The Etiquette of Breakfast Dressing

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Veronica & James

A Buckingham Palace Tea Party - PA Archives

A popular subject in the press – and in our own experience – has been that of acceptable dress codes in many walks of life. The suit has declined in many work places and professions, there are discussions on informal wear at formerly ‘dressy’ occasions like Royal Ascot, Glyndebourne operas, Buckingham Palace tea parties etc.  School uniforms regularly come in for tirades from the opposite camps who advocate either informality (can’t see the point in forcing people into uniforms) or formality (uniforms are socially equalising and engender team or corporate spirit), and even the traditional dress of e.g. Scouts, Guides and the Armed Services are hotly debated.

St Trinian's - Hardly CLC, but...

Putting my own cards on the table, I am in favour of uniform, and also in many cases, traditional uniform and dress, unless it is particularly uncomfortable or inappropriate. Formal or traditional wear can hark back to better times – there is an important place for nostalgia I believe in maintaining standards. I deplore modern dress sense (or lack of it) with T-shirts, frayed jeans, badly fitting clothes exposing flabby bodies and baseball hats – not to mention the ubiquitous ‘hoody’ being de rigeur. What was wrong with Boy Scouts wearing shorts, neckerchiefs and wide-brimmed hats? They were distinctive, provided a recognisable brand and provided protection of face and neck from over-exposure to the sun (if not to the knees!). School uniform has been a bête noir of mine for a long time and I mourn the cross-dressing or transgenderisation of girl’s uniforms with a greater move to trousers rather than skirts or dresses. Even in some of the top public schools, trends have moved away from rigid enforcement of dress codes, and in our local Cheltenham Ladies’ College (CLC) (the former principal having said that she had virtually given up trying to enforce them) the universal hanging of blouse hems outside the pullover and skirt (where worn) is the norm. The shapeless, sometimes baggy and crumpled pin-striped grey trousers the senior girls are permitted to wear is distinctly unfeminine to my eyes. The most extreme variation I saw recently on a CLC girl on her way to school, was to ‘wear’ her pullover with the inside-out arms reversed on her own arms with the body of the pullover hanging down her front like an apron – hopefully corrected before she actually got into assembly.

Extreme Oxford Dress - The Bullingdon Club

This rambling preamble, however, brings me to the meat of my subject. Veronica and I are on the whole traditionalists (I still recall that in Rhodesia [even for a short while after becoming the independent Zimbabwe] the white element of the population when attending the cinema, wore evening dress and stood for the British National Anthem). We like weddings to be, if possible, attended in formal wear (Morning Dress, Frock Coat, Kilt, ladies’ dresses below the knee with hats etc.). Veronica thinks, as I do, and it would appear at least, Brasenose College, Oxford, that those attending a public breakfast meal should be dressed and not still in their night attire. A few times at Hanover House (www.hanoverhouse.org) breakfast times, young ladies have ventured down to the communal table in nighties, pyjamas, dressing gowns and in bare feet.  Veronica in a motherly way generally mildly reproves them and they retire rapidly and soon reemerge in hastily thrown-on normal clothes to join the other guests. They don’t seem to mind at all – but we do know that other guest houses welcome the habit with a view that it means that it means that guests feel relaxed. That is all very well, but sometimes the other, more traditionally attired guests don’t – particularly if middle-aged or more elderly where such behaviour would have been inconceivable in their own youth and environments – in public at least. What goes on behind closed family doors is wholly private and should stay that way.

Oxford Students in Formal Wear

A recent article in The Telegraph exemplified the debate. In the last couple of years there had been a few highlighted occurrences where e.g. TESCO banned customers turning up in their night clothes to shop in the early morning and schools asked parents not to drop their children off at school while similarly dressed – or not, as the case may be. The article covered a notice displayed in Brasenose College Oxford advising students not to attend breakfast in the college refectory still wearing their night clothes. It said that clearly there was a difference between public and private areas within the college and appropriate dress for each, and that clearly some students had mistaken communal breakfast as being a private area and not a public one. Students interviewed, however, seemed not to take this view, thinking that although Oxford has acceptable traditions (many sadly being rapidly eroded) of Dining In nights and evening meals being taken wearing gowns, they thought that breakfast should be even more informal than it already was, where casual dress was permitted.

