The Delightful Tale of Sad Frog

 One of the sweetest and loveliest elements of this year at school was the lovely rapport I had with some of my girls in one particular year 6 class. This class were really enthusiastic musically. They worked well in teams, were dedicated to achieving their best in music, practically all could sing in tune, at least half were part of music clubs and they were cohesive as a class.  There were a few girls in particular, who were especially loyal. Many was the day where I'd be sitting at my computer at lunchtime when one of them would appear at the door saying, "THERE YOU ARE! Mrs P I've been looking for you everywhere!"  On other occasions, I would walk into my room and find one of them standing on the step looking at my book collection in the dark (I have a personal library which certain kids borrow from- I say certain- there were about 30 of them borrowing...).  She'd laugh as I jumped! I'd find notes on my desk asking me if I could be their walking partner on a school trip; at the end of my music lessons, they'd stay behind and hang out.

One thing they all loved is my little shelf of cute items.  I had cow bells, music box mechanisms, A-Z of music instruments, toilet roll bunny and mostly importantly, Sad Frog.

Sad Frog was a birthday present from my friend Lara last year.   Lara sells her crochet toys on Etsy and in order to be compliant with safety, legally, for selling to children, you need to do certain tests on certain products.  This is called CE testing and you can read about it here.  The main two tests are hanging weights, up to 10kg on eyes to ensure a child could not bite them off and setting fire to the wool.  Lara posted Sad Frog on Insta after she'd tested him. I asked what would happen to him and she said, she couldn't sell him.  I said I'd give him a home and he came to be on my Birthday with a bow round his neck. Her retail models have happy faces but Sad Frog, the first of his kind, has a sad face because of his mistreatment.

When I decided to take him to school to keep there, as I had my music room back, often children would pick him up and ask why he was sad. I would always explain about CE testing to them. They've all met Lara, as she came to school to play the piano for us last year, so they all liked the link.

When we started going on trips with choir/drumming, the girls asked if they could bring him on the trip and he could be our choir mascot.  I thought this was sweet so I agreed and subsequently, he's been on every trip, watched every concert and performance.  Three children in particular, always pick him up every time they are in the music room.

Around about 12 weeks ago, when I decided to retake the Drumming Club photo, I noticed a photo bomb....

As we've got nearer to the end of term, my girls kept fretting about leaving and not wanting to go.

In their DT lessons, they were asked to design and make an embroidery which would be an important memory of their time in school.

I delightedly found out, that Sad Frog made it into TWO embroideries:

How sweet are their write ups!!!

The next adorable thing was that one of them decided to write Sad Frog's story!  I unfolded her book (I haven't copied the front cover as it has her name on it but it's very cute:

One point, I should mention is that the 7 girls who spent a lot of time with me, had been extremely helpful and loyal. 2 of them were orchestra managers- they organised the orchestra set up, chased missing children, took the register, filed the music, gave out music to those who had forgotten, kept me up to date on what needed more photocopying.  In addition, they all, on quite a few occasions, helped me tidy and move things and also acted as TAs in my Year 1 and 2 music lessons during their lunch breaks on many occasions (one of them, the one who wrote the story book, stayed all afternoon with me last week to teach the same lesson 3 times.  She genuinely acted as a teacher, giving feedback, explaining and the suchlike.)  At this point, I knew that I had to give them something special as a thank you.

I contacted Lara and asked her if I could commission her to make me 7 miniature Sad Frogs.  She was delighted to, having been kept abreast of Sad Frog's popularity.

Last Sunday, we met for lunch and I met Sad Frog's children:

Behold, the line of Misery!

I decided, as a tribute to N____, to write a story to accompany Sad Frog's children.

