Remembrance day and the Tchaikovsky concert

To start off: in the last post on the British Museum I forgot to mention and show the Rosetta stone. This is a stone 'tablet' which, as it has an identical text in three 'languages', provided the key to deciphering hyroglyphes. The picture below shows the original Rosetta stone, you can quite clearly see the three different texts. There is also a copy of the stone, whch you can lean over (and touch) to enable you to see the characters more clearly. Click on the link for more information.

The Rosetta stone

Last week, on 11 November, it was Remembrance day. That is the day on which the British nation commemorates the people who lost their lives in all wars since WW1. As these people gave their lives to preserve the freedom we all enjoy in Britain today, it is justifyably observed in a big way. On the day itself there is a 2 minute silence, but the main events are during the weekend after 11 November, culminating in the wreath laying ceremony (including the Queen and the 'major' Royals), a short service and a march past in which many military and civil service units also lay wreaths at the Cenotaph in Whitehall. In the garden outside Westminster Abbey, which is close to the Cenotaph, there is a field of remembrance, where individuals are remembered by way of small wooden crosses. These are put down there by the regiments etc in which the individuals served, but members of the public can get a cross (a donation for the 'poppy factory', which is an organisation which raises funds to support the families of the war dead and also those wounded in the wars, is expected). As an uncle of Aubrey (Aubrey is Lyn's dad), died as results of injuries sustained in WW1, Lyn put a cross down. As a matter of fact, this uncle, Private P. Pitman, was buried in Richmond. We found the grave in the South Africa section of the Richmond cemetary. The pictures below show some of the above.

Wreaths at the Cenotaph

The South Africa (l) and the M.O.T.H.(r) section at the field of remembrance

An overview of a section of the field of remembrance 

Lyn plants a cross for P. Pitman in the South Africa section of the field of remembrance

P. Pitman's grave in Richmond cemetary

After our visit to Whitehall, we went to the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank with Sean to see and hear Janine Jansen with the London Phylharmonic Orchestra play Tchaikovsky's violin concerto which was outstanding. The other work on the programme was the 4th Symphony by Bruckner, which - although performed very well - is not that much our taste of music.

The Royal Festival hall, seen from the balcony seats

In the meantime, back in Cape Town, Greg is very busy with the honey business. Recently, 'Brother Bees' had an order for 500 Kg so he filled 500 1Kg bottles by himself. Here is a picture of the 'stock':