Alison Moyet Live, Koninklijk Theater Carré, Amsterdam 2026

 

 I was thrilled beyond words to finally have chance to hear Alison Moyet live in concert - she was here a few years ago and I was just too clumsy with all this technical manoeuvring process of buying tickets online - the older I get this seems more complicated. It was not just a matter of finding the ticket provider but than putting down your name on a waiting list and than reacting in a correct time slot, all in all it was like lottery and too much for me. Luckily, this time a friend bought tickets so the whole bunch of middle aged, white haired people went happily together after a nice dinner in a nearby French Bistro. We had a very good seats, right in front of the stage and excellent view on the whole Carré theatre (God, I have witnessed so many completely different things here, musicals, circuses, ballet and whatnot). 

I love the fact that Moyet refuses to be a nostalgia act. Even though frankly her peak days were early 1980s, she continued pretty steadily over the years and probably sees her 1980s material as her concert bread & butter, but her heart is more into later, more recent music. If she really wanted, she could easily just serve the biggest hits and make everybody happy but she makes a point of mixing it with recent material. And this was a little problematic for me. I am very familiar with her music up to say, start of new millennium and everything what comes after that is one big blur. I grew up with Yazoo albums and loved her solo work but around "Hometime" (2002) she lost me and even I gave each subsequent album a proper listen, nothing really registered in my brain. This is not really just about Moyet but about most of the pop singers who have large body of work - I pick and up select my favourite period and stick to that. This means that each time Moyet sang old songs from Yazoo period (that audience just won't let go) my heart leaped from joy because this music is part of my DNA and I listened those darn cassette tapes non stop back in my teenage years, I worshipped on TOP 40 shrine as teenagers do) but than she would turn to something newer and my heart sank because not only I did not know it but I actually did not like it. The lady next to me (part of our group) actually enjoyed new material and I understand why, it was more edgy than Yazoo music that could - because of its simplicity - maybe be perceived as rinky dinky but I loved old staff and was hoping to hear exactly that. And not just the biggest hits but deep cuts like "Bad Connection", "Midnight" or "Winter Kills" - it was like a dream come true to finally listen this live, in Amsterdam, almost like a full circle coming from a place in my head from 40 years ago. 

As expected, Moyet was in excellent voice, looks much better than ever before (she is very slim now and has interesting dance moves) and was warm on stage. Audience adored her and I had fun looking around  and seeing happy faces everywhere - could not help but to notice that everybody got the most engaged when she performed old Yazoo hits and she even finished concert with 1-2-3 disco explosions of "Goodbye 70's", "Situation" and "Don't Go" which explains that she herself is aware this is what audience came to hear. Personally I wouldn't mind if she included more music from some other solo work, like brilliant "Hoodoo" which is my favourite album of hers but it might be that she moved away and simply grew into another direction. And this is just fine, nobody says we all have to love each single album, some things resonate with us more than the others. I am just amused that suddenly this 1980s music that I grew up with and thought "old" still means so much to me. 

p.s.

I almost forgot - this was the very first time that during the concert I was not busy with mobile phone, camera and taking pictures. Somehow touchingly old fashioned, I assumed that I am in the theatre and it might disturb the performance (it turned out music was so loud that nobody could hear my phone anyway) so I switched it off and towards the end when audience started whipping out their mobile phones I just found it too complicated to dig in the pockets and switch it on again, I decided to just enjoy the moment and let it be - there are tons of filmed video clips online anyway - nobody else is me and nobody else will enjoy my particular perspective tonight. So I enjoyed the music and the performance without urge to film it and whatever stays, it stays in my heart. 