I printed it onto paper and folded it with a front cover and back cover featuring Sad Frog and then his children:

Sad Frog had had a hard start in life, in fact, some might say his early existence was veiled in trauma. This was  due to his mistreatment for the cause of ensuring his progeny were safe for young children to handle. His luck changed, as chronicled in the book by esteemed author, N___ R_____, when he received a new and safer home in the hands of a music teacher, Mrs P_____. He observed day after day, week after week of music lessons with the children of ____ school and slowly his fear and post-traumatic stress subsided. It was, however, thanks to the tender care and friendship of some particular children, that he experienced the true joy of life and the euphoria of friendship. Some particular young girls seemed to spend more time than others in that room of sound and music and spent their time cheering up their teacher and helping younger children in their lessons. The tall and gentle T___; the generous and kindhearted T____ with the infectious laughter; the witty and efficient (but tiny!) I____, the loyal and dedicated S_____.  But most of all, his bestest of friends were those who showered him with love and attention and encouraged him to see the world, to travel on trains to world famous orchestras, to party to samba music, to watch shows about sailors, ships and treasure, to take part in concerts and his rescuers from kidnap. They were the cheeky, charming and utterly hilarious D_____, the astute and bright-eyed A_____ and the gentle and imaginative N____. Sad Frog knew his days of friendship were drawing to a close as his closest confidants moved onto pastures new and great adventures. His heart grew full as he reflected on his halcyon days and his eyes gleamed with tears at the thought of their loss. And his heart overflowed with droplets of joy and those tiny droplets of joyous memories became something wondrous. For from those crystal droplets, grew several tiny new froglets. They bloomed and blossomed and became Sad Frog's children. Sad Frog's heart swelled with joy for he knew that part of his heart would travel with his friends and accompany them forever and show his gratitude for their help in bringing him happiness. He bade them farewell and told them to seek new adventures and to always protect their new owners and ensure that they always sang from their hearts and found the joy in life even when times were hard. Sad Frog and his children may have sad faces but their hearts are glad

I've been gleefully waiting for moment when I could give them.

On the last day, I called my girls to come to my room, sat them in a line and asked them to shut their eyes. I laid out a frog and book in front of each of them.

When they opened their eyes, they SCREAMED!!!!  The comments of joy and glee were a delight to behold (I recorded them!) and when they sat and read the story and realised it was about them, their faces were utter joy!

They then decided to line up the frogs and sit them with Sad Frog.  We then had a selfie with all the frogs!

One more lovely element was the two gifts I got from two of Sad Frog's biggest fans:

One of them got me an apple to be Sad Frog's friend and the other, got her mum to make me a crocheted duck to accompany Sad Frog.

The children, plus many more, spent their playtime AND part of their lunch in my room improvising music as I attempted to tidy up and there were many tears.

I don't think I've ever had such a group before and I will sorely miss them.  But, we will ever forget each other because of Sad Frog.

xx

TARDIS Tuesday- Yaz Khan outfit no.1 from Resolution

For TARDIS Tuesday, I thought I'd share an outfit I thought I'd shared back in February or January. I didn't realise I hadn't!

A nice girl called Rachel Millar contacted me on Insta to ask about the ID of a blouse I had found for Yaz Khan and asked me if I would like to know some of her IDs. I naturally accepted and she told me about this blouse which featured in Resolution, Jodie Whittaker's Doctor's first New year special.

I wore it for the first time in Jan or Feb and naturally thought I'd posted a picture. But I can't find one! So apparently I didn't!

Fast forward to Sunday and another insta friend posted her ID of this blouse and I said I knew it and I'd worn it! But couldn't find it!

So I thought I would! Sadly, having just had my hair cut, my hair is not very Yaz Khan friendly.

The outfit features a navy floral and bird print blouse from The Kooples plus one of her standard All Saints jackets plus black jeans and her Dune Pacey boots.

I must admit, I didn't spend much time putting this together on Sunday so I didn't check whether to tuck my shirt in or not and decided it was silly to wear a jacket.

I wore my pink Peri top from last week underneath and put on the Kooples blouse which I think I bought for mere pounds. It's stretchy material it's pulling a bit over my pear-shaped hips!

