Isomatic UK Weblog

On Monday night we saw the Apex Jazz Band at the Cricketers in Horsell Birch, Woking. This was the full line-up with excellent deps. Bob Dwyer on trombone and Ian Parry on drums. This was a very enjoyable evening, particularly for the vocals of Bert Shipp and Terry Twiss plus Terry's 4-string guitar solos.

Today we saw the Excelsior Vintage Jazz Band at the The Preston Cross Hotel in Bookham. Good band, very much in the trad. field. Why bring a guitar if it is not to be played ?
We had not been to the Preston Cross for a year so it was interesting to see the same dancers still performing. Looking around the punters was like seeing two universes overlapping; some from the Kingston-Surbiton-Epsom axis and others from the Woking-Send-Hersham brigade, neither of which mix anywhere else.

Labels: Jazz

We have just returned from Hout Bay near Cape Town, South Africa. Amblewood Guest House was in a superb location and provided us with a really good room and excellent breakfasts. Many of the other guests were regulars who come back year after year. We can certainly recommend it to anyone wanting great views, a pool and good company.

It is very centrally placed on the Cape Peninsular, a short drive from the many local attractions, including Cape Town's V & A Waterfront, which I was surprised how much I enjoyed. There was plenty of live open air music and two restaurants with jazz. We tried the Green Dolphin; great food but the jazz was mediocre that night.

Our longest trip, still only 1.5 hours, was to Franschhoek in the Cape Wine region, where we bought 4 bottles of the 2002 Merlot from Rickety Bridge Vineyard. This Merlot is a very fine wine and in the UK would be outside our price range. Also the Franschhoek Pass was the most exciting of the many mountain passes in the region.

There will be no posts for the next 11 days as we will be celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary near Cape Town, South Africa. We will be staying at Amblewood Guest House in Hout Bay as shown in the pictures. It is our first ever holiday in February, our first trip to Africa and the first time south of the tropic of Cancer. When asked if we had been waiting long for this I replied "40 years !

On Sunday afternoon we are going to The Wigmore Hall to see Louis Demetrius Alvanis (piano) performing works by Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin and Gregers Brinch.

Ampair manufactures wind turbines (wind generators) to produce wind power in the renewable energy market. They are in use on yachts, remote cabins and in Antarctica. New 300W and 600W models are about to be introduced for the domestic house market and Isomatic has become a subcontractor for the production of some key parts.

On Tuesday evening we had our last appointment at Moorfields Eye Hospital. After all the previous problems with public transport we used the car all the way, skirting the congestion charge zone. The journey was so fast that we arrived early and got back 2 hours before our estimated time. To add to the delight a kind man leaving the car park gave us his parking ticket with ample time left on it. So up yours Ken !

On Monday night we saw the Phil Brown Swingtet at the Cricketers in Horsell Birch, Woking. It was only the sextet due to the absence of Ken Ames on guitar. Gerry Smith deputised on tenor sax and clarinet for the missing Mark Aston. Highlights for me were:
A slow version of Creole Love Call with fine keyboard solo from Andrew Clancy;
Their latin version of Struttin' with some Barbecue showing the drumming skills of Dave Clancy;
Water Melon Man, unnanounced but from the Herbie Hancock band.

On Saturday evening we saw the Stephen Spielberg film Munich at Woking's cinema complex. This was a serious and thought-provoking film, well worth watching.

On Friday evening, after a day working at our home office, we met our business partners for dinner at the Cricketers in Horsell Birch, Woking, the Four Horseshoes at Chobham having temporarily suspended evening meals. The Berkshire Chicken is better than ever, more spicy now.
I was interested to observe the crowd of regulars who gather round the bar every evening from opening time. On Mondays they appear to be driven away at 20:00 by the jazz band and its fans. Friday posed no such inhibitions, the last of them departing at 21:30 !

On Wednesday I spent some time thinking about how to add solar panels to the roof of a bungalow in one or other of our standard publicity pictures. A job for Photoshop I think.
The Norwegian cabin example to the right might be short of sun in the winter but just think of those long summer days !