Woman in a Dressing Gown

However, any sympathy I might have had for the students was dispelled by their opinion that if they had to dress, some might not get any breakfast, particularly if they had been out late partying the night before. Note – not through the stress of a tight academic timetable, or essay deadlines etc! If students lack sufficient discipline and time management skills to enable them to get out of bed at a suitable time, wash, dress and present themselves in reasonable order for breakfast, then perhaps they should do without, or purchase themselves sustenance later in the day!

Posted in General Philosophy, Hanover House, Hanover House B&B Activities | Leave a comment

The Blue Plaque at Last!

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Veronica & James

Lady Alice Elgar's Blue Plaque - Hanover House

Our Blue Plaque celebrating the sojourn of Miss Caroline Alice Roberts (later Lady Alice Elgar, nicknamed ‘Carice’) in Hanover House (www.hanoverhouse.org) (before it was called that, and was ‘merely’ 4 York Terrace – which I think is a grander name than St George’s Road, which in any case most people misspell by omitting the apostrophe) between 1859 and 1861 has arrived. Lee Bolton, our excellent general plumber, electrician, maintenance man, gutter-cleaner, carpenter etc etc did an excellent professional job of affixing it to our wall beside the front door, where it has subsequently been admired by all that have seen it. It might of course put the backs up of the local Cheltenham Civic Society who turned down our application for one of their plaques on the grounds that they applied ‘London’ rules (despite London breaking their own rules by putting up a plaque for Mozart’s brief stay there) of 5 years residence. But that’s tough – we applied English Heritage (2 years) and City of Bath (a mere stay, at least in the case of Horatio Nelson etc) rules and The Elgar Society approved.

Looking at the dates, it was also coincidental that the house was built at the same time as Carice was born, both in 1848, but as one would expect, the house has outlasted her and is still going strong. The next step with the Blue Plaque is to update the website with the information, and plan an official unveiling. We will probably invite someone from The Elgar Society to come and do an unveiling and invite the local press, just in case they are interested. I’m sure that The Elgar Society will publish something in one of their journals, and it might just stimulate some interest in Elgar afficianados, who follow the Elgar Trail through Worcestershire (and now after this into north Gloucestershire).

Locally some interest seems to have been generated too. A year ago or so, a book on Cheltenham’s plaques was published and some people track them down out of interest. Ours of course won’t appear for some time, until at least there’s a reprint, but people just walking down St George’s Road catch sight of it and come over to read it out of curiosity. I must admit that I do the same with other plaques I come across – sometimes to Veronica’s exasperation as I detour off course to take a closer look. It helps perhaps that we have one of the prettiest houses on the road with our wisteria and other plants adorning our frontage!

Posted in Hanover House, Hanover House B&B Activities, History, Tourism | Leave a comment

Putting the ‘CH’ into Drama!

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Veronica & James

Greece remains very much in the headlines, especially with its growing unrest. The fact that the strongest economy in Europe, Germany, is bumping along close to the bottom with a growth of only 0.5%, while France’s is 0% and the UK is in recession, with increasing unemployment and progressively shaky banks in Spain, doesn’t presage good news. The newspapers (always harbingers of doom and gloom) report Scandinavians flooding in to buy up British real estate cheaply, particularly extensive Scottish estates it would seem, and many of our traditional British brand names have been or are in the process of being sold off to China, the Far East and the Arabs, not to mention Russian Oligarchs. The latest sold or ‘up for grabs’ brands include the household name cereals Weetabix and Ready-Brek following hard on the heels of inter alia, Cadburys (of local Cheltenham interest, having been bought out [after controversial dealings] by the US food giant Kraft, whose European HQ sat only 200 yards from Hanover House (www.hanoverhouse.org) before redeploying to Cadbury’s home base at Bourneville. Walking the streets of Cheltenham I don’t think I can see a ‘truly’ British car anymore, whereas in Germany, France or Italy, the roads abound with their own brand names. To cast a more optimistic note however, I did hear that the recent resurgence in car manufacturing investment in the UK by foreign owners such as Honda, Toyota and General Motors is due to the diligence and skill of the local workforce, the superior and quality car designs emanating from Britain, and the pay deals agreed by the work forces – a million miles from the days when the unions ruled the economic roost and helped to destroy British manufacturing!

