These last three weeks have been such a hurricane of activity! Definitely good in many ways but also very tiring! The house has been a state of utter mess and squalor as I've been getting back very late most evenings (despite the fact that I did do a lot of cleaning/tidying for CBC's mum when she stayed a few weeks ago. It's the last 2 days of school tomorrow and as always, I am really sad about my year 6's that are leaving (and a few other children too!) but particularly so this year- definitely had a very strong bond with some of them this year.
I thought I'd write about a few moments or things that have been special or made me happy or smile in the past few weeks.
1. This morning, I raced Richard to church! He is in his 80's and he comes and drives my 94 year old neighbour to church every Sunday. He's often offered me a lift but inevitably I am not ready. This morning, I saw M leaving his house and saw Richard pull up as I came out the drive on my bike. He wound down his window to offer me a lift and I called out, "Race you!" and hurtled off down the road. He caught me up as I reached the main road and we both had to stop at the traffic light under the railway bridge. When we approached church, he had to pull into park on the left and I cycled into the church gate and up to the door! I had WON! He laughed a lot when he arrived (as did all the older ladies who saw me cackle at Richard as he turned left and I turned right. I played piano at church and, considering, I was grappling with page turns on my iPad and hadn't had time to practice, praise God, I played ok without too many major clashes. It was a lovely sermon too!
2. Did I tell you about the Green paper? For Treasure Island, in Act 2, we didn't want the chorus to keep coming on and off so I suggested they turn round and pretend to be trees before and after several of their songs. I speculated with my fellow director/producer whether was worth making some sort of foliage for them to hold. We agreed and thought we should order some green paper to make some. We'd need enough for around 35 children at least. Two days later, I was at CBC's school for a Chicago rehearsal and went to go and have a look at his display boards in his classroom (as there's a really nice display). I noticed that all the display boards were covered in green paper. Exams? I asked him if the paper was going to come down. He replied positively and when questioned as to what would happen to the paper, he said the exams team had put it up but they were expected to take it down but hadn't had time to do it. When he thought the paper would just end up in the recycling, I asked if I could have the paper if I took it down. He agreed and the next day when I came back for the next rehearsal, I climbed up and removed it all from both classrooms. ended up with 3 rolls of paper that were around 1.5 metres wide (and about 15metres of length). Ended up rolling them up and somehow carried these large, heavy 1.5m long rolls of green paper on my bike attached to the top of my pannier. I was rather a wide load (needed a warning sign like lorries do!). Looked like a complete maniac but meant we got the free paper for the foliage. Decided we needed to have pom poms so came up with a really simple prototype and showed my lovely year 6 girls what to do and by the end of the day, they came back to me with 70 pom poms!!!
3. On Friday, I performed the Rite of Spring with Orchestra of the City, playing the Alto flute part with a section of 5 flutes and over 100 players. It was SO exciting to perform and, despite the intense heat, we gave a great performance to a sell out audience. I was so lucky as the Alto flute part has lots of beautiful solos and not so many scary hard bits. Despite my coming in early on one solo (paranoid, I had miscounted, I stared intently at the conductor as I came in early (as surmised) and he easily put me back in the right place. I got a stand up for my solos which was lovely! The orchestra are SO good and I am so lucky I got to play with them! CBC, his brother and partner came to watch, which was really nice, and we had food afterwards.
4. It was the Year 6 prom/disco on the same day as the Rite performance and I was really sad not to be able to attend as my lovely girls had asked me to attend. As I couldn't, I promised to wear a prom dress to school and they held me to it so I changed into my turquoise jacquard silk dress with a tiara! They were so pleased. Luckily, my rehearsal wasn't till 6 so I had 10minutes to see some of them arrive in their smart outfits and then race off to London.
5. I taught my leavers song on Friday afternoon (in my fancy dress). A colleague and myself wrote it together 3-4 years ago and now I always teach it. It was the first time he hadn't been in the school for it. They sang it well and the majority seemed to like it. Even the (comparatively) lazy class upped their game for the performance. After it, I walked down with my favourite class, some of whom were crying, I hugged one of them and then they all went in for a hug and I ended up at the centre of about 15 children! It was a sweet moment.
6. Ended up teaching 45 children in year 3 (for two lessons) as one of the classes wouldn't be getting their final lesson (Bank holidays, grr) so I combined them. Could have been a nightmare but actually ended up being a good lesson! Very glad I did it as it was really nice to end the term with this. We were learning about folk music and learnt a very jolly folk song called Tomorrow the Fox which children always love!
6. Had the first proper school concert since 2019 on Wednesday. Ended up with an audience of 140 and the 70 children performed really well and managed to finish on time. Some parents not the best at sitting and listening but enough were really appreciative and proud. The orchestra sounded superb particularly. So relieved it went well and ended up with good attendance in the end.
7. The day after the Rite of Spring, I was performing the solo flute part of J.S. Bach's Brandenburg concerto no.2 with an orchestra in Oakwood. I was really nervous about it but it ended up going well. I had the delight of playing flute for the first time ever with an old friend and colleague from my days at the Royal Academy of Music. Was so nice to catch up with her and play with her. The rest of the programme went well and I even saw a friend from Music camp!
8. Some friends are here for the month from China and somehow ended up staying near us so we met up for brunch with them and their cute daughter this morning. Had such a nice time, even had a paddle in the sea and then we headed off to lunch with CBC's old housemate and our friend. I wasn't (obviously), hugely hungry but ordered a Gazpacho soup and some olives which was the PERFECT summer lunch- amazing flavours! We ended up chilling on the village green and played Cranium cards which made for gentle entertainment. CBC fell asleep on the grass as N and I chatted. Came home and managed to do SOME tidying which I was relieved about!
9. Unexpected Thai food on Tuesday night. CBC had bought himself some Thai takeaway and left me half of it! It was delicious, all the more, because I hadn't had any breakfast so was surviving on my salad from lunchtime I love Thai food so much!
10. On Thursday night, I ended up chatting to this Lithuanian man on the train. I thought he was drunk at first but I talked to him and he really needed someone to talk to, he ended up crying talking about some things, I was grateful to be there when someone needed to talk.
11. Two of the other flute players got Covid. Despite me sitting next to them, I didn't catch it!
So many other small blessings and happy moments in amongst my daily life that I've probably forgotten about but I am grateful to have such a surfeit of joy! What about you?
xx