Afternoon out at Pinafore.

Me: [arrives home after ‘a few work drinks’] Mrs Specs: “Hi! How was the do? Hold on, I’ll just use the loo, then I’ll be down again.” Me [to the tune of ‘Tubthumping’ by Chumbawumba]: “I! USE! THE! LOO! THEN I COME DOWN AGAIN!—” Mrs Specs: [‘old-fashioned look’]

One day, I will get home.

🖼️🤔👓 Here’s my pick of 2025 releases for ArtMuseLondon. Harder than ever to narrow it down to 25 choices, but I think these are the ones your unending January is waiting for. artmuselondon.com/2026/01/18/r...

🖼️🤔👓 Here’s my pick of 2025 releases for ArtMuseLondon. Harder than ever to narrow it down to 25 choices, but I think these are the ones your unending January is waiting for. artmuselondon.com/2026/01/18/r...

Writing about a terrific piece of music, only to notice - in time, luckily - that my iPad had autocorrected ‘excitement’ to ‘excrement’. Everyone’s a critic!

I’ve unexpectedly got a spare Balcony Standing ticket for tonight’s Traviata at the ROH (19:00 start) if anybody is looking.

The Specs who came in from the cold! Taking my folks to the matinée. Excellent, if bleak & morally-compromised, time had by all.

Hi, opera pals. I won’t be able to use my Barbican ‘Makropulos’ ticket this evening. Would anyone like it (or know someone who would)? Free to a good home.

First visit of 2026 to @wigmore-hall.org.uk - Roderick Williams’s fascinating, ingenious song-by-English-song response to ‘Winterreise’, his own setting of Blake’s ‘The Angel’ a particular highlight. Superb playing from Christopher Glynn as ever.

At last! A properly gorgeous day… as we now wait in the airport to fly home! 🤷‍♂️

Mrs Specs. 😍

🚨 Hi everyone! Over on Instagram, it appears that some kind of imposter bot is irritating my followers. Please don’t follow ‘adrian_specs02’ (see screengrab of my clone below) and if possible, block and report it. Accept no imitations! Thank you to various pals who let me know. 🙏

Brrr.

Me and my shadow.

Inverness.

Morning moon over the firth.

Happy new year, everyone. Wishing you all the best 2026 possible. Onwards and, especially, upwards!

Pair of Specs, waiting for bus to airport terminal. Inverness, here we come!

Ferris Bueller’s Day Oeuf. #EggAMovie

Pair of Specs, RHS Wisley. Temperature: hat level.

Boxing Day jaunt to RHS Wisley (2/2) - Glasshouse.

Boxing Day jaunt to RHS Wisley (1/2) - Orchid House.

Some of my (super-thoughtful, as ever) gifts from Santa…

Specs-mas!

Wishing you a joyous, restful Christmas. Time to recharge & renew. All our love.

📷 Mrs Specs.

Tackling an online movie quiz - asked to name a 1990 film featuring Robin Williams & Robert De Niro. Up came the slightly unexpected answer: ‘Awankenings’.

New T-shirt! #OneForTheTeenagers

BY NIGHT: New haircut! BY TOMORROW: Usual absolute bin fire, I imagine…

Thought #RBOAriodante was brilliantly done. As the opera went on, the coolly modern staging probed into darkly comic corners & strained against the surface plot to land a bravura ending. The soloists all understood the assignment, singing like a dream while acting the reality.

😔 John Carey. At uni, I was already obsessed with William Golding & included him as an author choice on my 20th century paper. My English tutor, who knew Carey, phoned him & asked if he’d take me for the Golding session. He was so generous with his time & knowledge. 🫡

Saving Grace - Robert Plant’s current group featuring Suzi Dian - in phenomenal form at the Southbank tonight. Love this combination of instruments (lead accordion, cello in for bass) & they’re a proper *band*, Plant always keen to shine the spotlight on his comrades.

🖼️🤔👓 My latest piece for ArtMuseLondon looks at the work of @joquailcello.bsky.social, & in particular her recent orchestral concert in Enschede, Netherlands: one of the most purely uplifting experiences of my listening life. More enthusiasm here: artmuselondon.com/2025/12/08/i...

Thrilled yesterday to discover the amazing @concertorecords.bsky.social - catered perfectly to my Malian kora / Estonian choral / grindcore musical needs! #SpecsAbroad

Evening walk in Amsterdam. #SpecsAbroad

Panoramsterdam! #SpecsAbroad

Airport bus ride a little ‘shaky’.

Glorious @wigmore-hall.org.uk double today hearing a beautiful 'last-minute' lunchtime set from Miah Persson & @josephmiddleton.bsky.social (get well soon Katharina Konradi 💐) then a stunning recital from @narduswilliams.bsky.social & Elizabeth Kenny this evening. A fantastic day.

The magnificent Mulatu Astatke & his band, setting fire to Sunday evening at the Southbank.

Beautiful concert on Saturday in Christ Church Cathedral by Vix Clamantis, celebrating Pärt’s 90th. Glorious.

🖼️🤔👓 Immediately after emerging from the Royal Opera’s ‘Makropulos Case’, I posted that “it managed to both demand focus from its audience & feel like a thrill-ride at the same time”. Detail-seekers! Read more in my write-up for ArtMuseLondon here… artmuselondon.com/2025/11/16/w...

Pair of Specs, Blenheim Palace.

Enjoyed ‘The Makropulos Case’ at Royal Ballet & Opera - absolutely ‘A Katie Mitchell Production’ with letterbox vision, slo-mo & radical reinventions - it managed to both demand focus from its audience & feel like a thrill-ride at the same time. Brilliant ensemble & orchestra on 🔥🔥.

Brilliant programme of sea songs this lunchtime @wigmore-hall.org.uk from @jamesnewby.bsky.social & @josephmiddleton.bsky.social - hopefully this might be a future album (🤞) but for now take a listen on BBC Sounds: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Beautiful recital last night from @carolynsampson.bsky.social @josephmiddleton.bsky.social (& choir) to celebrate 20 years of Concerts at St Andrews, Bedford. (1/2)

Pair of Specs, Bedford-bound to hear @carolynsampson.bsky.social - with trusty piano man @josephmiddleton.bsky.social - play a hometown gig. Looking forward!

Pair of Specs, National Portrait Gallery.

#ENODeadManWalking: shatteringly effective storytelling, committed & complex performances by a remarkable ensemble, & a score of vast atmospheric scope. A genuinely unforgettable - and satisfyingly uncompromising - evening.

Collected a lovely new venue last night, @sohotheatre.bsky.social Walthamstow, to hear Penguin Cafe perform a magnificent set of PCO ‘originals’. Beautiful.