Back to the short-term (I hope) gloomier picture – Greece’s potential default on loans may well precipitate its departure from the Euro and a return to a rapidly devalued New Drachma. The drama of any such exit will rebound on the whole of Europe, and the UK will not be exempt as the former is our greatest market and our financial institutions have a great deal of exposure to Europe’s. A Greek exodus may well trigger a chain reaction of other weak economies coming under increased pressure, and in turn, defaulting. The latest turn in economic fortunes has affected the Euro currency making it the weakest against the Pound Sterling for quite some time, which is good for travellers to the Continent but bad for exporters, the latter factor, however, being by far the most important to our economy.

If the Greeks are forced to go, and they desperately want to stay within the Euro for the security it provides (even though perhaps they should never have been allowed in in the first place, Europe – specifically Germany and France - having bent all its own rules to shoehorn them in), the transition is likely to be chaotic. The Greeks do not appear to have prepared for the eventuality, perhaps part of their brinkmanship negotiations, of a transition from Euro to New Drachma. Just the process of producing new banknotes and coinage would take months, not to mention altering the mechanisms for managing a different currency – and what would happen to the existing Euro funds and savings within Greece?  Many of the wealthier Greeks already seem to be sinking their Euros into foreign investments, including London properties, to preserve the value of their assets, while they are still measured in Euros.

Greece is a template for what could happen elsewhere in Europe and so there is a very close interest in how things progress. In the UK, David Cameron has said that the Euro-Zone must now make up its mind – either support Greece with whatever it takes, or take steps to expel it with an as ordered and structured exit as is humanly (or more importantly, economically) possible. Either way, it is a rocky road ahead…

Posted in Politics and Economy | Leave a comment

The Greek ‘Iceberg’

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Veronica & James

The Euro's Own Titanic Iceberg

Following the ‘interesting’ election results in Europe in the last week or so- the replacement of President Sarkozy of France by the left-wing Socialist Hollande, who has stated that he wants to renegotiate the primarily Franco-German financial plan for saving the Euro and Europe’s collective economy by reducing the German instigated severe austerity measures. These measures, although regrettably necessary, will continue to hurt most European economies far more than the Germans, whose economy is particularly strong. Although outside the Euro-Zone, the British will also suffer for any rocks (or icebergs) on which the Euro is likely to founder.

More immediate perhaps is the ongoing turmoil in Greece, which since its election on Sunday has failed to elect a government, a number of anti-austerity parties holding the majority of seats, but coming from such diverse other viewpoints, unable to provide a cohesive coalition. In the meantime, their unemployment level has reached 22%, not far off Spain’s which appears to be rapidly spiraling down its own plughole, the government nearly nationalising one of the country’s largest banks by purchasing 45% of its shares to mitigate the level of debt it has accrued – much of it in Spanish National bonds.

During the last few days, the situation seems to have been exacerbated further with Greece failing miserably to form a government of national unity and the likelihood of another election looming. Another election will probably strengthen the representation of the anti-austerity parties and make a Greek default all the more likely. President Hollande of France has been sworn in and is likely to have some major difficulties with Angela Merkel, and the combined Franco-German coalition, although slightly shakier than in the past, will soon have issues with us in the UK if they try to make us contribute to an additional stabilisation payment for Greece outside the already agreed IMF contributions!