I wore NOT my usual black trousers (which have a hole from my bike fall. Ang, I did find them but not got around to sending yet.) but some charity-shopped ones which are loser plus my Pacey boots.

Monday was fun at school. I taught my year 5's about dissonance in music (we listened to various music including The Rite of Spring, the theme music from Psycho and two pieces called From the diary of a fly  and  Night music by Bartok.   Several of the year 6's turned up in my room at play AND lunchtime AND in the afternoon and some of the year 5's were there for 30mins to compose a song for a teacher who is leaving (my fellow treasure island director). I then sorted stuff but got very little done so tomorrow (and Wednesday) will be busy!

Hope you are well!

xx

11 reasons to be thankful or happy moments

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

TARDIS Tuesday- Attack of the Cybermen

Dear All,

Thank you so much for your kind and supportive messages last week in reference to my moaning post. I really appreciate it. I felt much better the next day after some sleep! More on Treasure Island another day.

I got my hair cut on Saturday! I decided I wanted to have it cut so I randomly went into a hairdresser in town as I was there shopping and had about 10 inches chopped off.

Therefore, it was a no-brainer what I would wear for TARDIS Tuesday.  Which character has a short bob?  Well, Clara at times but the main contender is Peri Brown! And I realised there was a Peri outfit I haven't featured since August 2021! Couldn't believe it was quite so long!

It's this PANK (in the words of Sheila!) outfit of Peri's from Attack of the Cybermen

https://theultimateguidetothefashionofdoctorwho.wordpress.com/2017/03/27/peri-brown-attack-of-the-cybermen/

You can see what it features without my having to tell you so, without further ado, here's my 2024 rendition:

It features this pink top and shorts which I charity-shopped in 2021 for £6.25 in total.

The belt came with a dress I bought from Lindybop a while back and the bracelet is from Primark about 15 years ago. I wore my Rieker (charityshopped) lattice ballet pumps.

 CBC really dislikes this outfit but I really like it and find it comfy, even if pink is not my colour I've worn these two items as separates out but not out in this combination! Not sure I'd dare wear this out!

Tired of moaning

 If I'm sad about something, I often start writing a blog post about it but end up not publishing it as I think it sounds like a moan fest. 

I moan and stress too much. In the last year, when I've had evening events, such as the Choir of the Year competition, I have ended up feeling anxious and stressed and then moaning to anyone who will listen. Today, we had our first Treasure Island performance and we had a morning dress rehearsal. Cover was supposed to be arranged for our Drama lead but it hadn't been. The person who arranges cover was not in. There ended up being a situation where I ended up running around trying to sort the situation and having to beg and borrow to cover it. Whilst having hyper children in vast quantities ask me questions and then get ready to perform. I was furious as was he. Anyone who was around got my rant. The dress rehearsal performance went well and then I dashed to teach my class. This was fine. Manic lunch then year 2 classes. My lovely year 6 girl asked if she could help and was a Godsend the entire afternoon. She was a great teacher- we taught the lesson together and I think it was a powerful learning experience for her. (We both had to get cross with kids!) She developed a wonderful connection with a boy with emotional SEND. After school, the kids arrived, they were so excited! We went on and the show went well. I found myself getting annoyed by parents crackling sweet bags, one opening a can of drink, getting in the way at the Back or just getting up and standing in places during the performance. 

I made some daft mistakes on the piano mainly because I couldn't see over the heads of the parents or got distracted by noises or children. 

But it went well and the kids were super happy as were parents.  We were so proud of them!

Except, instead of feeling elation over that performance I just feel great sorrow that I moaned all day, that I got annoyed by parents, that I am not buzzing like John, my partner in crime is, but sitting here on the train feeling miserable. Perhaps  because I'm tired that it doesn't help. (Stayed up till 1 writing a risk assessment for the show...and answering parental messages!)

So many staff stayed to help out. And that's because they love John. Because he's so good at making friends and asking for help. And I feel sad that perhaps I don't have friends like that because I'm just a negative, demanding stressy moaner. 

