Barbary House
Welcome to my recently rebuilt web site that takes the place of the 2008 and earlier Highgate News sheets and my former site that was live from 2009 to 2021.
Barbary House is my town house on the borders of Highgate and Crouch End and from there I 'hold court' or set out for my activities and adventures.
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This home page sets out recent events and from the menu you will see previous years in reverse order. These are being added to and will, in time, contain once more the stories from the years back to 2009, reconstructed from the old site (that was out-of-step with current web requirements).
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Chris Mason
Highgate, December 2023
2023 - a year catching up
2023 was a year doing several things scuppered by Covid in 2020-22. Whilst shipboard speaking re-started for me in 2022, the get-together of the Fred. Olsen fleet (cancelled in April 2020) finally happened on 9 November 2023 in Funchal and the sailaway was at dusk. I was in the flagship Bolette and Clive, my co-conspirator and best friend of 40+ years, did the other two ships and switched in Funchal so the company history was told on all three ships. It marked 175 years since the line was inaugurated. It was my third working cruise / speaking assignment in the year, as earlier I did a Canary Island cruise in Balmoral just before Easter and in February, Clive and I did an experimental ‘double act’ that went very well. We got the audience on-side when we introduced ourselves, I said … “It might be a bit like Ant & Dec, but as we don’t sing, it won’t be like Hinge & Bracket” – that got a laugh. That trip in Borealis took us into the tropics as far as the Cape Verde islands, two new ports for me - one shown here colourful, and relatively untouched by tourism. The November trip added Tarragona and Valencia to my port tally. So, during 2023, I voyaged on all three ships of the Fred. Olsen fleet.
A big family event in the year was my Aunty Betty’s 100th birthday in August and it also coincided (by 2 days) with Jackie my cousin’s 75th (also Betty's eldest) so it was quite a gathering out in the family stomping ground with many of her family with her to celebrate. She was particularly proud of her card from the King & Queen and there was a rolling slide show of pictures of her through her long life, some of which I supplied from my family albums.
Tresco and a celebration
In the UK I had another lovely week in Phoenix Cottage on Tresco in June with Mike & Steve. The travel there and back could hardly have used more modes of transport. Tube, then night sleeper and ferry out, return by helicopter, car and train. Also, there were the local ferries to adjacent islands of Bryher & St Martin. We all took turns cooking and my downfall was learning to bake focaccia bread … very bad for the waistline. This was one of the sunsets. That, plus relative idleness while recovering from a hernia repair and eating well on all the trips (and the August music festival) have added some kilograms I now need to shed.
French River Cruise
I did a Riviera river cruise in Germany (see 2019 page) and enjoyed the experience. It was a 2022 idea that stalled to do a French river. That took shape this July with a train trip by Eurostar and TGV to Avignon and back from Lyon so we could cruise parts of the Rivers Rhone and Soane. We went down to Arles and as far north as Beaune. There were quite a lot of bus trips out which made it different to the German experience where we walked off the boat into Medieval towns. The views of the Ardeche gorge and Pont du Gard were particularly memorable.
Yorkshire Concerts
The Yorkshire festival, of which I am a Trustee, was another success in August with growing audiences that fill the marquee. We are now too big for many of the churches we used to use in the early years, but we use them now for smaller lunchtime concerts during the festival and at other times in the year. The marquee was originally employed so we could socially space in the Covid years, but it has proven popular with our audiences so they (mostly) beg us to keep it. Some complain of squeaks and rattles when a wind gust hits it, but it feels like a festival, not just another classical music concert in a church.
Another Covid casualty was a friend’s 70th birthday cruise planned on a catamaran in Greece. This finally happened in September for seven of us out of Mykonos. Strong winds and some mechanical problems with the equipment curtailed our plans, but we did find some lovely parts of Ios - another new place for me. Mykonos is now a regular cruise port for some quite large ships and their 1000s of guests and crew. I am glad I experienced it in the 1980s – it is now unpleasantly crowded. Flying there was my first trip on a ‘plane since 2019.
Mykonos Catamaran
My Yorkshire hosts Joel & Jamie lost their beloved cat Thomas in the summer at a ripe old age of 18 years, but they adopted in November two delightful rescue cats (Harpo and Zeppo – named after two of the Marx brothers).
My trusteeship of Incognito Theatre continues, and we have updated the sound system to active speakers and digital switching so any sound can be sent to any of ten speakers. I remain company secretary and have been encouraging some more daring, modern material.
My third charity is the Covent Garden Area Trust (the Trust is head lessee of the Market Building, the London Transport Museum and the Apple Shop) so that will keep me busy in the new year as I took over the Chair in early December.
With all those trips away from home the garden did not get much attention, so with some seeds from the Chelsea Flower Show I started to ‘re-wild’ it. It was a partial success, but it needs more structure with some perennials. A mass of nasturtiums did look colourful, but they rather took over! A garden highlight was a trip to Sissinghurst with a friend of 40 years (Bruce, now resident of Provincetown - photo here on the roof of the tower) then in the bookshop I bought 'Portrait of a Marriage' by Nigel Nicolson about his parents who created it - fascinating!!!