Increasingly difficult times seem to lie ahead, and the recession here seems to have caught up even with the so-far charmed existence of Cheltenham, with the Kraft headquarters now lying empty, like an ever-growing number of shops on the High Street and environs. Whether we get a lift from the imminent Olympics or not, only time will tell, but the weather certainly hasn’t been helping either…

Posted in Hanover House, Politics and Economy | Leave a comment

The Art or Science of Game Theory

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Veronica & James

Lord Melvyn Bragg

Melvyn Bragg’s ‘In Our Time’ BBC Radio 4 programme discussed the fascinating subject of Game Theory a few days ago – some of which went over my head, but the rest was fascinating, starting with the basics typified by the ‘stone, scissors, paper’ children’s game and other simple examples of chance, patterns and individual decisions based on instinct or subconscious understanding of possibilities and probabilities, all reduced to mathematical formulae and theorems. Some of these Game Theories have interesting names, including ‘Hawks and Doves’ and the ‘Ultimatum Game Theory’. Some of them hinge on collaborative and non-collaboritive scenarios and of course the overriding human instinct of self preservation or gain.

I have recently read ‘The Hunger Games’ and seen the film at our local Cheltenham Cineworld on the large screen (fortunately having already read the book, as it was so much more detailed and provided the background to some of the film’s events, which could only have been guessed at otherwise). One of the underlying themes of the Hunger Games themselves was entirely the self-preservation and ultimate survival of the individuals, actually by the application of Game Theory. Because only a single winner was permitted, where it suited the individuals, they formed temporary alliances either to rapidly eliminate the weak, or to evaluate and exploit their strengths, before ultimately turning on their own allies when it suited them, to ensure their own survival. The theme of the book however, having exploited Game Theory to its extreme, then overlaid this with some of the better basic elements of humanity; emotions of love and compassion, senses of honour and loyalty, as well as the application of principles of honesty, fairness and manifestation of the human instinct to be a pack animal and not a loner, overcoming to some extent the base instinct of survival at any cost.

Getting back to ‘In Our Time’, Melvyn Bragg ranges widely over a plethora of very different, individual subjects which personally appeal to him and about which he knows little or nothing, but would like to. He brings in subject matter experts (SME), usually international authorities in those subjects, often academics from the top universities and very able to put over the theory and detail of their subjects in a fascinating way.

Richard Holmes at Kineton (Edgehill)

Jumping from Game Theory this week, next week Melvyn will be covering the military strategist and genius Carl von Clausewitz, author of the seminal work ‘On War’, who formulated or expounded many of the outstanding principles of warfare. It is therefore a great pity that my former Military History lecturer at Sandhurst, Richard Holmes (later Professor of War Studies at Cranfield University and a Territorial Army Brigadier – and presenter of War Walks on television as well as author of a range of very interesting and readable military history books) died prematurely last year at a relatively young age. He was also an expert on von Clausewitz and quoted his principles endlessly. He once recounted the story of when, as an enthusiastic Royalist cavalryman taking part in a ‘Sealed Knot’ Civil War re-enactment battle at Edgehill or Marston Moor, was floored by an equally enthusiastic Roundhead gunner, after charging his guns, who laid him out with his ramrod. Richard spent two days in hospital concussed, under the impression that he was von Clausewitz!

The Sealed Knot at War

War itself is therefore clearly an activity that utilises Game Theory to some extent, when it comes to anticipating an opponents possible and likely moves, but also always having to expect the unexpected. Because there are so many variables, it is unlike chess or ‘stone, scissors, paper’ in that the combination of possibilities from so many players and other factors, is so great that it could never be reduced to mathematical formulae or an outcome predicted in that fashion – apparently unlike economics.

Game Theory has played its part in formulating economic strategies and it is interesting that a progenitor of Game Theory within the large scale subject of evolution, John Maynard Smith, shares a name or two with a famous economic theorist John Maynard Keynes, whose theories were based on equilibrium in the large scale economic markets. A relatively recent example of game theory being applied in an economic sense was the international auctions of wavelengths for broadcasters – one country auctioned its wavelengths to the highest bidder applying the rule that if the highest bidder dropped out (without penalty) the ‘win’ would be awarded to the next highest. The ultimate winner put in the 4 top bids, then  withdrew the 3 highest, consequently ensuring a much cheaper cost and therefore lower revenue to the selling government. Games theorists were able to prevent a re-occurrence by ensuring that all bidders submitted non-refundable deposits and sufficient penalties for withdrawal made default non-cost effective.

