Dr Keen and Dr Trafford's Guide to Winchester

A great day out yesterday thanks to swisstone and childeric and everyone else who came along. Jason has put his pictures up here.

On the way back to the car, we had a look at the book sale at the back of the cathedral. Despite my best intentions, I came away with The Moon of Gomrath and Bernal Diaz' The Conquest of New Spain for the princely sum of £1.50. It all goes to maintain the bell tower, so it would have been rude not to.

Despite only using factor 30 and forgetting to re-apply throughout the day, I'm remarkably non-pink, just have a few more freckles than when we started out. I've also felt remarkably well today despite spending so much of the day out in the sun and on my feet.

Nifty free stuff

As I'm kind of bored yet also broke, I've been looking for free stuff to occupy me. Besides the book mountain. Fortunately, it's BBC Proms time of year again.

When I was younger, I listened to classical music a lot, something I haven't really done for years. I've forgotten most of what I ever knew and have had vague intentions to listen to more classical music for the last couple of years. I even kept the guide to the Proms from the Radio Times last year but only got as far as the new performance of Peter & the Wolf.

I completely forgot that they started on Friday night, and it was all things I really wanted to hear, so will have to find time to listen online before it disappears on Friday.

Yesterday was Gilbert & Sullivan, in which I have less than zero interest. Fortunately I was out.

Tonight's prom was Purcell's "The Fairy Queen". I always loved Baroque music so I listened to that all the way through and thoroughly enjoyed it. Two harpsicords - what more could you want?

Tomorrow is Die Walküre. What they're thinking of starting it at 5 I'm not sure - there's no way I can get home that early. Fortunately, it's starting later on BBC4. I've never listened to a Vagner opera all the way through. I love Ride of the Valkyries and other extracts I've heard, but we'll see how my attention span holds out.