My mother was wont to say she wished she'd been given quiet, musical children. Truely musical children, as I have learnt, are not quiet! Sound & noise fascinate them. After a week of workshopping I think I am glad I only have one musical child & yet last night was wonderful.

It began badly with the child who wasn't coming home that night ringing at 1am to say he had made the last boat home; could someone please come & pick him up, that someone being me. So I slept in. Liddy, who answered the phone, slept in & was consequentially running late for work. Her mother, blearly eyed & dysfunctional, misread the boat times & blew all her connections. There are days when living on an island stinks! :) However we did make in to rehearsals on time. For the first time the vocalists & instrumentalists came together & the morning was spent blocking moves, staging, sound checks. Hugely boring & utterely necessary. As we broke for lunch & every one else was sent home we were told to arrive back in our black & whites! Our black & whites were back on the island, were'nt they! Logistically there was no way we could get them. Someone kindly lent us an outgrown pair but we still had 3 hours to kill at the shops ~ which meant we ate & got Theo's birthday present & I finally found some clothing that fitted Cass & met our modesty requirements, plus were half price!

Cass, who has only ever performed in church on the island for people she knows, really was thrown in at the deep end. Luckily she loves performing as the in house performance was very well attended. I've sat in on all the choir rehearsals yet it always astounds me how an audience really lifts some performers. I've heard the music ad infitum for two weeks yet there were still moments that brought tears to my eyes. The best moment? After it was all over & the girls let their hair down on the dance floor, lip~synching, dancing, doing flips. They were fantastic.

Next week it is a band performance for Cass & then we must settle into a Friday night rehearsal schedule. I know practise is essential for any performance but mre than most we need to keep things in balance so hopefully soccer will not have to be missed too often & Cass can burn off some of her excess energy.