just another morning here

I know it’s a week early but the Autumn concert finished last week so the orchestra got its Christmas music out today (Abbie very happy to be given a tiny little solo at the end of one of the pieces!). Joe had a Suzuki Group concert this afternoon and they played a couple of Christmas songs as well – so although it really is too early, I can’t help feeling as though Christmas is just around the corner. Schools (theirs and mine) are already preparing for Christmassy things so there’s no ignoring it! I will shortly be putting the Christmas CDs in the car too

Er. That’s all I have to say. The rest of my life just seems to pass in a blur of school and after school activities, not to mention homework, plus of course latterly the essential Animal Crossing fix every day. There’s no way I can play it as much as I played Wild World on the DS when I was at home rather than working, but it’s still so nice to escape into that other world, I can’t help it – it feels like watching your favourite old film all over again. OK so I’m weird, but I don’t care (you all knew that a long time ago).

Bit worried about the garage at the moment … wondering how long the recession might go on for as it does seem to be filtering down. I try to ignore it while Steve tries to fix it – both pretty useless reactions really, somewhere in the middle might be a good plan.

Anyway back to tonight: dinner, wine, X Factor, Animal Crossing, Casualty, and at this rate the children currently fighting over pieces of electronics kits will be going to bed early so it should be a peaceful evening!

Quite a long video – and this was only the violin section of the concert! There was a cello playdown, a flute group, and two soloists who performed as well. Just to explain what I mean by playdown: at the concert, if you are graduating from level 4 (for example), you would be on stage to play your graduation piece, and then all the pieces from the levels below, hence a build up of children performing, as by the end they were all on stage.

Joe was graduating from book 2, so can be spotted about 4/5 of the way through the video, if you know where to look. Still very proud of him

Josiah has every right to feel proud of himself and utterly exhausted this weekend. In fact I think he’s so tired that he can’t manage to admit he’s pleased with himself yet, but I hope he will, tomorrow perhaps!

We had a really busy weekend full of musical stuff, and a night with friends on top! First came the strings workshop at orchestra, which this week was fine, Joe just joined in with no problems, and seemed to really enjoy himself this time, thank goodness. Simply a case of knowing what something is going to be like, and he’s ok. After sticking around on duty while EYO had their rehearsal as well, we got home around 1.30pm, and only had an hour for lunch before we needed to turn around and leave for Josiah’s Suzuki Group lesson.

So, the afternoon was pretty much filled up with that (3 – 5pm). Joe enjoys these lessons as well, they’re really fun, but he works hard during them too – lots of practice for the next day’s concert.

Home for a quick tea, a very brief catchup with Uncle Marky who appeared to stay the night in our house while we were away, having brought my sister back to university – still sorry we couldn’t see more of him but hey ho. We got to the Portico around 9pm and had a lovely evening catching up.

This morning some of us went out to walk Dylan (and find caches ) while others of us lazed around the house. It was a beautiful morning for a walk … and the kids enjoyed just hanging around together too, an added bonus in an otherwise fairly manic weekend! We left there late morning and dropped Anna with another friend in Reading, then drove into London for Josiah’s graduation concert. Typically Steve managed to find a free parking space just around the corner from the concert hall!

The Suzuki system doesn’t have exams, instead you ‘graduate‘ from a book/level when you are ready, and this involves making a recording of a particular piece which is sent off for adjudication, then comments are sent back to the teacher.

Joe did this recording back in the summer, so would have graduated anyway, the concert was just an ‘icing on the cake’ thing, and we decided to go and take part this time round. We’d been to watch something similar a couple of years ago, so had an idea of what to expect, but it was still fairly nerve-racking for Josiah. His jitters got the better of him during the rehearsal, but he did manage to go and stand up on the edge of the stage with his teacher, behind a curtain so no-one could see him! After that though (and an ice cream break ), he knew what the expectations were, and was absolutely fine and happy to go and sit with the rest of his group for the proper performance.

The concert itself was good, and needless to say I was exceedingly proud of Josiah for managing to take part Video may follow tomorrow but it’s too late to faff around with it now.

Drove out of London appreciating lots of nice houses – the benefit of not being on the underground! Picked Anna up and carried on to Cribb’s Causeway before stopping for dinner, and then got home really late, and everyone went straight to bed. Another suzuki friend here told me they weren’t going because it was too much of a late night on a Sunday (having been in previous years) and I can see why, I imagine it will have a knock on effect tomorrow, but hey ho, you only live once.

Don’t think it has stopped raining all day here, but it’s been a pleasant enough day all the same. The week is disappearing too quickly though!

We fitted in a quick trip to the hairdressers for trims (Joe’s hair and Anna’s fringe) before heading off to the violin teacher’s house. Joe’s recording session went well; he didn’t quite manage a perfect rendition of his graduation piece but it was pretty damn good and his teacher was happy to send it off anyway.

So we went for a celebratory lunch at McDonald’s, much to the kids’ delight … I couldn’t get out quick enough! Came home and the younger two played with Mollie & Ruby while Anna made a start on a project on China. Piano lessons and then Steve got home early, with the Subaru, which has had yet another trip to the engine tuner, groan.

Started writing this before tea, as I was trying to start off a new fruitfly culture, feed the froglets, change the water in the tadpoles’ tank, feed the fish and the guinea pigs (no, wait, I haven’t done that yet!) cook dinner, tidy up, etc. all at the same time, and have finally sat down after tea to finish the post. Rain has just about stopped now, so we’re hoping for some better weather tomorrow!