At the beginning of the year Stephanie was one of eleven pupils from her school chosen to participate in a musical project alongside the City of London Sinfonia.  Three schools and approximately 45 students have worked with the CLS putting in time and effort after school and even during the school holidays.  They have spent the last six months putting together a musical composition which was performed by the students and the CLS together on the theatrical stage on Sunday evening. 

Not only was it a big night for Stephanie who was performing on the glockenspiel and piano (though not simultaneously!) but also a big night for Ben who was babysitting all the other children, including the baby (all tucked up in bed for the night though), so that we could attend.  Now please don’t look at the previous video of Ben and think the worst.  He’s really very responsible when needs must!

The show was titled “Messin’ With Mozart” and began with the pupils and orchestra performing the piece that they had been working on which was very impressive.  You could see how much time and effort these youngsters had put into the project and how proud they were of it.  Of course, it also takes a lot of guts to get up on stage in a theatre to perform it too, especially when you’ve never done anything like it before.  #

To explain, Stephanie was for the most part self taught on keyboards and music in general.  She has only been taking piano lessons from a piano tutor since January and has not only impressed her music teachers with her ability but also her piano tutor who has recommended Stephanie starts getting ready for her first exams in playing the piano.  So for someone who has really taught themselves, she is extremely fortunate to have been given this opportunity and has made the most of it.  It was such a fantastic experience for her and one she thoroughly enjoyed and would do over again if she could without a moments hesitation.   Next is her talent show which she auditioned for a couple of months ago which is coming up in a couple of weeks. 

Monday was a pretty normal day.  Washing, cooking, cleaning, oh and the dishwasher broke so had to wait for dishwasher-man to come and tell us how much it was going to cost to fix it.  Luckily the job was a pretty simple one, with some hose or other becoming disconnected so a quick seal around it to re-set it into place and £40 later and it seems to be working ok again.  Then a telephone call to arrange the collection of the broken Magimix.  Oh didn’t I mention it?  The part which is attached to the motor, which comes up off the body onto which the attachments go… oh you know what I mean, anyway, that became damaged so that the attachments wouldn’t stay on it and I had a very expensive machine that didn’t work.  I sent an email to Style Cookshop late on Friday and received a call from them on Monday morning.  After assuring me that the problem was rare but quite certainly not my fault, they without pause arranged collection of the damaged machine and a replacement.  I honestly cannot praise this company enough and will most certainly be using them again if I plan to make any further extravagant kitchen purchases (which is actually something I’m not planning on doing for a long while but that’s by the by). 

Today was Harry’s first sports day at school.  He was in the green team and did ever so well as did all the children.  Eddie began watching quite enthusiastically but his attention span decreased more and more as the weather warmed up.  Sid couldn’t decide whether he wanted to sit in the buggy or stand out of it but expressed his desire loudly that he wanted me to hold him instead.  I wasn’t very happy with this as holding Sid for a prolonged period of time (read as: more than thirty seconds at a time) is extremely tiring and rather akin to holding a baby elephant.  When Sid wasn’t being held, Eddie decided he didn’t want to take two steps forward to be in front of the spectators for the best view, but rather in my arms being held up so he could peek between the heads in front of us.  And then Paddy had to have some of the being in mummy’s arms action too, even though the shade of the buggy was much better for him but he had other ideas and decided that the fun was too great to miss.  So in all, Harry had a lovely first sports day which he enjoyed immensely, topped off with being given a badge to wear home, and I got a great upper arm and body workout for free.  Tomorrow we do it all over again with Caitlin’s sports day.  I can’t wait…