King’s School Choir to visit Monaco

The Crypt Choir of the King's School, Canterbury will be performing a concert of seasonal music at St Paul's Church, Monaco on Sunday, December 9 at 6pm. The King's School has a history of excellence in music and is generally regarded as being one of the finest for musically-gifted children in England. The Crypt Choir is its senior choir that sings regularly in Canterbury Cathedral and has performed concerts in Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral and St George's Chapel, Windsor. They have had a number of successful concert tours including Australasia, Hong Kong, Singapore, North America and South Africa and have recorded a number of CDs. There will be no charge for the concert.

Brendan Behan - 30th March 2012

My first thought, writing on the day Quantas grounded every single airplane in its fleet, seems ironic and apt: take the train.

Australia does boast four of the world’s finest long-haul trains and they are used not only by tourists, but also by travellers needing to make the journey while welcoming a lavish lull in life. Er, like myself, off to work in a school in Adelaide for 6 weeks. I flew to Darwin, strolled an unnecessary day between necessary beers, and settled on a Saturday morning into my cabin for the 54-hour jolly south.

Named “The Ghan” in honour of the Afghans on their camels who opened the trail south in the first place, 150 years ago, the train can at times be over 2 kms long. Imagine how silly that would look in Monaco, peeking out at each end... Two ginormous diesels head it — one is the spare, just in case. The single-track route covers just short of 3,000 kms and the link between Alice Springs and Katherine, up near Darwin, only opened in 2004. The remainder has been rebuilt to replace the narrow-guage track that was prone to flash-flooding. Freight is an important motive and when a freight train passes in the opposite direction you watch it continue, truck by truck, with increasing disbelief. Some of the containers stand on top of others, double-decked. Things come a long way; Fernet Branca is 60$AUS in Darwin, yet in Yankalilla, an hour south of Adelaide, I spotted the dried pasta I buy just over the border in Mortola, the same, made in Pisa, at the same price. For humans, there is a cattle class or at the other extreme you can have an entire carriage to yourself. I had the neatest sleeping compartment you can imagine, with a shower and loo, cupboard hanging-space and all. Along the way, the Club Car and the Dining Car.

Outside, desert to the left, desert to the right. Having already done the “Indian-Pacific” — Perth to Adelaide to Sydney — I’d say the Nullarbor is a more deserty desert than the unexpectedly treeful landscape to and on from Alice Springs. Don’t imagine that this is tedious or that you’ll get much reading done, it has an endless fascination as you glimpse old tracks or even older traces of strange geology, especially the way Australia appears to consist of about seven inches of dirt lying precariously on deep rock. Tree roots spread out across the land around the tree and the “soil”, to give it the benefit of the doubt, takes on the tough orange colour of the stone. The train trundles over this and you marvel through the wonder-window like an invisible alien passing down the Champs Elysés. It’s thirsty work, all this peering at scrub, and the Club Car is the branch on which the grape-vultures gather. Australian wine still puzzles me and I may be wrong but I seem to note a distinct trend away from mere varietals, towards more Frenchily constructed blends... It has been a tide in the waiting. Certainly, the Australian has acquired a demanding palate and the trains offer cuisine that cannot be faulted. There’s also an unspoken civility, as people forsake the Club Car before eating in the evening, maybe not quite to dress for dinner, but certainly to spruce up. The steel carriages and the reassuringly rounded simplicity of the furnishings bring to mind a 50s era of neat suits, narrow ties and the urbanity of it all. Bearing in mind that most of your two days is spent seated, what’s more, though there are many excursions available at Katherine and Alice Springs, the food is well calibrated, and appears from a kitchen smaller than most people’s tool shed. The staff have an infectious humour, which is just as well — their CEO once disguised himself and worked on the trains in almost every menial capacity, to see what’s what. Perhaps the Irishman at Quantas should try that. Better still, try the train.

For more information and picture's from JB's trip see the link below.....