 

Posted in General Philosophy, Hanover House, History | Leave a comment

All That Jazz!

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Veronica & James
Steve Winwood will appear at the 2012 Cheltenham Jazz Festival.

Steve Winwood Opens the Festival - (AP Photo)

We (Veronica and I) are not jazz fans particularly, although we can listen to it in snatches and have in the past enjoyed other offerings from well-established Jazz singers and musicians like Humphrey Lyttelton and Louis Armstrong.  This week however, we have hosted at Hanover House (www.hanoverhouse.org) a number of very keen jazz fans, including a professional photographer who covers jazz events, and a number of couples who come to the Festival regularly.

Paloma Faith - a Jazz Festival Star

The Jazz Festival in Cheltenham this year has however been subjected to changeable weather conditions and there has been a little disquiet amongst attendees, certainly some of those who have stayed with us, about this year’s venue and facilities. In these hard financial times, the Cheltenham Borough Council has reduced or removed its subsidies to the official Festival organisation, and consequently they have had to significantly reduce overheads, with, unfortunately knock-on effects elsewhere. For instance, events have been removed from many of the traditional venues such as the theatres, racecourse and Town Hall. Additionally the responsibility for ticketing has also been removed from the Town Hall box office and instead an independent Festivals booking office has been established with its own staff. Instead of the traditional locations, with the exception of some of the smaller specialised and heavily subsidised ones such as The Daffodil restaurant, which hosts Jazz event dinners, it has all gone under canvas in the parks. Because the Jazz Festival is a bit smaller than the Literature Festival that takes place later in the year, it covered only the Montpellier Gardens rather than the Imperial Gardens as well as Montepellier.

Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2012 Programme

Another consequence of the tented facilities, apart perhaps from rain noise on canvas and draughts etc, was that there weren’t sufficient facilities for the attendees between gigs to sit, relax or take refreshment, whereas when the events were located in the Town Hall and environs, there were internal cafes and sitting areas.  Although Veronica and I didn’t attend this festival, we were keen to hear about the experiences of our guests as we will be attending the larger scale Literature Festival in October and we would hope that such comments and criticisms may be picked up by the organisers and acted upon.

In terms of events, we also overheard some comment and even internal family ‘discussion’ about the nature of some of the events, some thinking that there was a significant amount of ‘blues’ or even ‘rock’ instead of pure jazz. Not that we, being classical and opera fans, could probably tell the difference between some of the cross-over genres!

 

Posted in Cheltenham Events, Hanover House, Hanover House B&B Activities, Tourism | Leave a comment

Getting DOWN TO Noting Local Attractions

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Veronica & James

We are always promoting Cheltenham to our guests and prospective guests as a superb focal point for getting to a wide range of interesting and beautiful places within a short car, coach or rail journey. A number of recent American guests from places such as Florida, California and Georgia having discovered us in Lonely Planet and Fodors, have been surprised by the variety of places they can get to. Most recently we have directed guests with particular interests to Offa’s Dyke, The Forest of Dean industrial museums and heritage sites, Tintern Abbey near Monmouth, Berkeley Castle (where one of our medieaval kings reputedly came to an unfortunate end at the end of a red-hot poker), the Chedworth Roman Villa at Northleach, quite apart from the main local attractions of Winchcombe, Sudeley Castle, Tewkesbury Abbey, Gloucester Cathedral and Docks, and the normal Cotswold tourist villages and towns.

The Swan Inn Swinbrook - Downton Abbey Filming

Some of the places we can recommend have culinary attractions too, such as The Green Dragon inn near Elkstone and Cowley just off the old Cheltenham-Cirencester road, not far past the historic Seven Springs, the source of the River Thames. Others include Juri’s Tea Room and The White Hart in Winchcombe, both very special in their own ways. However on this occasion, I would particularly like to mention The Swan Inn at Swinbrook, near the small but very pretty Oxfordshire Cotswold town of Burford. It is located on the banks of the River Windrush, an idyllic, meandering stream making its way through the meadows of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire. The Inn was formerly a mill and still has the wheel, but it also provides excellent food and service. I have commented on it before, but what attracted my attention this time, having had a very good experience there earlier in the Spring, was that I was writing a TripAdvisor review for it and revisiting its website, noted that it have been a location during the filming of one of our favourite TV series, Downton Abbey.