I'm not sure why I'm writing this. But perhaps because I want to feel joy at tomorrow's performance and not feel so blue. Or maybe I want you to hold me to account to be joyful in all things, to not moan, to be positive. I should be smiling and laughing and remembering the 3 pupils that told me I'm their favourite teacher or the pupil that said she wished I were her mum. Or my lovely year 6 who said she loved teaching with me. Or the joy on those 76 faces as they sang their hearts out. 

Maybe I'll feel better after some sleep and feel the joy.

Hugs to you.

X

TARDIS Tuesday- Clara in The Snowmen-

 I cannot believe it has been 4 years since this outfit has been on TARDIS Tuesday (despite my wearing the outfit a few times!) .  Last seen in August 2020, the Summer of Covid, it is a barely seen outfit of Clara's in her 2nd appearance in Doctor Who.

It features a black silk polka dot blouse from Jigsaw, some navy shorts from Whistles, a tan belt and a red satchel.  We are not sure what shoes she wears.

https://www.facebook.com/ClaraOswaldCosplay/photos/the-snowmen-modern-outfit-jigsaw-bib-tab-shirt-in-blackwhistles-mim-tencel-short/146884895501986/ 

This outfit, for me, has remained the same every time I wear it, except for changing the shorts as I grew out of my old navy shorts.

I love this outfit for a Summer's day- it covers up your arms whilst remaining cool. My polka dot blouse is an alt from Whistles (and was charity shopped for £4) plus some navy linen shorts (around £3 charity shopped).  I forgot to accessorize but added some cute Miss KG shoes I bought in a charity shop in Highbury around a month ago.  Finding nice shoes in a size 8 second hand is quite rare!

It was very nice to get outside for these photos as it had been raining heavily. I got completely soaked cycling home from the station after my rehearsal in London on Sunday. CBC openly laughed at how wet I was when he opened the door to me.  I showered and changed into this!

I wonder if it will be another 4 years before it makes a return appearance on here? I do hope not!

Here's a little close up of the lovely shoes!!!

xx

1920's style

I spent a large amount of time preparing for and playing a musical this week.

It was great fun!

All the band were dressed in 20's style dresses so naturally, I obliged too!

For nights one and two, I wore this dress which I swapped with Vix in 2021 with my wedding fascinator.

This isn't the current picture, this one is from 2021 as I forgot to take anyway but I basically look the same!

On Saturday night, I wore this black and gold one.

On the Saturday matinee, I wore this one. Here I am with the tenor saxophone!
 

You can see the detailing without the saxophone.

It's been an exhausting but enjoyable week.  Now, this week, I have to get through Treasure Island at school!

xx

30 a week

 Here

https://www.nutritionscotland.org/30-plants-

Alison and Ang (see links below) have both blogged about the New 5 a day (for fruit and veg) being 30 a week. As in, variety being more important rather than quantity each day. I was intrigued and interested and decided to keep track of my intake this week.  It includes tea and coffee (as they are plants) and herbs and spices.

Here are the articles below:

a-week-the-new-5-a-day/

https://zoe.com/learn/30-plants-per-week

https://angalmond.blogspot.com/2024/01/5-dayor-30-week.html

https://fatdormouse.wordpress.com/2024/06/25/thirty-is-the-new-five/

Here's my list for the week. 

