Friday, 28th, April, 2023

Today we went to Thorpe Park.

This is an amusement park about an hour's drive from Oxford. It has many rides of the "thrill" nature, none of which I wanted to go on. Satoshi was keen. He went on all the rides he wanted to try, some twice and his favourite, "The Saw", four times. I spent a lot of time in the Burger King outlet catching up on some admin and emails and researching which Evensongs I would like to attend over the next six days while we are in Oxford. There were at least five or more concerts every night to choose from too. A veritable smorgasbord of music!


This is "Stealth". There are people on that thing at the top of the picture.



A local inhabitant of Thorpe Park, hoping for a free meal.

This is the "Detonator". Satoshi is seated at the right of the front section.




This is "The Tidal Wave". Satoshi is seated at the back with his arms up.




This is the "Saw" which was Satoshi's favourite ride.




This is the "The Swarm". Satoshi is in there somewhere!



There were some lovely flower beds!





This one is the "Rumba Rapids". I thought I might go on this until I saw how wet some people were getting.

When it became apparent that we would not get back to Oxford in time for Evensong, I found a concert we could go to instead. It was the Spring Concert of the Kidlington Amateur Operatic Society (known as "KAOS") which was at 7:30pm. As it happened, it took a long time to drive to the concert so we didn't have enough time to stop for dinner. We had a tube of cheese and onion "Pringles" in the car so we munched on them. The concert was at St Mary's Church in Kidlington. There was just enough time before the concert to take some photos!





This window depicts Faith, Hope and Charity.




The monks' stalls date from 1250, the desks in front of the stalls contain wood from pews dating back to 1450 and have some interesting carvings:








The Lectern




The Key to the door of the church
The concert program was:

    Claudio Monteverdi: Beatus Vir
    Henry Purcell: Thou Knowest Lord
    Henry Purcell: Evening Hymn
    Henry Purcell: Rejoice in the Lord (often called "The Bell Anthem")
    William Boyce: O Where Shall Wisdom
    William Boyce: Symphony No. 2 in A Major
    Francesco Durante: Magnificat in B Flat (commonly misascribed to Pergolesi)
    Handel: The Passion of Christ (excerpts)

It was an enjoyable concert, the small orchestra did well and the choristers did their best.


The Kidlington Amateur Operatic Society


We arrived back at our accommodation at 10:30pm. Luckily, the nearby Tesco was open until 11:00pm so we bought some dinner there.