"Miss Cayley's Adventures" by Grant Allen (1899)

 

 I always have lists on top of the lists and this is why I decided to read "The Wedding People" by Alison Espach, because it was so highly rated and praised on Goodreads - it also fitted with my decision to focus on authors I never read before - alas, dear reader, I did not liked it at all. I did not hated it, but it was not for me and as result of this, it soured me for a while towards reading, which is really pity because exciting reads usually lead to more exciting reads. After "The Wedding People" I simply didn't want to read anything anymore. Instead, I browsed some reference books about literature and recommended novels and this is how I stumbled upon this obscure and forgotten 1899 book, originally serialised in "The Strand" (which explains its chapter-by-chapter story frame) and it was a perfect antidote - it was delightful from the very first page and I loved it with all my heart, in fact I deliberately read it slow to enjoy it more. 

I have never heard of Grant Allen before so he was perfect choice for my "never read before" reading list and apparently this particular novel is actually one of his lesser known works. It is also one of the very first novels with a female detective, thought it must be mentioned that the main character in "Miss Cayley’s Adventures" does not work professionally as a detective - Miss Cayley is simply a example of modern Victorian woman who does not sit still but throws herself into outside world and welcomes adventures. I mean, just check out the very first sentence:

"On the day when I found myself with twopence in my pocket, I naturally made up my mind to go round the world."

This is not your average Victorian blushing flower who spends her time doing needlework and being all vulnerable and fainting, instead Lois Cayley is not only attractive but brave, athletic, strong minded and possessed of a sharp intellect. And this is how we are introduced to her at the beginning of the novel, when she realised her late stepfather left her penniless: she refuses to accept usual fate of impoverished young ladies (teaching) and throws herself in the outside world, actively searching for adventures that will help her to travel around the world. Accidentally (and we must add, somewhat serendipitously) she meet a "Cantankerous Old Lady" (Lady Georgina) who needs a maid to accompany her on her journey to Germany and is soon travelling together with her, accepting the position as a maid just for a week - her thinking is: 

The Rhine leads you on to the Danube, the Danube to the Black Sea, the Black Sea to Asia; and so by way of India, China, and Japan, you reach the Pacific and San Francisco; whence one returns quite easily by New York and the White Star Liners... the Cantankerous Old Lady was the thin end of the wedge -- the first rung of the ladder!"

And this is how the novel really begins, with our plucky heroine traveling to Germany, than Switzerland, Italy, Egypt, India and all over the place, enjoying various adventures along the way, unmasking greedy antagonists and charlatans, using her sharp intellect to point who is really a bad guy and generally being totally awesome. There is a lot of humour, wit and spark all trough the novel, with some interesting points at the racial prejudices at the time. The biggest mystery for me is why this delightful novel is not better known and how is it possible that its completely covered by dust of neglect and obscurity, I honestly wish there is a whole series of novels with Miss Cayley. Loved this one with all my heart! 

"Slow Horses"

 

I have actually watched the complete first season of "Slow Horses" sometime ago and completely forgot about it, probably because in my mind it got confused with similar "Department Q" - both series are dealing with a police team nobody believes in. While "Department Q" has a police team working from some gloomy basement, "Slow Horses" is more or less very similar premise, here we have MI5 agents banished to decrepit and neglected "Slough House" (hence the title of series) where they are expected to shuffle papers until retirement or voluntary resignation. The agents in Slow Horses" are here as a punishment: we eventually learn that all of them made mistakes that cost them career and instead of being fired, they are sent here in a purgatory. 

On top of this hierarchy is Jackson Lamb (brilliant Gary Oldman) who is purposely selected to lead this team of losers because he is extremely unpleasant, arrogant and rude - not to mention flatulent - and his task is to make life hell for his agents. He often sleeps in the office, apparently never have shower and you can almost feel cigarette breath reeking from TV screen. Than there are agents: River Cartwright (handsome Jack Lowden), ex- alcoholic Catherine Standish (Saskia Reeves), computer wizard asshole Roddy (Christopher Chung), sweet couple Louisa and Min, the whole cast of supporting characters and occasional star appearance of sour faced Kristin Scott Thomas (as director of MI5) and Jonathan Pryce (as retired head of MI5 and grandfather of disqualified River Cartwright). Because each season has only 6 episodes, it is actually inviting to watch - I would never approach something that already has many seasons - this doesn't mean its easy to watch, because the stories are extremely complicated and convoluted, just as it should be in the world of spies and double spies. You can't really trust anybody here and if there is one thing you can always count on, its that characters are mostly not who they pretend to be. 