The Swan Inn was already well known for having been a haunt of the Mitfords, their home being in the village, and it is bedecked with large black and white prints of the notorious Mitford sisters, including the current Duchess of Devonshire who now graces the Devonshire’s family home of Chatsworth in Derbyshire (a film location for the renowned BBC series of  Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. More latterly it was used as the location for the elopement of Lady Sybil from Downton with the family chauffeur!

So, when our guests ask for suggested visit itineraries during their sojourn in the Cotswolds, we are delighted to suggest a day out to the east of Cheltenham, including a visit to the picturesque Burford, the rural Northleach with its Clockwork/Mechanical Music museum, the Chedworth Roman Villa, The Swan at Swinford and if they can get just a bit further – to the historic and very pretty Bibury.

Posted in Hanover House, Hanover House B&B Activities, Tourism | Leave a comment

A Crowning Coincidence…

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Veronica & James
Country retreat: Kate and William spent their first wedding anniversary night at the three-star Crown Inn in Westleton, near Saxmundham, Suffolk

The Crown Inn at Westleton

References or connections with the Cambridges seem to be abounding at the moment. I noticed in The Times a day or two ago, a short article on the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (aka HRH’s William and Kate) who, on the previous Sunday, spent their first wedding anniversary night at The Crown (Inn) in Westleton, Suffolk. Westleton is the next village from my own home village of Dunwich in East Suffolk, about 2½ miles apart from each other,  where I spent my teen years in the village inn, The Ship.  Coincidentally, I spent my ’0′th wedding anniversary at the 12th century The Crown (actually it was my wedding reception).  The Cambridges had been in Suffolk attending a friend of Kate’s wedding at Wingfield, near Saxmundham, and stayed overnight before the long trek back to Anglesey, a more discrete celebration of their anniversary and Prince William’s helicopter flying duties.

The other connection is that one of Kate (or Catherine as she is now called in official terminology) Middleton’s uncles and aunt came with friends to stay with us at Hanover House (www.hanoverhouse.org) for part of the duration of the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, which has just successfully concluded, despite the very mixed weather, this last weekend and over the Bank Holiday. The rains of the previous week had passed over but the forecast was dire, however the weather in Cheltenham held up well, mostly dry, with some clear sky until the Bank Holiday Monday when the heavens opened. Other places fared even worse than us however, with hail, thunder and lightning and even a small tornado in Oxfordshire. Much of the Jazz Festival was under canvas in the Montpellier Gardens opposite the Rotunda and Montpellier shops and restaurants. No doubt, the festival organisers watched the forecasts with trepidation due this time of meteorological flux and nearly got away with it.

Posted in Family, Hanover House, Hanover House B&B Activities, History | Leave a comment

Every Cloud has a Swing and Roundabout

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Veronica & James

The title reflects mixed metaphors covering the very odd weather and the ups, downs and vicissitudes of life!  April has just passed and like many other weather records in recent times has exceeded all records by being the wettest since records began.  Despite that, the annual rainfall overall has only been about 60% of the average, and so most areas are still technically in a state of drought. Matt in the Daily Telegraph, as usual, expressed the absurdity of the contrast in his pithy cartoon showing his usual lugubrious husband sitting in his armchair with a newspaper headlined ‘Drought’ while his wife looks out of the window at the rain and observes ‘The water butt has just floated away!’. This is almost what happened to us in 2007 except it was our wheelie bin, which was never seen again… The wet weather has edged over into May, although we are having intermittent dry spells and some sunshine between showers, and Scotland had 20°C temperatures yesterday. Driving back from Bicester through the rolling Cotswolds approaching Charlton Kings and Cheltenham, there was a dramatic view to either side of the A40, as mixed with bursts of sunshine across the bright yellow rape fields and rolling meadows down to the swollen streams in the shallow valleys, grey cloud, like smoke, drifted across the higher pastures with larger grey columns in the background. Although cloudy the rain has held off since, thus giving us the opportunity to install our Alice Elgar Blue Plaque beside Hanover House’sfront door, which had arrived in the morning (the plaque, not the front door).

