People who know me will have often heard my complaints about some of the annoyances of living in London. There’s a lot that seems tempting, for example, about what Jon has written about his recent move to Brussels.

But of course the flip side of this place is the amazing range of things happening here - and the trick is (unlike too many Londoners) to take advantage of them!

And at the end of last week I had the opportunity to enjoy two of its highlights.

One of them has been widely written about and recognised - and is the new production of Aida that is on at the ENO, designed by Zandra Rhodes. I must say when I first saw this advertised I wanted to go because I don’t know Aida very well and I wanted to hear the music and see the opera. I wasn’t that interested in who had designed it (and if I’m being honest although I had just about heard of Zandra Rhodes, I had only a vague idea that she designed clothes, a bit wacky I think, probably because her name begins with a Z!).

But from the moment the curtain rises the star of the show is very clearly the design on stage - both the set and the extraordinary costumes. They were both simply amazing and did a magnificent job of implying ancient Egypt but with a clearly modern design. A favoured technique was after a scene performed against an impressive Egyptian set, for the singers to come to the front of the stage, some very Egyptian screens to come across the stage behind them, and as they sing their way through a love-song or something, to be able to hear some heaving and shoving going on, and then suddenly the screens will come open again to reveal this vast new set which has been built on the stage behind them. It was truly magnificent.

I also never really thought that I would find myself going on about one of the best things about an opera being the costumes but they really were incredible in this production. The gang of chaps in the gold skirts were a particular favourite of mine but they were really all great - all except the three principals, I thought, whose costumes seemed to me rather dull and unimpressive compared to everything else going on around them. But from the corps of fighters to the priests the range of costumes were just great.

The second element which really impressed me was the dancing. This ranged from a truly impressive, if very short, routine from some young (some very young) Indian dancers, to several other displays in the triumphal march.

So the music really only ended up playing third fiddle, as far as I was concerned. It was nonetheless very good and enjoyable - I must confess that I’m not really very up on Verdi and so it was good to have the chance sit right through this.

It really was an incredible experience - I would say go and see it now but there are only another few performances to go and I think you might find it difficult to get a ticket. I have no doubt however that it will be returning - and then you too will be able to see just how impressive a turquoise elephant on the London stage can be.

My other London highlight from last week was a much smaller event, but in its own way scarcely less impressive. On Thursday I was at Chatham House to hear a discussion about China, and the main speaker was Jonathan Fenby, who I had known of before as a respected name in the media, but had never actually heard in person. The topic of the evening was really something about where China goes next, but as part of that Fenby gave simply the most extraordinary rundown of Chinese history over the last two and a half millenia - as he said, some key themes which lasted from 221 BC to the Chinese Communist Party conference last month - and I found myself reflecting that it’s not many events you go to that can only take place once every 2,500 years! But it really was the most impressive run-through, in just a few minutes, and delivered in the most engaging manner possible. He has, as I have noticed a number of people when they give talks, a book coming out next year (on modern Chinese history, I think) and I will certainly be very interested to see it when it appears.

Talking of speakers with forthcoming books coming out, incidentally, I heard recently that Richard Reeves, whose speech in the cause of John Stuart Mill so impressed us all in Brighton back in September (was it really that recent? it seems such a long time ago, before we had a leadership election, and hadn’t had a general election!), now has his biography of Mill available for pre-order, apparently for a 50% discount if you pre-order through Amazon.

So, a good week for London in my book!