B&Bs with a mountain next door! And a pier. And seafront castle ruins. And a small crazy golf course.

After a fish, chips & mushy peas dinner, I attend the opera.