So I re-watched season 1 (with greatest pleasure) and than enjoyed season 2 where the main antagonist turned out to be my very own Croatian actor Rade Šerbedžija who happened to be the star of the very first theatre play I ever saw as a kid. He was probably the biggest acting name during my childhood and I even remember owning the LP album of poetry where he recited and it was a huge bestseller. Nowadays it seems as he found his place in international productions as a token bad guy from Eastern Europe, so if you need a mad professor or a scientist or KGB spy, he is usually the one. Season 2 was actually even better and more complicated than season 1 so now at this point I have really high expectations for season 3 which I will start next week as soon as I have time off. Very enjoyable!

Vacation Time

 

We were already on vacation this year, our winter escape were Canary Islands - but I said to myself why not taking another one - after all, there is no law saying it must be only one a year. After some careful considerations and several changes of plan, eventually we decided not to travel anywhere too far, airports and transportation draining all the energy and fun from vacation. So we decided simply to explore local places that we never visited before, like for example Zeeland which is part of southern Netherlands, almost at the border with Belgium. And I must say it worked out perfectly because nothing was really exhausting, in fact the train ride was very pleasant and we were there in no time.

Our first choice was little coastal town Vlissingen that might be popular in the summer time but in September it was almost completely deserted - a bit strange but fine by us, as we wanted peace and quiet. We walked trough quaint streets and enjoyed local museums, specially beautiful was a long promenade with spectacular view towards the sea, I even caught myself daydreaming how nice it might be to live here. Probably boring as Hell, but sometimes boring is nice. I mean, considering loonies we have to deal on the streets of Amsterdam, Vlissingen sounds like a safe place. 

We also visited a nearby town of Middleburg which is much bigger and I expected that I will like it more - on contrary, it was just bigger and nothing more. It lacked the beautiful seaside of Vlissingen and even though the buildings were very pretty in a frou frou way, I still prefer Vlissingen anytime. There was a interesting museum and a very eye catching city hall but I don't see myself going back.

Than I had visitors and we rented a car to make our explorations easier - it was totally a game changer because suddenly we were not dependant on the public transport anymore but could easily travel wherever we wanted. So first i wanted to show them a pretty little fisherman's town of Volendam which is very pictoresque but was that particular day still reeling from previous night festivites and everything smelled suspiciously on urine and beer LOL. Much nicer was a trip to famous Giethoorn that is celebrated as Venice of North - Giethoorn started as a religious refugee but is now a big business, sort of artificial Disneyland with boats full of tourists who expect a magical village without roads. The place where everybody rows a boat. Not exactly, you can still walk on the roads but boats are there and I must admit it is quite lovely.

Our next stop was Scheveningen beach near The Hague and it was really beautiful place, full of relaxed people just roaming around and enjoying the sea air & zillion restaurants offering fresh fish. A work colleague suggested a visit to nearby Madurodam which was the best - in fact, it might even be the highlight of the whole vacation for me: Madurodam (named after WW2 hero George Maduro) is a miniature park with replicas of famous Dutch landmarks. It was just the prettiest little thing and we were blessed with the most beautiful weather so everything worked in our favour, I enjoyed the whole day and the place is definitely on my visit-again list. 

Just as my visitors left, the perpetual rain started again and that was the end of our travels - initially we did had some more trips in mind but everything changed once we faced weather outside. There was simply no point of travelling anywhere if its just raining all the time, we might as well sit at home instead of being locked up in the hotel room. But it was nice while it lasted and I feel refreshed and good now.