Alice Elgar's Blue Plaque at Hanover House

The economic gloom continues however, matching the rainclouds, but despite rapidly rising prices, particularly in petrol, postage and laundry, business has perked up a bit, the air temperatures are warmer, there have been a few bits of good news on the family front and we walked over to the Town Hall last night, in the dry, and attended a superb concert by the Philharmonia Orchestra, one of the world’s leading orchestras, with a dynamic French conductor, Phillipe Jordan, who inspired the orchestra in its renderings of Beethoven’s LeonoreOverture and 5th Symphony, and the very striking Liszt Piano Concerto No 2, soloist – the fantastic Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski. Phillipe Jordan, at only 37, is Musical Director of the Opera National de Paris and will become Chief Conductor of the world renowned Vienna Symphony Orchestra (Wiener Symphoniker) in 2014, presumably conducting the famous New Year Concerts in Vienna broadcast on television annually.

Veronica at the Paris Opera House

Posted in Cheltenham Events, Hanover House, Hanover House B&B Activities | Leave a comment

Lions and Donkeys

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Veronica & James

The title is I think a reference to a popular quote about the leadership of the British Army of the First World War and refers to the moustachioed and incompetent Generals as ‘donkeys’ leading the brave ‘lions’, the ordinary rank and file soldiers – although in hindsight that has been shown to be extremely unfair, both to the generals and the donkeys.

Kitchener's Iconic Recruiting Poster 1914

The purpose of this blog, however, is not to pursue this theme but to concentrate on real donkeys.  There is something particularly appealing about donkeys because they always look so sad and at the same time appealing, but have been used – or more often misused – as load carriers and beasts of burden, particularly in north Africa, the Middle-East and in southern Europe, and of course by armies of all nations over time immemorial.

Poppies

'Poppies' Courtesy of 'The Heritage of the Great War'

The donkey became famous in the Bible having carried the Virgin Mary (and the unborn Jesus) to Bethlehem and later in Jesus’ life into Jerusalem (hence the myth of the origin of the cross on the donkey’s back), but also later more frivolously in AA Milne’s ‘Winnie the Pooh‘ in the form of the languid, lugubrious and constantly pessimistic Eeyore.

Veronica has always been an avid fan of donkeys although she has never owned one. We bought our house in Suffolk with the intention of having a sufficiently large paddock to house a retired and elderly donkey but it didn’t quite come to pass as we weren’t there long enough, but since moving to  Hanover House B&B (www.hanoverhouse.org)  in Cheltenham and, which is unsuitable for homing a donkey, she compensates by making a monthly donation to a donkey charity, The Donkey Sanctuary in Sidmouth, Devon which caters for overburdened, saved and retired donkeys in the UK, Europe and the Third World.  (www.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk). We have a collecting box on the desk by the front door and various jars into which all loose change is emptied, and eventually sent on.

The Donkey Sanctuary - Sidmouth, Devon

During the past week, our Florida-based American guests included their ‘organiser’, the vet Martina, who has a passion for donkeys, and quite independently of Veronica and Veronica’s own donkey addiction, had planned that during her stay with us, she would spend a day travelling down to The Donkey Sanctuary in Devon – which she duly did on a particularly wet, miserable day. However she loved her visit to Devon, travelling by train then taxi, even though the donkeys were in ‘winter quarters’ wearing their coats and not roaming the paddocks during her visit. To Veronica’s delight, she brought back a pack of Donkey cards for her as a present.

Blackpool beach donkeys star on Laura Ashley wallpaper

Traditional Blackpool Donkeys

Hopefully (although not much at the moment), the weather will pick up during the summer, the donkeys will re-emerge, and the collecting boxes will fill with the passage through Hanover House of our ever-generous guests….

Posted in Hanover House, Hanover House B&B Activities, History | Leave a comment