On the basis of what has appeared here over the last few weeks, the casual reader might be forgiven for thinking that the Boy Wonder has done nothing of note this summer.
The more insightful reader, or for that matter the reader who has visited this site on a number of occasions and been following the BW's exploits for some time, might be inclined to reach an altogether different conclusion. Taking into account the BW's track record, and more importantly that of the author of this site, he might surmise that there is in fact no direct link between the BW's level of activity and the frequency of posting here.
And he would be right.
The fact is that since his return from France in July, the BW has been a very busy chap indeed. Unfortunately, so has the PO, which partly explains, but in no way excuses, his failure to provide you with regular updates regarding the Wondrous One's exploits.
For example, had he been better organised, the PO would doubtless have told you long ago about how the BW was there when the Lovebirds decided to celebrate their first wedding anniversary in the only way appropriate - by getting married AGAIN, only this time in the very same registry office in which the PO himself was married to the Mother Superior some sixteen years ago; about the taxi driver who arrived almost an hour late to take the wedding party to the restaurant for lunch, then, having confidently declared that he knew where he was going and besides, he had GPS, turned round and set off in completely the wrong direction, so that the PO, who has been living abroad for over ten years, ended up having to guide him for the entire journey across South London; and about how the BW was cruelly coerced into ordering a dessert he didn't even want because the PO couldn't decide between the two he wanted.
He would have told you about the BW's day trip to Cam-
Sorry. To The Other Place.
He would have told you about the BW's preparations for his residential piano masterclass, which starts this weekend in Uppingham; about how he has been working on a Schubert Impromptu - "It's going OK" - and Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 1 - "I think I've more or less subdued it, but from time to time it fights back and I just want to burn the manuscript"; about how he has been filling the home of the Principal and the Recluse these last few days with sweet, sweet music.
He would have told you about the amazing news that the Boy Wonder will perform the second movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 17 with the school orchestra at a Hogwarts concert in November.
He would have told you about the BW's first experience of Shakespeare in the theatre - a delightfully slick and witty production of The Comedy Of Errors.
He would have told you about the BW's visit to the Proms with the Principal, the Recluse and the Lovebirds to hear a Hungarian orchestra play Dohnanyi, Bartók's 3rd Piano Concerto (with Garrick Ohlsson as the soloist - "He played the Adagio really sensitively; you could tell he'd really listened to the piece and worked on getting it just right"), and Stravinsky's Rites of Spring ("I loved the way there were these adrenaline rushes, when from almost nothing it escalated into a huge noise.")
He would have told you about how Missy joined the BW, the Recluse and the Principal for a visit to Charles Darwin's house; about how the BW was particularly taken not by the collections of scientific instruments, the stuffed birds or the journals and other manuscripts, but by the drawings and pictures given to Darwin by his children; by the dinner tray they apparently used to slide down the stairs; about the chair on wheels on which their father would spin them round and round; and about how the sickly naturalist would collect bees and sprinkle them with flour and then ask the children to follow them through the garden to see where they stopped.
He would have told you about how breathless it makes him feel just listening to the BW describe his antics over the phone.
And of course he would have told you about how the first thing, absolutely the first thing that the BW wanted to tell him on one of the recent occasions on which they spoke, a couple of weeks ago, maybe three, was that Schmoo was avidly preparing for his Grade 1 Piano exam, and that Button had scored distinctions in both her Trumpet Grade 2 AND her Piano Grade V exams.
But I guess that's the trouble with the PO. He just doesn't get round to telling you these things, and before you know it, they are lost for posterity, gone forever...
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