Monday:

1. Banana
2. Strawberries
3. Nectarine
4. Beetroot
5. Carrot
6. Cucumber
7. Yellow tomatoes
8. Hummus (chickpeas)
9. Mini stuffed red bell pepper
10. Mint (0.25)
11. Coriander (0.25)
12. Tea  
13. Oat milk
14. rocket
15. Rosemary (0.25)
16. Sweet potatoes
17. Broccoli
18. Green Beans
19. Corn on the Cob
20. Paprika (0.25)
21. Black pepper (0.25)

Tuesday:

22. Plum

23. Chard

24. Olive? 

25. Mushy pea? (fish cake filling)

26. Blueberries

Wednesday:

27. Baked beans 

28. Apple

39. Heritage tomato

Thursday

29. Aubergine

28. Ginger (0.25)

29. Beansprouts

30. Onions

31. Spring onions

32. Mangetout

33. Red chilli

34. Red pepper

35. Avocado

Friday

35. Green pepper

36. Pumpkin

37. Bamboo shoots

38. Coconut milk

39. Orange juice

38. Thai basil (0.25)

39. Mini corn 

40. Courgette

Saturday:

41. Potatoes (chips- do they count?)

42. Peas (are these separate from mushy peas if different type?)

43. Lemon balm tea (does this count?) 0.25

44. Satsuma

Taking into account 8 herbs/spices, up to Saturday, this makes 38 plants. I haven't included Sunday as I'm likely to use up duplicates of what I've had already and I'm out at an orchestra rehearsal this morning.

This week, I have eaten quite well as I ate 2 Asian meals out, visited the greengrocer and was organised enough to make myself Salad for 2 meals so I'd be interested to see what this will be like on a week where I've done no shopping or not eaten out- I tend to eat what veg and fruit I can buy that is not in plastic at the supermarket so sometimes am very reliant on what Lidl or the Coop have available. 

I challenge you to try! I may keep track next week and see how much I get to (not had time to shop...)

Xx 

TARDIS Tuesday- Peri Brown from Mindwarp

 Today's TARDIS Tuesday last featured in May 2022 and features one of my earliest TV memories. It was an outfit worn by 80's companion, Peri Brown, played by Nicola Bryant.

Let's have a look at what is quite a pyjama-y look:

https://archivetvmusings.blog/2014/10/26/now-i-am-she-alive-within-this-oh-so-wonderful-wonderful-frame-doctor-who-the-trial-of-a-time-lord-mindwarp/

https://www.herocollector.com/en-us/Article/doctor-who-omega-returns 

https://chancenovember.wordpress.com/2015/07/19/trial-of-a-time-lord-2-mindwarp/ 

https://theultimateguidetothefashionofdoctorwho.wordpress.com/2017/02/04/perpugilliam-peri-brown-trial-of-a-time-lord-mind-warp/

Here's my 2024 Mindwarp rendition:

I'm going to start with the newest item in this outfit which actually won't be residing with me much longer. This kimono came from a charity shop in Chelmsford, originally New Look. The one I wore for my previous version of this Peri outfit was also from New Look and charity shopped.  Last Summer, we went to see CBC's friend who was over staying with her mum from Sweden and I wore that kimono.  She admired it and asked where I got it from. I told her where it was from and where I got it.  She mentioned it looked lovely for the Summer. I stored that information in my mind.  Hence, when I saw this one in the charity shop for £4, I remembered her admiring it and decided to pick it up for her as I knew she is back in July and CBC would be seeing her (they are going to see Frozen together but I can't go because I am performing the solo flute part for Bach's Brandenburg Concerto no. 2).  This weekend, I finally did my Summer wardrobe swap over and got the blue linen trousers out (which Ang fixed for me last Summer!) I saw the kimono folded in the spare room, lying on the bed and figured, I should wear it just this once for TARDIS Tuesday.

Along with a pink top I bought for another Peri cosplay and the aforementioned linen trousers (which I IRONED!) plus my actual kimono cord as a belt plus some Aldo heels and I was ready to go.  It's a nod to the original look rather than a direct recreation but I like it! It's very much 80's bold colours and patterns.

This week is very busy. I have 4 performances of Chicago with CBC as well as various Treasure Island practices at school and then a Sunday morning rehearsal of the Rite of Spring plus CBC's Mum is coming to stay to see Chicago so now the mad frantic clean and tidy of a very, very messy and dirty house must ensue!

I hope your life is less frenetic (and hopefully cleaner!) 

xx

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